Last Updated on 03/18/2024 by Chris Gampat
“America is heartbreakingly beautiful, with its vistas and distant horizons, as well as deserts, swamps, prairies, and mountain ranges,” says photographer Florence Montmare in an interview with the Phoblographer. “It seems that people out west are more connected to the land and the seasons than here on the East Coast. In a city like NYC, you may not be as acutely aware of climate challenges like drought, wildfires, and floods as in the rest of the country.” Florence, who originally is from Europe, has a bit of an outsider’s perspective of America — and that has helped shape her creative vision.
All images by Florence Montmare. Used with permission. For more, please check out her website. Purchase the America Series book and visit Fotografiska on December 14th in NYC for a book signing.
Her task: she wanted to portray everyone in a similar fashion — stating that she was almost cataloging her meetings against the same canvas. However, each meeting with people and places was different. “New York is such a diverse place, with different cultures and belief systems existing side by side,” she tells us when we ask her about what people in my home city might experience differently. “Traveling across the continent, I also encountered diverse people and landscapes, and people who are native to this land and see it as sacred soil.”
She originally got into the medium when she got a gold-colored camera from her father as a child. From there, she loved writing poetry and taking photographs. These days, her must-haves are her wooden 4×5 Korona Grundlach field camera with a Schneider lens, a Rolleiflex from 1937, Nikon D850, D810, and D700 with Zeiss glass. “I also have Mary-Ellen Mark’s camera strap around my neck for good luck when I am out and about,” Florence tells us.
Florence photographed the entire series in black and white, which helped to make everyone equal, at least artistically speaking. She finds it symbolically reflecting the contrasting social circumstances around America. It’s also how she originally imagined the project when she outlined the concept in her mind. To her, it would make the look much more classic and fit right into the work that other photographers have done.
With all this said, she’s got some fascinating words to say about AI imagery.
I consciously work with the landscape, seeking the human connection to it, and the “ainma,” or soulfulness, about it. I have followed AI quite closely, and as with everything, artists who take charge of these possibilities and stay close to being “auteurs” rather than letting AI be in charge of their work, may encounter some exciting possibilities. Cindy Sherman and others are now exploring these opportunities.
Florence Montmare
Florence’s images are fascinating in so many different ways. They photograph people exactly as they are in addition to sharing unique stories that aren’t necessarily seen in mainstream media. But they also put an emphasis on the idea of the road trip, which is so often glamorized by us Americans. There’s a lot of appealing qualities beyond the people she photographs, such as the landscapes, the intentional blur, etc. It’s a series that deserves to be seen in print with nice lighting.
Authenticity Statement
The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.