Shoot the Breeze: Stefanie Moshammer

Austrian photographer Stefanie Moshammer is interested in scenes of fantasy and hyperbole.  Documenting the saturated, excess-driven aspects of America, Stefanie is a documentary photographer with an eye for the illusory. Somehow even her nature photography retains the same penchant for luxury and mythology.  Stefanie is most known for her documentary series “Vegas and She.” a depiction of Las Vegas through the eyes of a handful of exotic dancers whom she got to know over a two-month period. “Vegas and She” comes out in book form at the end of the month. – CM

45_moshammer_vegas_she
Moshammer_2
22_dog_1413_new

1. Why do you take photos?
It’s a key to experience and to catch a glimpse of lives outside your own world. Also, I believe the more you deal with other people the more you deal with yourself – photography helps to reflect and to understand, like a visual anthropologist.

2. Do you carry your camera with you everywhere you go?
No, not everywhere. Mostly when I work on something and when I travel.

3. What celebrity would you like to shoot most?
Kendrick Lamar


moshammer_13
13_dog_1363

05_moshammer_vegas_she

4. What animal would you like to be, if not a human?
A turtle

5. What is your favorite smell?
Cinnamon

6. Would you like to live forever?
No, I want to experience it to the limit. Living forever, means no limit.


moshammer_07
30_moshammer_vegas_she
moshammer_17
16_dog_1311

7. What do you think is the best photo you have ever taken to date?
One photo of my series “Vegas and She”. It’s a girl in a Mickey Mouse T-Shirt, posing like a model in one of the worst neighborhoods of Las Vegas. That photo represents so much the bitter sweetness of Las Vegas, and the raw energy of life – through the lense, right into your face.

8. What’s your favorite pastime?
Eating

tumblr_mz5x56db9U1rijhzbo1_500
19_moshammer_vegas_she
07_moshammer_vegas_she
moshammer_20b
9. Do you like having your photo taken?
Sometimes – depends how I feel and who is taking it.

10. Who are your favorite photographers, currently?
Viviane Sassen, Sophie Calle, Alex Prager… A few months ago I stumbled upon Lorenzo Vitturi’s project called “Dalston Anatomy” and I think it’s fantastic. Pieter Hugo, Richard Mosse’s work “Infra,” and Ukrainian Collective Gorsad Kiev.