The stillness of a sleepy suburb at night, the otherworldly comforting happiness within a dog, the creeping shadows of the afternoon sun on the wilderness floor—these are things that photographer Will Breedlove captures in a way like no other. We got a chance to talk with him about how he got into photography, getting lost in neighborhoods, and more. Read it all after the jump!
Tell us about who you are and what you do?
I'm Will Breedlove. I live in Asheville, and I take photos in and around this beautiful city. A lot of my work is inspired by the New Topographics movement, but over the last year I've also been working on a series of candid dog portraits. I shoot with a couple of 35mm film cameras and a Nikon D750.
What got you into photography?
I've been sort of fascinated by cameras since I was a kid. I can remember my dad teaching me to use his old film Nikon, and how exciting it was to get the photos back. That same year–probably around 2000–I asked for a camera of my own and for Christmas I got one. It was a little 35mm Olympus point-and-shoot, and it had blue plastic on the front you could see the electronics through like a clear gameboy. Honestly, I don't remember using it that much, because shortly after that my dad got a digital camera, and the instant gratification of that was way cooler to 10-year-old me. Eventually I got my own digital camera, and I started taking it with me on all the trips I went on with my Boy Scout troop. After a few years of goofing around with the camera, I became my troop's official historian, which gave me a newfound sense of purpose. Instead of just being the kid with the camera, I was The Photographer.
At the end of the year, I would make all the photos into a little video slideshow set to whatever music I was into that year, and then everyone in the troop would have to sit through it. In retrospect, the deep cuts from They Might Be Giants were probably lost on most of the kids, but I stand by my choices. Since then, I've never really stopped shooting. I got my first DSLR my senior year of high school and started learning the technical aspects of photography. Being in total control of my camera was an exciting change from a point-and-shoot, but it meant that I took a lot of bad photos for the next few years. There's an old cliché that your first 10,000 photos are your worst, and that certainly applies in my case.
How does a typical day of shooting normally go for you?
I just go for walks whenever I can find the time, whether I'm waiting for my laundry to dry or getting my car fixed, or if I get off work a little early. The photography is almost incidental to walking most of the time. Sometimes I'll be out for an hour and a half and only take five photos, or other times I'll come back with over a hundred to sort through. It all depends on my mood and the light and where I find myself. I should mention here that I also play Pokemon Go while I'm out walking and shooting. It gives me a little extra incentive to get outside and it also gives me a vague sense of how streets connect, so I can get myself lost, but not too lost. When I'm downtown photographing doggos, I tend to walk in big loops around the streets with the best light and the most traffic–Lexington, College, Wall St. etc. I usually have my 14mm ultra-wide for pups because I can set the focus manually, and snap a photo in passing. The lens is so wide I can just hold the camera down at dog-level and get a good shot without having to see through the viewfinder. The wide angle allows me to get just a foot or so from a pupper's peepers when I snap the photo, which often results in some surprised and goofy reactions.
I do feel bad for spooking a pup sometimes, but often those turn out to be the best photos. Sometimes, I'll shoot with my 50mm instead, which gives the photos a totally different feeling. The longer focal length and shallower depth of field with the 50mm lens necessitate a more careful approach to get quality photos, but when they do come out, they look lovely. I think of these photos more of dog portraits, as opposed to the candid photos I get with the wide angle. My favorite time to shoot is in the evenings, about an hour before the sun sets and into the twilight. I love the way the light comes in sideways and makes things glow out of the gathering dark. My house is between two big hills (or little mountains), one to the east and one to the west. So some nights I'll set off in one direction or the other and follow the light as moves and grows redder. Then the sun sets and leaves the purple and blue afterglow that mingles with the warm light inside people's homes. It's the comfiest time to shoot, in my opinion.
For your pet portraits, do you have a most favorite pup (MFP) you've gotten a picture of?
I hate to play favorites, but there was a golden retriever I met downtown this summer named Jimmy. He had found a 3-foot-long stick and was carrying it in his mouth with the biggest goofiest grin I've ever seen on a dog. He just looks so proud of himself.
What're some of the best dog names you've encountered?
I always love meeting dogs with people names. It's not like there's a clear line between dog names and people names, but you know it when you hear it, and it almost always fits. The other day I met a lil' border collie named Carol. Carol doesn't strike me as a dog name, but it absolutely made sense for her. I also met a little pup named Gravity this summer. She was a sweetheart. Her human said he named her that because she was the one thing that kept him from leaving this planet.
When you're not photographing sweet little fur friends, you capture neighborhoods here in Asheville. Do you prefer one area of town over the other when it comes to getting your creativity flowing?
I like neighborhoods where the houses have been around long enough to develop personalities of their own. In some areas, you can see the personalities of the people who live there now, but you also get a sense that the houses' memories go back farther than that. I get that feeling in Montford especially, with all its victorian homes and huge trees, and of course Riverside Cemetery, which give the whole neighborhood some really ancient spooky vibes, while still feeling like a nice place to raise a family.Also, I always wind up getting lost in Montford's spiderweb of winding backstreets and I find I get most creative when I'm not sure precisely where I am. Lately I've been photographing the area around Kimberly Avenue a lot, because it's near my own home. It doesn't have quite the same gothic comfiness as Montford, but it has it's own personality. I particularly like the trees.
If you could go anywhere in the world for a week and take pictures where would it be?
Iceland. I've always wanted to go there. It's so unlike any place I've ever been.
We can't finish this interview without asking what music you've been getting into lately!
I'm sort of embarrassed to say I haven't been keeping up with new music much this year, but there are a few albums I always seem to revisit when the weather gets cooler. American Football's self-titled album, Apocalypse by Bill Callahan, and You Forgot It In People by Broken Social Scene are some of my favorite autumn listens. Once it really get's cold I find myself listening to a lot of slow doomy music like Earth, and maybe some black metal on those really frigid nights. Deafheaven's Sunbather was my go to album the winter of 2013 (has it really been 4 years?) and is still one of my favorite albums.
Follow Will Breedlove on Instagram (@pseudobread)