Jessica Wynne
Untitled, from Wrestlers series, 2000, C Print, 30 x 40 inches, ©Jessica Wynne.

The interview was conducted by Ilana Stanger of TheArtBiz.com.

You earned your BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA at Yale--what made you pursue photography originally?

I started taking pictures when I was in high school. When I was about 17 years old I spent a year in southern India traveling around and staying with my uncle, who's a crocodile farmer. At first taking pictures was a way to absorb and understand the world.

At the San Francisco Art Institute I had a couple of professors, like Reagan Louie and Jim Goldberg, who really instilled confidence in me and supported me completely. I felt like I was in a bubble because I was getting such positive reinforcement, which I think is an ideal scenario when you're that young.

While at SFAI I began photographing at the Broadway Hotel, which is an SRO hotel. A friend of mine lived there and initially I was taking lots of pictures of him, and then I ended up meeting some of the other residents. I felt an overwhelming desire to immerse myself in that world. It was a different place than where I'd come from, and there was a charge in being in a place that was potentially dangerous, where I didn't belong at all.

Some of those portraits were included in W.W. Norton's 25 and Under/Photographers. How were you chosen for that book?

Alice George, the editor, contacted one of my professors and asked him to recommend students. He recommended me, and Alice selected a few pictures from that series for the book.

Did your inclusion in the book change your status as a photographer?

It definitely helped and made me feel what I was doing was valid, and it got me out of that insular world of undergraduate school. All of a sudden people were recognizing my work and were curious about what I was doing. It also made me confident in applying to graduate school--just knowing my work had been published and seen.

Did you go straight from the BFA to the MFA?

No. I wanted to see if I could produce work on my own without being in a program. I went back to India to photograph and had a similar experience to taking pictures in the hotel--once again I was an outsider interpreting other people's worlds, wanting to understand and make contact through taking pictures.

What made you decide to continue on to the MFA?

It was time. I was ready for the next step and I wanted to immerse myself in art and be surrounded by people making art and be inspired and challenged. The Art Institute was wonderful in the sense that it made me confident in my vision as an artist, but I needed something to shake my foundation. I only applied to Yale, because it has the best graduate photography program in this country.

Did it meet your expectations?

It did. It was a really difficult, tumultuous time for me as an artist. At Yale they already have an assumption that you're good and at a certain level, but they want you to reexamine everything and start fresh. The program forces you to reevaluate who you are and why you're making art. It also forced me to be a witness to myself in the sense of seeing yourself fitting into a larger historical context. It's important to be aware of yourself in that way.

You freelance for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Spin, Details, and Wired-- how did you break into the commercial photography market?

Right after graduate school I moved to New York and I needed to make some money, so I showed my work to magazines. One of the first places I went was The New York Times Magazine where Kathy Ryan, the photo editor, gave me one of my first jobs. I didn't know how else to make a living other than taking pictures. I really enjoy it--the work I do for magazines is very different than my own work, but it's similar in the sense that I have license to enter into worlds I would otherwise not have contact with.

How much creativity does a magazine photo editor allow you?

I'm given a great deal of creative freedom. I wouldn't do it if I was just a technician executing someone else's ideas.

What does it take to maintain freelancing contacts?

Once my photographs started getting published in magazines other editors would call and ask to see my work. I think people are going to keep hiring you if they like what you do.

What are you currently working on?

I'm doing a series of pictures of high school wrestlers. I grew up at a boarding school in New England where my father was the wrestling coach. I would go to meets on weekends to watch sweaty teenage boys grapple. I photograph them right after a match when they have this charge about them, they're these young boys that have just finished a fight basically. I like that combination of aggression and vulnerability.

Are you looking for gallery representation?

Not right now, but I will at some point soon. An association with a gallery can be a wonderful thing, but it can also start dictating what kind of work you make. I'm really enjoying the freedom of being out of grad school and not being influenced or directed in that way.

Any advice for emerging photographers?

Ultimately you just have to have a strong belief in yourself and your vision. If you don't have that then it's really hard to make good work. A belief in yourself can get you through anything. Don't rely on outside forces to give you validation--it comes from within.

This article was originally created for TheArtBiz.com. It appears on NYFA Interactive courtesy of the Abigail Rebecca Cohen Library.