5Q2 - Christopher Beitz
On roadtripping with his favorite allies – in our format 5 questions to (5Q2), we talk to the artists of our Instagram takeovers about the work they show, their influences and upcoming plans. In February 2021 we talked to Christopher Beitz, a photographer from Buffalo, New York.
Christopher Beitz is a visual artist from Buffalo, New York. He received his BFA in photography from The Rochester Institute of Technology in the Spring of 2020. Working within vernacular photography, his subject matter flows from the meanderings and curiosities found within everyday life. He hopes to work professionally as a commercial / editorial photographer someday.
Photo: Justine Higgins
Fototreff: Did you encounter a special challenge while working on the project you’re showing?
Christopher Beitz: I suppose the biggest challenge was in trying to figure out what the project was saying to me. What the specific pictures were about. I’ve come to the conclusion that not all pictures require a description, but that they can still work together through common threads and subject matter.
FT: Is there a photographer or artist who influenced you in a particular way?
CB: It’s hard to pin down influences since it changes so often, but for this work I’d say that Taiyo Oronato & Nico Krebs book “The Great Unreal” influenced me the most. They created various forms of interventions within their photographs that included elements of darkroom manipulation to sculpture. I still vividly remember my first time seeing it, trying to wrap my head around all of the strange and bizarre ways they made pictures.
FT: Which (photo) book should everybody own (or you would like to have?
CB: Carolyn Drake’s new book “Knit Club” published by TBW Books has been on my wishlist for a while now, and I just recently ordered it! I’ve begun a new trajectory in my work since graduating and have been looking at her pictures the most lately.
FT: Can you recommend an exhibition we should go and see right away?
CB: I recently checked out the current show up at Houston Center for Photography called: “Keeper of the Hearth: Picturing Roland Barthes” it’s the first show I’ve seen in a long time, and it was a great experience seeing the multitude of photographers coming together in one space.
FT: Have you started working on a new project? Any beans to spill?
CB: I’ve been steadily photographing for a while now as I’ve been traveling across North America in an RV with my partner. We’ve also started a small mobile printing studio, so we’ve been working mostly on getting that up and running and hoping to publish our first books in the coming months.
