Interview with Neil Krug & Joni Harbeck (Issue #6)

Neil Krug & Joni Harbeck are working together to create the “Pulp Art Book”.

CM: Why “Pulp”?

Hhhmmmmmmm, great question. We suppose maybe because it was never anything else in our minds but PULP and the ideas and characters we have created for this project. Both of us are inspired by similar things and are visually expressive in similar ways, so often one of our ideas was actually both of our ideas once it was mentioned. Often one of us has a thought and the other takes it further and it builds and builds between the two of us. The vintage, raw look of PULP and its concepts and controversial themes are expressions of what makes us tick. The JACKIE vignette is a great example of us pointing out in a shocking way how one unhappy event can lead to the demise of a person, whether it is a fantasy in their head or it actually happens.

CM: How and when this project was conceived?

PULP actually became PULP ART BOOK by the surprising reaction and following we achieved online by posting photos we were taking for fun. Late one night last january we were shooting Polaroids in our bedroom with a handmade indian headdress and a cigarette and once it posted online it blew up. Soon after, we decided to do a small book of our ideas and photos. Soon after that, it became this full-fledged coffee table book with different series and characters and hundreds of images.

Selling limited editions prints came much later when we were faced with needing something to sell or pitch to the public for an interview we were doing for The New York Times since the book was not ready for sales yet.

CM: What are your influences?

Our influences range from all forms of art, however PULP is especially tied to the artists of all mediums of the 1950s/60s/70s, as well as the cultural and domestic dynamics occurring during that time period.

- Which is your favorite camera? Why?

Our favorite camera is everyone we use! each camera interacts with the shot differently, each one distorts the colors differently, each camera captures the focus differently…

For PULP we are fond of Polaroids and expired films…especially since we are re-inventing and expressing the vintage past, it only seems fitting to use the camera methods and film of that era.

CM: Do you plan your photos or are they spontaneous?

Our ideas for the vignettes, in turn the photos themselves, are fairly complete ideas before we go and shoot. We have discussed at length the overall idea of what we want to capture, the mood, the angles and photos we envision beforehand. While shooting we usually capture what our plan was, however there is always the element of spontaneity…using both methods is the only way to go otherwise it’s too rigid or too unfocused.