The Who’s Who You’ll Be Funding! Kick Now!

The Lead Photographer at The Queer Interior.com Michael Popp gives us the dish on his passion, favorites, and why to become an investor on Kickstarter.com

*Getting involved at the $800.00 level on Kickstarter and you will get The Q.I Popp Package which brags a 2-Hour Professional Portrait/Headshot Session in his private Brooklyn art studio + a CD of the retouched images for you to use! Check out his past and present work at his website www.michaelpopp.com

Q.I: When did you first start taking pictures?

Michael Popp: I started taking pictures when I was young but moved into art for a few years. I picked up a camera again about 5 years ago and decided, without a doubt in my mind, that I was going to be a photographer and if I have it my way, one that would be remembered.

Q.I: What makes capturing interiors more challenging or exciting than other subjects?

MP: Sometimes, when you enter a space you react to it in a really positive way and recreating that feeling is difficult when you take physically entering it out of the equation. There are also a number of technical challenges that come into play with interiors, namely lighting and angles. In NYC, space is limited which forces us (photographers) to use wider lenses which can cause some pretty heavy distortion in vertical and horizontal lines. Creating an image the captures the room, the feeling of being in that room, and is as true to your perception of it as possible is always the goal, and consequently, the challenge.

Q.I: What picture, of all of your pictures interior or otherwise are you most proud of at the moment?

MP: That’s tricky.  I tend to have brief love affairs with images as they are produced and my newer work always seems to replace my older work.  I guess I’m like a rich bachelor passing 40.  The last image I took (seen below) that I was just really taken by was of  Doug Johnston, a local artist, who was wearing one of his handmade pieces. It has this playful and dark mood simultaneously that I believe works on a number of levels and really express, our relationship, his work and my vision in 1/200th of a second.

Photo taken of Doug Johnston in Popp’s Ditmas Studio

Q.I: Why is funding this project so important?

MP: I’ll speak personally about my space for a second.  I have an apartment in Ditmas Park that wasn’t easy to find. It’s a modest space that I have altered to become mine. I have painted walls, rearranged furniture, hung painting, made curtains and refinished my kitchen floor to take it from some apartment I found on Craigslist to Mike and Jackie’s (Popp’s delightful girlfriend) nesting nook  but its ours and we are proud of it and have loved putting our time and money into its ever changing appearance.  I don’t believe I’m alone. The Q.I is important because it allows other people to tell their personal story through their space because a space is so much more than a few walls a floor and a ceiling.