The Pearwood's Interview

Steven Tryon, better known by his pseudonym @pearwood, has been a passionate photographer on Deviant Art for nearly 20 years. A Senior Member for several years, he was honored with the Deviousness Award in 2016. A pillar of the Deviant Art photography community, Steven has an impressive portfolio of 85,000 photographs. He is a dedicated observer and commentator on the artistic work of fellow Deviants, regardless of discipline. Recently celebrating his 74th birthday, I took this opportunity to learn more about him. Thank you, Steven, for agreeing to this interview, which I am delighted to share with you all. Let's give Steven a warm round of applause

Can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your artistic background?

As it says in my profile, I am a Christian, photographer, writer and walker, living in Rochester, NY. Once upon a time I was an Army helicopter jockey in Alaska. A theologically-educated geek. He/him. Supports gay/lesbian/trans/whatever folks. I started with film, switched to digital, then went back to classic film cameras.

My father was an professional Electrical Engineer and a serious amateur photographer. My mother was a chemist turned grade-school science and computer teacher. I have been a computer geek for most of my 74 years. Dad got me my first camera in 1956, a simple 620 box of some sort. We developed the film on the kitchen table. (Ten years later, Dad showed me how to write my first computer program.)

Dad taught the most important thing there is to know about computers – computers are fast idiots – and the most important thing there is to know about photography – think about what you are seeing when you look through the viewfinder.

Like my father, my brothers, and my children, I have been a geek by profession but an artist at heart.

You recently celebrated your 74th birthday. How does being 74 years old  influence your perspective and approach to your art and your engagement  with the DeviantArt community?

DA is a wildly diverse community. Opinions are deeply held and strongly expressed. We artists tend to wear our emotions on our sleeves. With the perspective of a few more decades, it’s harder than it used to be to get my hackles up. I can usually disagree without being disagreeable. I can be a little more accepting. I have learned to strive neither to give offense or take offense.

For example, I like artistic nudes and intensely dislike pornography. I know, however, that defining the line between the two is hard. There are art nude accounts I find pornographic. So be it. I don’t follow them. On accounts I do follow, there are images I skip over. People complain about the garbage dA allows at the same time that they complain about the weird rules Meta uses to determine what’s in and what’s out. Each site is what it is. There is no point in fussing over it endlessly.

Another example. I consider “AI art” to be an oxymoron, at least until we have sentient robots who can be given credit for their own art. Many others disagree with me. So be it. If you don’t like something, move on. Don’t get all bent out of shape over it. Don’t rant. Don’t be a troll.

Short answer, it’s the people that matter. Never forget that.

As for my approach to my own art, I photograph what catches my eye. In my way. I post-process my photographs in my own way.  If you like my photographs, wonderful. If you do not, that’s fine, too. If you tell me it’s a POS, why should I take the bait? Somethings just don’t matter.

What initially attracted you to analog photography?

That first 620 box camera did what it needed to do. It got me started. (I recently found some of my grade-school negatives; they are in my “From the archives” gallery.) I did very little with photography in high school and college; I was interested in other things. Then I graduated, got married, and went on active duty in the Army. I wanted photographs of my family and of what I was doing. A simple Kodak 110 camera fit nicely in the shirt pocket of my Army flight suit. I have boxes of Kodak 140 slide carousels filled with those tiny slides.

Fast forward about 25 years to Kodak single-use 35mm cameras and a beautiful solo canoe. I took lots of paddling pictures. I started posting them on dA to show folks what I was up to and found, to my surprise, that I could hold my own as a photographer. Folks told me I needed a camera that would let me do more. I followed the wave and bought a Canon SD 600 PowerShot and, a year later, in 2007 a Canon Rebel XTi, an entry-level DSLR that is still an excellent camera. How much more than 10 megapixels does person actually need?

Then my world shifted. It came time for my folks to move to assisted living. Dad gave me a pair of bags of his old cameras, “some real gems and a couple of Bricks.” The gem was a Welta Weltur, a pre World War II folder that shot sixteen rectangles on either 120 or 620 film. Dad told me he had “walked all over New York City looking for that particular camera,” after returning from military service in Europe. It was his primary camera as I was growing up. I knew I had to put that camera back to work. I took some courses at the Community Darkroom here in Rochester to figure out what I was doing. I was hooked. That was 2010. Then my sister-in-law gave me her old Yashica-D. That sealed the deal. I eventually gave the Canon XTi to my son.

