Recently I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Mark Zimmerman and some of Episcopal’s talented photographers about their recent trip in Italy and their new showcase “This Is Not Normal.” Here are some of their responses.
I first asked if there was a theme they were trying to convey through the show. Mr. Zimmerman replied, “The show is mostly documentation of our two-week trip into Italy. So the theme itself is images from Italy. Florence, Milan and Venice. So as far as a specific theme beyond documenting Italy, it was mostly looking at the things that appealed to them.”
Many of the responses from the students reiterated this statement, Ainsley Hunt ‘25 said, “I’m currently working on a whole collection from the trip that I’m painting. So I think because I put some of those pieces into the show, I already had that in place. But it’s really just my time in Venice where I was going with my stuff.”
Julia Dinzelbacher ‘25 also stated “I know I focused more on street photography, but I think I had a few other pieces in there that I just did because I liked it.”
Mr. Zimmerman also added to the question some insight into the main idea of the show saying, “This group was kinda different in the fact that they were really intrigued by portraiture and also things that were different. We went to the Vedas Biennale, and the theme of the Biennale was foreigners everywhere, and the idea that no matter where you are, no matter what you’re doing, you’re always a foreigner in some way. Like no matter where you are, it might be race, could be gender, it could be a lot of different things that you’re always going to be potentially an outsider in some way. And looking at how some artists have encountered the feeling of being othered. So we talked about that alot before the trip and during the trip, how we are in a sense not normal. We are the foreigners here.”
I also asked about the photographer’s favorite moments while creating some of the pieces.
Lucrezia Gowdy ‘25 said, “I took so many pictures I feel like I almost captured most of the trip, which normally doesn’t happen when I go places. So having the camera was nice.”
Julia added, “I feel like shooting people, especially, you capture these little moments and these people’s everyday lives. That’s really cool too, like the culture and how it’s different and just people living life.”
Ainsley talked about two pictures she took located at the front of the Munnerlyn saying, “My camera was being very weird, and we were in Milan, actually, we were in the Theadea Foundation, and Mr. Z could not figure out what I did to my camera. So, he told me to just take some really cool pictures with it. I just took pictures of everyone and buildings and that’s just what came out of it, and I think it turned out really cool. Whenever someone sees it they’re like, oh, how’d you edit it like that? And I’m like I didn’t do anything to it; it just came out that way.”
I then asked if each photographer had a favorite piece, and if so, which?
Lizzy Goodman ‘25 replied saying, “I had these two pictures of these little kids on their parents shoulders, and it’s not fancy or anything. They’re just random portraits I took, but I just think they’re so cute! I think they’re cute moments that I was able to capture and I really like those.”
Julia responded, “My favorite piece of mine was I have like three people on a bench, and it’s just three friends sitting there and sharing a meal, and it’s very relaxed. I feel like it’s very Italian culture, and it’s just a really sweet image.”
Lucrezia said, “I have the one in the back of the gallery that’s like the old lady in the street with her cart. I really like that one’s colors. And then I really like the one in the corner somewhere of the two doors next to each other. They’re really contrasting colors, with the umbrella on the window, I just like the different colors.”
After that I asked if it was hard or easy to capture the right portrait.
Gracia Hammond ‘25 responded, “I think it was kinda easy because I wasn’t thinking about the details of it. I was just kinda taking pictures. So I think it was probably easy.”
Julia replied to that saying, “ Yeah, I’d agree with Gracie. It’s just a matter of capturing people in the moment. And if you’re not setting anything up, then it’s not super hard. It’s just doing it and hoping it turns out right.”
Ainsley said, “Some things were definitely hard. It was my first time actually using a camera and in this type of setting and I feel like I was learning at the same time too. Trying to get the perfect shot was definitely a learning curve because I feel like everyone else knew that’s just not the case. But then sometimes beauty comes out of it when you don’t expect it to.”
Lizzy agreed saying, “ I feel like even as someone who’s been doing this, this is my fourth year in photography, I often don’t get the shot. It’s very frustrating, especially like in Italy I was doing a lot of people in the street and those can be tricky because your taking pictures of random people and if you’re lucky you’ll get them just the way you want, but you don’t have a lot of control over those images, which makes it a lot harder to get good shots”
One of my final questions was their favorite thing about the show.
Mr. Zimmerman responded with, “ Every experience is unique and exciting. So whether it’s getting off the plane, it’s going to the airport that morning, every step is super exciting. We did an open house event with all the third through fifth graders at the Beaches and St. Mark’s campuses. They all came here, and our students were docents for them and shared their artwork with these little kids and that was super exciting. I think what’s really cool is that every step of the way something really special is happening.”
Julia said “Dancing in Florence. That night there was a live performer out on the street, and we came back from our nicer dinner and we were all dressed up and stuff, and we just ran into this guy, and it was cool.”
Lucrezia also said “ getting to talk to people in Italian, cause I speak Italian, so little moments where I would go to a store to check something out and they would answer me, especially when it was all of us. It would be people speaking English and then they would ask me where I’m from, so those moments were nice.”
My last question was if they had any tips for new photographers or students that may want to take the class.
Ainley responded saying “ Well, personally I don’t take the class, but from a new photographer standpoint, just go for it. Find a camera, rent a camera, and just start taking pictures.”
Lizzy added, saying, “ It’s hard. I’m gonna be honest. Photography, it seems like it would be easier than other arts cause it’s just like, ‘Well, let me take this camera and point it at something,’ but as you progress, it definitely gets harder. The hard part comes with the creativity. If you’re really interested in photography you wanna have a mind that can think outside of normal expectations. You gotta put in the effort. If you’re really into it, you’ll put it in. It’s all about interest.”
Lucrezia said, “Always try new angles.I know it sounds really basic but it does make a difference.”
Julia talked about a phrase that stood out to her, sharing, “ One thing that I was told recently is that photography is like the art of capturing light, and I don’t know why that stuck with me. I was like, ‘Oh, that makes more sense” because that is what makes a picture beautiful. It’s just the colors and how light is reflected. If you see beautiful lighting, that’s what makes a beautiful image”. She also talked about the importance of learning how to edit photos and getting used to Photoshop and Bridge.
Mr. Zimmerman answered the last question with an inspiring statement about failure, saying, “Don’t be nervous, but you gotta work hard. You can’t be scared. You gotta be willing to take chances, take risks, be experimental, fail. I think that’s the number one thing. I feel like that’s a thing with students in general is people are afraid to fail. You gotta embrace the failure; you gotta fail to become better at things”
Thank you to all the wonderful photographers I got to interview! This show is amazing, and if you have the time, I would totally recommend checking out some pieces from “This Is Not Normal” down in the Munnerlyn!
Image courtesy of Kennedy Cruse-Scott ’27.
