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INFO: Alexander Shahmiri / 19 / San Francisco, CA

http://www.alexandershahmiri.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/geetarooman

http://geetarooman.tumblr.com/

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The Photo Coterie: The photos you send us are from your series “Le Brouillard”, which means “the fog” in French. Why did you decide to title this series in French?

Alexander Shahmiri: I titled it in French primarily due to the fact that I love the French language. I took four years of it in high school, and while I didn’t care for it at the time, now I constantly am trying to learn more. Another reason is the fact that the word “le brouillard” is an unknown word to most people that see my work, so it adds a bit of uncertainty to those photos, which is important to me.

TPC: What is your favorite subject matter to shoot; bands, fashion or your personal work, and why?

AS: I would have said that my personal work is my favorite subject matter three weeks ago, but after working with a band for one week in a recording studio I think my personal work and shooting bands are about equal on what I prefer to shoot. Fashion is nice, but it is just so impersonal to me… with a band you really can show what kind of people they are through the photos. There’s just more depth to them. Then with personal photos I can just express myself a bit more openly, and try different things. It’s the equivalent starting up a small crafts project for me, it’s just fun.

TPC: How does an idea for a new series usually come about for you?

AS: I over-think things a lot, which ends up turning into ideas for different series. I generally will see something really small or hear something, and from there I branch out into different ideas. Sometimes it just so happens that a group of photos I took could work for a series. The trick is I just have to convince myself as to why it should be a series. 

Some series are also based off of events in my life as well, and just feelings of certain actions or moments of the past. I have a journal that I write my ideas in, but at the moment have no idea where it is apart from it being in my room.

TPC: On your blog you say that you are majoring in communications, what do you plan on doing after college, and does photography fit into those plans?

AS: As of right now if I can get photography to really take off for me then I’ll rely on that for a good while and enjoy however much time I can get by with for that. If that doesn’t end up working out, I’ll probably go into PR or Marketing at a company. Although I’d love to find something where I can be self-employed. Only time will tell though, and whatever happens I’m sure I’ll be happy with in someway or another.

TPC: Is there anything going on in your life right now that you want to talk about?

AS: There’s a lot going on in my life that I’d like to talk about, but at the moment the most exciting bit of news is that there is a possibility I’ll be shooting two bands on a national tour, but it’s still hush hush due to the fact that everything needs to be worked out and put on paper.