INTERVIEW: LUKE KRAMAN

originally published in print in the human issue #5, june 2023

Interview by nora lalle

How long have you been shooting film for? What qualities of film/film cameras draw you to the medium?

So, if I go way back, it’s been 25 years - I've been taking pictures since I was 8 years old starting on disposable cameras. When I was 12, I switched to 35mm and was definitely that dark room teen in high school. In 2016, I started shooting medium format and haven’t looked back since. 

My creative process is hyper detail oriented which can get me stuck in the weeds often. The limitation of film (especially medium format with just 12 shots a roll) helps me focus. Besides helping reign in my overactive mind, its limited nature adds such a celebratory, timeless air to the work for me. My attraction to the analog medium goes way back though to childhood. I remember stumbling upon boxes of my grandparents slide film from their life together – photos of travel, friends, family. Holding up slide after slide against the window ingrained in me a deep appreciation for the special and tangible quality of film. I still have my grandmother’s Rolleiflex, my grandfather’s Olympus OM-1 and a few of my favorite slides from those boxes. 

Your portraits are insanely stunning. Have you always been comfortable photographing people? 

No way, I used to focus my photography exclusively on landscapes and textures. If there were people in the shot, it was usually just close friends or family, or random strangers in public who didn't even know I was taking their photo. I always felt uncomfortable being photographed myself, so for a long time, I didn't feel comfortable asking others to be vulnerable in front of my camera either.

This all changed in the fall of 2020 when I began my queer portrait series. During the pandemic, like many, I felt more isolated and yearned for connection. This, combined with the pressure-cooker environment of the pandemic, pushed me out of my comfort zone. Maybe it was just a natural next step for me, but I'm glad I was able to overcome my hesitation. Now, I find photographing people and capturing the intentional vulnerability of a portrait endlessly fascinating.

What is your favorite part about creating portraits and what are you hoping to capture?

Growing up in NYC there are a lot of different people, and I’ve always been an avid people watcher. Mix that with a childhood and a young adulthood as a closeted queer, I’m overly aware of how people present themselves. We can act, perform, deflect, put forward what we think someone wants or just be. That last one is what I’m interested in. To me that is beauty, tough to get to and the goal in my portraits. 

That's why my portrait work, which focuses on members of the queer community, is all about the process. I believe that to truly capture that vulnerability and beauty, you need to have a genuine connection with your subject. For queer individuals, that ask can bring up some difficult topics close to our hearts. This exploration is my favorite and why I do what I do. 

One subject shared that they didn’t even recognize themselves in their portrait, that they were so calm and present they hadn’t seen themselves that way before. I said that’s what we see when you aren’t thinking about what others are seeing. That can do a lot for someone’s confidence and if my process brings that to my subject, I know I’ve done my job. 

Ultimately, my hope is for the subject to walk away with some growth and the viewer with some stillness, beauty, and a peak into the power and identity of queerness.   

Who or what inspires you?

Queer community, drag, Patti Smith, sculpture and painting (Calder, Kusama, Sol LeWitt), fashion (Guo Pei, Mugler) and forests.

What's next for Luke??

I want to continue photographing more queers around me and begin doing so far and wide. Just in the last year, I’ve begun getting my work published (like this lovely magazine!) and shown in exhibit settings and I hope to do more of that. Some collage projects (portraiture with my older textural/landscape work) paired with refurbished vintage frames may be in the works too. 

@lukerss

lukekraman.com