Not so long ago, you may have seen a great series that Zachary Olewnick made, but now we can get a little more insight into his work through an interview!
Could we start with some background information about you? Where you grow up, where you based, how did you get interested in arts?
I grew up in a very small town on Long Island about a thirty-five minute train ride from New York City. I currently still live in my childhood home. I grew up in a very athletic dominant family. Everyone played sports year round. My cousin even went on and played professional baseball. I knew nothing about the arts, never even thought about it being a career or even had any interest. However, my mom was always known for taking photos throughout the years and sure enough at around age twelve I started to take on that hobby. Everywhere I went I had a camera documenting things around me even at times when I didn’t have any film left I would pretend to take photos with my fingers. I think subconsciously I was fascinated with the idea of capturing a fleeting moment in time. It wasn’t until Junior year of highschool that I was introduced to conceptual photography. I owe a lot of my beginning success to my first art teachers: Mrs. Cabasso and Mrs. Galante. It was kind of surreal the way I just jumped into the art world. I went from knowing nothing to almost a year later having my first sold out solo show. And I most certainly wouldn’t have gotten there without those two women, they backed me up without question when my school tried to silence my work or when I was unsure of what I was doing. They always taught me to push boundaries and not care if I upset people and I will always hold that wisdom close to me. I am forever grateful for them. Cause of course I wasn’t just taking photos of flowers or landscapes but rather jumping right into dark topics of self inflicted pain, mental illness and loneliness. I was a very melodramatic teenager. Very quickly art became a way to express how I felt and I became addicted to how freeing it was. I loved when people were repulsed by my work. I just knew if I was making someone uncomfortable I was doing something right. I was making people question themselves.
Is there any message that you hope archiving through your images?
A very big message that I hope to convey in my work is the idea of intimacy and how skewed the concept is in the gay community. I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a bunch of friends a couple of years ago during a pregame at an apartment in Manhattan. It’s really what started this project of multiplying body parts. We talked about what intimacy meant to us. We talked about how hooking up with older men at sixteen and always just being looked at like a piece of meat affected the ways we felt about connection. That the only way we could feel less alone at night was if we gave ourselves to someone that wanted to use us for a night because that’s all we were taught. We talked about how holding hands in public or a genuine hug is considered more intimate than the actual act of sex. We talked about how there’s very few older gay men, if any, that we could look up to and ask for advice because mostly all were just nice to us or wanted to talk to us so that they could take advantage of us. I will always find it very disturbing that at sixteen I had men twice my age asking for nudes or when I was eighteen I was naive and getting with men that were older than my dad. Many of my friends and myself don’t think of this as a community but rather a label that condemns us to a life of meaningless sex, drugs and nightlife. It’s a very sad and lonely concept.
I think you can say you’re a conceptual photographer. There is always something extra in the pictures, certainly the end result of a process is what we see. How do you prepare for a photo shoot?
Pinterest and A LOT of sketching. I usually will start out with a very bad drawing that involves a lot of scribbled notes and simplistic shapes trying to describe what I want to achieve. Once I have the general idea of what I want the subject to look like I then move to Pinterest to start gathering inspiration photos of light and colors that I most definitely want to include in the final photograph. I also make sure I already have my post production planned out so that when I am photographing the composites I don’t miss anything and get all the angles.
Your images are very complex, when you take the pictures, do you know what the final result will be after post-production, or will it be revealed during post-production?
Most of the time I know exactly how the image will turn out. However, some photos I have taken are even further than I thought I could take them. Which sometimes involves a lot of reshooting and replanning but it’s all worth it in the end.
How is the process during a regular shoot with you. Do you tell models specifically what to do?
It all depends on what the vibe of the shoot is and who the model is. When I am preplanning I always send the model a couple of days in advance a moodboard of just strictly poses for them to practice/get familiar with. I always like to start simple and get some chill music going and then once the model is warmed up we will change the playlist and work our way into getting really crazy and weird!
What are the characteristics or qualities of the ideal model for you?
My ideal model is anyone who is down to do anything and who isn’t afraid of the camera. I absolutely love people that like to get wild on camera and at the moment I am very collaborative. It gets me really excited when the person I am photographing is just as into making the image as I am.
When you look at your own work, what goes on in your mind?
I always think about how far I have come. I tend to always get stuck in this mind set that while I am going through the motions of trying to make it as an artist that I am not doing enough when in reality I am giving this all I got and there is nothing I want more than to be able to say I live off my art. So, when I look at all the work I have created I always just sit back and take it in for a moment and realize that younger me would be so proud of what I have accomplished so far.
What inspires you?
Heartbreak and loneliness inspires a lot of my work, especially my conceptual pieces. A lot of my ideas stem from lonely drunk four am train sides home after a night out with friends. Honestly one of my favorite things about going out is walking home alone at the end of the night. I throw on my cheap headphones that I always carry in my bag and enter this world I started to create back in high school in my head. I create unrealistic scenarios of creatures that may appear in the dark which I think translates a lot into my work.
What is the compliment you would most like to hear about your photos?
That they don’t understand why I would make such a disturbing photo!
If you could tell your younger self one piece of advice what would it be?
I would tell my younger self to slow down and stop trying to grow up so fast.
What do you do when you got time for yourself?
I like to go on long walks/hikes and take photos of landscapes. It helps clear my mind and is nice to go back to my roots of photography. Also, it is very nice to take pictures without someone breathing down my neck or dealing with the pressure of making sure an image comes out good knowing there’s a lot of other people’s time that is involved.
Do you consider yourself more naughty or nice?
I would consider myself to be more nice! Even though my mind is very naughty and dark! Haha
Please finish the sentences:
Best decision of the week… was taking a day off and laying on the beach.
Your favorite movie is… One Day
In 2023 I will do… all things that I used to be afraid to do
Photographs by: Zachary Olewnick @zacharyolewnickii / www.zacharyolewnicki.com
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