Meet Eric Bailey | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eric Bailey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eric, let’s start by talking about what inspires you?
Cinema inspires my artwork. The medium shares several creative elements with photography but exists on a different plain because of how it’s driven by time. I love experiencing art through film and letting it fuel my creativity.

On a surface level, I love studying cinematography while watching films. It inspires me visually with frame composition and how each filmmaker chooses to use the camera in the scene. Visuals aside, themes and methodology of films and filmmakers also drive my creativity in making artwork.

In no particular order, my favorite filmmakers are Terrance Malick, Andre Tarkovsky, David Lynch, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Jean-Luc Godard. Recently, I’ve gravitated towards Malick and Lynch in making new artwork.

With Malick, his existential themes and stunning cinematography continue to move me emotionally. I always notice new things when watching Malick’s films and enjoy his focus on nature. I feel that Malick uses the landscape to tell stories or express a character’s feelings. I find that so inspiring. My recent work has focused on my relationship with the landscape. I site Malick’s work as inspiration for elevating my work and expressing myself beyond what lies in the frame.

Lynch makes films with a dreamy aesthetic that I enjoy. He tends to depict scenes or subjects with little or no context. This approach allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions about what they’re seeing. I like to harness that approach with an ongoing series titled “Always Dreaming” where I aim to tell short stories with soft-focus photographs.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m a photographer who makes work that reflects on our relationship with the landscape. I enjoy presenting my work in photography books. I like the format of a book because like cinema, it allows the viewer to experience the work in a linear way to tell a story or communicate an experience.

I’m proud of my self-publishing efforts. In 2018, I designed my first photography book, The Zone, and self-published it with support from a Kickstarter campaign. I learned a lot from the experience and felt so much joy mailing copies of my book to folks who pre-ordered it through Kickstarter. In 2021, I self-published my second photography book, Weaver. Weaver took several years to produce, so seeing it in print was an incredible feeling.

Getting to where I am today wasn’t easy, but then again life isn’t easy. I’m thankful for my first job out of college where I worked at a photographic printing lab. I sharpened my color correcting, editing, and printing skills over the course of eight years there. My time at the lab gave me a great foundation for understanding how to print my own work. I don’t think I would have had the confidence to make books of my work without that foundation.

I think the challenges I experienced are the same ones shared by many millennials with an art degree. I graduated in 2009 during the recession so jobs in the field were scarce. The choices for most were starting you’re own wedding/portrait studio or working for a company with an in-house photographer. I didn’t want to go into wedding/portrait, so I looked for a job for over a year and found the one in the lab. I worked full-time to support myself and keep my artwork going. The hill everyone climbs in that situation is finding time to make artwork and to continue producing it. I built artwork into my work/life balance at the expense of sleep and free time. As I’ve gotten older, I found a better focus for my artwork and fell in love with publishing books. I think it took some time and maturity for me to choose where I wanted to invest my time and attention.

My artwork focuses on the outdoors and our relationship to it. What can we learn from going outside? Can we find peace in the tiny worlds that lie by the trailside? I want the world to see my work, slow down, and experience the outdoors in a more meaningful way.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I currently live in Massachusetts, so my go-to spot is the Western side of the state. I think the best place to start is Amherst Coffee in Amherst, MA. From there, I would go on a road trip to the Berkshires and visit The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, aka Mass Moca. To wrap up the day, I would take route 2 to my favorite roadside takeout spot, The Wagon Wheel, for burgers and fries.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My wife, friends, and family have always supported me and my photography. I don’t think I could have self-published my photography books without their support.

Website: https://www.ericbaileyphotography.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eric.bailey.photo/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbaileyphoto/