Interview With Photographer Shanyn Fiske… It Starts Behind The Lens

Shanyn Fiske is a fashion and portrait photographer and a vital part of the creative team behind “It Starts Behind The Lens.”

Her stunning work has graced numerous campaigns and top model portfolios. This month, we’re thrilled to feature her collaboration with the incredible model Max on our August cover. Join us as we dive into Shanyn’s world and discover more about this talented and passionate photographer who is dedicated to reshaping the fashion industry, one photo session at a time.

PMM: Can you share with us how you first became interested in a photography career? Were there any particular moments or influences that shaped your career path?

Shanyn: My mother is an avid amateur photographer so I’ve been surrounded by photographic paraphernalia my entire life.  In fact, one of my earliest memories is the smell of developing chemicals in the darkroom that my mom and my father had in the house in Beijing where I grew up.  I also remember a clothing line strung from one end of the room to the other and prints hung from the line to dry.  It’s interesting to me that my career now is somehow shaped by that primal memory.

My biological father is a film actor, and I think the mutual love of image-making was one of the things that brought my parents together.  I grew up mostly with my mom (she left my dad when I was 5), and her interest in photography has always been a factor in my life, but I never paid much attention to it.  It was not until I started modeling casually when I was in my late 30s that I became fascinated with photography myself.  A couple of years after I quit modeling, my mom was looking to rehome her old DSLR, so I took it and decided to learn how to use it.  At the time, I was becoming disenchanted with the career I had been pursuing my entire life (academia / higher ed) as well as aging out of the sport that had consumed the other half of my life (riding and training event horses).  So perhaps subconsciously I was looking around for a new passion.  I was hooked as soon as I took my first picture.  I started photographing everything and anything but found myself drawn most to portraiture and fashion…

On an intellectual and emotional level, the relationship between a model and a photographer intrigues me.  For me, that relationship constitutes a process of collaborative storytelling. I was never comfortable being in the model role of that collaboration and didn’t feel any kind of fulfillment as a model. It wasn’t until I became a photographer that I realized I could enter the process more fully from behind the lens.  I’ve been a writer and a storyteller all my life as well as a keen observer of the human condition. I’m fascinated by people and their narratives.  For me, photographing people is a way of listening and interpreting the stories that people have to tell through their expressions and their bodies.  The process of photographing a person is always one of discovery for me.  In the best cases, that process is one of discovery for the model/subject as well because maybe I’ve managed to capture some aspect of their stories that they themselves were not aware of or hadn’t perceived previous to the shoot.  Photographing for a brand is a bit different because the narrative needs to fit the outlines dictated by the product, but the elements of mutual storytelling and discovery are still there.  In short, what draws me to portrait and fashion photography is always this mutually constructed process of storytelling and narrative discovery.

I should also add that in my very brief adventure in front of the camera, I did not have the best experience with photographers.  As someone who spent the first three decades of my life being valued for my intellect and my ideas, it was a complete shock to be treated as an object (often a sexualized object) for someone else’s use and, many times, I felt that the photographer had no idea who I was and had no interest in finding out who I was.  I’ve honestly never felt as humiliated as I did when I was being photographed as a model.  And I think the trauma of that is very much etched into my subconscious every time I pick up a camera.  I never, ever want the person in front of me to feel the way I did when I was being photographed.  And I suppose a fair part of my obsession with photography and my drive to become the best photographer I can be is to change the experience of other models in front of the lens and, more broadly, to change the entire dynamic between the viewer and the subject.

PMM: What do you consider to be the most significant milestones in your career so far? Are there any specific achievements or projects that stand out to you?

Shanyn: Achievements and milestones for me have been quiet ones and measured more internally than externally.  For me, progress has always been so incremental that it’s hard to see it until I’m reflecting from a distance away.  I think the thing I’m most proud of in my journey as a photographer is the sense now that my camera is almost a sixth sense to me … an extension of my own, native perception.  I realize now that I don’t really *See* a place, a thing, a person unless I’m looking through the lens of a camera.  I think my camera makes me a braver, more attentive, more intentional person.  For example, a model who lives close to me asked recently if we could do a lifestyle shoot in my own town, where I’ve lived for the past 10 years.  And during the shoot, I realized there were little corners of stunning beauty that I had been walking blindly by for the past 10 years, every day of my life.  And it wasn’t until I was photographing this model in my town that I saw these things.  I love how the camera has allowed me to become more sensitive to the people and places and things around me, and it’s truly like a magic spyglass that reveals the beauty in things that I can’t see with my naked eye. 

In terms of externally-marked milestones, I’ve worked really hard for the past 7 years to be one of the go-to test photographers in New York.  I’m not there yet but I know I’m on the recommended photographer list of at least 10 agencies that I really respect and that seems like a big thing to me because New York is such a competitive place.  Probably one of the most competitive for photographers.  And recently, I’ve heard my name mentioned in the same breath as some of the photographers that I’ve looked up to for years and years.  And that’s been astonishing and wonderful and almost unbelievable to me.  Personally, I feel like I still have a long way to go, but those little moments are really great when I’m able to look back and see how far I’ve come.  Another thing that’s really meaningful to me is knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that when agencies send their models to me, I can produce photographs that get models noticed, booked, and signed.  I’m not one to talk much about myself but I can honestly say that hearing that a model got booked off my images is one of the greatest thrills for me.  In fact, I heard today that three models who shot with me in the last month got booked for major campaigns off my images and I was on cloud nine the whole day.  

I really like helping people.  That’s been a constant in both my academic and artistic career.  I’m a giver.  So I feel like my best achievements are the successes of the models I’ve photographed.

