{"id":17130,"date":"2017-04-06T07:58:57","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T07:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/?p=17130"},"modified":"2017-04-06T15:43:58","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T15:43:58","slug":"surface-relations-an-interview-with-photographer-patrick-gookin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/surface-relations-an-interview-with-photographer-patrick-gookin\/","title":{"rendered":"Surface Relations: An Interview with Photographer Patrick Gookin"},"content":{"rendered":"
In a day and age where we are constantly faced with a barrage of images on our phone screens, LA-based photographer Patrick Gookin has done something unconventional: he’s published a book of photos he took\u00a0on his\u00a0iPhone.\u00a0We got\u00a0to chat with\u00a0Patrick about this project,\u00a0Surface Relations<\/em>, his favorite restaurants and exhibition spaces in LA, and the side of the City of Angels that outsiders don’t see.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ: Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from and what\u2019s your artistic background?<\/strong><\/p>\n PG:\u00a0<\/strong>I was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1983 and grew up in a small town in New Hampshire called Salem\u2014a typical American suburb.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My grandfather was a painter, and I studied graphic design and photography in college. I wasn’t fully taken by it until Japan, where I was introduced to photographers and photobooks that opened my mind and gave me a sense of what was possible within the medium.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ: Would you agree that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at the Camera Roll on their phone? If so, what does yours say about you?<\/strong><\/p>\n PG:\u00a0<\/strong>Perhaps. From my camera roll, one might gather that I\u2019m obsessed with my dogs, eat a lot of Korean food, and spend too much time in my car and in the kitchen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ: What inspired you to start shooting photos with your phone out the car window during your commute?<\/strong><\/p>\n PG:\u00a0<\/strong>When I started taking these photos, in 2012, I was working full-time as a photo editor. It was boredom and the dullness of the daily commute that inspired me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sitting in traffic I started noticing improbable scenes where lone figures seemed to defy a stark landscape simply by walking through it, below the relentless LA sun. This was something I felt I hadn\u2019t seen in photographs before.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n