We recently connected with Austin Irving and have shared our conversation below.

Austin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I have been working on a new project entitled HIS MINECRAFT which has been such a delight, and the project has continually revealed layer after layer of meaning. In this series, I have been using my large format analog photography to explore the interiors of a private virtual world. Since its release in 2011, Minecraft has become the best-selling video game of all time with over 238 million copies sold and nearly 140 million monthly active players worldwide. One of those players is my husband. He has been building a city since 2012, and unlike many users of this game, he does not play publicly or collaboratively. He describes the methodical building process as extremely therapeutic; brick by virtual brick, he has created a vast and intricate city that has effectively become both a refuge and a time capsule of the past decade of his life. Having never played video games myself, I became curious and quickly discovered that a great many of his building’s interiors are quite similar to the spaces that I photograph in the physical world. After “wandering” around his city, I created a bespoke method of photographing these digitally-generated interiors with an analog medium – my 4×5 camera system.

Of course, every photographic series that I embark on is deeply meaningful, and these images have many layers. While the motif of how our simulated worlds have become entwined with our analog lives rings true for the vast majority of us, HIS MINECRAFT is also a deeply intimate project. Beyond the fact that very few people have ever viewed this virtual world, my attraction to these spaces is just as much about their formal elements as the visceral reactions I have to my husband’s creative choices. In a sense, this project has manifested as a visual love letter to the man I adore.

Austin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I feel very fortunate that I knew I wanted to be a photographer from an early age and am even luckier to have had an extremely supportive family every step of the way. I am a diehard fan of analog image making and all of my work is made with a large format camera on 4×5 color negative. My process is project based and I have been working on several series simultaneously over the past fifteen or so years. These projects include NOT AN EXIT, a collection of photographs that proposes a closer examination of the nondescript interiors that we routinely pass through – doorways and hallways, spaces intended for movement, but here, somehow appear impenetrable. SHOW CAVES is a photographic series that explores the anthropocentric tendencies of modern tourism seen in modified domestic and international caves. The objective of this body of work is to highlight the tension that exists between the natural beauty of caves and the renovations people make in order to transform these spaces into tourist attractions. WINDOWS is a study of daylight that filters into rooms where curtains are pulled closed, blinds are drawn down, and shutters are locked into place. My large format 4×5 negatives are exposed only by the daylight that seeps through the fabric and cracks of the window dressings. With exposures ranging from eight minutes to one hour, these commonplace windows are transformed into ethereal objects: trompe l’oeil light sources floating on walls too dark to see. And most recently, I have been working on a new series entitled HIS MINECRAFT which uses analog photography to explore the virtual interiors of my husband’s private Minecraft city which he has been building since 2011.

What I am most proud of is the longevity of my practice. I understood early on that being an artist was going to be a lifelong endeavor and that commitment has been an unwavering comfort in moments of self doubt. Making images with a large format camera system is a lot like repeatedly performing a ritual, and there is something very powerful about repetition when it comes to honing one’s outlet for self expression.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Growing up, it seemed like it was a rule that in order to make art, you had to suffer. This trope has been perpetuated for centuries. Countless examples of artists portrayed as unstable, manic, and depressed people can be found peppered throughout literature, film, and news stories. And while it is true that artists tend to be extremely sensitive and often live unconventional lifestyles, it doesn’t mean that a descent into madness is the only way to achieve an important body of work. Being a highly sensitive person myself, it was an important part of my practice to redefine what it means to see the world differently than most, to not wallow around in my intense moods, and to reframe my hypersensitivity as a super power instead of a cross to bear.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the visual lexicon that I have created within my practice. Sticking with image-making for so many years has provided me with the incredible opportunity to follow seemingly disparate threads that eventually lead to cohesive bodies of work. Continually trusting my instincts and watching themes and patterns emerge has been immensely satisfying. And what’s even more rewarding is the process of then releasing that body of work out into the world where it ends up having a life of its own. It delights me to no end knowing that what the work represents for me, may be (and often is!) completely different to how it resonates with my viewers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.austinirving.com
• Instagram: @austin.irving

Image Credits
All images © Austin Irving