Owen Davies
When photographer Owen Davies sat down at my table during CENTER’s Review Santa Fe portfolio reviews last year and opened his portfolio box full of prints, I immediately knew I was in on what he was doing. I didn’t initially think or know that he would be an interview subject, but after listening to him talk about his work and process, that too became clear. He showed two bodies of work that day, both shown in part to illustrate this interview, and I was wowed by both the perfection of his printing and the precision of the images themselves.
It doesn’t hurt that I have a deep love for both architecture and the U.S. National Park system. His LIGHT/MASS project had me wondering why I hadn’t noticed the many brutalist-style buildings on the East Coast of the U.S. before. Still, here he is documenting them in a style that simultaneously complements them and keeps them steeped in mystery. And his The Great Outsiders hits home for me because, since childhood, I’ve always thought the visitor centers in these parks were odd places that never seemed to fit the environment they resided in. So yeah, I guess that’s it in a nutshell for me – these works reveal so much but also keep me wondering about what’s behind them. There is some contradiction, to be sure, and all from an artist who hails from Great Britain but continues to find fascinations similar to mine while wandering this land I’ve always called home. Maybe it just takes fresh eyes to see what I’ve missed all along. Owen Davies sees differently, and that makes me want to know more about what makes his images work so well. Thankfully, he’s a good dude with a wonderful sense of humor to accompany him on his travels. Consider this interview some gratitude and praise for someone helping me keep my eyes open.
From The Great Outsiders collection
Bio -
Owen Davies is a photographer and creative consultant living in New York City.
Exploring themes of futurism and our relationship to the built environment, Owen seeks to blur the boundaries of reality and our imagination, photographing the strange, surreal, and often overlooked landscapes found in our towns and cities.
With a background in commercial studio photography, Owen takes a methodical approach to his artistic practice, manipulating time, perspective, and framing to present his subjects as imposing structures within their environment, standing like monuments to a forgotten era.
Interview -
Michael Kirchoff: Do you have any recollection of your first introduction to cameras and photographs? Was your interest in them immediate, or did it take multiple reminders of image-making to reel you in?
Owen Davies: Probably my earliest memory was playing around with my father’s old film SLR. I forget what model it was, but I remember really enjoying the feel of it. So much so that I’d just cock and fire the shutter over and over because I liked the noise. I don’t think I actually took any photos with it! I came pretty late to photography as a creative outlet, though - I definitely wasn’t one of those cliched “since a young age…” stories. It wasn’t until I was in my 20s - during a vacation in the US, funnily enough - that I began to take image-making seriously.
MK: Is there anything from your past that you feel has had a dramatic influence on how you create images today?
OD: I wouldn’t say there’s anything dramatic, but I think I’ve always been a creature of habit. I like a good routine, which I think very much influences how I approach photography. Whether I’m on location or in a studio, I tend to be very methodical, from choosing a subject to setting up and making the image. I love seeing incremental improvements as I’m progressing through a shoot. From a visual standpoint, I’m a big sci-fi cinema fan, which has definitely shaped the way I see things and heavily influenced the kind of subjects I’m drawn to.
MK: What is it that you get out of creating photographs? Is there an overriding theme in your work that you feel best represents you as an artist?
OD: Having a method of visually recording how I’m perceiving a scene or subject is probably the most satisfying thing I get from photography. I can get the thought out of my head and into a format that other people can view and hopefully understand. I’m not a great illustrator by any means, so photography for me is the most direct way for me to translate my thoughts and feelings into a visual medium. I also really enjoy the technical side of photography, and I get a great deal of satisfaction from the process side of things. I’d say the overriding theme that represents what I do would be precision. Certainly, in a literal sense, which I think comes from my studio background, but I also feel that my images have a sense of order or neatness to them. I’m not really one for chaos!
From the LIGHT/MASS collection
From the LIGHT/MASS collection
From the LIGHT/MASS collection
From the LIGHT/MASS collection
From the LIGHT/MASS collection
MK: The work we are showing here comes from a body of work called LIGHT/MASS. Can you give us some insight into the intentions and reasoning for creating such a structured collection of images such as this?
