Arizona based photographer and educator Betsy Schneider talks about her drive for intensity, beauty and complexity in her work. Schneider's photographs have all these qualities and more. Why? Simply because her pictures are profoundly authentic and come from a place in her heart and head where her own life experience openly informs the work. There is no shred of artifice here, or clever masquerading as intelligent.
Schneider says this: I make photos. I make videos. I make dinner for my kids. I feel guilty about my carbon footprint but it doesn’t stop me from driving too much. I can’t sit still. I am told I complain too much but it is really hot in Arizona. I like to juggle the soccer ball on the sidelines of my kids’ games. I like to rave to my students about my newest TV obsessions. I like to read my students Facebook status updates to see what absurdly hyperbolic statement I have made in class. Hyperbole aside, I believe deeply in the importance of art in making our lives rich and complex and for keeping us in touch with our humanity.
Betsy Schneider received a BA from the University of Michigan in 1987, a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1990 and an MFA from Mills College in Oakland, California in 1997. Before attending graduate school, she lived in Prague for a year and was a live-in assistant to Sally Mann. After graduate school she spent four years living and working in London, England, where she taught photography and English. She also lived a year in Trondheim, Norway. In 2002 she joined the School of Art faculty at Arizona State University where she currently a tenured Associate Professor. She divides her time between Tempe, Arizona and Sharon, Massachusetts.
I've posted here a selection of images from Betsy Schneider's project Triskaidekaphobia.
This series is a collection of images, videos and words from thirteen-year-olds, coming together to provide a portrait of early adolescence in 2012.
You can see more of Betsy Schneider's work on her website HERE.
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