We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Teri Vershel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Teri, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
When I was in high school, I was an editor of our yearbook and that is when I fell in love with photography. I got excited when I captured something compelling or amusing and I enjoyed creating stories with photographs and arranging them into books. I had my trusty Nikon FE film camera and I took 35 mm Kodachrome slides around home and when I traveled. However, my childhood was not a happy one. I came from a very broken home and my mother instilled in me that I always needed to be able to support myself and not rely on others. So, in college, I chose a career that would give me stability and options for a good income, and I pursued a degree in Computer Science. Once I was working in high tech and raising a family, I was overwhelmed and I stopped doing the thing that made me happy, taking photographs.
I came back to photography when I was diagnosed with a serious illness. I wasn’t old by current standards of longevity and I didn’t know if I was going to survive. It forced me rethink my priorities on how I was spending my time and what I was doing with my life. I’ve spent many hours in museums and reading artists’ stories. I have always thought art can heal and transform and that is what picking up a camera again did for me. I faced down my illness, grabbed my camera and never looked back. Doing that gave me a purpose again, and a creative outlet and passion that had been so lacking in the high-tech world. In some weird way, photography saved my life. I immersed myself in learning the digital side of photography and went back to school to earn an A.A. from Foothill College (2015).
When I was at Foothill, I realized my true passion was photographing people. Given this, I find street photography to be the perfect place to observe the often delightful and always surprising behavior of our fellow humans. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and often quite beautiful.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Since I’ve come back to photography, I have mostly focused on street photography, but I don’t limit myself to that. I enjoy all kinds of photography and normally have my camera with me wherever I go. Recently, I have made documentary, nature, and even abstract photos. In the wise words of one of my favorite photographers, Saul Leiter, “I don’t have a philosophy. I have a camera.”
On the documentary side, I have photographed 25+ political protests in the Bay Area since 2017. Starting then, I have found the politics in my country to be distressing and as a way to help me cope, I have raised my voice with my camera documenting marches and rallies. This has allowed me to channel my emotions into something tangible and positive. Complaining can only get me so far! I am also a member of Pro Bono Photograph (www.ProBonoPhoto.org). We are often called upon to shoot political protests when the press isn’t available to cover the events.
One of my favorite photography books is Ernst Haas, New York in Color. The pairings are a delight. I had this book open in my office during the Covid lockdown of 2020/2021. Since shooting on the street was not feasible then, I decided to make my own book of photographic pairings. I sorted through my archive looking for images that might work well when presented next to each other. As I looked, I found many similarities in gestures and geometry, colors and quality of light. This exercise evolved into my own book, called Relative Strangers which was published by Daylight books in the summer of 2024. The forward was written by the esteemed Sam Abell.
There’s been some good press including in The Guardian (links can be found on my website, terivershel.com). My favorite is this review in Frames Magazine:
Just Like the Other – Review of “Relative Strangers” by Teri Vershel
So while a lot of folks would say Covid was a bust in terms of productivity, I found the extra, uninterrupted time perfect for making a book, something that I probably would not have done otherwise. I sell Relative Strangers from my website.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Since I was a teenager, I have enjoyed looking at and learning about art and art history. I’ve spent more hours that I can count in various museums and galleries. After I graduated with my degree in Computer Science, I went back to community college to take every Art History course available. It’s been a hobby for a long time. I also collect (or checkout) art and photography books, and I am constantly looking at the pictures and reading about the artists. This background in the history of art and different aesthetics has definitely helped me in my photography. It helped me learn to appreciate and see what is good.
Secondly, I have continued to learn and practice. After I finished my A.A. degree, I didn’t stop there. I kept taking workshops and classes from masters in the industry (at places like LACP and Santa Fe workshops), and kept shooting. Each master always has a different perspective and something new to teach. I also feel like it took many years before I really figured out when a photograph is good and why. You have to keep shooting and failing, shooting and failing. Critiques in my many classes were very helpful also. Eventually you learn to trust your own instincts and voice so that you can make work that is meaningful to you.
Thirdly, I’m genuinely a curious person. I like learning new things and meeting new people and hearing other perspectives. Being open to ideas has helped me with my own growth and journey.
My advice is to keep at it. Keeping learning and trying new things and failing and growing. It takes time to get good. If you love doing it, the knowledge and talent will come eventually. Don’t give up!
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
I have been fortunate enough to have some accomplished and passionate teachers over the years. There are two that stand out and whose wisdom moved me forward and made me a better photographer.
The first is Sam Abell. I learned about Sam from a fellow student while taking a photography class in 2016 in the Stanford Continuing Studies program. I finally took a class from him at Los Angeles Center for Photography in early 2020 (before the pandemic hit). He has dedicated much of his career to teaching and he truly cares about his students and helping them grow. He taught me one of the most important things I’ve learned as a street photographer. He said you should absolutely stop when you find a scene you are drawn to and consider composing a picture there. Once you do that, wait for awhile and see if something interesting happens. It may happen, it may not, but what stopped you in the first place is important because it’s what you love. This technique requires patience and lots of failure but when you get something it can be magical. Sam is also terrific at the art of critique. He is always able to show you what you did right in a picture but also how it could have been improved and always in the most compassionate of ways. Sitting in a class listening to him critique fellow students photos (and his own) was a huge growth experience. I have plenty of teachers tell me, this is good or this is not good, but that’s not helpful if you don’t understand why.
The other teacher that has had a huge impact on me is Laura Valenti. I learned about her while taking a lecture series from George Nobechi. She was one of the speakers. I’ve taken many e-courses from her including Light Atlas which is a wonderful class that teaches you how to find and be true to your personal vision as a photographer. She asks you to push creative boundaries and think about things differently than how you may have been taught. She helps you find the soul in your images. When I took her nature class, she had us meditate in nature before even picking up the camera to take a shot. How better to be in tune with your environment! I’ve also taking a website and portfolio building classes from her which were so helpful in creating a brand and putting myself out there in the world which is not always an easy thing as an artist. I highly recommend both these teachers to anyone wanting to get better.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://terivershel.com
- Instagram: @terivershel
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terivershelphotography/
Image Credits
Teri Vershel
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