Interview with Brian Kosoff

#1 Please introduce yourself
My name is Brian Kosoff. I’m a photographer born and raised in NYC .

#2 How did you get interested in photography?
It was my uncle who sparked my interest. He was a hobbyist photographer. He shot mostly slide film with a Nikkormat and every time there was a family function at his home he would put on a slide show of all the family and vacation pics he had taken. He drove a convertible, travelled and was really cool, so I guess I used him as a role model to a large extent. He passed away last year, but years before he died he had a chance to see my work hanging next to Ansel Adams’ in a NYC gallery.  I think he then realized how much of an impact he had on my life.

I took photography classes in high school and made a home darkroom. In my last year of high school there was an internship program that allowed me to assist a couple of editorial and advertising photographers in Manhattan. That pretty much sealed the deal that I would become a photographer.

#3 Do you have an artistic/photographic background?
I was fortunate that my high school had a serious art department, which gave me the opportunity to study and produce other forms of art including sculpture. I made sculptures out of stone with hammer and chisel. My sculpture teacher, who is to this day a good friend, was young and patient. He was also very intent on his students doing good work. To his credit my school had one or two National Scholastics gold medal winners every year, which was a significant achievement for any school. I entered both a sculpture and a photograph in the contest. I won for sculpture but not photography.

After high school and thanks to that high school internship program, I was able to assist in the summer before I started college. I attended the School of Visual Arts in NY while continuing to freelance assist. At SVA I was a photo major but still studied sculpture. Because I felt I was learning so much more by assisting, I decided to leave SVA in my second year.

#4 Which artist/photographer inspired your art?
When I see a beautifully done photograph by another photographer I am inspired to work harder, but mostly just the sight of what our planet has to offer and how incredibly spectacular that can be is inspiration enough for me. I can’t say that any specific photographers inspired me, but I was influenced by photographers I respect.

Penn is the photographer who I have to say I have the most respect for over all. He was a great still life shooter, as well as great at fashion and portrait. I know of no one who can do all of those things equally as well. And as far as still life goes, he was the best. He was also a gentleman and very professional.

I admired Ansel Adams, but the more I shot landscape the less I was impressed with his photographs. Maybe this is because his work became so copied and was therefore less visually exciting to me. But his contributions to photography and the environment were enormous and no one will ever match that. I believe that photography is accepted as an art today because of Ansel Adams.

#5 How much preparation do you put into taking a photograph? Are you planning every step or is it always spontaneous?
Having come from a studio background, I was an advertising and editorial photographer in NYC, I was accustomed to a very controlled environment.  And with the professional background there is a heavy reliance on being well prepared because failure is not an option.  You have to produce work of the highest standards every time or you will soon find yourself out of business.  That requires doing one’s homework, being able to recognize problems before they occur and being able to handle anything that the project or situation throws at you. For those with little experience of professional assignments it’s a very different mindset than going out and taking pictures for your self. Instead you’re making pictures that will be brutally evaluated by people whose own livelihoods may depend on the quality of your performance.

Regarding landscape, I will often come across a scene that has all the right compositional elements but not the right light or atmosphere. In that case I take compass readings to determine ideally where I want the Sun to be, and then using astronomical software I will determine what date and time that year that it’s in the spot I want, and I’ll come back then. I will also take into consideration tides, moon position, foliage, weather, atmosphere, geography, agricultural cycles, etc.  I view the process of landscape photography in a more holistic perspective.

As an example for the image “Prescott Trees” I made three trips in a year from NY to Washington State just for that shot. The version I ended up using had fall foliage.

They say that chance favors the prepared mind, so I try to be prepared. But there’s always that wild card. And sometimes I’m just driving down the road and wham! There’s a shot right in front of me. Then again, I’m on that road because I had previously studied topo maps and the weather history of the area and I knew the likelihood of getting a good shot there was high. But for all the prep work I do, there’s still the uncertainty that nature plays. I recall a trip to Iceland, timed specifically so that the Moon would appear rising between two volcanic, Stone Henge-like rock formations that I had seen on a previous trip. Alas I had 3 straight overcast days and never got the shot. I’ll get that image someday.

#6 What fascinates you in places that you shoot?
Everything. A recent shoot had me doing long night time exposures and as I was at a high altitude and the skies were dark and clear I had an amazing view of the Milky Way. Just fantastic. And all the while, hearing Coyotes howl. You don’t get that growing up in Brooklyn.

Landscape is a lifestyle. I think most of us that pursue it just love being in some quiet remote place and during some especially dramatic or tranquil moment. It’s also a very solitary pursuit so I think that anyone who works at it has to be comfortable with spending time alone.