How did you discover DeviantArt and what motivated you to join?

In the late 1990s and early 2000s I followed a lot of fantasy artists on Lothlorien, which morphed into Elfwood. Elfwood grew larger than its administrative structure could handle. Artists started leaving it and heading for the up and coming deviantArt. In 2005 I decided to follow, especially since dA would allow me, a lowly non-fantasy-artist to get my own account. I started uploading my paddling pictures. I discovered other photographers who were actually willing to answer my questions and comment on my photographs. Two in particular became my mentors. They pushed me to try black and white. DeviantArt has been my photographic home ever since.

You are very active on DeviantArt and frequently comment on others' creations. What motivates you to do so?

The giving and receiving of comments is the heart and soul of deviantArt. It isn’t the artwork that keeps people here; it’s the community of artists. Community means talking with each other, listening to each other, treating each other with respect – even when your respective countries happen to be at war with each other.

It is the community that hooked me on deviantArt; it is the community that has kept me here; it is the community that I try to build. I have rather enjoyed getting to know other artists all over the globe.

How has the DeviantArt community evolved since you first joined?

What has changed? Everything and nothing. The dA community has evolved constantly since 2005. People leave, new folks join, and community goes on, differently. The same thing is true of the various other communities you and I are part of.

The interface has changed multiple times, sometimes drastically. How long has dA been here? A quarter of a century? That is a couple lifetimes for the internet, and several lifetimes for web development. Stuff changes. It’s a fact of life as tools and methodologies come and go. Code bases get old and decrepit a lot faster than do we as human beings. Thankfully, deviantArt has managed to update soon enough to avoid major meltdowns. The dA community has been up in arms every time the interface has changed, certain that the world as we knew it was ending. We are passionate people. We get pissed off easily and vocally. It is amazing how conservative we liberals can get when something dear to our hearts changes. Welcome to life.

In defense of pissed-off users, it must be said that web developers and management tend to over-hype new interfaces as new and wonderful stuff that will enable folks to do new and wonderful artistry, forgetting that they are replacing a mature interface with something new and different with brand new bugs, and generally not quite ready for prime time. The Eclipse transition, while necessary, was a lot more painful than it needed to be. We lost some fine artists over it.

AI is the latest bugaboo. This, too, will pass. DeviantArt management embraced AI far too enthusiastically without sufficient understanding of the consternation it would cause, especially among artists who are trying to make their living with their artwork. On the other hand, in spite of the over-enthusiastic rollout, dA management, unlike Meta, quickly backed off and introduced one of the best AI filtering and categorization systems going, with such anti-scraping protections as are currently available. They still push it too hard, but they have managed to do so in a reasonably responsible way.

What advice would you give to new members of DeviantArt?

Hang in there. Prowl around. DeviantArt is going to feel terribly clumsy at first. All new systems take time to learn and get comfortable with. Be quick to listen and ask for clarification. Be slow to make pronouncements about how stupid everything is, even when it is. The entirely intuitive web interface has yet to be invented. And, as I learned from years of building and managing websites, what is intuitive to one person will be hopelessly obtuse to another.

Slow down; don’t fave and run. Interact with the art and with the artist. I figure if it is worth faving, it is worth commenting on, and vice versa. Join some groups but not too many. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed by all the beautiful art you see, back off and don’t try to follow so many groups and artists.

I find I pay more attention to the individual artists I follow than to the groups, but it is the groups where I meet new people. Find groups that fit you. When a group gets old and dies, bid it a fond farewell and move on. I also pay more attention to artists who post regularly and sparingly, one or maybe two deviations in a day. Don’t overwhelm me, even if it is all good stuff.

Remember that there are trolls and webbots and generally nasty people on dA just as there are on every other social media site. If someone rips your art to shreds, listen for the grain of possible truth, otherwise ignore them and move on. Don’t argue with trolls; it’s what they thrive on.

For the younger folks, especially, remember that while constructive criticism is necessary and good, you don’t have to take abuse. If you need help figuring things out, talk to one of the Community Volunteers or other experienced users. Conversely, neither should you give abuse. Be gentle in your commenting. If someone does not appear to want your constructive criticism, back off and move on. Discuss; don’t argue.

