Montgomery Maxton
When did you realize you wanted to be a photographer seriously? After taking the photograph that is listed as #1 in my portfolio. In 1996, when I was 16, one month before I also started writing … my father gave me the family camera on a trip to the Ohio State Fair. I snapped a photograph of a ferris wheel called “Jolly Giant”, which is the title of the photograph. When I developed the film in a fortnight I was taken back, as was my father, with how great of a shot it was. The colors and position. You could feel and smell the fair in the photo. I’ve never taken a course or studied photography or writing, I am totally autodidact, so some have said that I’m not taking my self seriously now.
Do you have other artists/photographers in your family? My paternal grandmother, Mary Clara McCarthy-Feds, was a self-taught ceramic artist active in the late 1970s until her untimely death in 1991 at 52. She was my first artistic mentor, having me paint ceramics when I was just four years old. I credit her with sparking the artistic fire within me.
Do you think the internet is crucial to the success of photography today? It hasn’t hurt, but at the same time I have never put any of my National Geographic photographs online except for on NatGeo’s website and only because that is a requirement and they have systems in place to prevent theft. I’ve sold an equal number of photographs on the internet and in galleries. The internet is best left to pornography and social networking and Google Maps. Putting your art on there belittles it into a grainy low-resolution photograph that no one can appreciate the full value of. I haven’t put any of my best-of-the-best photographs online. Get off your damn computer and go to a fucking gallery or opera or show.
Do you have any pieces that you would never consider selling? Why? I would sell any photograph, I think, but there is one I almost sure will not sell within the next thirty years. It’s my “Barack Obama in Ault Park” photograph., which was my third National Geographic-published piece. I can get it signed by the President if I would like to, which I am going to, thanks to knowing someone on his direct staff, but once I do that I will list that copy at $50,000.00 and despite having some very wealthy friends who love President Obama.
Who are you're biggest creative influences? When it comes to photography, Annie Lebovitz is my biggest living influence. Herb Ritts, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Avedon, and Diane Arbus all get my creative electric zapping for my photography. As an writer or artist in general the influence spans many genres, time periods, and cultures. I am obsessed with 18th century aristocratic stories, persons, and art. I honestly believe I am an 18th century reincarnate French aristocrat having some sort of relationship or relation to Marie Antoinette or probably even Marie Antoinette reincarnate herself. Whenever I am in that period I immediately fire up my writing. But for photography I actually have to be in an 18th century place (which there are a lot of in Philadelphia) and then I can create some unique photographs, most recent being Evening in an 18c Century Garden.
If you could choose one person in your life that you feel understands your work and supports you more than anyone, who would that be? My father was an early supporter of my hybrid art of photography and writing, literally equally supportive in both, which I have not found in a person since. I will never find someone who understands and supports me as much as I do; I’m used to being alone.
As an artist, how would you define success? Success is defined in the amount of shock you produce from something that is so everyday that it’s baffling someone would be shocked over it. A nude man photograph or self-nude photograph and the world goes into an uproar. Are you not nude a couple of times a day? I have asked several poets to pose nude for me and while I won’t say who has said yes and who has said no, you would think I asked for their heart for my backyard grill.
www.poetsandartists.com
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