Tyler Photo Seniors 2012: Paige Thatcher

I had the honor of interviewing Miss Paige Thatcher. In her Senior year as a Photography major at the Tyler School of Art, Paige has had a lifelong passion for the photographic image. Her work primarily deals with interior architecture, often exploring the homes of close family and friends. Her pieces are often void of models, yet they still transmit a very human presence. They have a phantom-like quality about them, haunting in nature with that lacks any sense of reality. In my opinion, Paige has the incredible talent of allowing the viewer to “FEEL” the photograph before fully examining it.

Me: Tell us a little about yourself

Paige: I grew up in central PA in a small town called Etters, PA. I was born 1991, and I have two younger brothers and mom and dad, making us a family of 5. Etters is a small community, that’s big on football and small schools. Aka Friday night lights.

Me: How long have you been interested in photography? How did it first enter your life?

Paige: When I was a cheerleader we did a fundraiser, and the prize was a plastic camera. I was so excited to get this plastic camera and my family went on a trip to the Grand Canyon (age 9). So I’m snapping tons of pictures, and I was so excited to get them back and see them, but when I got them back the images were obstructed by a black bar across every image. So my dad took one of the images, cropped it, and sent it to his photographer friend in California, who told me I should be a photographer. Ever since then I have been dead set on being a photographer.

Me: Your work has changed and evolved over the years. Talk about where you started, in high school, and how it has grown into what you shot today

Paige: In high school I took a lot of street photography- buildings, people, my town. As I entered the photo department at Tyler, I have become interested in interiors. It started in Photo 1 with Sam Fritch as my professor. My final project was a documentation of my grandmother’s house and I manipulated it in Photoshop to make it look like a dollhouse. I fell in love with the work and I have been hooked ever since, often revisiting my grandmother’s house, as well as the homes of close friends and family.

Me: Which photographers inspire you? Whose work do you relate to?

Paige: Robert Frank, because he is awesome, not because his work looks like mine. Ralph Eugene Meatyard (who inspired the first image pictured below), who got me into the idea of figure in the photo without showing that person and instead giving a sense of that person. And lastly, my latest obsession: Candia Hofer, whose interior photography is epic and cinematic.