Our First Interview: Kevin Van Aelst

by Nicole

On our trip we will be conducting interviews all over the country in all sorts of formats. Since What Now Wanderers are fairly tech-savvy (not to mention a tad bit blog crazy), it seems appropriate that our first "official" interview would be conducted via the internet.

During college, I was introduced to the world of photography by a friendly and fun professor by the name of Kevin Van Aelst. I enjoyed his introduction to photography class so much that the following year I enrolled in his digital photography class. I have spoken to a handful of other students who have had Professor Van Aelst and we all agree that his classes are great. I think that one of the things that make his classes so great his passion for what he is teaching - an asset that not every professor at my college has. It was this passion that inspired me to ask Professor Van Aelst to tell his story.

Check out what he had to say!
1.) Have you always wanted to be a photographer?

Not at all. In High School, I had nothing to do with art and was most interested in math and science, and I always thought this was what I would do with my life. I went into college as a Biology major, and graduated with a degree in Social Psychology. It wasn't until the very final stretch of college that I'd even begun to consider taking art seriously as a career path.

2.) How did you get into photography?

I bought my first SLR camera on a whim. It was the summer after my freshman year at college, and I thought taking pictures would be a fun hobby to take up. The next school year, I signed up for a membership in the community darkroom in the basement of the student union. I spent the next couple years as one of those kids who always had a camera around their neck, and spending what free time I could find in that darkroom. I studied more and more about art and took some contemporary art history classes and I learned that art could be simple. Art could be smart, rather than emotional; art could be clever rather than sensitive; and art could be fun, rather than serious. This made me want to learn as much as I could, and try new and different things through photography (not just constant hunting for interesting scenes to shoot--something I love doing, but was never very good at). After I graduated from Cornell, I moved home for a year and tried to figure out what the heck to do with my life. One of my thesis advisors told me that I shouldn't go to grad school for anything unless I couldn't possibly imagine my life without it. So I decided to take a serious shot at it and to get my Masters of Fine Art.

3.) Were there any challenges along the road to pursuing a career in photography?

Millions. Art itself is easy, like speaking, or thinking; it's simply a way of communicating. Good Art is a different matter all together. Translating a concept, notion, vision, sensation, or idea in a clear, non-verbal way is a terrifying task. What is it you want to communicate? And how to go about that? And does it even matter? and how does it fit in with the on-going dialogue of the human experience that basically is what Contemporary Art is all about. To even put oneself out there as an "artist" is, again, terrifying.

There are many many ways to make a living with photography. There are portrait/event/wedding photographers (something I've never had any interest in), there is commercial and product photography--which pays great, but isn't very fulfilling, and even within the realm of Fine Art there are countless genres of photography. The luckiest job for any artist to have is one that keeps them involved in their field, and affords them the time and energy to devote to their craft. Teaching has been that great turn of luck for myself, and along with the magazine work I've done in the last year or so, I'm lucky enough to have the time and money to keep producing, exhibiting, and selling work.

4.) What advice do you have for someone who is unsure of what they want to do?

Don't let anyone tell you that you need to have it all figured out by the time you finish college. Of all the people I know who love what they are doing with their lives, very few are on a trajectory that could have predicted when they graduated. Take any opportunity you have to learn more about yourself, and never be afraid to fail. One of my favorite pieces of advice is: It's better to be at the bottom of a ladder you want to climb than to be half way up one that you don't.

Kevin Van Aelst has an awesome website. Check it out here!