OD: LIGHT/MASS is a collection of what I see as alien-like landscapes that I’ve found in urban centers of the US, particularly the East Coast. I started working on it back in 2020, not long after I moved to NYC from the UK, a few days before the city shut down due to COVID. Like a lot of photographers during the pandemic, I felt I had to keep making images to keep my mind busy, so I’d go for long walks around the city and photograph anything that piqued my interest. I would come across these strange-looking concrete buildings that loomed over the street, absorbing the hard sunlight like some sort of monolith. To me, they appeared very alien to the surrounding architecture, and I felt a compulsion to capture that feeling. In addition, there were very few people out on the street at that time and those that did pass by paid little attention to the bizarre building standing right in front of them. This fascinated me as they were the first thing I noticed when turning the corner, and the lack of people only heightened the otherworldly feeling I was getting when viewing the scene. I began to seek out similar buildings across the city and then further afield to places like Boston and New Haven when travel became a little easier. By that point, most places were returning to normal, but I wanted to re-create the same feeling I had when standing in front of the first few buildings. I planned shoots on bright sunny days and developed a process that required a tripod, precise framing, and long exposure techniques to render the scenes free of human presence. My intention with the series is to convey the odd, slightly unsettling feeling I had when first discovering these structures and hopefully encourage people to notice the unique beauty I think they possess.
MK: The second body of work we are showing is from The Great Outsiders, which, in some way, feels like a natural progression for you from LIGHT/MASS. Clearly, there is a fascination you have with traveling through the U.S. and seeing such destinations with fresh eyes that those born here sometimes take for granted.
OD: Yeah, I think there’s definitely a theme of feeling out of place that runs through both series, and it’s probably in part due to me feeling like I’m in a similar situation as a relative newcomer to the country. The Great Outsiders has felt like a dream project for me as it combines my love for strange modernist architecture with post-war history and something as iconic as the National Parks. The buildings I’m photographing for this project aren’t so much taken for granted but rather actively disliked by quite a lot of visitors to the park. They’re seen as ugly or out of place and don’t fit with a lot of people’s romanticized ideals of what a Park Service building should look like. Ironically, though, these buildings played an important role in preserving the parks themselves, and I find that tension between what people believe to be good for the park and what is actually good for the park fascinating. I also see a propaganda narrative to the project: a Cold War-era United States building these futuristic suburban outposts in the wilderness as a show of strength to the world. It’s been fascinating to explore, and getting to see more of the country and spending time in such beautiful surroundings is a nice bonus.
MK: You moved to Brooklyn from the U.K. – any culture shock experiences in regards to working in photography you’d felt?
OD: I think the main difference I’ve noticed is how much more confident people are in what they do, at least in NYC, anyhow. British people tend to play down their abilities and achievements (we’re a very self-deprecating nation!), so I noticed pretty quickly that people here would take me trying to be low-key or humble at face value and maybe think that I wasn’t that serious about photography. It’s taken a while to re-wire my brain, but I’m now a lot more comfortable stating that I’m an artist when meeting new people.
From the LIGHT/MASS collection
From the LIGHT/MASS collection
From the LIGHT/MASS collection
From the LIGHT/MASS collection
MK: What I notice quite predominately throughout these works is that they are very polished and refined. I know that you work as a photographer professionally, so do you feel that some of that informs how these images are presented?
OD: Absolutely. The majority of my professional photography work has been in the studio, shooting watches and jewelry, which is very time-consuming, precise work. Sometimes, I’d be spending hours perfecting a single image, so I learned to be patient and keep working on the scene for improvements, even when I thought I’d “got the shot.” I also have a lot of experience in brand building and art direction, so I’m very aware of how important presentation and language are in getting ideas across and connecting with an audience. I see a lot of great photography projects that, in my opinion, aren’t presented with the same level of care that has gone into the images themselves. I feel it's really important to get those details right if you want people to engage with what you’re doing, so I make sure to approach each of my projects like mini brands, spending time on things like type, colors, and accessible language.
MK: Anyone working in an artistic field has matured and grown over time. Is there anything you’ve discovered lately that you’d like people to know about you or your creative process?
OD: I think I’ve learned to trust my instincts a lot more. Earlier in my career, I would doubt my ideas, even before I had gotten my camera out of the bag - is this interesting or ‘good enough?’ - that kind of thing. Now, if I feel compelled to photograph something, I know to go with it and explore further. More often than not, it’ll lead to something I’m happy with. Another thing I’ve found to be a huge help is meeting with others in creative fields to share ideas and perspectives. I think a lot of photographers can be protective over how they make their work - I certainly was at one point - but opening up and discussing with others can lead to so many new avenues of creativity to explore, ones I’d likely never find on my own. I’m annoyed with myself that I took so long to realize it!
