Erika DuFour

I first met Erika in college at Columbia in Chicago. She has this amazing sense of color and the figure as well as the knack for making the softest images with hard light. I had wanted to interview her because I was at her studio on a shoot when we began to talk shop. Erika had worked in the studio in school, and she is so great with light that I was surprised to learn she didn't get the best grades in studio lighting classes in college. So Erika, for all the students out there, how does one go from there to here?

Erika: I began lighting things when I took my first photo class in high school using lamps and bulbs and whatever was handy, not even knowing why or what I was doing. I think it gave me a sense of control in whatever I did. In college I was exploring so many things and was inspried with my studio I lighting class, which was using hot lights. I think that I entered my advanced studio lighting class with the wrong attitude. I personally was uninspired by the teacher, but I should have known better than to not try my ass off. After that class, though, I did propel forward and started exploring lighting more and more and started copying other lighting to learn more techniques. I still do the same now.

I then decided to intern for a few photographers. First was Marc Lind who I assisted in the darkroom printing his artwork. I then worked for one of my teachers, William Frederking, who is a dance photographer. Being that I was an ex dancer and interested in movement, I thought it was a good stepping stone. I then realized I needed to step out of the school realm and work for a comercial photographer. I interviewed with a few photographers and ended up working for Barbara Karant who is an architectural photographer. She referred me to other architectural photographers to assist for, thus the beginning of my assisting career.

After graduation, I immediately starting assisting commercial photographers. They ranged from people shooters, food, product and architecture. In the meantime, I was continuing to shoot my own work. I shot for local dance companies as well as any other work that would come my way, as well as making artwork. Immersed in the assisting world, I learned what it took to be a photographer, and started thinking about how I wanted my business to be or not to be, and what my goals were.

My biggest goal was not to follow in other people's footsteps in terms of imagery, to keep my photography as original and artistic as possible, yet still usable in the commercial field.

I was always expected to shoot dancers in the common Lois Greenfield way, which I resisted and pushed against. I try to sell the concept of abstraction and emotion in dance as opposed to the obvious photo of a dance move. I carried that idea to my other work and started building my portfolio.

I shot for SLAM basketball magazine which was the beginning of my veering off the dance photos yet using my dance photo skills in other movement, such as sports, action, etc. I decided to quit assisting after my fifth or sixth year. It was a gradual quitting, trying to balance making rent and getting enough shoots to do so. From then, I continued to build my book, doing freebie shoots and whatever came my way. I had built my book to a point where I felt ready to show to advertising agencies, but chose to show my work to a photo rep to get a second opinion on my work. I was fortunate to know Emily Inman who was repping many of the photographers I'd worked for in the past. I trusted her opinion since she had been in the business for a long time and she asked me if I wanted her to rep me. I gasped and said yes (it almost felt like she asked me to marry her).

She began showing my book around to ad agencies, yet I didn't get much work for two to three years. Knowing that I wouldn't get work from ad agencies right away, I figured it was worth while sticking it out and giving it time. In the meantime, I started building my client base and started shooting more regularly as well as having my husband, Joe Phillips, as the studio manager. He helped build up the website and web promotions. The wait was well worth the while. I started getting more and more shoots through Emily, launching my career in commercial photography even further.

The whole journey has been a continual evolution in my work. I have veered away from motion and more towards fashion and beauty. I learned that I shouldn't resist the flow of where my work goes and follow my ideas to the end and continuing to learn and change.

Nicole: I'd like to also have you comment a bit about your lighting. Your studio shelf is filled with glass domes. How did you come to love that as your modifier?

Erika: Everyone I assisted for used the softbox. I learned to hate this device. It seemed like it was a cop out. Just throw up the softbox and you're done, it looks okay. So I vowed never to use a softbox unless it was utterly necessary. This forced me to explore other ways to light. I started lighting with hard lights, bounce only, one bounce with one hard, using three straight bare heads to light a face. Daylight is also fantastic, then trying to emulate daylight, either full sun daylight, cloudy day daylight etc.

The glass domes I discovered when I was working on my art work. I was shooting abstractions, putting reflective spheres inside the glass domes. The domes are just simply light fixtures you see in every standard Chicago apartment which I realized I could just tape one onto a reflector and use it as a light source. It turned to light things soft hard- not as contrasty as a bare bulb, but not as diffused as a softbox. I also loved the element that I had found something cheap and effective to light with. I think you can buy those in photo stores, but they are plexi and extremely expensive.