Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michael “Waldo” Foeller. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Michael “Waldo”, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

“Heaven To A Torture Mind” grew out of a project where I explored the idea of other people’s relationship with their own aloneness. I wondered what they did when they were alone? What did alone look like to them? I became obsessed with those questions and began to try to answer them for myself.

I began photographing people who I’ve built a connection with, to represent my feelings in these self-portraits which allowed me to focus on the emotion buried deep within, that would otherwise never be expressed. Wrapping the subject’s face with white gauze created an outlet for my dissociated dark thoughts – my nightmares, memories and emotions – without invading my own privacy.

This project allowed me to feel comfortable with failure. It allowed me to keep looking at something with new eyes and be unafraid of asking more questions and building one thing and being unsure if it wasn’t going to last. Now, I have been photographing this project for three years, being comfortable with creating narrative photography and creating worlds that I can fully relate to.

Michael “Waldo”, 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 first began photography back in my junior year of high school after attempting to model and working on small school projects. I saw the images and had a different idea on how I wanted the images to look. So, I asked my friend for his camera and just started taking photos without worrying about how to fully use the camera. I just set the camera to fully automatic and focused on my ideas, I focused on the subject in front of the camera and how I wanted to communicate a subject inside space. I had no idea about photographers, aesthetics, camera angles or proper techniques, I just kind of decided that, the camera would be a tool to communicate quick ideas. After just a few weeks with the camera I was excited to photograph more, but I also began to grow interested in the history of photography, the work of great photographers and how to throughly use the camera.

I am now interested in how to create story and narrative, while also documenting the world around me and the day to day things I observe. That will then lead me to a story that is so much more intimate. My focus surrounds the idea of humanity and intimacy- intimacy as in these private lives that are not shared amongst a people. While simultaneously creating new worlds, not just focusing on portrait photography or street photography, but interweaving these ideas into a new idea.

This allows me to solve problems in a constant and immediate flow for clients, adapting to new situations and creating immediate ideas for a new and interesting portrait that suits their needs. My constant flow of ideas is what i am most proud of, I feel like I never run out of new ideas, no matter what it is I create a new photo in an instant due to my surroundings or something that is said that inspires me to create a new spin from a particular piece of art history.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The fact that I can always have a conversation with my work, no matter how I am feeling I treat my work as safe space where any idea flows into a new idea.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I see photography as something I have to do. It is not a choice. I always have to walk out of my door with camera as new ideas always come into mind and the world around me is every changing. If photography were to be a choice to me, I feel like I could never actually have a journey to begin with.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.michaelwaldofoeller.com/
• Instagram: @TheWaldoCreates