MK: Was there a specific point in time when you felt that you had found your voice in photography and became satisfied with the direction of your work? Do you ever truly find yourself in a good place with your images, or are you always searching for more?
OD: I think that’s been pretty recently since I moved to the States. I was happy with the standard of my work I made back in the UK, but it was always for someone else, to a brief, and often requiring approval from a committee. Since moving here, I’ve had the freedom to explore what interests me artistically and make work that I’m invested in beyond financial gain. It’s been a really rewarding experience, especially since the work is being received positively.
From The Great Outsiders collection
From The Great Outsiders collection
From The Great Outsiders collection
From The Great Outsiders collection
From The Great Outsiders collection
MK: Once you’ve achieved finding your particular style or voice, do you ever feel the need to break out and follow a different path?
OD: I don’t feel the need to deliberately change course, but I do think it’s worthwhile to explore as many artistic paths as you can. I’ve recently been experimenting with animation and sound design, which has been a lot of fun, and I expect whatever I make to be influenced by my photography in some way. I don’t think it’s worth getting too worried about whether something new fits into your style. Anything you create will be informed by who you are as a person and what you’ve made before.
MK: Over the years, the tools we use to make photographs have changed in dramatic ways, not to mention the vehicles we use to promote the final works we make. How do you keep up with these changes, and do you see there being any further significant change as lens-based media continues to progress?
OD: I’m quite into technology in general, so I find keeping up to date with that side of things in photography enjoyable. I do find the social media grind pretty exhausting, though - juggling several platforms and trying to cater to algorithms is pretty soul-destroying, but it’s a necessary evil. I think AI will continue to be the biggest disruptor in lens-based media, for good and bad. The cynical side of me says it’s being over-hyped by the tech industries to generate funding, but I have to admit to being curious about how it develops and how it could influence or change my work. I’m remaining cautiously open-minded! An area of technology I am interested in, though, is AR/VR and the potential it has for displaying visual arts. It’s pretty clunky right now with all the headsets, but the prospect of being able to display my images at life-size or have a much more immersive experience incorporating motion and sound is really appealing to me. I also think it’s a good idea to see these developments as additions to photography and not as replacements. It’s not going to remove the joy of holding a print in your hand, but if it can create an equally amazing experience for someone viewing your art, then that has to be a great thing.
MK: Do you collaborate with like-minded individuals on projects, or do you find it more productive to handle everything yourself? Are there any past collaborations that have been particularly beneficial?
OD: For most client stuff, it’s pretty much a given that you’ll need to work as a team to get the job done, so I’m a little amazed it’s taken me so long to realize the benefits it can bring to my personal work. I’ve recently been having regular calls with a photographer friend based in Paris who’s working on a body of work that shares some similar themes to mine. It’s been invaluable to be able to talk through our processes and share the ups and downs of making project-based work. I can’t recommend it enough, and I’m always open to sharing with artists looking to do the same - my DMs are open! For the actual process of photographing, though, I enjoy doing that part alone. I like taking my time to observe my subject and then finding several different angles to work with. I think if I had someone else with me, it would throw me off my game a little, and they’d probably also be pretty bored hanging around in a parking lot or wherever. I do have some ideas for a series of images that would need a small team to produce, however, so I’m excited to explore that in the future.
From The Great Outsiders collection
From The Great Outsiders collection
From The Great Outsiders collection
From The Great Outsiders collection
MK: What’s next for your photography? Any new projects you have in the works?
OD: My immediate plans are to bring LIGHT/MASS to some sort of conclusion from a production point of view and start exploring opportunities to print and publish it. I have one or two more locations I’ll be visiting in the next few weeks, and then I think I’ll be happy to call it a completed body of work. I’ll also be continuing photographing for The Great Outsiders whilst seeking funding opportunities to help me travel to all the national park locations where the buildings are located. I’m at 7 of 24 currently, with another three planned for April. It’s slow going, but I’m very much enjoying the journey. As for new things, most of my focus is on those projects right now, but I would like to explore adding more human-focussed narratives to weird architecture in my next body of work.
You can find more of Owen’s work on his website here.
All photographs, ©Owen Davies