Again, hang in there. You are going to make mistakes. If you mess up, ‘fess up, and keep on doing art.

What is your creative process when working on a new analog photograph?

In my photography, I am a taker rather than a maker. I take the camera with me; I photograph what catches my eye. Rarely do I decide in advance what I am going to photograph. Some people work the other way around. Both ways work. I would be lost in a studio with a model; I would not know where to start. But, “Hello! I’m Steve. May I take your picture?”, I am pretty good at.

Since I am shooting with film, I don’t get the immediate feedback of seeing the results. I have to try to get it right up front, then wait to see what happens. I develop my own black and white film then scan the negatives. When I scan in a new set of negatives, it is not unusual for me to think, “What a bunch of garbage. Whatever made me take these photographs??”

I let the initial scans sit on my computer for a day or two, then look at them again and start working on them one at a time. I try to think about what caught my eye in the first place. I also look for what is there that I may have missed when I took the photograph. What you or I think a photograph is going to be about is not necessarily what the photograph is going to insist that it is about. I try to listen to the photograph before I try to work it up, just as I try to listen to the woods and water before trying to photograph them. I never work on the original scan; I always edit from a copy. Because sometimes all you can do is start over from scratch.

I try to limit my editing to what could be done in a wet darkroom by someone who knew what they were doing. I do all my editing in the Gimp. Others use other tools. Learn what you need in order to use your tools and don’t worry about the rest.

How do you see the future of analog photography in the digital age?

Film has long since bottomed out. 35mm and 120 film are readily available. Film is not going away. New film types are being introduced. New film cameras are being built. New people are discovering film. There is something satisfying about about being involved in the process and having an original you can actually hold in your hands.

Perhaps more to the point, why do I shoot film, especially with old, manual cameras? I like finding new life in old tools. My digital cameras are long since out of date. My Welta Weltur and and Argus C3 and Yashica-D will never go out of date. As one of my friends once said, “They just don’t make cameras that sexy anymore.”

I am a lifelong computer geek. I have used more beta and even alpha level software than I care to think about, simply because I had to in order to get my work done. After a while one gets tired of chasing after the latest new thing. I have watched too many technical things go from latest and greatest to yesterday’s history. My no-battery, no-electronics cameras are my rebellion, my sanity, my fun.

Something else I have learned to appreciate about my manual cameras is the way they help me slow down and think about what I am doing. This is no small thing in our fast-paced digital age.

Do you have any upcoming projects or exhibitions you can tell us about?

Back when I had an income I exhibited once or twice a year at Rochester’s Image City Photography Gallery. These days, deviantArt and, to a lesser extent, Flickr and Instagram are where I exhibit.

One project just finished was volunteering at Community Darkroom for their Studio 678, an after-school program for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, introducing them to the mysteries of analog photography and darkroom printing. They also got to write poems to go with the two photographs they would mount and frame for their concluding program and exhibit at the Rochester City Hall. This was my second year with the program. I will be back next year.

@timebombtimmy  (@@eighty4grain on Instagram) pulled me in on a project he is doing with various photographers taking picture with long-expired Polaroid instant black and white slide film. I am looking forward to seeing the exhibit when he brings it to Rochester.

What inspires you in your daily work?

Call it the search for beauty. There is great art in, and great need for, excellent, even beautiful, photography of terrible things. I thank God for the combat-cameras and photojournalists who do just that. That is not my calling. My calling is to find and portray the beauty and goodness in ordinary things and ordinary people and places.

How do you balance your time between creating new works and being active on DeviantArt?

Not very well? By the number of photographs I have on deck? I tend to binge photograph. I shoot a couple or several rolls of film then let the cameras sit for a while. And, sometimes, one simply has to back off from dA and all the other addictive social media platforms out there and take care of real life. For example, I hand-wrote my first draft of this interview response on June 19. Then life got weirder than usual for a while. Here I am on July 9, tidying up the second (typed) draft. I am a photographer but that is not all that I am.

Finally, what does DeviantArt mean to you after all these years?

After nearly twenty years on deviantArt, dA feels an awful lot like home. If dA is still here and I am still alive and taking photographs in another twenty years, I expect I will still be here when I turn 94.

Soli Deo gloria