Crista Leonard

It’s easy to forget that trees exist. That under concrete there lays something called dirt. That before the foundation of your home was cemented to the Earth, there was a whole ecosystem that flourished, uninterrupted by man’s civilized hand. The work of Crista Leonard helps us to remember the foreign world
of nature that winds it’s way in and out of our peripheral vision.  In Leonard’s work it is rare to find the intrusion of cityscapes. Rather, much of the subjects in her fashion and personal work are belittled by vast mountains, greenery and the sky that surrounds them. - Keba Robinson

Keba: So you spent your early years in both France and Switzerland - what are your
favorite things about those places?
Crista Leonard: I actually spent most of my childhood in Andorra, a Small country in the mountains between Spain and France. My favourite memories are the mountains, the seasons, the forests, the rivers, the animals. In Switzerland I miss those beautiful wooden chalets and the beginning of summer, so beautiful. I miss everything about France, although I still live there a part of the year…the culture, the films, the nonchalence, the language.

K:What was is that got you into photography?
CL:I´d always played around with trying to make images, either drawing or taking pictures. Eventually photography had a greater pull over me, it felt so much more natural and flowing than drawing which was often nothing more than a frustrating effort.

K: What did your first role of film look like (or if you started on a digital
camera, what were the first things that you would take pictures of)?
CL: Well I started out with film because digital was only just starting I think? Anyways, it wasn´t really accessible, and I just wanted to take pictures of light filtering through trees and bouncing off water, that kind of thing. I felt too shy to take pictures of people.

K:What are your current favorite things to photograph?
CL:I like to photograph nature and people in vast expanses or natural backdrops.


K: If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?
CL: A one year long road trip starting in southern Argentina and travelling all the way up to Alaska.

K: What inspires you the most?
CL: Silence, music, reading, sleeping, insomnia, the mountains, people.


K:Who are your favorite artists?
CL:William Blake, Steinbeck, Spike Jonze, Ryan McGinley, Javier Pinon, Autumn de Wilde, Yelena Yemchuk, Jack Kerouac, Egon Schiele, Tierney Gearon, Miranda July and Mike Mills, Neil Krug… There are too many amazing artists and photographers !

\K:What music are you listening to at the moment?

CL:My boyfriend, his band is Resonans : http://resonans.tumblr.com/
Otherwise, right at this minute I´m listening to to B by iamamiwhoami, otherwise Twin Shadow, Active Child, Deerhunter, Satie, timber timbre, America, radio dept…and more but I can never remember.