How did you get started working in your craft?

I was a teenager, 15 or 16 years old, when I got into photography. My high school had a dark room and you could check out Pentax K1000’s. At first, I just generally enjoyed cameras, the sound of the shutter and watching silvery prints appear in the developer. I shot all the things a budding teenage emo photographer in the early 2000’s needs to get out of their system: friends by the railroad tracks, double exposures, night time wacky flash stuff. But, I kinda knew it was generic and crafty. I knew I wanted to dive deeper.

Krysta holds Zizi - a pet chameleon she bought as a birthday present for her daughter Weston.

Tucson is home to the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, where they show work by these mega legendary photographers like Harry Callahan, Edward Weston, Diane Arbus, and Ansel Adams. I used to visit all the time. I was hooked by the idea that if a person is technically a good photographer, if they use their camera well enough to feel like an extension of their limb, then, when something magical happens in real life, they can shoot it quickly, confidently, and nearly unnoticeably. Those are the photographs that live through time -- their authenticity says something visceral about the human experience.

I thought a lot about what makes a lasting photograph in highs chool. I shot a lot, and got really into the idea of the Decisive Moment (Henri Cartier Bresson’s coined term, capturing the ephemeral and fleeting street scenes). I printed during my breaks in school, and a handful of times I felt that zinging sensation you get when you make a print that matters (or, mattered to me at least). I photographed friends in landscapes and I didn’t stage anything, it was important it was real for me. I ended up winning an international photography contest for best student black and white portfolio. The school made a really big deal about the contest -- someone from the local newspaper wrote an article about me! So, after that, I decided to fully immerse myself in photography and go to college at Brooks Institute of Photography.

What was your professional journey before working in this field?

Technically, I’ve worked in this field since I was of working age, but often alongside other jobs: barista jobs, restaurant jobs, grocery store jobs. It’s taken a long time and a lot of experimenting to find my place in photography, and I’m 100% still figuring it out.

Upon graduating from Brooks, I thought I was on my way to shooting editorial portraiture in Los Angeles. I assisted celebrity photographers and fashion photographers. I worked in a lighting and camera rental house. All to learn the valuable lesson that it was not the life for me. I thought it was the track to becoming a “successful” photographer, but I was getting further and further away from why I loved photography in the first place.

I moved back to Tucson and gave different photo jobs an honest shot because I had a shiny, expensive new degree in photography, so by golly, I had to use it! I tried shooting weddings: Terrible. Family Portraiture: Awkward. Fashion: Fun, but few resources to do it well. I shot for local magazines and endured being treated like a 15 year old because I was a young, petite woman.

I kept on shooting personal projects while working in a cafe and eventually received a bit of momentum in 2011 from a portfolio called, Planthromorphism about plant life having more intelligence than we think. I shot another portfolio called Supernatural Norms about mundane moments imbued with an energy inexplicably alive. And lastly, Nature is Fate, about nature being a force that always wins. My work was published here and there and some of that attention led me to a few breaks. The most pivotal was being hired to shoot Wilder Quarterly’s coffee table book, A Wilder Life, which was a 3 month project I started immediately after my daughter was born.

Some of Krysta’s ceramic work - a bowl and tiles for her kitchen renovation.

What do your days typically look like?

My (now 5 year old) daughter Weston and I desperately hustle to get out of the door by 7:30 every morning so she’s on time for school. Then I’ll typically take a few minutes for myself at a coffee shop, respond to emails, check in on our airbnb rentals in Tucson, events at Peralta, plan any upcoming trips, etc. and I’m off to work by 8:30. I’m the Director of Photography at Gerald Peters Gallery. My projects there are varied, but I mostly manage the studio and photograph 2D and sculptural artwork (which is super fun to shoot, and I feel a constant inspiration being around it all). I still make time for other projects I might be interested in exploring. I work with The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and shoot her properties in Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu nearly on a seasonal basis.

Everyday it feels cleansing and important for me to get in my body either by trail running or yoga, so I fit that in before I go home to cook dinner and start Weston’s bedtime routine (we’ve been obsessed with reading all the Harry Potter books recently).
On the weekends, my husband and I love taking little road trips. They make me feel alive to be moving and seeing and experiencing this part of the earth we live on. Sometimes I feel like I can’t get to it all fast enough. These days, I feel like what I shoot on those trips are what really matters to me right now.

What is your future vision for your business?

