Exclusive Interview with Contemporary Photographer and Director Patrick Hoelck

Patrick Hoelck is a Santa Monica-born, contemporary photographer and director who has created music videos, photography, short stories, videos, films, painting, fashion and advertising.

In his early teens, Hoelck made his way to New York City where he was quickly absorbed into the lawless city streets of the 1980s and at sixteen began directing music videos during the emergence of rap music.

In 2002, Hoelck self-published his first book of photographs and short stories, entitled TAR, which was the catalyst for his emergence as a professional photographer. He gained momentum after friend Vincent Gallo chose him to shoot the cover of Flux magazine over the late Richard Avedon. He has since shot for major editorial, fashion and advertising clients. His subjects include celebrities and musicians such as, Clint Eastwood, Emily Blunt, James McAvoy, Samuel L Jackson, Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Anna Paquin, and Katie Holmes.

In 2010, he made his feature film directorial debut with "Mercy", winning Best Director and Best Film in the Savannah Film festival. While his film enjoys success Hoelck continues to explore the intricacies of human nature through the lens.

His 2011 book of Polaroids is entitled Polaroid Hotel. Its book signing and exhibition enjoyed great success, hosted by LEADAPRON, curated by OH WOW, and receiving praise from Art in America. A current project is aninterview.tv, his celebrity video interview series. Hoelck currently lives and works between Los Angeles and New York City and continues to shoot for clients all over the world as well as expand upon his body of fine art.

What prompted your move, in your early teens, from Santa Monica to New York City?

My girlfriend moved there first and she kept calling saying how much I would like it and that she had a great idea. It turned out she was working with a great director and he agreed to give me some work if I came. It was all I needed to hear. A few days later, I was in New York City.

How did you become interested in photography?

It was a way to express myself without needing a large team. I was coming off of large-scale sets, where there were huge crews and I realized with stills, all I needed was me and a camera.

How did you learn to be a photographer? Self-taught? Classes? Did you apprentice with another photographer?

Self-taught. I would shoot and make a ton of notes in a journal. I would also interview the ninjas at the processing labs day and night, asking them for advice.

An early break came for you when your friend and artist Vincent Gallo specially requested using you, rather than Richard Avedon, for the cover of the British magazine “Flux”. How did that play out? Did you get any pushback from the magazine? Did that job open doors? Did Avedon recover from the loss?

Thank God for Vincent. No pushback. Gallo doesn’t let clients visit sets. He’s pretty clever that way. Avedon probably didn’t lose any sleep. LOL.

How did you become interested in writing short stories?

Writing has always been therapeutic for me. I was always armed with pen and paper. Whenever I was feeling up or down, I would write.

Music videos, photography, short stories, videos, films, painting, fashion and advertising clients, work with celebrities. Are you a Renaissance man? Which of these do you prefer and why?

I think they all lead to people. I seem to like people, all kinds. Also, anytime I’m not working on something, I sit in ideation. If I stay in ideation too long, I catch an overwhelming sadness. When I get into the action of things, I reach a flow and the flow keeps me up and fresh. I love when I’m working and notice the sun going down. I can sit with myself and know I did my best and didn’t think for another day. LOL.

With all the advancement in digital photography, why go back to doing Polaroids?

I have been working on a series since 2004. I’m currently going back to scan the roll films for it and I’m realizing digital isn’t great. It’s kind of like eating McDonalds and realizing you have forgotten what good food tastes like.

What remains on your bucket list?

A novel for sure.

Among the celebrities with whom you’ve worked are: Clint Eastwood, Emily Blunt, James McAvoy, Samuel L Jackson, Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Anna Paquin, Parker Posey, Peter Sarsgaard, Liv Tyler, Zachary Quinto, Diane Kruger, Norman Reedus, and Katie Holmes. Any stand out as particularly memorable?

They all could take a page or two in stories. I started aninterview.tv to share a bit more of the experience when I’m working with people. It shows a good cut down of how the days go.

Patrick Hoelck with actor Norman Reedus.

[Check out Hoelck’s interviews with Norman Reedus and Liv Tyler]

Your previously sold out book, Polaroid Hotel, is now available as an app, Patrick Hotel by Patrick Hoelck, which allows people to create their own Polaroids. How did you come up with that idea and is it the first app enabling people to do that?

It’s my first app. I have always been curious about the app world and I realized that the physical book had its limits, but with the app I was able to add commentary and communicate the experience of when I was shooting the image.

Polaroid Hotel, which was first a book and then an exhibit, consisted of photos taken over the course of seventeen years, largely at the Standard Hotel in New York City. What was the origin of the idea, why that particular hotel, and why seventeen years?

Knowing that the new series I was working on would take many more years to complete, I wanted to do something in the interim. I was talking with a good friend of mine who is part of the hotel business and I remember saying, “Hey, what if I put a Polaroid in every room in all your hotels?” He was kinda scratching his head with the idea. The book turned out to be a compilation of specific moments from my life from the past 17 years. I had about 2,000 photos in total. Whenever I enter a room, or go on location, I'm drawn to something immediately. It could be a heater coil, or your fingers. I shoot reactively--I don't have a deep reasoning for what I photograph. I always seem to wander around when I'm on a job. I'd take all these Polaroids and then just put them away. Eventually, I started to look at what I had and the edit followed. We showed a bit in one of his hotels and it just kind of built out into a show, then a book, then more shows and finally an app.

