Episode 10 | Justine Kurland

Justine Kurland, NYC, 2017. Photo by Jordan Weitzman

Recorded in New York City, NY
Episode Length: 37:20
Air Date: March 8, 2017

Produced by: Jordan Weitzman
Edited by: Sarah Anna McMahon-Sperber
Mixed by: Cristal Duhaime

Our guest in this episode is photographer, writer and teacher Justine Kurland. This past fall, Kurland released her latest photo book, Highway Kind, a virtuosic narrative comprised of 10 years of work that she made while criss-crossing America in a green van that she had retro-fitted to include a bed, a bookcase, cupboards and hardwood floors. The through line in the book are photographs of her son Casper, whom she took on the road with her as a young boy while she meandered through the American Landscape in search of pictures.

We visited her at her beautiful small lower east side apartment in New York where she lives with her son Casper.  Painted red floors, yellow Kodak print boxes and books lining the walls, bathtub in the kitchen, a small painting by her late father, Bruce Kurland, and a little white kitten that she and Casper recently adopted fill the space with a great energy.  We did this interview around dinner time, and she asked if it was ok if she could cook a steak for her son at the same time. We thought that sounded perfect, considering Justine’s work is so much about the balancing act between the demands of being an artist and the responsibilities of taking care of her kid. She describes those feelings so poignantly in a piece that she wrote called Now We Are Six, which appears in the book Highway Kind and was featured recently in the New Yorker.

Photographs by Justine Kurland from Highway Kind

Links
http://aperture.org/shop/highway-kind/