Space Miner / Exploring with Paul Octavious Cribb

11 May ∞

Exploring with Paul Octavious Cribb

A Chicago-based artist, designer, imaginer, and photographer shares the magic to his methods.

Those who fanatically follow Paul’s flickr stream might wonder what planet he comes from. I found out. It’s a land where suburbs are forested and full of tiny hand-drawn creatures, parents soak up coffee-flavored fountains of youth, and skyscrapers are easily skipped over in supportive shoes. Come visit with me.

Where do you come from?

I’m from a little gem of a town in Connecticut called Naugatuck.

What’s your day job? Where do you live now?

I went to CCSU in Connecticut and trained as a Graphic Designer for four years. The only reason I started taking photos was to get images that fit my exact vision, instead of using the same stock photos everyone in my class was using for our assigned projects. So I bought a digital SLR and haven’t stopped since then. I started shooting in November 2005, graduated in 2006, and then in late 2007 moved to Chicago to work for Skinnycorp where I took product shots for Threadless.

I’m currently still in Chicago and I freelance as a designer and photographer.

Shopping spree of a craft store — what’s in your cart and what are you going to do with it?

I would go for an x-acto knife, the largest cutting mat I could find, construction paper, wire, a moleskine hardcover notebook, neon acrylic paints, lots of tape and string, black sharpies, any type of clip lights, and a life-sized skeleton model.

With the construction paper and wire, I want to create a story line and try photographing intricate shadow puppets monsters with scenery and people interacting with them in some way. I think this would look awesome.

I would use black sharpies to write and draw in the moleskines, which I use to doodle and write notes for future photo ideas. I have a hard time creating something that I haven’t thought through, really dwelled upon, prior to creating it. It just doesn’t work otherwise. I need a pretty clear road map of what I’m about to create. If I don’t, the outcome usually disappoints me.

The neon acrylic paints would provide color for aesthetic reasons in hopes they would sprout creative ideas. Also, I would like to simply use them somehow in a portrait shoot or a still life.

You can’t go wrong with tape and string. It’s a staple in my collections of thing I need to have. I think of myself as a cardboard connoisseur. I feel I can make anything out of this material and if its corrugated, I have hit the jackpot! The tape and string play a big part in the cardboard creations. This weekend I’m going to attempt to make a cardboard guitar case for a shoot idea I have.

An idea of a life-sized skeletal bones (and miniatures) has been driving my mind crazy lately. I really just need to get it out.

I think clip lights or any hardware light can give your photography a totally unique look. It’s what I started to experiment with when I first started, and I continue to do so.

I love using the x-acto knife to cut up paper and make mini dioramas, and then photograph them. I’m currently obsessed with vinyl records. Not really for the music but for the sleeve art. The artwork on some vinyl records are genius and the colors amazing. I started playing with this idea of cutting out elements of a vinyl album sleeve and fusing it with the actual vinyl records in some fashion. I’m starting to get the hang of it.

Who are your heroes?

I know it’s probably cliché, but my parents are my heroes: smart, strong individuals who have always supported me and are my number one fans — I love them for that. When I was able to take portraits of my parents covered in coffee grounds, I knew they were special people and behind me 1000 percent!

If you could jump into any book or movie, what would it be?

Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums. The detail in that movie amazes me. I want to take photographs like that movie, if that even makes sense!