It was a chance encounter that helped set photographer Amy Lombard’s career in motion. She was on her way to meet a friend for lunch when she struck up a conversation with a documentary film student. Everyone has a story worth telling, the student told Amy. “We never met again, but something about that encounter really resonated with me,” she shares. “I was shy, but suddenly I developed this fearless demeanor and was able to talk to and document strangers I was meeting on the street. That was it for me. I decided that I wanted to build my life with photography.”
Amy has now established a career around documenting people and their stories. Now, she joins the ranks of the VSCO Artist Initiative as she continues with her latest series of images for which she documents unique, subcultural meet-ups. View a selection of Amy’s previous work below, and learn more about her forthcoming project.
When asked what influences and inspires her, Amy cites the broad spectrum of American culture at large, ranging from reality television to Cindy Sherman. “Ultimately I’m interested in documenting the experiences, people, and phenomenons that influence us,” she says, “from celebrities, to film, to politics.” Using these subjects as a starting point, Amy has dived into American subcultures, discovering all different walks of life. Over the past few years, she’s become drawn towards documenting people who share a mutual interest or passion, evolving into her “Meetups” body of work. “This is a commonality you’ll see in everything from my series Doggies and Tiaras to my assignment work photographing Bronies,” she says. “I feel like all of the work I’ve been doing up until now has led me to this point. My goal is to map out the interests and individuals that are both known and unknown to the masses.” The interests she documents are varied, and range from upbeat to absurd. Regardless, she says, “it’s about elevating and humanizing these experiences no matter how small or large they might be in the grand scheme of what makes up our daily lives.”
Amy’s style is colorful, upfront, observant — drawing attention to unique moments and unordinary scenes. What she hopes to call attention to most are instances observing human interaction. “People always talk about how we’re too connected to our phones, and that we’re losing sight of human-to-human contact. While certain sides of this argument are undeniable, I want my project to shed an optimistic, human aspect in regards to that.” In fact, it’s because of social interactions online that Amy’s projects even exist. “Thanks to the Internet, in 2015 you don’t have to feel alone in your interests. There are message boards, Facebook groups, meet-ups, etc. How extraordinary is that?” she exclaims. Amy’s Meetup projects exemplify this. For instance, her series “Doggies and Tiaras” captures pet owners and their pets at beauty pageants for dogs. Amy explains, “This body of work is not interesting because of the dogs, it’s interesting because of the owners who make up this very specific New York social circle.” Ultimately, Amy’s Meetup projects aim to capture these circles and all their specificities. Because, she says, “These groups of people I will meet might be hyperlocal in a sense, but they speak to a larger idea of our society as a whole.”
Looking ahead, Amy is excited to grow her project through the Artist Initiative. “The VSCO community is unlike any other community; getting to share the progress of a project I feel extremely passionate about is something I’m looking forward to.”
