Your name:
Ian Baguskas
Age(optional):
28
Where are you from?
Philadelphia
Where do you live now?
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
What's your day job? (if you have one)
Freelance photography and a little photo assisting.
Which artists inspire you? (Doesn't need to be
photographers necessarily)
Harry Callahan, Jeff Wall, and the surrealist
movement.
Describe that moment when you knew for sure that
photography was something you wanted to pursue
seriously:
It was more of a gradual decision. I'm still interested in painting and especially printmaking (I like layers), but I don't do those things at the moment. I had grown up being interested in both art and natural sciences. It would have been cool to be a field researcher, but my younger sister took that job anyway. Photography is the closest to being a field researcher that I'm going to get and it actually feels pretty close. I'm really interested in the strangeness of reality and photography seems to be the best way for me to capture that.
What kind of camera do you use?
I use my Mamiya 7 and when I get a chance I use a Linhof Technika IV 4x5. For a while I used a Yashica-D twin lens (got stolen), and I replaced it with a Mamiya C330 twin lens, but it's a little heavy. I was using an Olympus-XA for a little while until I lost it.
What's your favorite film?
I watch so many movies. This is a hard one. Of course I grew up loving movies like "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "The Emerald Forest", "Goonies", "The Mosquito Coast" and such. Movies that I can think of right now are ones with odd titles like "Spring,
Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring", "White Hunter, Black Heart" (cool Clint Eastwood movie), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "Squid and the Whale". Directors that come to mind are Stanley Kubrik, Sergio Leon, Takeshi Kitano, Zhang Yimou, The Coen
Brothers, Wes Anderson, David Lynch, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Peter Weir, Woody Allen, Oliver Stone, Brian De Palma, and Werner Herzog.
What's your Favorite Museum?
The Franklin Institute, The Philadelphia Art Museum (for sentimental reasons), and most zoo's and pet stores although they can be kinda sad.
Who's your favorite musical artist/group?
I don't really have any favorites. Some of the artists that come to mind are Neil Young, Brian Wilson, Pink Floyd, Brian Eno (the early years), The Beatles, Django Reinhart, King Tubby, Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, Irma Thomas, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Curtis Mayfield, Cat Stevens, Donald Byrd, and Sandy Bull.
What are you reading now?
National Geographic.
Favorite color?
Yellowish green and greenish blue next to orange.
Name at least three web sites you visit everyday:
nytimes.com
rottentomatoes.com (even though imdb.com is better and
not everyday)
What are your favorite foods?
Grilled Mackerel, a good nectarine, and mint chocolate
chip ice cream
Do you have an interesting/obscure hobby? If so, tell
us about it.
Just Ping pong right now. I used to raise chameleons.
If you could be any animal, what would you be?
There are a lot of animals that I wouldn't mind being.
Something that could fly would be my first choice
like a Goshawk or some sort of arboreal creature like
an Indri Lemur.
Do you do any artsy stuff besides photography?
Not any more. I'd like to make films. Wouldn't everyone?