You raised money for Polaroid Hotel through crowdfunding. What gave you the idea to do that, how did you do it, and how did it work out?

Great question. I became obsessed with micro financing. I even started because.me because of that project. Kickstarter introduced me to a whole new audience. The donations came from all over the world. They overfunded the project, giving me the dough to make the app. It was the first show and book I had ever done that won before the opening. Not only did 3,500 people from the project come to the show, but they insisted on buying the book and not taking a free one. One woman came from Europe for the opening in LA and when I asked her why, she said she was just happy to see it all realized. What an experience that was.

You and photography peer Michael Muller started a program called Photo School together, a series of online tutorial videos that offer aspiring photographers lessons in everything from camera phone photography to complex lighting techniques. What do you get out of this? Doesn’t it take time away from your own creative pursuits?

Yes, but everything does. We found that we have both flown around the world talking about technique and teaching. We have both have taught classes and one day Patrick Riley and Jason Kristopher, founders of Krop creative said, “Why physical events? Just do virals on how to do the ninja shit and explain how the technique is done.” We are excited to come out of beta now and opening the company up to a much larger concept.

You have formed The Grey Organization, dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established. The Grey Organization will partner with filmmakers, both established and unknown alike, and develop material through a collaborative effort for international distribution. Could you update us on its efforts?

With The Grey Organization, I have been working with a hand full of filmmakers and artists who are building a platform to view content that the audience can support through paying what they feel it is worth. Inspired by the Radiohead release a few years back, the fans decide if the content is of interest and support it with an amount they feel it is worthy of. It’s very different than the free digital content world. I’m excited to see if it goes anywhere.

One of the Grey film makers cut together a really cool 3 minute piece from my mini DVD footage of The Game during a photoshoot in South Central Los Angeles. There is a part where The Game has the LAPD go and get my crew Starbucks. The kids sit in the edit bay cheering a moment that I had thrown in a storage bin. I always scratch my head with what people take from a clip. It’s a sort of vintage dv meets modern pop culture series. I do some narration and put in some of the unseen images from past shoots.

Could you share a bit about your directorial debut in 2009 with the independent romantic drama, Mercy, written and produced by Scott Caan?

I was in Costa Rica with Scott eating dinner, and he told me in a very firm Scott way, “When we get back, you’re doing a movie.” Mercy ended up being the film. It was a dream of mine since I was probably 13 to make a movie. I had many ideas come and go, but when I read Mercy and was able to contribute at will to the project, I was ready. Mercy was one of my best learning experiences. I’m getting the itch to do another film in the very near future.

You created bcause, a crowdfunding platform that backs the life of the artist. What is it, and how does it accomplish its mission?

This goes back to the Kickstarter project. I felt like artists do way more than the one project and I wanted to create a platform that would support the life of the artist rather than a single project. The mission, I feel, is a life goal with no real beginning and no real end.

Could you enlighten us about two of your other projects needing funding -- World Portrait, an open invite to artists around the world to create their own renditions of portraits—and your new book, Mute Landslides?

World I have put on hold for now. Mute is continuous. I have been shooting the series since 2004. It’s a grouping of thousands of short prose stories from my life and over four thousand images of women who have shared a deep amount of soul and intimacy in front of both print and motion cameras. The final days are coming. Now I begin the journey on how to release and distribute a project that has grown much larger than I could have ever imagined.

Have you had failures in your career? What have you learned from them?

Every day to throw a few “fuck yous,” “I’ll get yous,” “I will burn down your worlds,” then go for a walk or have a coffee with friends and get my ass back to work.

What apps, software and web services are you currently using, and why do you like them?

Well of course, Polaroid Hotel because I worked so hard on it. I’m going through a social media exhaustion. I’m wondering what’s next. I get that everyone is a channel and a show, but it’s noisy and exhausting to peep the timeline on them. We hate Trump, save the transgender bathrooms, fuck the police, I’m naked again look at me, I just had the best time on the private plane, look at my photo I’m cool, I promise, I’m at Coachella in the artist section, yayyyyyy, I’m full of culture, look at me at the opening of the Broad museum, oh here’s another shot of shoes. It’s almost like the generation is in the Matrix: a bunch of wet brain consumers.

What other jobs have you done en route to becoming a professional photographer? Did you have a fallback career in mind in case this one didn’t work out?

I didn’t. Someone said to me the other day, “Ya know why you’re doing good?” I said, “Why?” He said, “Cause you never had a Plan B.” LOL.

Would you do anything differently if you were starting over?

I would have started meditation sooner if I knew how much it would help me in my life.

What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

Hmmm. I was in a band in NYC that opened up for some really big bands. My friend calls me to this day saying we all fucked up and should have kept it going.

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