Words | Kim Kunoff
P
hotographer Colby Katz doesn’t judge. That’s not her job. Her job is to take pictures that provide clues to a story that you really want to hear. She turns her unflinching documentarian’s lens toward uncomfortable subjects, exposing the exaggerated and absurd nature of contemporary life. She finds the commonplace within the strange, that point of entry that gives a viewer insider status. Her work has appeared in books, magazines and has been internationally exhibited at such spaces as The National Portrait Gallery in London, FOAM Fotografiemuseum in Amsterdam, and The Lennox Contemporary in Toronto. In 2004, she participated in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass. Colby was selected by Photo District News as an Emerging Photographer in 2005, and in 2006, the Magenta Foundation also awarded her this title.
Katz grew up with the camera; her family had more than their fair share of amateur photographers, and her father kept her in steady supply of Polaroid cameras. While attending New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, she interned for radio documentarian David Isay, who she came to regard as her dol.” “[Through him,] I saw first hand what it meant to really respect your subjects. The outgoing message on 32 his answering machine said something to the point of, operator, if this is a collector call, I will accept it. If any 33 of his subjects needed him, he wanted to make sure he could be reached (these were the pre-cellphone days). A decade later I would bet a million dollars he would still take any collect call from any of the people that have let him in to their lives. He instilled in me the importance of respect and friendship. When I’m working on a long term project, I become much more than just a photographer to my subjects. I become their friend.” Coming up as a young photographer, Katz had to support her projects by working as a newspaper photographer, a male-dominated field that forced her to develop a tough persona and a fearless commitment to the perfect shot. “Being short, like a few inches away from being a technical midget short, and female made it tough in the beginning. It wasn’t uncommon for guys to push me out of the way either with their elbows or
lenses to get a good vantage point or to walk by and turn off the battery pack to my flash. I learned to put on a game face. No smiling and strong stances so you can’t be pushed to the side. Fear and personal safety are mild considerations. On the other hand, when I’m not working, I prefer my bicycles with three wheels and drive like a grandma.” “I had a shoot earlier this year at a venom lab and when one of the most poisonous snakes in the world was brought out, I didn’t hesitate to get as close as I could. One bite from this particular snake could emit 10 times the lethal amount of venom. At one point the snake went in to striking pose because he was bothered by the sound of my camera and instead of just standing still and not taking any pictures until he was secured, I fired off a few more shots since now, the snake was posed so great. It was incredibly stupid of me to do. I completely comprehended the worst case scenario and risks but when the moment was there for the picture I wanted, nothing else mattered. Last week I followed around some guys alligator hunting from airboats. After the first one was caught, I found myself straddling two airboats to get a good picture. I don’t know if I’m brave or just stupid! There was bait in the water and I wasn’t holding on to a railing. Yet, I don’t think of myself as brave at all. When I’m working on a personal project or an assignment, I’m just focused on getting the best picture possible.” To place Katz, one might think such women photographers as Sally Man, Rineke Djikstra, and Clare Strand, all of whom have explored the complexity of girlhood and who also assume a deceptively cool objectivism behind their cameras. Little girls are spraytanned and coiffed by proud beauty pageant mothers in her “Darling Divas” series, while “Forever Babies” documents lifelike dolls created to commemorate the death of an infant much like the 18th-century postmortem photographs taken as keepsakes. In the “Backyard Fighters” series, she documents Miami’s illegal backyard fights with a chilling clarity--men are pummeled, lying facedown, bloodied, while onlookers stand by casually. The honesty of her shots are a result of her truly connecting with the people she’s photographing. “Without asking for anyone to be my bodyguard or look-out at the backyard fights in Miami, it just naturally happened. I’d feel someone’s hand behind me as I’d get thrown back when a fighter was pushed in my direction and there’d
Nov. - Dec. 2011
always be someone there to hold me up so I didn’t fall or to walk me to my car if they didn’t think it was safe (different fights attracted different crowds and gangs). Some of the fighters, many of which are convicted felons, sent me text messages on mother’s day.” She comes by her subjects by listening and always being interested in what she hears. “ I learned about the middle class backyard fighters from hanging out at arcades talking to kids.” “It breaks my heart when I see people unfairly judging others. If I were to connect this to my work, I could use the rabbit hunting series as an easy example. The typical reaction I get is something like, ‘oh how terrible.’ But if they only knew the whole picture and understood the poverty that exists in the two neighboring towns that it goes on in, I think they wouldn’t be so harsh in their comments. It’s a similar situation with my backyard fighters. These guys didn’t grow up in the suburbs with white picket fences. They’re in one of the highest crime areas of Miami and if you’re a guy, you’re either known for how good you are at basketball or how well you fight. It might not be your reality or mine, but it’s theirs. On top of that, most are convicted felons and can’t find a job to help support them or their family, so they fight for money to help make it through another day.”