Photographer based in Austin, TX
Joseph Rushmore, portrait of the photographer
Tell us about yourself, what's your background?
I grew up in Ada, Oklahoma and picked up a camera in ’99 as a teenager. I had considered myself an artist since I was very young, but with the camera I first felt an artistic sense of need. I put a devotion towards making pictures.
Prayer III; 2024; Digital Photograph
Prayer during pro-Palestinian, anti-war protests on the University of Texas campus.
"I want people to feel a tactile knowledge of each photograph, like they have lived it, seen it or touched it. Lately I have been thinking about the landscapes and the body, the ways we mark and scar the earth through a desire for dominance and how that plays into the aesthetics of control in images."
A Nazi Lives Here; 2020; Digital Photograph
Attack on the home of an accused Nazi.
What are you currently working on and where did the inspiration for it come from?
I’m trying to continue on and develop the path I have been traveling for some time, thinking of documentary photography in terms of my personal experience. I think by doing work within the world of traditional documentary from a very personal, emotional perspective, I have found that the images, once they are out in the world, cease to relate only to my own point of view and find homes within other people’s experiences. I want people to feel a tactile knowledge of each photograph, like they have lived it, seen it or touched it. Lately I have been thinking about the landscapes and the body, the ways we mark and scar the earth through a desire for dominance and how that plays into the aesthetics of control in images.
January Sixth (smoke); 2021; Digital Photograph
Innovation does not only happen in the field of technology — it occurs everyday in a creative practice. What do you do for inspiration?
I read, drive, walk. I am inspired by what will come if I keep going and keep pushing. What unknown image will come.
Remembrance; 2019; Digital Photograph
Remembrance of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in a house that was burned to the ground, rebuilt, destroyed again and rebuilt again.
Describe your practice and process. Where do ideas start for you? In the studio or being in the world?
My process is long and slow until it is very fast. I think about an idea, metaphor, people or places for a very long time. I write and research. Think and type. Then, at some point, it clicks, the connections are made in my mind and I go to the physical place where the idea resides. My work is documentary so the thing/person/place already exist somewhere, I just have to go into the world and find them.
X (cut throat); 2023; hand bound book; edition of 5
How do you make your work, does it start with a sketch?
Most of my work is made just by going into the world, whether I'm documenting politics, upheaval, religion or whatever. Sometimes it’s just walking out my door and down the street to see who I meet. Just always being out, always searching for photographs.
X (cut throat); 2023; hand bound book; edition of 5
Many artists live by their routines, do you have your own rituals inside and outside of the studio? What does that look like for you?
I have no ritual, but I like to be alone as much as possible.
Justin in the Dry Riverbed; 2022; Digital Photograph
The Arkansas River had run dry and a man stood out there in the stones in the middle of the riverbed. “They’ve disturbed it,” he said, “I think thats why I’ve been feeling so bad. They unleashed a lot of things they should have left alone. I don’t know if you believe in good and evil, but it’s out here. I’m Apache, from the Southwest. Its always dry out there, but I’ve never seen anything this.”
Who are your biggest influences?
One of my biggest influences is my high school art teacher, John Boettcher. Coming from a small town in Oklahoma, I did not know that I did not know about art. Not only did he introduce me to artists, but also to what it means to be dedicated to practice and growth.
Dead Cops; 2020; Digital Photograph
Graffiti and riot police during the Fed Wars in Portland.
Are there books or films that are an important source of inspiration?
Dennis Johnson, Jane Schoebrun, Lucy Sante, Gil Scott-Heron, David Wojnarowicz, the Book of Revelation, Wikipedia, Kavin Ross.
Installation view of ’No Known Place’ at the Oklahoma Contemporary for ‘The Soul is a Wanderer’ group show; 2023
How will Innovate Grant contribute to your practice?
This grant will allow me to take a long desired road trip back to west Texas to see a world I have not seen for a very long time. The images I make there will align with my current work, ‘Commentary on the Apocalypse’ and also likely inform a new project, ‘A Document for Burning.’
Year of the Cockroach; 2023; hand bound book; edition of 50
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Make photos everyday, if they are bad, they will get better.
What is the best advice you would give to other artists?
I worry about giving advice, I think you need to know someone very well in order to know how, when and why to give advice to them. I will say, the most simplified version of the advice I give to myself all of the time is; Work is the most important thing. Any name you give it, dedication, devotion, obsession, whatever, but work as much as you can on your craft.
An Entire Night in Secret; 2023; Digital Photograph
In the middle of the night and I sat with Tasawi at the fire at Oka Lawa, a pipeline resistance camp in Southeast Oklahoma. “Every year you are in addiction,” he told me, “your soul walks away from your body and however many years you lived in addiction it takes that many years for your soul to find you again.” The local sheriff would drive by and flash his floodlights into the camp and the oilfield workers would blast their horns in the dark while we listened to the night birds in the trees.
Stay up to date with Joseph Rushmore
Website josephrushmore.com
Instagram @no_jackson