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Focus on Nature interview with Vincent Versace.
By Einar Erlendsson
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Q: Last summer you landed on Iceland for the first time and you are prepared to come again?
A: Better prepared, I think. I know what to expect. I’m also coming with a Nikon D3X
Q: What are you most looking forward to seeing in Iceland?
A: Waterfalls, energy and glaciers
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Photo: Vincent Versace, Iceland 2008
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Q: Do you see the light in Iceland as being different in some way?
A: the light appears longer, like at the end of the daylight just before sunset. It also seems to be warmer as well.
Q: What in the landscape inspires you?
A: 3:53 PM the vastness of the expanses
Q: Do you feel that the Icelandic workshop is different or has a character you can explain in few words to participants?
A: No people. It’s all about the landscape. You are forced to see the geometrics of the environment rather than relying on the expressions of people
Q: What’s your teaching style?
A: Immersive. I work with voice as well as technique
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Photo: Vincent Versace, Iceland 2008
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Q: During field trips, do you set assignments or how do you influence the workshop participants?
A: I build my classes on a class-by-class basis. I work group assignments and tailor them to the group as well as working one on with the participants.
Q: Do you like to include critic sessions in you workshops?
A: Yes
Q: What are your students mostly likely to learn?
A: To see past the obvious, to explore light, gesture color and time and how to capture them. But most importantly how to be taken by a picture rather simply taking the picture.
Q: When the weather gets challenging what are you most likely to do?
A: Ranger on.
Q: What do you like most about teaching?
A: Watching the epiphany light go off in my students and seeing things in new ways
Q: What characteristic do you feel will be of importance for participants to nurture and develop staying with you out in the country during the Iceland workshop, that should last after they return home?
A: The ability to stop taking pictures but rather to be taken by pictures
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Photo: Vincent Versace, Iceland 2008
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Q: How would you describe your photographic approach?
A: I believe that one travels in a circle but does it in a straight line when creating an image. The more you understand about the middle, post processing or what can be done to an image the more informed the decision are at the beginning, when you capture the photograph because you are always in service of the end, the print and the print? It’s inservice of your voice, what you saw at the beginning.
Q: How would you characterize your visual style?
A: I tell the truth and see the pretty.
Q: Do you have a personal concept or future project in mind before you travel to a place like Iceland?
A: There is a short story by Orson Scott Card called “Unaccompanied Sonata” that would best describe my feeling. The bottom line is I show up with no preconceptions and let the place take me were it takes me.
Q: Does it make the difference to have been in Iceland last summer, and if so, what?
A: I’m more excited to return.
Thank you Vincent Versace for taking your time.
Einar Erlendsson,
Project Manager
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