Tyler Wagoner

Tyler Wagoner is a photographer located in North Carolina. He currently works in and around the surrounding areas of Charlotte, North Carolina and the South. He is currently continuing his higher education and pursuing his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Visual Arts with a concentration in Photography. Tyler’s overall photography focuses heavily on candid moments and a sense of longing for human interaction and/or the lack of human interaction through his snapshot style photography.

Currently his ongoing project Safe Spaces: A continuation is an expansion to his 2021 Safe Space project. This series navigates and shows a more intimate and in-depth view of the queer culture and subcultures of the nightlife, namely the drag community. He has planted himself into his community in not only a way that allows a focus on the culture not seen by most through the political atmosphere around the LGBTQ+ communities, but with bonds he has created through his immersed approach.

Tyler Wagoner was selected by Float Photo Magazine as a best in show artist at the CPAC student exhibition EMERGING VISION: BIENNIAL STUDENT SHOW.

Interview by Dana Stirling

First, tell us a little about your first experience with photography? What made you want to be a photographer?

Oh, wow we’re going to take it all the way back to the 90s! I would say that it started with my mother taking pictures of everything involving me. Of course, as a child you’re intrigued by things, so I hijacked her Kodak Ektralite 10. I’m sure there are some bizarre photos taken by 7-year-old me in an album somewhere. But I would say right around 13 or 14 I really latched onto photography. I was always roping my friends into these wild photoshoots, and I think that, the idea of creating a narrative and opening a dialog with viewers through just an image is such a powerful thing and has endless possibilities.

In your project “Safe Spaces: A Continuation” you talk about documenting the LGBTQIA+ nightlife that you yourself are a part of. The images feel like you are very close and personal with the individuals photographed. Can you share with us the process of making these images? How are the interactions with the individuals in the photos?

This series is one that I really imbedded myself into and I must state the tremendous respect for queer performers who do this nightly. I really wanted to capture the raw grittiness of some of these locations and amazing people I was working with. These are not huge spaces or night clubs I am in with them, they’re your everyday bar where everyone tends to know everyone. The approach I took when photographing these spaces and people was a blend of candid shots mixed with some direct engagement really showing the intimacy and close-knit environment, I was in. All the images in this project were pushed +2-3 stops from a 400 ISO box speed which I think adds to that feeling of nostalgia in a place you have never been.

The drag scene and queer spaces I’m documenting is an amazing community and I have formed friendships with so many of the individuals you see in the project. I would say they have been some of my biggest supporters and really push me at the same time. I mention in the projects statement “The world should see they are human, and they are free” and this is something I wanted to really show, especially in the climate we are in today and everything going on. It really has become a part of me, and I think it echoes the punk photography of the 70s and 80s and to me the LGBTQIA+ community and nightlife is pretty punk.

What are some of the challenges you faced while making these images?

The gamble! Using my 35mm camera and having to meter in the very low lighting of a bar is tough. Finding that “sweet spot” where you think you can capture an image in flashing moving lights and then hoping it comes out. There was no way to proof it on location or replicate it if it doesn’t turn out. While challenging, it became a game in a way for me. Will it work or will it not? I had to wait and find out.

Another challenge I would say is working these long nights and getting home at 4-5am consecutively is rough. So, a lot of coffee and energy drinks were involved with this project.

If you had to choose one image that you consider your favorite, which one would it be and can you tell us the story behind it?

That’s so tough! Every photo I say has a small story behind it and I love them all. But I would have to say the photo “Louisiana” from Safe Spaces: A Continuation. To me this one just has such a memory attached to it. During one of my many nights out I happened to watch the performance of this amazing queen from Austin Texas named Louisiana Purchase. It just captures the vibe I’m going for in the series, the high contrast candid shots, especially the lighting flare hitting the left side, the bright highlights, and super black shadows. But The story is simple I asked if I could take her photo and I believe she was expecting a selfie with me and I simply said, “no, of your legs…” and she was so onboard and excited. I think we did about a minute of finding the perfect lighting and poses before taking them. We keep in touch, and I will always appreciate just how relaxed she was to have someone request a random photo of her legs. I’ve created so many bonds with the people photographed, and it shows that you never know who you’re going to befriend on these adventures.

