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Check out Andrew Pielage’s Artwork

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Pielage.

Andrew, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Being born to a geologist father and adventurous mother, much of my childhood was spent in the backcountry of the desert Southwest. I started carrying a Walgreens disposable camera on these trips when I was young, taking photos of weird clouds or oddly colored rocks. This really grounded me first and foremost in traditional landscape photography and I’m still shooting landscapes today.

My first visit to a Frank Lloyd Wright site was to Taliesin West and that’s when I first experienced what it meant to see and feel Wright’s architecture. I immediately connected to his use of blending buildings with the environment. Wright says, “Hill and house should live together, each the happier for the other,” and that is apparent at the first sight of this architecture. Sometimes when I am shooting Wright’s designs, it’s hard to tell if I am shooting landscapes or architecture. It’s a very unique shooting experience and one I enjoy very much.

I shared this love of landscape with Wright and that is what really kick started my passion for his architecture. It went from love to an obsession very quickly and now I am on a quest to photograph all of his buildings around the world.

I have photographed 52 Wright sites out of 531 so far. I have photographed Wright sites in Arizona, California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Illinois. Next up is Kentuck Knob in Pennsylvania. This project has also lead to sharing my experiences through lectures and teaching photography workshops at three Frank Lloyd Wright sites around the country, Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, Taliesin in Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I would consider my art to be photography based in travel, landscape and architecture. When photographing for my Wright project, my process usually starts with research, weeks or months out, into the house or building itself. Some Wright sites have tons of information and some not so much so google is my first stop. Looking at images, reading information on not only the design but who the owners were and what their story is on the space. Lastly, I am fortunate enough to have access to some of the Archives at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. All this information gives me a good sense of some of the ideas of the space and more importantly what sets it apart from other Wright sites.

Upon arrival to the site, I like to walk the space, preferably with a tour to get more background into the space and find out more about the little things inside the house that I didn’t find out in my research. Then I like to sit either inside and/or out and observe the space and light quietly. This is usually when I start formulating a rough “shot list” of things I would like to explore through the camera. Shot lists are very valuable and a great way to just get started. Most often than not, those shot list compositions lead to other compositions and I work and feel my way through the space.

If you have ever been to a Wright site you know that it’s just as much about seeing the design as it is feeling the design. There is always some visceral feeling you get when stepping inside or seeing it for the first time. To this day, I still don’t know how he does it and maybe I don’t want to know. But these feelings stay with me just as long as the first sight of the buildings.

My goal in photographing Wright is attempting to capture some of that feeling in my images. If I can capture just 1% of that feeling, I consider that a successful photo.

Soon after photographing Taliesin West for the first time in 2010, I decided that I would not bring in artificial lighting to photograph any Frank Lloyd Wright interior spaces. Wright is quoted as saying, “More and more, so it seems to me, light is the beautifier of the building.” Wright designs are always so integrated into catching, trapping and releasing natural light that I thought I would only be cheating Wright’s true ideas of blending if I introduced light, in any form, into his space. Working with natural light is time sensitive and that magical “golden hour” is never really an hour. Sometimes it’s only a few minutes.

I hope these images inspire people to go and see Wright’s designs and to think about how maybe they can blend their lives into nature more.

Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
I think being an artist has never been easy and probably never will, but that’s the fun of it right? Social media is a monster but has helped me spread my message farther and faster than ever before. It’s a digital age and for better or worse, I feel you have to play the digital game to be relevant. Do the hashtag things but I also do think that you still can and should have a bit of old school communication as well. You know, a good old face to face meeting. When discussing project with local clients, I always attempt a face to face meeting with coffee over emailing details back and forth. I found out very early in my career in a face to face meeting with Jeff Kida over at Arizona Highways, that clients are just as interested in the person behind the camera as the images themselves. I brought in some images to Kida a few years ago to get some feedback on them. He looked them over briefly and said they were good but I want to know about how you got them? What is your workflow? I want to know everything you did before you pushed the shutter button down. It was an eye-opening experience for me and a conversation that I will never forget.

Instead of concentrating on that tired “what Phoenix is doing and not doing to help artist thrive”, I think the better question is what are you as an artist doing to thrive? Having the city provide opportunities helps a lot, don’t get me wrong, but why are you relying on someone else? There is no yellow brick road in Phoenix to becoming a successful artist (whatever successful means) You have to work harder, you have to reach out, you have been more passionate about what you do and able to sacrifice to get there. I had a 9-5 when I was trying to get my photography career going. I lost friends and barely had time for family. It’s not easy anywhere. Get in their face and force the art world in Phoenix to see you and your work, don’t ask them to see it.

And if you are lucky enough to be a “successful” artist in Phoenix. Give back to the next generation, meet with them, coach them, and I bet you’ll probably even learn somethings from them. I know I have.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I currently have prints available to view and purchase at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Bookstore at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. I will also have prints to view and purchase at the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitors Center Bookstore in Spring Green, Wisconsin in July 2018.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
All images except Fallingwater image: Andrew Pielage
Fallingwater image: Andrew Pielage, courtesy of Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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