Q&A with Collaborative Team Tribble & Mancenido
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
If you haven't yet seen the recent show at the Houston Center for Photography the exhibition runs through August 23rd. I happened to attend the opening and was thrilled to meet another collaborative photographic team known as Tribble & Mancenido.
They were kind enough to answer a few questions about their work on view at HCP, Hurry Up & Wait, and the lengths they went to in order to make this project a reality.
Hurry Up & Wait is an ongoing collection of images exploring the obscure and anonymous life of America’s trucking culture. Driving for a year in our own tractor-trailer, we focus on the banal repetition and periods of isolation from constant movement on the road. These images are a byproduct of the world we entered and a glimpse of the places eighteen-wheelers are allowed. We are constantly faced with the same landscape regardless of location, from moments of obliged waiting in truck stops to the docks of a warehouse. This is where we photograph. We showcase the openness of the road and the lonesome journey of the driver, hoping our images bring new light to the harsh beauty in the world of a truck driver.
1)How did you come up with/decide on the trucking project?
While visiting James’ father, an owner-operating truck driver (owns his own rig) in South Carolina, we had the opportunity to meet some of his trucker friends. We became interested in their stories, that culture and lifestyle, one commonly full of misconceptions and stereotypes. We started with a portrait of his father and the series grew from there.
2)Did you always plan to become truckers for the project or did that come about later?
Our initial idea was to take portraits of truckers by driving around to different truck stops throughout the country. Upon further deliberation and research, we were afraid our images would come short of fully understanding and commenting on the culture at large. We wanted a more intimate approach.
3)What were you working on before this series?
Pillow Talk is an ongoing series that began as a result of our new relationship in love and art. It is a body of work exploring intimacy and shared spaces, a reflection into our own lives and desires for human connection. Images from this series were recently featured in The New York Times.
4)What are you working on now?
Hurry Up & Wait is currently an ongoing series, one we plan to continue over the course of the next year. We have dedicated a full year driving in our own rig, employed to transport consumer products all over this vast country. Fully immersing ourselves in the culture, we now choose to proceed with the series on our own terms, without the obligation of on-time and long haul deliveries.
5)Did anything surprise you while working on this series?
As a truck driver, nothing can surprise you. We’ve almost seen and heard it all!
6)Did any new projects present themselves while living on the road or that were inspired by this series?
Winnebago’s, mobile homes, and RV’s have always fascinated us. The idea of leisurely living off the freedom of the road, and having provisional communities that support it interests us most. During the spring and summer seasons we saw them driving alongside us on the interstate and fueling in adjacent islands, jealous they get to stop and enjoy themselves at their next destination. Driving one of those would be effortless after driving a tractor-trailer, but for now we’ll stick to eighteen wheels.
7)What does your ideal exhibition look like?
For an ideal exhibition of Hurry Up & Wait, we wish to invite the viewer to step into the world of a driver. Our 40x50” (perhaps even larger) prints would reflect the colossal world of trucking. We would like to incorporate audio with this exhibition, using multi-media to transport the viewer into a different world within gallery walls. Throughout the space we hope to loop a recording of the humming of idling truck engines, a common and familiar sound found at truck stops, a lullaby that puts you and your truck to sleep. From our travels we have digitally recorded the cb conversations between truck drivers while on long and short-distance hauls. We plan to include several listening stations where viewers can listen to the broad conversations held on a cb, putting a voice to a face, and a culture of speech to this foreign world of commerce.
8) How do you feel working as a team? Do you discuss each shot or come together after a shoot to edit? What does you process look like?
We have been working collectively since 2006, our process hardly changing. Before each shot we generally discuss our ideas and explain to one another where we will be focusing and shooting first. Using both medium and large format film cameras, we dance around our sitters with tripods in hand, shooting in tandem. For our landscapes, we use one camera, each taking turns looking through the ground glass to make sure the image is framed right. Impartial to who pressed the button, we focus on the series as a whole when choosing a final image.
9)Do you ever work on solo projects? If so what?
For the past three years we have focused solely on our collaborative work, which doesn’t mean we never make images without one another. Our work constantly involves the need for conversation, a discourse about an image and ideas, before a series can form.
10)How do you fund your projects?
Like most young photographers, we are self-funding our own artistic pursuits. Difficult? Yes, very. Through truck driving we managed to purchase film. Our trucking company inadvertently sponsoring our project and life as OTR (over-the-road) truck drivers.
Image credits:
Moto Mart, Perryville, MO 2008
Nathaniel Baker, Rising Fawn, GA 2009
