Woman Crush Wednesday: Sheri Lynn Behr
Over/Under © Sheri Lynn Behr
You used to photograph rock ’n’ roll musicians. What made you decide to focus on your personal work instead?
The music business was changing, and a lot of those changes made me feel that it was time to move on. Plus, I got really tired of having a darkroom in my tiny New York City studio apartment. I loved the fact that Polaroids could develop in my hand. I was so pleased when several photographs from Beyond Recognition became part of the Polaroid Collection. Two of them are now in the book and traveling exhibition The Polaroid Project, which is scheduled to open in Taiwan in 2022.
What is the process you go through to get to the final images for this project, Polaroids: Beyond Recognition? What drew you to this medium?
When I started this series, I had basically stopped shooting rock ’n’ roll, but I was still visually interested in music, and the new popularity of the music video changed things for me. I watched MTV and movies, looking for interesting faces. You can’t adjust the shutter speed on the Polaroid SX-70, and that allowed me to obtain an image that was already different from what I would see on the screen. Before the images finished developing, I would manipulate them with a dental tool or knitting needle. Then I might use a marker or paint to transform the image even more. It was so different from anything I had done before.
Primitive Guitar © Sheri Lynn Behr
Where did you draw inspiration for this series? How did you decide to manipulate the Polaroids, instead of keeping them as regular portraits?
When I was learning about Polaroid film, I became familiar with the work of Lucas Samaras, the artist who discovered that the wet dyes in the SX-70 film could be manipulated. I loved what he was doing, and I knew I had to try it. Since I wasn’t looking for the reality of the experience of shooting rock ’n’ roll anymore, I wanted the images to be separate from that reality, so that the performers would be almost unrecognizable. All of this plays with perception and identification, and actually leads from the Polaroids to my current work on facial recognition.
Mask © Sheri Lynn Behr
Describe your creative process in one word.
Experiment.
There’s a quote from the artist László Moholy-Nagy that says it all for me: “The enemy of photography is the convention, the fixed rules of ‘how to do.’ The salvation of photography comes from the experiment.”
If you could teach a one-hour class on anything, what would it be?
“How to become friends with Photoshop” — tell me what you want to do, and I’ll teach you how to do it. I’ve been using Photoshop since version 2.0, when it was much easier to learn. Some of my friends will call me when they get stuck on something, and I’m happy to help them figure it out. The Polaroids were the first images I used with Photoshop, though that became a whole different project.
Rob © Sheri Lynn Behr
What was the last book you read or film you saw that inspired you?
About a month into the pandemic I was watching a lot of TV. Some of the shows were set in places I’d actually visited, and others were in places I hope to visit someday. I realized I had found a way to “travel” outside the apartment where I was self-isolating, and since I always take photographs when I travel, I made a project called #travelbytelevision.
Untitled (32689-9) © Sheri Lynn Behr
Piper © Sheri Lynn Behr
What is the most played song in your music library?
There are so many, but I’ve narrowed it down to two:
One is “Pictures Of You” by The Cure. The other is an 11 minute song by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band that’s a mix of “Backstreets” and “Drive All Night” that comes from a concert recorded in 1978, though I probably heard it later. I do wish I had photographed that concert.
How do you take your coffee?
Café con leche — espresso and hot milk. Three times a day.
To view more of Sheri’s work, visit her website
