8 Questions for Mary Gaudin, Architectural Photographer
Quiet moments from the inside.
Thank you all for the kind feedback on the first Octet questionnaire — NASA’s David Rager — I’m looking forward to bringing you more of these from people in the Octet’s orbit.
This issue sees eight questions answered by Mary Gaudin, unquestionably one of my favorite architectural and editorial photographers working today. I first discovered Mary’s work in 2014 when I bought a copy of Down the Long Driveway You’ll See It, her exquisite documentation of midcentury homes in her native New Zealand. I’ve followed her work — and subsequent books — ever since, and am thrilled she could contribute her answers, here.
— Hamish
8: How do your surroundings influence your creative work?
MG: As an architectural photographer, I split my time between photographing buildings and then editing the images. I love this mix of being out in the world and at home.
8: What tools or techniques have transformed the way you work?
MG: When I started working with a medium-format film camera. 100%.
8: Where do you turn when you’re feeling creatively blocked?
MG: I have a few books and magazines I return to when I'm feeling uninspired. There seems to be something about going back to these familiar images that energizes me.
8: Can you share a film or piece of music that always inspires you?
MG: Everything But the Girl’s Bossa Nova album Amplified Heart.
8: What reading material is currently on your nightstand?
MG: So far mostly non-fiction, this year. Robert MacFarlene’s Mountains of the Mind and Jardins écrits, edited by the botanist Véronique Mure.
8: What is one piece of art you’d like to own and live with?
MG: I’ve recently read Laure Adler’s interviews with the artist & writer Etel Adnan ’The Beauty of Light’. Her abstract colour field paintings are so joyful.
8: If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
MG: Definitely to take more risks.
8: Tell us three people you’d like to see answer these questions.
MG: Romy Boesveldt from Studio Roof, Belgian designer Marina Bautier, and a little stalkerish, Tracey Thorn from Everything But The Girl.
Photography by Mary Gaudin.
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