Your name
Christine Collins
Your Age
31
Website
Christine Collins
Where are you from
Downtown NYC
Where do you live now?
Boston, MA
What's your day job?
Photo Teacher
Artist's Statement
My photographs have always swirled around my own story from varying distances. From the ubiquitous early self-portraits, to a fictionalized series of photographs, to my most recent pictures where the figure has been completely removed, I have always been interested in the weaving together of personal experience and fictional possibilities. It has always been a way of reckoning with my own history, while imagining others. I am equally inspired by contemporary photography as I am by fiction writing.
The pictures I am submitting are from a recent series taken in homes I am familiar with and house I have never been before. I am interested in the objects in the places, my own connections to them, both real and desired. I have always been fascinated and horrified by the fact that I often feel as though I can’t remember my own life. I know the story but feel disconnected from the experience. The objects in the photographs become surrogates for these experiences. By creeping around these empty houses, staring at these objects through the ground glass, recontextualizing them, I find myself.
Which artists inspire you? (Not necessarily photographers.)
Edith Wharton, Raymond Carver's poetry, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Alice Monroe, Orozco, Lady Hawarden
Describe that moment when you knew for sure that photography was something you wanted to pursue seriously
The first time I saw Harry Callahan's portraits of Eleanor.
What kind of camera do you use?
Wista 4x5 field and a pink plastic 35mm from Walmart.
What's your favorite beverage?
Daytime: Double Tall Non-Fat Latte
After 5: Vodka Martini, Rocks, Olives
What's your favorite movie?
Groovy Answer: Blue
Dorky Answer: Party Girl
What's your Favorite Museum?
Still a sucker for the Met and the walk back to Brooklyn.
Where do you want to go on your dream vacation?
Ocracoke Island, SE Asia
What's the last CD you listened to?
The Vitamen - Children of the Bear
What are you reading now?
The last 18 issues of The New Yorker and after that, Kafka on the Shore.
What's your favorite season?
Late Summer - Early Fall
Favorite color?
Grass Green
Fire Orange
What are your favorite foods?
Lobsters on picnic tables, Bar Mix, Brunch