Can you introduce yourself?
I am Judith Joy Ross. Born 1946 in the anthracite coal mining city of Hazleton in Northeastern Pennsylvania, USA. My father managed a chain of family owned 5&10 stores. My mother had had a private Kindergarten prior to marriage. My younger brother Robert had two daughters and my older brother Edward ended up happily living in Paris for the last 45 years of his life. My parents were amateur classical pianists. We were all deeply connected to the natural world, the sound of wind, the setting sun, the flower, the branch. We observed and were moved by the natural world. Also, clear and present, were the difficulties of dealing with each other and family business and the outside world. Music and the mystery of the natural world was the lifesaving, poetic side of our lives.
What draws you to portraiture specifically?
Making photographs was how I discovered a way into people’s amazing lives. Years later, I employed an 8×10 to make portraits of people I do not know in a number of circumstances. I was very scared to do any of these projects at first. Even at the innocent Eurana Park, Weatherly, Pennsylvania 1982 where I photographed children, it took a few days to get my photographic legs. You have to really see something before you take a picture. You see on different levels. I do not see most of the time. I am just negotiating the space and my endless needs. “Seeing” is when you recognize the deep meaning, the poetry of who you see. Then you have to get the camera in the right position which is both – the absolutely hardest and the easiest thing to do.
Who do you capture?
How do I find who to photograph? I may be driving by and see someone and stop. Other times I am at a particular place for weeks. When I am working at a place for weeks or years it is to answer a particular question as in the two years I spent at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C, the one year photographing Members of the U.S. Congress in their offices, the three years I spent photographing Portraits of the Hazleton Public Schools. I photograph total strangers. But I see in them something incredible first.
What does using a view camera bring to your work?
Using a wooden 8×10 camera on a tripod is a great equalizer between photographer and the photographed. I look rather ridiculous as I disappear under the black cloth to take the picture, and shout enthusiasms to the person generally asking them only to not move. They see this marvelous lunatic apparatus and we communicate by enthusiasms. We are taking the picture together. I am amazed and they are appropriately worshipped for a few minutes and then we most likely never see each other again.
Has your status as a woman influenced your career in any way?
I drew and painted and thought I would be an artist until I discovered in art school the Yashica 2 1/4 camera. It was a passport to all the unknown people around me on the street. Being a young woman making photographs may have given me an advantage over men, in that I would not be taken seriously if I aimed a camera at you. I was generally scared to do it but did it anyway. When photographing I might maintain a steely aim at a person or resort to looking at the camera as if I didn’t know how to use it. I’m sure men photographers use the same strategies.
Which authors have inspired you?
Why I found them so wonderful is not something we are likely to agree on. I love the ordinary. For me, it is the most magical surprising and sustaining beauty. Which is why I am such a great fan of and grateful to the great Eugène Atget, Julia Margaret Cameron, August Sander, Lewis Hine, Robert Adams, Chris Killip and John Szarkowski.