NGCI sits down with D. Randall Blythe ahead of his exhibition opening, “From Whence We Came” at the National Gallery.
D. Randall Blythe, the photographer behind the works of the National Gallery’s current exhibition entitled “From Whence We Came”, was born in Maryland and grew up in the coastal regions of Tidewater, VA, and Cape Fear, NC. Accidentally becoming a photographer after initially purchasing his first camera for its video capabilities, he quickly discovered the work of the great French master, Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose philosophy of capturing “the decisive moment” has shaped Blythe’s approach to photography. Blythe’s first exhibit, “Show Me What You’re Made Of” had a successful two month run at NYC’s Sacred Gallery. His work has been featured internationally in publications from Australia’s veri.live to America’s Rolling Stone. A published author, Blythe penned the best-selling memoir, Dark Days, and writes about music and culture for various outlets. He is the singer of the four-time Grammy nominated rock band, lamb of god. When he’s not traveling the world, Blythe splits his time between Cape Fear, NC and Richmond, VA. Besides his wife, family, and friends, he loves the ocean more than anything else.
In the moments before the gallery doors opened and the National Gallery’s lower exhibition hall filled with visitors eager to see Randall’s latest exhibition offering, this time curated by Natalie Urquhart, Fergus Foster caught up with Randall to learn a little more about the man himself, his inspiration and the artistic process behind his work.
NGCI: Thank you for sitting down with us right before your opening, we’re keen to learn more about you and your photography and share it with our audience on our blog. So first up, what do you think makes a captivating photograph?
R.B: I think number one is a strong subject matter and number two is good composition. You can have a picture of something really cool and interesting, but if it’s just centered right in the middle and there are no contrasting elements it’s not going to be very interesting. So, for me, I really work on composition.
I shoot mostly with a manual camera like an M, there’s no autofocus or any of that stuff, so you have to compose within the viewfinder and I like to try and do as little post editing work as possible. For this to be possible, composition is key and shooting from a unique perspective helps.
NGCI: Why do you believe it is important to share your images with people and what are your goals when sharing your photography?
R.B: I’m an artist who works in several different fields. I’m a musician who travels the world and I’m a writer and my goal with both of those things is to encourage people to engage in life in their own way.
I want to encourage autonomy, don’t wait to be told how to do something, work it out for yourself. For me it’s a very subjective process when I write and when I write lyrics for my songs. Photography, on the other hand, is a way to be objective in my artistic life. I’m not a studio photographer, I don’t create images – I go out into the world and try and find beautiful images of things that are already there. Photography is a way for me to step back, be objective and take note.
I don’t know why I feel the need to share my photography. I know why I feel the need to share my music and my writing, because I have a viewpoint that I’m trying to push forth. Photography just helps me appreciate the world around me and sharing this is nice. I share my photography via Instagram but in order to eradicate some of the ego stroking that occurs on there, I’ve e disabled comments so it’s like, here it is, if you like it you like it. I don’t need to be told it’s wonderful. My ego is big enough as it is, so it’s a way of me trying to reign myself in.
NGCI: Photography is your way of getting people to think more about what surrounds them on a daily basis and to really process it?
R.B: Right that’s the whole thing. As you know, I am taking some students on a photo walk tomorrow. They will be given a limited amount of time to find six specific types of images. I did the task myself first! If you’re looking specifically for examples of light and shadow to show contrast (because that’s one of the elements of a good photograph a lot of the times) you can find it anywhere. It could be something that’s commonplace and mundane, but if you approach it with the right mindset, you can find beauty.
I travel a lot at home with my band and on days off we’re normally way out in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest of America, where’s there’s nothing to do really except to go to a chain hotel and maybe Walmart. In these places I’ve been challenging myself to find artistic beauty.
NGCI: Has it been enlightening for you to see these things differently?
R.B: Yes! I think we all get caught in our own rut. When I go with these students downtown, some of them will be like, we’re going to walk downtown where all the tourists are, where we’ve seen things a million times, but I think if they’re looking for something specific, they’re going to view everything in a different way.
NGCI: Which country outside of America would you say has influenced you most and why?
R.B: Japan, because it’s so different. I come to the Cayman Islands, go to Europe and even to South America and there are a lot of cultural similarities. The cuisine maybe different, the language maybe different, but there is a sort of commonality – like a western culture. Japan is very different. They think very differently, with an Eastern mindset, their way of approaching things is vastly different than ours, I find.
I think one thing that has fascinated me about Japan is that the amount of people that live on a tiny island, yet they live harmoniously. They have concept there, ‘wa’, which means harmony, harmony for the greater good, but they also have this saying there that really relates to that. It says, “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down”, meaning it’s really hard to be an artist like weirdo individual there.
Japan also has Kyoto’s old imperial city, the most beautiful city in the world and not just as a photographer. It’s the only city in Japan that was spared bombing in the World War II. You go there, and you see these ancient temples, ancient buildings – it’s absolutely incredible. As a photographer, it’s wonderful.
NGCI: You must have some cool photos from Japan?
R.B: Yes, but I’m going to go on a photography expedition there hopefully within a year because I’ve always been there for other things, like business. Not taking pictures. I haven’t had time to just go through Japan for two weeks and just shoot.
D. Randall Blythe’s photography exhibition ‘From Whence We Came’ opens at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands on Friday, 10 March 2018.