Noah Vaughn of rubbishgoeshere.com

Tell me a little about yourself? Who are you? What do you do for work, fun?
I grew up in East Peoria, IL and moved to Chicago in 1989 to study painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After that I worked several odd jobs—the oddest one was Air Sampling Technician at asbestos abatement sites. Much of this work took place at vacant schools and abandoned industrial sites, which might explain the choice of subject matter in my photos. After that I started working for a library maintenance service, and I still do that today. When I’m not working or shooting, I’m usually on long meandering bike rides, making the occasional drawing or painting, or helping my girlfriend feed (and sometimes rescue) stray cats.

How did you first get into photography?
When I graduated from art school I was making paintings of urban landscapes, working either from direct observation or from drawings made in the field. This became more difficult when I started working day jobs, so I started to experiment with using photos for source material. I soon learned that I hated working from photographs, but that I sort enjoyed taking photos, so I just went with that.

What was your first camera ever? What camera did you use when you started your photoblog?
The first camera that I remember using was a plastic Holga-like camera when I was a kid. This was back when you could get black and white medium format film processed at a photo booth in the grocery store parking lot. My first “real” camera, given to me in the early 90’s, was a Canon AE-1 that I barely knew how to operate, and which I rarely used until around 2004. From that I graduated to several manual rangefinders. The first photos I posted online were shot with a Canon digital P+S. By the time I started the photoblog, I was working with a Canon 30D.

What equipment do you use now?
My current camera is a Canon 5dII, usually with a 17-40 zoom or 24mm tilt-shift lens affixed to the front.

What is on your wish list?
This isn’t exactly a wish list item, but I’d love to play around with large-format photography. But I’m afraid that I’d really like it, which would lead to more expenses and equipment purchases, so…maybe not.

Do you have any formal training in photography? If not, how did you learn and how far do you think you’ve come? Has the photoblog helped you grow and learn in your photography?
As I mentioned earlier, I studied painting in art school, and at the time I had no interest in photography—like a lot of painters, I was actually a bit anti-photography. Whatever I know about making photos I’ve picked up from talking to other photographers, reading books on photography, and trial and error (mostly error.) I’ve been shooting semi-seriously for 4 years now, and while I think my work has improved, I still feel like a beginner.

I have gotten a lot of feedback from posting my work online, and that is always encouraging. Just knowing that there are people following what I do has motivated me to keep at it.

How would you describe your photographic style?
I’m mostly interested in just making documents of the places that I shoot, so I try to avoid getting too “artsy” or abstract, and I keep the post-processing to a minimum. I don’t want to use the same devices that a lot of other “urban ruins” photos use like overly dramatic lighting, weird angles, and Photoshop abuse. I want to keep it simple and straightforward.

What aspect of your photography would you like to improve upon?
I’m sure there are a lot of little technical things I could improve on, but I’m much more concerned with content issues. Right now I think my photo subjects are kind of random, and I’d like to concentrate on more specific, long term photo projects. And I want more people in my photos. In the past I always worked to exclude figures in my street photography work, but lately I’ve been allowing the occasional passerby to wander through the frame. When they do, good things happen.