Sight: How did you get into commercial photography and what is it that is appealing to you? In other words, why commercial and not editorial?Tom Landecker: I started out in outdoors/location photography for editorial, and while I liked the buzz of covering an event and going after the killer shot, I was always frustrated with the lack of control I could have of the situation. I naturally turned to the studio to work more with controlling the image and to start with a blank canvas (as opposed to location work where you start with a full canvas and work to isolate you subject). As far as commercial vs. editorial goes, it was just where the market was for my work.
Sight:Have you always been combining images, or did the technology lead you to do that?Tom Landecker: I started doing "special effects" (my, but I hate that term) in the early 80's for clients like Atari. This involved multiple exposures with masks and multiple camera setups, very tedious and time consuming. By the mid 80's I had burned out on the whole "float 'em and glow 'em" approach, where there was no overall concept, and technique was all that mattered. At that point I went back to doing "straight" photography, although my concepts and lighting were more subjective from my special effect work experience. During this time I was aware of digitally manipulated imagery, but everything I saw was pixelated and still driven by the technology as opposed to the concept. In 1992 I found it had become possible to produce a full-detailed large format transparancy on a (relatively) affordable system. I spent the better part of a year coming up to speed on the digital tools before I started incorporating them into my work, but I've always kept in mind that they are only tools, and nothing takes the place of a good concept.
Sight: There is a certain dreamy, other-wordly feel to your photos. Why?Tom Landecker: Some of my work is based on ideas or visions that just sort of happen in my brain, and I can't really explain why they're the way they are. I've always had an appreciation of the surreal, and I suppose it's just how I see things sometimes.
[ Sight | Tom
Landecker ]