Episode 117: Amy Touchette / Photographer / Writer

Dec 5, 2019

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Brooklyn based photographer, writer, and educator Amy Touchette joins the podcast to talk about her work as a street and documentary photographer and portraitist, and how tragedy and the reminder of her own mortality is what caused her to reevaluate her life and career in the publishing world and set out to pursue a life dedicated to visual storytelling, as well as living her own truth. Amy was always an artistic kid with a passion for reading, writing, and creating art in general. She continued to pursue that passion studying literature in college with dreams of teaching and writing. After earning her masters degree in San Francisco, she ended up in New York City working in the publishing industry and slowly making her way to a position as a managing editor. Before long however, she was yearning for a more creative outlet and realized that she was building a career she didn't love. She was painting a lot, but felt like she wanted something that would pull her out of her own solitary world and found photography, inspired by the characters of the NYC streets. But it was the tragedy of 9/11 that would give her another reminder that life can sometimes be cut too short, and to not waste anymore time doing things she wasn't passionate about, and she began chasing her creative aspirations with a more focused dedication. During our conversation Amy tells me what inspired her to take on a 4 year long personal project of photographing and living with the burlesque dancer The World Famous Bob and the book "Shoot the Arrow" that would help establish her in the photography world, the inspiration she finds everyday from wandering the streets of New York and the characters that inhabit it, what she's learned about the human condition from years of street interactions, what inspires her to keep moving forward, and the advice she gives to others who want to pursue a more creative lifestyle.