Today we’d like to introduce you to Katherine Curry.
Katherine, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started photography in high school by accident; my mom had passed away in 2009, and I ended up getting a ‘point and shoot’ camera in 2010 for a school project. I became a little obsessed with documenting the people in my life after that. I was in high school, so it was mostly band trips to Missouri and soggy cafeteria lunches, but it gave me a sense of control that I needed and wanted. I started at the University of North Texas in Denton in 2013 as a math major – then a math major with an art minor, then a studio art major with a math minor, then a Photography major. My journey since then has been devoted to both artistic and commercial pursuits as a fine art photographer.
Has it been a smooth road?
My biggest struggles can be set into two categories: Professional and Personal.
Professionally, I struggled for a really long time to find respect for my work and my peers. Commercial work felt like a cop-out or like I was selling out, and “fine art” work felt like a pretentious pipe dream. I had two impossible and unhealthy standards that I held myself and my peers to, and that hurt myself and others. It’s so simple and dumb, but everything got so much easier when I let those mental hang-ups go. “Am I taking the right photo- is this idea original- is this work intentional- does it have meaning?” is just as important as “Am I making myself happy with this work?” So, what if your best friend is doing highly conceptual underground work in Thailand and your other friend is painting commemorative Galveston sea-shells? They’re happy. Focus on you.
Personally, my journey has been a tire fire rolling in front of a train wreck. I’ve suffered from depression for the better part of 15 years, and when I got into college it came to a breaking point and I developed anxiety issues as well. Looking at your professor in a one-on-one and having them beg you to just show up for a class at least once a week is heartbreaking. I was lucky that I sent out so many red flags that someone finally referred me to get help and I started medication, which thankfully worked for me. I went to therapy and stopped cutting myself off from friends and family and it still took years to get to semi-adult level of human being. It’s a major, ongoing struggle. Years have gone by and some days I still have to pick and chose my battles with my brain: are we going to do dishes and laundry or are we going to the store, or are we lying in bed and face timing someone for a pep talk so we can even move today. As someone who is actively trying to be An Adult with a Business, mental health sucks. The best advice I can give is to know yourself: if you can’t take on four projects, it’s better to say no now than act unprofessionally in the field. If you can’t sleep this week, scheduling meetings for 8 am is not a good idea. Love yourself as you should be loved, and be aware of your limits so you can bring the best professionalism you have to the table without sacrificing your happiness or your mental well-being. Love yourself the way a parent would; unconditionally but with tough love. You deserve it.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into Katherine Curry Photography story. Tell us more about the business.
I work primarily in photographic-based works. I’m incredibly interested in the information contained within a photograph, and what happens when you deliberately alter that information, multiplying or saturating a photograph in many iterations of a scene. I’m also interested in the differences between ‘fine art’ and ‘arts and crafts,’ and where we, as both an audience and as fellow artists, draw that line, and which side women artists are anchored to. My photographic works deal with repetition, the imagery of mothers and grandmothers, fabric photos and doily patterns; all used with the intention of encouraging the audience to think about ‘women’s work’ and art. In my commercial work, I focus on customer satisfaction and technical skill as well as playing with those standing ideals. Why do we find selective-coloring (ex: a single red rose on a black and white background) so appealing as a culture. Collegiate level courses pushed students to move beyond the conventional, to look for layers of meaning in their work beyond the aesthetics: but what happens when you deliberately buy into those standards? I’ve found that you find a new area to build up in your work. I love being able to have that flexibility. I find both to be equally important to my growth as an artist and as a creator with a wide range of professional skills.
Looking back on your childhood, what experiences do you feel played an important role in shaping the person you grew up to be?
My mom passed when I hit puberty, and art became the best outlet I had for both teenage angst, existentialism, severe depression, and crippling grief. It was a brutal couple of hormone filled years. There was a lot of my chemical romance songs played on repeat while I cried into a pillow and painted abstract expressionism lamenting about how ‘no-one GETS me’. I had an incredibly strong family that supporting me through that. When I hit college rolling into a garbage fire filled with anxiety and depression, I found friends who helped me through that as well. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have a system of powerful woman role-models in my life throughout to show me I can do more if I want to, and it’s always been a liberating gift. My biggest childhood influences would have to have been my older cousins, Sarah and Emily. I followed in their footsteps through girl scouts and school and out into the world. They’re seven and five years older than me respectively, and whenever I get lost or I don’t know what I should do in life, I look to them. I always have, and probably always will.
Pricing:
- 3 hour session: $400
- “altered portrait”: $55
- laser-cut cyanotype: $150
Contact Info:
- Website: katherinecurry.com
- Phone: 972-302-3858
- Email: studio@katherinecurry.com
- Instagram: bananafaceddinosaur
Image Credit:
Ashley Andrews
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