J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Peggy Levison Nolan
Episode #56, Summary
Ferociousness, love and humor guides Peggy Nolan’s unsentimental documentation of raising her seven kids.
Episode Notes
Peggy picked up her hand-me-down pawned camera, shoplifted film and taught herself the balance of form and content to make magic in an image. Skillfully edited and sequenced, these black and white images reflect her keen observation and dogged determination to share what she sees inside her head. This now 79-year-old revered and retired professor put herself through college and graduate school. Her dream was to create photobooks—what she describes as “a conversation in your lap.”
In this conversation, Peggy discusses, among other things:
How a camera transforms what we see
Being addicted to film
Seeing inside the photographer's head
Vastness of observation
The intelligence (and swiftness) needed to respond to the presence observed
The high jinx of black and white imagery
The relationship between the image and time moving
Teaching strengthens editing
The rhythm of a book
Loving the gutter
Taking the long view
A hatbox of 100 mice
Referenced in the episode
Blueprint for a Good Life, Frost Art Museum
Florida International Univeristy
South Florida Cultural Consortium Grant Program
“In Juggling Is Easy, Peggy Nolan Captures the Chaos of Growing Up” — Vogue Magazine
Creativity Exlpored, San Francisco
Thomas Pringle, Creativity Explored
Dog Earred Books, San Francisco