In your work The Memento Series you document people with the photos or objects of their loved ones who have passed. I think what is interesting in this work is that photography is a bonding bridge between the worlds. The living holding a photo of people who are no longer with us here, but are being photographed together in a new photograph, so in a way - they come back in a physical form. What inspired this project? How did it come by?

When this project was started, I was still in the process of trying to find some sort of closure with losing my own father years prior. While navigating this process I was also putting some of my own grieving process into this series as well as applying some of my beliefs and different beliefs. It’s not uncommon for many beliefs to channel their ancestors in hard times to give them strength and that is what I really wanted to document in the purest form, the common life event we all experience and show the living, the dead, and the tie between worlds so to speak, which is the mementos. Some people may or may not have this same belief system, but a lot of us have something from a relative that has passed on that we remember them by. There is also a lot of engagement and dialog that went one between me and the person I was working with. I wanted to know the relationship, why these objects, etc. I really, I wanted to know the person they were remembering. And I feel in some way that I did get to know them and at the same time I feel it was me living vicariously through them with the close relationships they had with this person, a close realationship that I didn’t have with my own father.

You chose to use Black and White and color for this project, can you tell us some of the reasons behind this choice?

I’m glad you picked up on that detail! I want people to notice that mix of the objects being in color while the living is black and white. Color in art always has a meaning from emotions to light etc. For me, my use of color is focused solely on the mementos of the departed. Bringing them back to a psychical form as you stated was so important to the idea as well. Color adds a sense of life and a sense of “now” juxtaposed with the black and white representing memory. It’s all about reflection and life.

I think in all of your work as a whole, it seems like you are trying to document a human experience, interaction, moment even when it is still life. What do you think drives you forward in your photography?

I would agree with that! I think the absence of people in photos is just as important to me as ones with. There has always been this sort of longing for human connection throughout a lot of my work and I think it comes from having been a very shy kid growing up. There is a whole world out there, and a whole world to photograph. The connection we have as people and a society is so tangible even though at times it feels so divisive, and I really do believe that by putting a little bit of myself in my work gives me a connection to the world around and can connect people in a way they may not know they could. Being able to create that connection with a total stranger somewhere else in the world is such an amazing concept when you really thing about it.

2020 till day has been a challenging time for all of us in various capacities. How did the pandemic affect your work? Did it make it more challenging to go and photograph?

The pandemic era, it’s a challenging time and created a shift in everything for sure. I would say the real challenge was that it has really made me put more pressure on myself to find inspiration from the mind and not just the world around me. My method is usually gathering inspiration just observing the world directly around me and being in the middle of things. With new method I have embraced it’s even more emotionally inspired due the lack of social engagement that was happening.

As a student yourself, has there been any specific advice someone gave you that you feel really helped you? What was it?

I think a common element in the advice I have been given is that if you’re going to do something, really do it. Commit to it, go big, pull out all the stops, because there’s always that moment, we all have where we see our work and think “Ah! I should have done this!” It really made me slow down and question every detail in my projects. My personal advice to myself is, be open to being vulnerable and lastly, “Always pay attention to the edges of your frame.” That one was from Parker James Reinecker my photography instructor

Lastly, do you have anything you want to share? Any new work, news, exhibitions etc. you want our readers to know about?

Of course! My minds always turning with ideas of projects. I just started one that I am trying to finesse, but it is an installation concept based on memory and the ties to my father who passed. But you can always find me active on Instagram and updating my website. The Safe Spaces: A Continuation is an ongoing project that I plan to eventually create a large enough collection for publishing.