Interview with Spring Magnum Foundation Fellow Ally Caple
From left to right: Spring MF Fellow Ally Caple, intern Samaira Wilson, and Programs Assistant and former MF Fellow Tif Ng
As Ally Caple’s Spring Magnum Foundation Fellowship wrapped up, intern Samaira Wilson caught up with her to discuss the latest developments in her photo project, learnings from her time working on Magnum Foundation’s programs, and her thoughts on photography’s relationship to surveillance and safety. Read more below!
Can you tell us a bit about your fellowship experience?
There were two parts to my fellowship, one being my personal project that I applied with that focuses on kids in New York City and their relationships to public parks. The second side to my time at MF was working with Emma Raynes and Tif Ng in Programs on a few of the spring open calls. Having the opportunity to be involved in the open call process was an important one for me; as an artist, I’m typically only on the applying side of these types of things, but it was great to learn what MF’s process is like as well as who they collaborate with on some of their initiatives.
Can you talk about your project and how it expanded during your fellowship?
In thinking about current social issues in NYC, I was interested in exploring the impact the pandemic has had on the socialization of children and the limited spaces in which they’ve been allowed to freely and safely occupy together now over the past two years. My experience working in childcare, both before 2020 and after, really fueled the idea for this photographic project. I ran into many challenges when I first began working on this, mostly in terms of visibility and also illness, that forced me to expand my thinking around this work. Admittedly, I didn’t initially consider the idea that parents would be wary of allowing photographs of their children to be displayed via online platforms for an organization as prominent as Magnum Foundation. This challenge led to having to think about ways of photographing without showing full identities, and to also further deepen the open conversations I’d already begun having with parents. Throughout the spring and early summer, many families were also dealing with covid exposures which we were sensitive around when it came to scheduling times to meet and photograph.
Ally Caple, Photo of A, taken at William Sheridan Playground, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
What are some ongoing questions in your work?
In the work I’ve been doing outside of this fellowship, I’ve been thinking a lot about surveillance of Black queer bodies and how photography inherently (and historically) heightens visibility. I’ve been thinking about the comparison of photographic methods in terms of: are there ways to photograph that are more safe than others? At some point I realized these same thought points and questions apply to photographing children as well. I’m still curious about finding new ways to shield identities while documenting relationships to space, and I’m always working towards figuring out how these images can feel both safe to parents and fun for the kids to make with me.
How do you think your fellowship influenced your work?
My time with MF gave me a push to begin working with people outside of those I already know. It was the first time that all of the shoots I scheduled were with people I hadn’t met before which is a process I’ve struggled to work with in the past, but this project has served as great practice for that. I think most importantly though, working on this project with support from MF allowed me to connect my different pools of work to one another when thinking about surveillance, protection, and the acts of seeing and being seen. In hindsight it seems so incredibly obvious, but it took working through this project with MF to get there.
How has your project expanded since your fellowship?
There’s been a bit of a pause on the photographing part of this project as families (and myself) have traveled and taken summer vacations, but I’m hoping to schedule more shoots at the end of this month. I’m interested in continuing to shoot through the end of the summer and into the school months; the idea is that I’ll be photographing kids over time throughout all of our seasons. In the meantime, I’ve begun talking to parents about the images we’ve made and thinking about the methods, film stock, etc. that I want to use as I continue shooting.
A closeup from the Lower East Side History Month zine workshop. Photo by Tif Ng.
What’s next for you?
So far, I’ve been shooting a lot this summer which may be for my other ongoing project or something new — I’m not totally sure yet. I’m working with 35mm for the first time in a while, so it’s been fun to work with this medium again. Also, I’m hoping to continue facilitating zine and collage workshops through The Photographer’s Green Book, like the Lower East Side History Month zine workshops we collaborated with MF on earlier this year. We held one in Charlottesville this summer in conjunction with our exhibition down there at a space called Visible Records which was great, and I’m looking forward to hosting more of them here in New York this fall.
I'm also looking forward to continuing my work on this project. Ideally I’d like to be able to show some of my images and invite the families in to see them. It’s important to me that I get the opportunity to share this work with them beyond sharing digital files and for the kids to be able to see photographs of themselves in that capacity.
Thank you, Samaira, for supporting this project since the very beginning! It's been a highlight of my year getting to work with you as well as the rest of the MF team – I'm grateful for the support, friendships, and connections that have come from this opportunity.
To see more of Ally’s work, visit allycaple.net. Follow @photogreenbook on Instagram for updates on the workshops.
The Magnum Foundation Fellowship offers mentorship and stipends to early-career practitioners who are at a critical moment in their development as photographers. This fellowship is designed for New York City-based photographers to work in the Magnum Foundation office while also developing their own photographic project in the city that demonstrates a commitment to social issues and community based work.
Applications to the Fall 2022 Fellowship are due September 15 – learn more here.