http://www.heatherprotz.com/
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN ART?
In the fifth grade she learned how to process black and white film. From there she was hooked. She wanted to keep exploring and playing. In high school she put together her first darkroom and over the summer between high school and college she took classes at Parson’s school of design, where she took her first real intro to photography class. She then went on to attend the University of Akron in Ohio, where she received her B.F.A. in photography and an M.F.A. in ceramics from Ohio University.
WHY PHOTOGRAPHY?
It’s a great way to describe our world, and our environment. It can be descriptive, experimental, or fantasy. It helps her to express her inner thoughts and they can be shared in so many different ways. She enjoys not only straight images, but compositing images as well. She has done lots of mixed media work in which she combined her photos with ceramics, wood, plexiglass, and installations.
WHERE DID YOUR PHOTOSHOP SKILLS COME FROM?
As a grad student in 1991, in the printmaking program at Ohio University, they had two computers with Photoshop version 1.5 (the first commercial version of Photoshop). At the time, there was no internet, or books, out about Photoshop. The instructor brought them into the classroom and showed them the computers, how to work them and launch Photoshop, then sent them out on their own to figure it out. They only had a simple scanner and printer, not the Epson printers like we have today. She used her composite work as a way to figure out how to make images last and not fade away by adding different layers and materials to them.She currently uses Photoshop daily at work and is always discovering new things and reading things online.
WHO INSPIRES YOU?
Everything inspires her. Other people’s creativity, students, her favorite photographer Lee Friedlander, her undergraduate professor Andrew Borwick, and her former student Brian Ulrich. She says that, “basically anyone who has an idea, and is passionate about what they do, inspires me.” The Las Vegas landscape is also a very inspiring thing for her, although, she enjoys the opposite of the “typical” landscape. It’s the cityscape, blue skies, construction, loss of yesterday, and this new slick scene.
WHAT DID YOU DO/HOW DID YOU GET OFFERED YOUR JOB AS A PROFESSOR AT THE COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN NEVADA?
Like most graduate students that want to teach, you work as an adjunct for many years, hopefully get lucky, and find a full time gig somewhere. Ideally this would lead you to a tenure track position. She looked weekly and paid close attention to all the places where colleges post such as: higheredjobs.com, the Chronicle for Higher Education, and the SPE jobs posting website. You need to be ready to go, and act. Have your resume up to date, portfolio, and website. It’s important to stay current.
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR WORK SAYS?
As far as her straight work goes, it’s about the juxtaposition between the old and the new: documenting, defining, and looking at urban landscapes. She wants to show people something new; that there might be something hidden in what they see everyday. She says, “it’s about looking at something in a new way. It’s about going back time and time again and how it’s never the same.”
HOW DO YOU LEAVE TIME TO DO WORK FOR YOURSELF?
She leaves time to do work for herself everyday- she has to. Whether it be processing a few images, posting something to her blog, or going out and shooting. She says that it’s too easy to make excuses; you just got to do it. She suggests, “adapting the work to meet what and where you are at that point.” Recently she has been using her camera phone to explore and has been meeting new people while doing her own work. Meeting people is important, as it provides networking and possible opportunities, as it has for her.
HOW DO YOU MARKET AND SHOW YOUR WORK?
She is constantly traveling and while doing so, she checks out the galleries in that area. She suggests making appointments to go talk with people and show them your portfolio. It’s important to have your work handy and with you, no matter what form it is in. For her, it’s ideal to be able to show people prints, as the process of printing is very important to her. She says that her work look different as a print and there is nothing like the quality of holding a print. The texture and depth of a print is very important and creates a different impact.
WHAT IS THE NEXT PROJECT YOU WANT TO WORK ON/ WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?
She is working on a new series called Habitat where she is photographing vacant storefronts, while also working on combining her photographs with her friend’s drawings that will be published into a book. She works on multiple things at once.
IF YOU WEREN’T A PHOTOGRAPHER WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING?She has been in photography for so long now that she has no idea what she would be doing. There is no question in her mind about doing something else.
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