Great Dames

Great Dame: Mindy Tucker

Hailing from Alabama, photographer Mindy Tucker has lived in New York for about ten years. Having learned photography by taking slides of her paintings to get into grad school, photography eventually won out, and she now photographs comedy shows on top of doing promo pics, posters and headshots. Also, there’s a totally random mural of hers on view at Luca Lounge. She’s the mastermind behind With Reservation, she was nominated by the Great Dame Maggie Serota, and you can read her answers to our questions below:

When did you know photography was to be a big part of your life?

The summer of 1996 I got a Pentax K1000. I’ve been trying to get a great portrait of everyone I ever met since.

What do you think photography does that another medium can’t?

Photography makes notes in the present that you don’t know you’ll want until the future.

It freezes time, obviously, but what I love the most is that it’s freezing more than you intend. If you were tasked to write out what happened to you in a day, you’d likely not say “The fashion was to wear skinny pants but this was being usurped by a resurgence of bootcut denim” or, “This guy I never actually met but have seen around was also at the bar. Didn’t talk to him though.”

So you take a photo. And your intent is a portrait or a performance shot or whatever, and then you look at it a decade later and that photo has more to tell you than you realized at the time you took it. Once, I photographed two strangers on the night they met. Two years later, they got married. It’s so weird to be able to pinpoint the moment they met, but I definitely had no idea they’d end up hitched when I was shooting that night.

Why did you choose to focus on comedians and musicians as your subjects?

Total accident. My best friend from high school, Carol Hartsell, ran a weekly comedy show at the now defunct Rififi and wanted some promo photos. I went every week just to hang out with her and document that show. I got to know all the comedians and then other people who ran shows asked me to photograph their shows.

At the time, I’d just finished a big photo project and was burnt out on art talk. I was only a few years out of grad school so the critique model of over-thinking every single idea was still with me. And here was this whole community of people who were in the moment. No one wanted an artist statement from me; they just liked a photo or
didn’t. It reminded me that art can be, you know, fun.

What have you learned about yourself through photographing others?

My entire adult life has been tethered to photography. It’s unnerving to look at older photos because I can see how shy I was, or how technically inept, or in love with a boyfriend, or in a family fight, or just terribly sad. So that’s a great question but a tough one. Because I’ve learned so much I don’t even know where to start the answer.

How do you hope With Reservation will evolve? How do you hope to evolve?

The site is in the middle of a restructuring. It was designed years ago to be a little advert, not a comprehensive documentary archive. It’s grown galleries deep to the point that even I don’t know what all is on there now.

So it’s been moved over to an archiving system that allows for captioning and searching. Any new galleries going up are organized already, and we’re uploading older photo sets as we can. Soon, you’ll be able to search and find every photo of a performer, venue, or show. There’s some new challenge with every assignment, so I just wanna keep shooting.

Great Dames Q & A

Who is your greatest dame - living, fictional, celeb or otherwise?

Cookie Mueller. Nan Goldin’s photos of her break my heart. Her book, Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black is great.

If you could go back and give your 16-year-old self one bit of advice, what would it be?

Oh, that poor girl. I would give her the biggest hug and advise her to just keep working hard and moving on. I’d tell her that the two friends she’s got end up being the only ones she needs. Decades later, they’re still a huge part of her daily life.

What’s the finest song to have ever floated into your delicate lady ears? 

I’m a music nerd so this one’s tough. Anything with Katrina Ford of Celebration. [And] this Karen O show at Union Pool in 2008 is still one of my favorite New York
moments. Also, the Waylon Jennings record “Honky Tonk Heroes”, and then there’s Reverend Vince, who I’ve been documenting for ten years. He’s a category all his own!

What’s your most famed rant?

I aim to shoot flattering photos. I’m not “out to get” anyone at their worst. I shoot what I admire and think is important. It’s my way of supporting my fellow artists. With that said, though, not every photo should have to be a glamour shot.

It’s one thing to work together with a client on promo pic that’s flattering and evocative. Then there’s documenting life as it happens. Interrupting the shooting of a casual snap so everyone’s vanity can be assuaged - oh boy, I’ve not much patience for this. This attitude makes pictures so boring. Like, here’s a photo with everyone hitting their party pose. Agh. The worst.

Where are you happiest?

It’s in Brooklyn. I ain’t tellin’ the name. But I’ll take you there if you’re ever in town. If I’m there with friends after a shoot, then it’s a perfect day.

(Source: greatdames.co.uk)

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Mindy Tucker With Reservation Maggie Serota New York City photography Great Dames