Interview with Donia Almassi

Continued shameless advertising for “Coterie 21” brought me to classmate Donia Almassi.

Untitled. Donia Almassi. Digital and chemical print. 2011.

how would you describe your work to someone who doesn’t know you?
My work involves the marriage between chemical photography and digital photography in collage form. I develop prints in the darkroom, scan and incorporate them into found digital photograph. The result is often surreal: it is hard to identify objects, yet it feels like something is being described, which is just out of grasp.

why do you work in photography? what drew you to the medium?
I enjoy the “flawlessness” of photography. There are no direct indications of craft, no human error in the shapes and forms that the camera captures. Yet at the same time, it is highly orchestrated. The framing, settings, staging, and developement can all reveal a personality as effectively as a painter splashing paint on the canvas. I like to create photographs which replace the drawing/painting hand, yet still captures the essence of personal expression.

if you could have anything, what would your last meal be?
A can of Eagle’s condensed milk. (I’m allergic to sugar)

what weird/strange skill do you have that not many people know about?
I can bellydance. Alone. When no one’s looking. Err…

sign?
Virgo/Sagittarius

favorite color?
I have a torrid affair with the colour red.

chocolate, vanilla or strawberry?
Strawberry, but the crazy addict in me screams CHOCOLATE. I need help.

what do you like better, hands or feet?
What with a quasi feet phobia, HANDS.

if there was one word that would describe your life right now, what would it be?
Plumb-bob.

if you weren’t human, what would you most like to be?
I’d say one of the little grey aliens who abduct people and scare the living daylights out of them by peering through windows with big reflective eyes. That’d be fun.

if you could hang out with any person (dead or alive) who would it be and why?
Rasputin. Because he was nuts and I imagine, would serve good table conversation.

if you had to kill one historical person, who would it be?
I don’t believe in killing. There are a few I would volunteer for therapy sessions, though.

if you had to kill one living person, who would it be?
Again, don’t believe in killing. But maybe I’d accidentally sit on Stephen Harper and restore all the arts funding so that artists could actually eke out a living (Bitter? No, no, not I)