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Traslated from "Suplimentul de cultura," Romania.
An ordinary man and a cement cat
I like my name and it is always funny to find things baptized the same. I owned once a very long-lived hair dryer labeled "Diana"; when I first came to Iassy (that's the city I live in) I found a store called like that, probably after its owner. A butcher shop, some hotels, even a "Diana 5" gun rack... And now I see that "Diana" was also Nic Nichols' first camera.
People don't know much about the photographers. The pictures don't have a face behind, you just admire them in glossy magazines, maybe catch a glimpse at some gallery, but the camera seems kind of an "anonymous artist". Nic Nichols is not a star. He has probably never won a big award, he doesn't have worldwide exhibitions, he doesn't give interviews every day. But he is happy.
"I want to document the world. Every last bit of it. Not just the good times, not just the beautiful places, but the real, true world. Is that a farm in middle America? Is it the view from the Empire State Building? Or is it a family simply enjoying a meal together. It's all part of our life. Everyday, I see things completely unexpected that inspire me, that might be overlooked or ignored by most. I've developed a deep appreciation for the deconstructed world and the interesting and colorful characters that occupy it", says Nichols, and you only have to take a look at his pictures to believe it. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware. He chose photography because he didn't draw very well. For the past two decades, he never put the camera away, and last month his online gallery (nicnichols.com) celebrated its 10th anniversary. He uses "toy cameras", plastic devices that cost less than 20$. He buys expired film roles from eBay, impressed by the unintentional, but spectacular effects. For him, art is fun.
Art is giant living thing
His camera is always ready, the film rolls wait quietly. His images are being created in that very moment when the shutter is released, not in the lab. Nichols doesn't like conceptual photography because he thinks anyone can stage a setting. He prefers reality and he sometimes wanders around the world in search of strange places, such as insane asylums, abandoned prisons, and old civil war forts...
The pictures in the Eastern State Penitentiary series are among my favorites. In one of them, among debris, a white cat statue looks like an abstract poem. "When Eastern State Penitentiary was abandoned in 1971, a gentleman named Dan McClould came several times a week to care for the 40 or so stray cats that had made the complex their home. Linda Brenner, a sculptor, made 39 cement cats, and placed them around the prison to represent both the animals and their caregiver. While documenting the Prison, they seemed to follow me everywhere that I went, and when I put my bag on the ground to change film, it was almost as if they came up to watch me… I took a few photographs, and that image resulted is one of personal favorites. It represents the survivors, and those who cared for them."
Nic Nichols' happinesses are Holga, his camera, and Kristen, his wife. And he's sharing his secret to the others in short sentences: "Keep making art. Keep creating, no matter what. Don't worry about what others say, don't worry if no one ever sees what you do. Just keep doing it. Art is a giant living thing that requires each of us to keep feeding it everyday".
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