Today I'm speaking with one of my oldest friends, who endlessly inspires me with his approach to his craft. His latest project, FORMS, is now availible here. Let's hear all about it!

Sean, it’s so great to be chatting with you here today. To begin, can you introduce yourself to our community? Where you are based and the mediums you work in?

Thank you for having me on sir. I've been a reader of these interviews and a fan of your platform since you concepted it so I appreciate you giving me the space to speak on it. My name is Sean Dougherty, I'm a New York City based photographer and creative. I've been in the commercial and portraiture realm for almost a decade of my career but the last few have been working solely on my latest project while also helping build with our friends at Animus.

We love Animus. And so excited to hear more about this project you just released. I’ve been eagerly awaiting you bringing it into the world, and on to the chain, for a long long time now. Let’s dive right into it. What is the name and can you walk us through what we’re looking at here?

Thank you Dave, of course. The project is titled Forms as kind of an ode to Plato's realm of forms. The conceptual side is based in philosophy, this first collection epistemology to be specific or how we come to know things. My first collection is a four images series of two epistemological approaches. A Priori is a term to classify truths that we know intrinsically or prior to experience, while A Posteriori is knowledge founded on experience. These images were made to represent those schools of thought and examine the relationship between external experience and internal experience.

On the technical side, the work was performed entirely in camera on an 8x10 large format film camera. Each piece was shot one exposure at a time on a single sheet of film, stacking the layers to achieve the abstractions. I did this on 8x10 for the purpose of having a large negative to display as the final artworks.

I love how many different layers of thought and technique you’ve layered here. Where can people find the work minted and what’s the structure of this particular release?

All of the work is linked on my website.

The structure for the series is essentially 3 tiers. Both A Priori 002 and A Posteriori 002 are for sale as open editions until December 30th. These same images also have a small separate numbered edition of 5 each that come with handmade silver gelatin prints developed in my darkroom. A Priori 001 and A Posteriori 001 are both for auction as 1/1s that come with the original 8x10 negative framed in custom fabricated lightboxes built to exhibit and preserve the 1/1s.

Fascinating. I love it. In a world saturated with digital processes, why is it important to you to work in the realm of the physical?

I have a lot of love for the digital medium. I create a lot of other things digitally and much of my early career was based in it, but I've always been super hands on. I have so many small craft hobbies and love to add to that repertoire. I started shooting almost exclusively medium format in 2016, developing and scanning all of my own images.

Originally I loved the process and credit it to a lot of self growth in my work but it grew to feel repetitive. Like plugging my memory cards into the computer to upload, but much longer and messier. When I started shooting 8x10 I got into printmaking and felt the rush of learning a new hobby again.

At one point I remember feeling tethered in my digital work, and changing the medium let me break free from that internalized feeling. I think everyone is searching for their creative pocket that feels like home. It's hard to really say what I love about the medium, it just feels right when I'm in it.

I love that mix that you've preserved. I think the most interesting things happen on the bridges between tradition and new technology, so I love seeing you experiment there, while also bringing this work to one of the newest technology layers.

What advice would you have for a creative person who is earlier on their path?

Personally I've always sworn by having multiple creative outlets. I hit motivational roadblocks all the time, and something that has never failed is having a back up hobby or craft to fall back on for inspiration. Passion to me can't be contained to a medium and if you let it slip away it can seem impossible to find again. The path is long, so take your time.

Sean, thank you so much for taking the time to share your work and your thoughts with us here. I love the project and picked up a few pieces myself. To the reader, connect with all things Sean via his Linktree.