Hit The Streets 39: Transitions, a Daughter's Journey with Terry Gydesen

My guest today is Terry Gydesen, a documentary photographer whose images tell stories of some of Minnesota's political figures and celebrities. But today we are not going to talk about celebrities, we are going to talk about a project that hit much closer to home for Terry. 

The project is titled "Transitions, a Daughter’s Journey” and it is a collection of 30 large color photographs that represent four years of documenting her father’s decline from Alzheimer’s. The series was on exhibit in Minneapolis recently and left no one untouched. 

Please enjoy this touching and important conversation with Terry and leave a message in the comments below if you have a minute or two! 

Bio

Terry Gydeson by AnnMarsden

Terry Gydesen is a freelance photographer based in Minneapolis. Her passion for documenting political campaigns started in 1988 when she was hired by Jesse Jackson to document his Presidential campaign. With the support of various grants and fellowships, Terry has documented political campaigns both locally and nationally for the last 20 years.

Terry has been commissioned for several projects which include documenting Prince’s 1993 New Power Generation Tour in Europe which resulted in the book, Prince presents the sacrifice of Victor. She was one of twelve photographers commissioned by the Minnesota History Center to document life in Minnesota at the turn of the 21st century. Her “Snowbirds” project followed Minnesota’s retired seniors during their winter life in Florida and Arizona.

Target commissioned Terry for their “Story Telling” campaign, showing how Target’s philanthropic contributions make a difference in communities across the country.  Most recently she has been retained by the Girl Scouts making portraits of leaders in the Community in their “Where Girl Scouts Can Take You” campaign.

Published Work
Her work has also been published in various publications including the New York Times, Newsweek, and the Washington Post.

Grants and Fellowships
Terry is a three time recipient of the McKnight Photography fellowship. She has also received grants from the Minnesota State Arts board, the Jerome Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.  the 2017 McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship.

Links

Terry's website

Video interview during the exhibit 

Hit The Streets 33: 33 Minutes with Valerie

This week I answer questions that you sent me via the FB group. It's a monologue and it happened to be 33 minutes long by chance on the 33rd episode!

The questions I answer are the following:

Andy Shields: "We all miss shots from time to time but I'm curious if there has been one that stuck with you? 'The one that got away', so to speak."

Till l'Espiègle - Nicolas: "Comment décidez-vous si vous utilisez votre X100 ou votre XPro 2 ? (voire votre X70 !) Chacun correspond-il à un type de photo particulier ? N'êtes-vous pas frustrée par votre X100 alors que vous avez le XPro 2 à disposition ? D'ailleurs, faites-vous aussi de la street photography avec ce XPro 2 ?"

Jens Krauer: "After years of street shooting, thousands of images and miles, how has your self expectation changed? How has your process of managing your expectations ahead of the travel changed over the years? Did you find your Zen state when it comes to producing results and self indicated pressure? And how do you deal with not matching your own expectations and pulling yourself up in case it does impacts you? And maybe to round this up: do you set yourself any goals before embarking into a week of shooting in any city, do you have shots that you absolutely want to get?"

Steve Cole: "It is quite evident you love what you do ... but do you ever take a break (couple days or perhaps a week) to "refresh the photographic side of your brain" by not having a camera and just walk about to absorb your surroundings without the intent to make photos?"

Link to the blog post about starting drawing lessons: Going Beyond The Stickman