Relics 2016: Two Chairs

Sean Richardson keeps his camera close. In his food and beverage shots, fragile veins of garnish leap to the viewer’s eye. His portraits arrest every pore and crinkled smile. His work is, at times, lurid and raw—and all the more inviting for it.

Richardson’s planning a podcast, “Art Up Bootcamp,” that will teach listeners what he’s managed to figure out: how to channel your imagination into a living. More important, how to monetize your creativity without gutting yourself in the process.

“When I talk to students and people that are just getting into the film business and photography, I always tell them that you have to be completely obsessed with your passion,” said Richardson. “Eat, breath, sleep, and drink it.”

Even in the controlled environment of the studio, behind the camera, Richardson is abuzz, disarming subjects with the force of his personality. “You have to make yourself look like an idiot so they feel comfortable. Keep your energy high and be on your game.”

He does allow for exhaustion—“When the shoot’s over, I’ll go sleep for twenty-four hours. I’m wiped out!”—but his off-the-clock activities still keep him in action. 

On the day pictured above, Richardson was about as aimless as he gets, driving around Walker with his medium-format camera looking for something to photograph. He came to a narrow house with two chairs looming out from the porch. “Do people still live here? I looked around, looked in the windows, but it was completely empty. Just looking at those chairs, I wondered about the last people that sat there. What was going on in their heads?”

View more of Richardson’s work at greenpotatomedia.com. Find details on having your photograph profiled in our Relics series here.