An Interview with Kelsy Mooneyham of Wanderer Photography
Eric Gasa
Its 10:51 pm on a Saturday night during what is by far my most unorthodox interview yet. Horribly and hopelessly unprepared, no laptop, no recorder and armed only with my iPhone, notebook and pen, we haphazardly sit atop the roof of a 2004 Nissan Xterra, words exchanging and pen scribbling; the red neon Steak and Shake sign blinking behind us.
Impromptu? Positively, but the nature of this interview simply adds to the spontaneity, eccentricity and character of my latest subject, who lays sprawled out on her back as we talk, floral Doc Martens kicked up and eyes staring boringly at the sky. She sits up to make a statement and her profile is silhouetted peculiarly by the red neon.
“I would consider myself a romanticist,” she says as she looks off into the parking lot, “But I don’t want to be labeled as such…”
She continues to talk as I look up from my pad and notice the stark, rosy light outlining her frame, conjuring up a very interesting profile. She looks almost like an old photo; a washed-out Polaroid if you will. If I were a photographer and not a writer I would be snapping a shot but alas that isn’t my job nor forte. No, the pleasure would be hers.
The lady sitting in the light is a dear friend, Kelsy Mooneyham; owner/operator of Wanderer Photography as well as a local artist trying to carve out her name in the Springfield art scene.
Kylie Green- Wanderer Photography
At 19, Mooneyham looks and dresses like a 1960’s poster-child yet refuses to be called a hippie; run into her head-banging at metal shows and she will quickly spare herself the title of metal head; her Nissan Xterra may constantly bump Malawian Afro-Pop from its subwoofers but take heed before writing her off as a hipster.
No, Mooneyham prefers to be her own character. She shrugs off the many comparisons with a scowl, “Labels suck,” she says, “How about being more original.”
Charismatic, outspoken, and fluent in sarcasm, Mooneyham has an eye for the odd, eccentric and otherwise weird sensibilities of photography. Tag along with her on photo shoots and one will find his or herself doing a number of things from kicking down abandoned hotel doors and chaining stuffed animals to dog leashes to smearing ice cream on her otherwise surprised and hapless models.
“I want people to feel something,” Mooneyham says plainly about her work, and quite frankly that sums up the mission of her photo gallery; a working formula of Bohemian and angel-faced models, staring intently at the camera but better yet directly into the emotions of the audience.
“I want to make poetry with my work,” she says, “I want to exemplify the unique personalities of me and my models. Even if that poetry means a handful of macaroni and rolls of toilet paper.”
Mooneyham is referencing her latest shoot with Amanda Patrick, a project that pitted the model delicately posing in a toilet paper-strewn bathroom, holding nothing more than her dignity and a Tupperware tub filled with macaroni.
Patrick looks on, eyes shadowed with bejeweled stickers, hair fixed in wild, Miley Cyrus-style pigtails, and her face angled down towards a toilet seat lined with Easy Mac.
The description evokes the ecstatic scenes from a fever dream, or maybe a trap house, but what Mooneyham captures in her work is a stylishly disturbing and beautifully dysfunctional imagination.
Amanda Patrick- Wanderer Photography
She aspires to juxtapose the escapist with the ordinary and in the process creates a wild expanse for us to get lost in between.
“Kelsy is full of great ideas while being open to her models’ ideas at the same time,” says Chey Watson, a previous model of Mooneyham’s, whose last shoot featured her plastered in white face and gesturing with handfuls of angel hair pasta.
“It’s absurd to think of models draped in spaghetti but I think the idea of messy tomato-sauced noodles and a facial mask made for an artful juxtaposition,” she adds, in regard to the project, “It was a shoot inspired by Toilet Paper Magazine but Kelsy made it entirely her own.”
Chey Watson- Wanderer Photography
Grace Laface and Chey Watson – Wanderer Photography
“So what makes a good photo?” I ask. Mooneyham responds with a terse look.
“I don’t like that question,” she says, “Let’s skip it.”
I reply back, a little puzzled, “Why?”
“I don’t know, a good picture just looks good,” she says, “There isn’t much to it. You either like it or you don’t.”
Jade Baker- Wanderer Photography
We later talk about her favorite photographers but she has close to none.
“I don’t like to look at others people’s work because I don’t want their style influencing me,” she says, “I want to keep my art as ‘me’ as possible.”
This statement perplexes me but suddenly makes sense.
“No. I need to focus on my work. I don’t want anyone changing my style.”
Steadfast, Kelsy is some kind of rare breed.
She later tells of how her photography passion started; taking pictures of her cousins and the trees in Texas with her iPhone a few summers ago.
It’s a major far cry from her current portfolio; snap shots of models covered in dollar bills, sensually sprawled over laundromat washing machines, but this is the exact style that Mooneyham wants to convey in her work.
Tayler Brandenburg- Wanderer Photography
“I don’t want people just to see a pretty face; I want them to feel something,” she explains.
The topic shifts to Mooneyham’s newest project; her very first photo show which is slated for September 10, 8pm at the Sprout House. THE PHotoArt SHOW, put together by Springfield, Mo zine, The Thread, is a local photography showcase featuring work from Wanderer Photography as well as Lydia Jordan Smith and Mary Fox.
“I’ve been busy doing a million different things preparing, but it’s going to be amazing,” Mooneyham says.
As the interview comes to a close, Kelsy and I step down from the roof of the SUV and onto the pavement. There are a few more questions to be asked as we make our way through the Steak & Shake parking lot where there is a six foot tall standup sign that reads “ALL YOU CAN EAT PANCAKES $3.99” in big red letters. Kelsy naturally gravitates towards it while I am mid-sentence.
“Hey take a picture of me,” she asks.
I shrug as she hands me her iPhone. I guess I finally got my wish.
Kelsy makes a series of the dopiest most lethargic faces as she leans up on the sign, arms outstretched and face grinning. I take about four to five pictures and she smiles approvingly as she swipes through them on her phone thereafter.
“Oh my god,” she says, “I look pregnant.”
She snickers again.
“That’s perfect. That’s me.”
Preview Kelsy’s work this Thursday 8pm at the PHotoArt Show, Sprout House, Springfield, Mo.
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