Here’s a dose of fine photography to feast your eyes on as you prepare for a night on the town (or a snuggly night in with reruns of Twin Peaks perhaps, like us). All-American Kevin Klipfel takes suitably all-American snaps, that make us want to jump onto a jet plane, stat. We had a pow-wow with the talented fella, which you can peruse at your own pace below.



What is your name and how old are you? My name is Kevin Michael Klipfel and I’m 34 years old.

Where were you born and where do you live now? I was born in Buffalo, New York, and I live in California.



When did you first know you wanted to be a photographer? I’d always had creative impulses, and enjoyed messing around with disposable film cameras in high school, but the first time I really got the urge to make photographs in a deep way was after I’d been out of school a couple years and came back to my hometown. I was really struck by the grittiness and character of the city, and felt for the first time like I had something to say creatively. I got sidetracked for a few years during my twenties when I was seriously studying philosophy in graduate school, but I always felt like that creative part of myself was missing, and started taking pictures in a serious way once I realised that becoming an academic philosopher wasn’t for me.

What areas, things or people in your neighbourhood do you most like to photograph? I’m really drawn to ordinary, everyday kinds of things, finding beauty in the minutiae of our lives. On the roll of film in my Leica right now, for example, there are pictures I took of some booths and paper hats in a Krispy Kreme donut shop, the exterior of a deli I really like, and my wife in the bathroom mirror as she washed off a beauty mask she was wearing.



What do you shoot on (digital or analogue) and why do you choose to use that type? I shoot on film. A big part of it is just that I think it’s much more fun. I like the process of loading the film, winding the roll after each shot, manually exposing the images myself. It feels more robust and authentic to me than when I shoot on digital. I also think there’s nothing quite like the feeling and sound of pressing down the shutter button on a Leica M3, which is the main camera I use. I am such a huge nerd that sometimes I literally lie in bed and fantasise about that feeling and sound when I’m closing my eyes to go to sleep.

Is there a running theme to the work you create, or do you just make whatever comes to mind? It’s not intentional whatsoever, but I do notice certain constant elements running through my work, and it’s definitely based in what I guess you’d call “Americana.” There’s a line in the song “Newmyer’s Roof” on Craig Finn’s new solo record where a character in the song says to the narrator, “Man, you’re so damn American”. I think of that line in a kind of self-deprecating way sometimes when looking at my work.

When it comes to taking photos, do you have more of a controlled/set-up or spontaneous style? None of my photos are set up, but it has surprised me sometimes that people have thought they might be. Someone asked me recently if a picture I took on Sunset Boulevard of a newspaper lying on the ground was something I set up – if I’d arranged it so that you could read the “Hollywood” title – and I thought that was the funniest thing, because it never would have occurred to me to do that. There were just a bunch of newspapers lying all over Sunset as I was out walking one day, and I took a picture. That’s how all my work has been; just something spontaneous that happened quickly in the moment.



Do you take the same care with personal photographs as you do with commercial/artistic work? All my work is personal, but at the same time there’s obviously a line where you’re like, “OK, this is just a picture of my cat sleeping” versus “This is actually something that I might publish.” That process takes place later on, though, once I get the film back and am looking through the roll, not at the moment I’m taking a picture. I just take pictures that I find intuitively interesting, and then later on make a more objective attempt to decide if it has any artistic merit or if it’s just straight up a picture of my friend at Whataburger.

What advice can you offer on finding your personal style or aesthetic? You have to trust that your own experience and way of seeing the world is valid – that if you did something really specific, something that represented your own life in a vulnerable, honest way, that it could be of interest to other people and come to take on a more general meaning. Don’t ask yourself what other people might find interesting. Ask yourself what you think is interesting, and go after that.

What are the hallmarks of a great photographer? There’s really a balancing act between self-expression and adherence to form. I think that all great photographers are deeply steeped in tradition: they have a love for, and understanding of, painters and photographers that came before, which includes the ability to discern the compositional and formal elements that make a picture interesting. At the same time, great photographers are able to carve out a space within that tradition where they’re able to express their own unique selves and vision in a particular time and place.



What is the strangest thing or thought that has inspired a photo? I realise after thinking about this question that I’m not thinking anything at all before I take a picture, and that’s really what I love so much about it. It’s pretty much the greatest sense of fun and pure play that I’ve discovered, and I think that’s partly why I like to do it so much. I can shut off my brain and just be.

What do you enjoy doing when not taking photos? I really like to sleep, eat, watch North Carolina basketball (my alma mater), shop for clothes, and talk about myself in therapy.

Where can we see more of your work? kevinmichaelklipfelphotography.com