I’ve been really caught up in commercial work and looking for stability the last 5 years or so, (having a baby will do that to you!). I’m starting to feel settled and in a place where I’m ready to go back to my roots, but I’m taking my time considering it. Sometimes it feels like you can shoot something really special, you post it on instagram, it gets a bundle of “likes”, and then, that’s it! I want a different experience from creating prints, and I feel like I haven’t really figured it out yet in this digital era.

I’m interested in getting back into the darkroom for color printing. In some ways, I’m more of a multidisciplinary artist. I play with ceramics, draw, and collage. I really love working with my hands. I miss the tactileness of printing, and the value in shooting and creating a print that isn’t easily manipulated. So we’ll see...

Krysta at Peralta Studio, a creative space she opened with her husband this year.

What makes your pieces special?

Heart, skill and patience.

What's your favorite thing about your work?

Photography is a vehicle to explore anything you may be curious about and what you love. I feel strongly connected to the southwest. I was born in Albuquerque, I moved to Tucson when I was 8. I tried living outside the southwest a few times and was called back again and again. I know that this is my place. It resonated with me when Sally Mann said, “The things that are close to you are the things you can photograph the best. And unless you photograph what you love, you are not going to make good art.” For me, photography is a means to living presently in and observing light, landscape, architecture, in-situ still lives, and generally the southwest.

What's the biggest challenge you face in your work?

Trying to kill my ego. For a long time, I would put a lot of thought into what kind of photographer I wanted to be and what kind of artist, mom, and person I wanted to be. It’s easy to confuse ambition for ego. I’m realizing that when we’re concerned about who we think we are, it only hinders ourselves from being who we truly are. So, I try to assure myself that what I’m doing right now is enough and that every job I take builds the backbone of my work, even if it’s not work I’m particularly proud of or drawn to, I’m still growing/learning from it. Letting go of the idea that I might not be a photographer who’s known for something enables me to just be. It allows me to follow curiosities in a playful and authentic way rather than thinking about it like a performance.

Who do you go to for professional advice, and what's the best advice they've given you?

I go to my friends. Every few weeks I talk to Kat Borchart who was my roommate in college and is also a photographer in LA. She’s my person I can check in with about absolutely anything. It’s a real gift to have people in your life who know you and care about you enough to be honest with you.

Some of Krysta’s drawings and paintings in her office at Peralta Studio.

What advice can you give to budding creatives and entrepreneurs in Santa Fe?

Reflect on the time of day and scenario you feel most productive and creative in and honor it, no matter how strange it is. Surround yourself with people who also respect that space for you and want to support you. It’s a challenge to define your boundaries and work within them without coming off as a diva. But if you want to work in creative fields, you can’t dig deep by just working harder, you have to find the sweet spot where you can also focus.

I like asking other artists I admire about their most creative times of day. My pottery teacher told me he likes to work at 4 am because it’s densely quiet and there’s quite literally nothing else for him to do but throw pots.

My husband and I go on road trips when we we need a good brainstorming session, something about the movement of the car, the open space and getting out of our normal trapline helps us think. Trail running also does that for me on a more regular basis. So, I prioritize running at least twice a week. I rarely listen to music with words because I’m in it for that bliss of free flowing undisrupted thought. I try to journal for a few minutes afterwards so I don’t forget what I was thinking about!

When and why did you decide to move to Santa Fe?

It was sort of gamble. We loved living in Tucson, but it was too hot for my PCNW blooded husband, and I was feeling slow in work. Our daughter wasn’t in school yet, so we figured we could try a few other cities before settling down, and even if we returned back to Tucson, we’d have the satisfaction of knowing we landed where we wanted to be. We tried Santa Fe for it’s four seasons, lack of traffic, ability to be active year round, and also its geographic proximity to other great areas of the southwest. We love being so close to Arizona, Texas, Utah and Colorado. We really love the smaller towns of northern New Mexico: Truchas, Abiquiu, Chimayo, Dixon, Llano. It feels so rich in beauty.

If you could change one thing about Santa Fe, what would it be?

The tortillas are not as good in New Mexico as they are in Arizona. FACT.

What are you passionate about outside of your craft?

Trail running, sleeping well, sleeping outside, soaking, yoga, staring at clouds and trees and rocks and water. Going to my friends house in Abiquiu and riding their dirt bikes into the sunset!! I go through phases of working with clay and feel pretty intrigued with that right now.

At the end of the day, why do you do what you do?

I’m not sure I have a good answer for this, not in the way that a scientist or a politician or a doctor might have clear reasoning for their vocation. I just started on a path when I was 16 and have been making little pivots ever since. It matters to me to have freedom, to follow curiosity. I think that’s ultimately why I landed where I am, and who knows where it will lead.

Krysta Jabczenski, Photographer

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