Ami Sioux Interview

LUCKY Megan got to interview one of the best photographers out there- Ami Sioux. Her photographs are always full of life, of love, of energy and probably most importantly- they’re full of Ami.

Originally from California and currently based in Paris, Ami’s incredible portraits and fashion work can be seen gracing the pages of Self Service, i-D magazine, Vogue Paris and the like. I was lucky enough to catch up with Ami for a chat to talk life, music, the photographic dance and her first two books Paris 48°49N and Reykjavik 64°08N. 

MC: Can you tell us about your photography at the start of your career, what kind of work were you producing back in New York the 90’s? 

AS: At that point, I didn’t have my own equipment. I was working a lot with Maria Cornejo and her husband Mark Borthwick lent me his Pentax 6X7 with a lot of lenses as he wasn’t using that camera anymore. I worked in a pretty traditional way. Studio lighting with soft boxes….the usual  “photographer” style. I remember my favorite series I did with that setup though..I loved it….I shot a series of portraits of all my friends…..Kids in NY who were just starting to become famous…..I photographed all of them showing me their cure for Hiccups.

Later on in my work, I evolved to joining the group of photographers who were leaving “technique” and working in a more “snapshot” way as I agreed strongly that a good photograph is one that engages in way that has less to do with the “ego” of the photographer…. My hero in kind of photography is Ari Marcopoulos.

MC: I just wanted to talk about your books which came out a little while ago, which are truly gorgeous. How did the idea for Paris 48°49N and the first book Reykjavik 64°08N come about?

AS: I was living in a squat in Berlin in 2001 after having left New York after everything that happened there, I had to take some time off. I had been a volunteer for 10 days at Ground Zero and this experience affected me a lot. While living in Berlin, I found that a lot of buildings were still deserted,  and many times in order to get to a party, you’d get a hand- drawn map to get there. This was the initial inspiration. I felt like the map was a portrait of the person who had drawn it for me, and then I decided to do this book series as an extension of my portrait work.

Read the full interview here.