Text and Images by Katie Shapiro

Interview by Ora Heard

How did your series The Shadow come to be?

I had started to work with a Jungian analyst over covid and was learning all about that process and it was having a pretty strong effect on me. I hadn't really been shooting much and we made plans to meet my in-laws in Tucson for Christmas. I brought my camera. We ended up in the Saguaro National Park and it was right at magic hour and I felt so inspired, more so than I had been in a long time. My boys were 2 and 4 at that time so I was really in the thick of it parenting wise. I felt like I had come alive again shooting those Saguaros. When I got the film back I started to make prints on transparencies and was overlaying them onto inkjet prints and was playing around with different variations with those for a while. Then it dawned on me that it was like a shadow (literally), and also like the Jungian theory of the unconscious mind, the shadow, that perhaps seeped into my creative mind subconsciously.

Were there any challenges that came up while working on this project?

This was my first time printing on plexiglas so that required so many tests, and color changes, and dealing with scratches and imperfections. I tried to use a sign printer company at first because it was very affordable, and after trying very hard to work with them, I realized I needed to go to a professional company to make the prints if I wanted them to look a certain way. Costs more, but in the end it's cheaper since I didn't need to make endless tests. The framing took a while to figure out as well, I tried various iterations before figuring out that I essentially wanted to make one of my multi layered freestanding sculptural works, but in a frame. The pieces don't really come together until they are framed.

What do you want the viewer to take away from this series?

Excitement at being able to view something that looks the way these pieces do, and to move around it and see different angles and layers. To think about how layered we all are in our conscious and unconscious minds.

Describe your creative process in one word?

messy

What inspires you to pursue image-making?

I've been excited about making pictures since I was first introduced to a manual camera and 35mm film in middle school. It keeps exciting me to see where else I can take the medium in terms of pushing it into sculptural realms, and mix it with other media.

What was the last book you read or film you saw that inspired you?

I was very moved by the movie Past Lives.

What advice would you give to people just starting out in photography?

Take pictures all the time, as much as you can. You've got to filter out everything you think you should be making, and get to what you want to be making. The thing/s that are unique to you and how you see.

What is your favorite podcast to listen to?

We Can Do Hard Things

How do you take your coffee?

I like Americano's with a little sugar and oat milk, preferably iced :)

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