Meet Michael Washienko

We were lucky to catch up with Michael Washienko recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Michael with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

My mentor in college once told me “work should always beget more work.” Whenever I make something I review the project to find the most interesting part, then I plan the next project around that. I never get creative block because I’m always building off of what I find most interesting.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m a fashion and beauty photographer. This past summer I’ve been pushing myself with challenging projects in nature by crawling inside waterfalls, diving underwater and hanging off the sides of boats. You can follow my latest projects on instagram https://www.instagram.com/mwashienko/ or at my website michaelwashienko.com.

I also own an art publishing house Lost Alphabet where we’ve published authors from dozens of countries from around the world, including about a dozen of my own books. I’m also co-founder of the York art fair in Pennsylvania.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I wrote a book about the creative process in which I outline four steps that I believe must be completed in order; create, curate, share and reflect. Most of the time when people have creative block or are struggling in their practice it is because they are attempting (and failing) to do two steps at once.

Most people are far too precious with their work. You have to make and make and make and make, then edit down, get feedback from many people and then decide how you feel about the feedback.

At this point in my career after well over a thousand photoshoots and millions of photos, simply taking a great photo isn’t good enough anymore to warrant a spot in my portfolio. A photo has to be iconic. I recently did a portfolio shoot that cost me several thousand dollars to produce and the photos are great, but there are several details that feel off to me. I feel I have to reshoot, because deep down I know it isn’t to the standard that I want it to be.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

I’ve never been content doing the bare minimum. When I was a freshman in college I went to the school library and went to the textbook section for the graduate programs and bought and read those books (my young brain thought they were gatekeeping the ‘good stuff’). The book The Intangibilities of Form: Skill and Deskilling in Art after the Readymade by John Roberts changed my life. It is essentially a value critique of skill and labor in creative work. If you want to understand the last 100 years of art, why art pricing is unrelated to working hours and physical craftsmanship, and be able to appreciate the creative act beyond technique this is the book for you. It transformed how I look at art and also life.
https://www.versobooks.com/products/2027-the-intangibilities-of-form?srsltid=AfmBOorzoTImA1XbRiGboXf5o07G5gUZ-DOAiXCQiUo2sXDTDmJpYc8G

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Image Credits

Photographs by Michael Washienko

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