Nolan Hall's "Peregrines"
Nolan Hall plans to split the 20 or so shots from his new show, Peregrines, nearly down the middle — nine black-and-white shots, and 11 colored shots. Or, vice versa. He can’t recall for sure. The decision could come late. In-between a hallmark North Shore winter and a busy travel season managing the Vans team, it was almost a miracle that he could focus on putting a show together, Hall says.
Hall’s lush lifestyle images have earned acolytes across California and beyond. Typically shot on film, they are honest and unadorned. We caught up with Hall as he was putting the final touches on his show—which premieres April 2nd, at Los Angeles’ Paul Loya Gallery—to talk about creative inspiration, what unnerves him, and how deadlines can miraculously work in your favor.
Do you normally prepare that early for shows?
I feel like I’m usually pretty on it as far as getting stuff done on personal deadlines I set for myself. I’ve definitely had shows where it’s right up to getting pieces back from the framer, stuff is being hung. Paul [Loya] and I had talked about doing a solo show maybe two years ago. We talked about certain dates. He was always like, “Maybe we could do it at this time?” and I’d say, “Ahh I can’t, I’m going to be in Hawaii for two months, I just have zero time” He hit me up right before the Triple Crown and asked me if the beginning of April would work. I had worries that it wasn’t enough time, but he said, “Let’s just do it and we’ll figure it out.” So he sent me all the dimensions for the space and I did the math of how many pieces I needed and broke it all down. It somehow worked out that everything got planned in time.
Does that help your creative process, needing to choose pieces in a shorter amount of time?
Yeah, I think I work better when I have a finish line. If I had more time, I’d find a way to procrastinate, get lost in options, and waste time. I think the selection process is different for other mediums, too. Like, painting for a show could require different deliberation. I think with photography, trying to think of a theme or packaging a particular body of work helps. A lot of it for me is beach and surf culture images, so I think that’s an easy one to grab onto as the theme of my show, and then to build from there.
If mediums force artists to consider different qualities for a show, how was it picking the sections for this one?
I was a little more scrambled. When Paul and I were initially talking, I was all over the place. Do we need to show new stuff that’s never been seen? Some bangers that are favorites of mine? I got to talking with friends and came to the conclusion that just because you’ve shown certain photos or they were printed in certain publications, a lot of people haven’t seen them. A lot of this show isn’t super new, but it’s stuff that’s never really been up for sale. I don’t know. I think in my head, I freak out and think my material is so old. But in reality, I’ve probably only shown it one or two times in really small shows.
Who were the other artists you drew inspiration from when you first started shooting?
Thomas Campbell was probably one of the first. My dad gave me this old Nikon camera when I was younger, and at a certain point I thought that I could do similar work to what he was doing. I had friends who surfed and were artists –- I could go document them. I grew up surfing with Devon Howard, and he was working at Longboard Magazine at the time. [Artist] Andy Davis, Alex Knost, and I hung out pretty much every day. We’d end up down at Andy’s house, go surf, and he’d let us crash at his place. Andy would be painting. The time spent with those guys had a huge impact on me when I was younger.
Your lifestyle shots are really candid, but they still require stillness and observation to take in the moment of the shot. Do you think the reflective qualities of your shots make a gallery selection difficult?
That’s interesting, because whenever you’re shooting digital or when you get your film back, and you’re going through your shots, you have the tendency to disregard details in the moment. And then maybe you revisit that roll a year later, and you think, “This is a cool photo. Why didn’t I catch this before?” That’s true for a lot of photographers, but you’re connected with the actual moment of what was happening, where you shot the photos or what state of mind you were in, rather than just seeing an image when you know nothing about it and are examining it out of context.
Did anything you try out for this gallery make you nervous?
I like to experiment here and there, whether it’s different techniques or methods, or whether that’s how I operate the camera or how I alter the chemistry when I’m developing shots. It’s a little scary when you think you have some good stuff on the roll, and you really hope there’s some good stuff on there, because you’ve never tried something before. So it’s a little worrying. But that’s why photography is fun, because it’s a challenge. Not in the sense that it’s a puzzle, necessarily, but that it’s ever-changing. And you’re never going to be completely satisfied with what you create.
[For more information about “Peregrine” at the Paul Loya Gallery, visit Nolan’s website here]
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