PMM: Can you tell us about the inspiration behind “It Starts Behind The Lens”? What motivated you to embark on this project alongside Max?

Shanyn: For the past 7 years, I’ve witnessed the modeling world lean more toward inclusion and diversity.  The models I photograph are increasingly divergent from the 5’11” size 2 runway models people traditionally think of when they think of fashion models.  Agencies I shoot for are seeking out models who are “different” in one way or another and I think that’s really, really awesome.

But if you look at the top photographers in the industry (shooting for the top brands, agencies, etc), those are still primarily male.  Primarily white.  If you look at the boards of top art agencies representing photographers, the photographers being repped are primarily male.  Primarily white.  I got a book recently called something like the top 100 fashion photographers of the last century.  There were maybe 2-3 female photographers on the list.  2-3 out of 100!!!  That seems insane to me!  Were women just not as good as men?  Or did the fashion world just automatically see the photographic gaze as male (and the object of the gaze as female)?  I think the answer is pretty obvious, and that makes the success of female fashion photographers very difficult … because we are battling history itself and the entrenched paradigms that dictate every aspect of this industry.

My passionate belief is that the fashion industry cannot change unless the teams behind the lens are as diverse and as representative as the models in front of the lens.  Because the models are not the only ones creating the narrative.  It’s the producers, the art directors, the photographers … the whole team behind the lens shapes the narrative.  So in my mind, if you only change the appearance of the model and not the team behind the lens, you aren’t really *doing* diversity – you’re just virtue signaling.  For those of us who are “diverse” simply because of the way we show up in the world, diversity isn’t just a virtue signal.  It’s who we are and it’s how we look at the world.

I’m 50 years old.  I’m a petite Asian woman.  I don’t fit the mold of the fashion photographer in this country in any way, shape, or form.  I’m not young.  I’m not European.  I’m not male.  I feel like all of these aspects of my basic identity work against me in terms of finding a place in an industry that has traditionally valued youth and has located Asian women primarily in the position of the model or the object of the gaze.  In trying to become a successful fashion photographer as an older, Asian woman, I do feel that I’m trying to turn that tradition on its head.  But I’ve spent my entire life being underestimated, so that’s a position where I feel very comfortable.  I immigrated to this country from China when I was 7 years old, and I was raised by a single, immigrant mother.  I’ve always had the mentality that I need to work twice as hard and be twice as good to be considered equal.  I don’t mind that.  I work best when I’m presented with a challenge.   

I also feel that a workshop like ours is crucial for this moment in time when the industry wants to turn toward diversity and representation.  The systems that are in place right now are still geared toward the traditional fashion model (tall, skinny, etc.).  However, the models in demand right now that stray from this paradigm do not have any reliable training programs in place for them.  And so they think they have to pose like the traditional fashion models.  But these paradigms don’t fit.  So there has to be another way to help these “new” models enter into the industry and in doing so, to reshape the industry by being who they are in their unique selves.  As a nontraditional fashion photographer, I feel like I’ve made some headway into this really difficult industry that has a lot of barriers to entry, and I really want to help models break in as well.  And not break in in order to fit a mold.  I want them to break the mold and reshape the industry by being their unique and genuine selves.

I feel like I’ve found my work soulmate in Max.  She is one of the hardest working women I have ever met and we just complement each other so well.  It’s hard to find someone who shares your same dreams and passion AND also shares your work ethic.  I couldn’t imagine a better partner for this venture than Max and I’m grateful every day that we found each other.

PMM: What are the primary goals and messages you hope to convey through “It Starts Behind The Lens”?

Shanyn:  I feel like I probably already answered a lot of this above.  But I think the primary goal is to provide an education system/platform for new models who want to break into the industry and also experienced models who want to take the next step in an industry that seems to be changing by the day.  This is an extremely difficult field to navigate, and I meet models (and their moms) every day who are trying to figure out what they need to do to become successful models.  I honestly do believe that anyone can become a model these days if they really want to.  But people do not even understand what being a working model actually entails.  It’s a lot of hard work.  It’s long hours.  It’s putting in the time and the energy to learn.  It’s having THE RIGHT images that will get you noticed, signed, booked.  I believe with every fiber of my being that Max and I can provide the guidance, education, and support (and IMAGES) that models need to find their place in this industry.

PMM: What impact do you hope “It Starts Behind The Lens” will have on the fashion industry and its audience? Are there any future projects or extensions of this work that you’re excited about?

Shanyn:  This is such a huge question.  I think fundamentally, ISBL offers a PLAN for the industry’s INTENTION of being diverse and inclusive.  Because quite honestly, I feel like right now, a lot of it is virtue signaling.  I think the question we are answering is … if you (the fashion industry) really want to inhabit diversity, what do you need to do?  Well, you need to start hiring diverse creative teams to change the shape of the narrative (as well as diverse models).  You need to train and prepare these diverse models differently.  And … and I think this is the hardest thing of all to change but it’s entirely necessary: we need to change the entrenched paradigms of the gaze: who is seeing and who is being seen.  I think by changing paradigms from behind the lens, we can start reshaping NOT ONLY the way that fashion works but the way that we look at and treat one another.  

Max and I have intentions of expanding our production beyond modeling workshops to producing for brands that want to change the way they are engaging with their audiences and who want to inhabit with us this space of authenticity, inclusivity, and diversity.  That is the next step for ISBL … to start producing shoots for brands and bringing together the models and agencies that we work with in our workshops and brands who can commit to these values of authenticity and inclusivity in a holistic way.

In short, I think the camera can help to reframe our understanding of each other’s and our own humanity; and that reframing, that revolution, starts behind the lens.  

Visit online at shanynfiskephotography.com