Kate Siobhan, Unraveled | A Blog Interview

Kate Siobhan Mulligan is a worldwide travel and portrait photographer with a hunger for moment-driven images focused on humanity and culture. She is sponsored by Sony Canada, a published photographer and writer, worked with major travel brands, and has been teaching travel photography for 8+ years all around the world.  She also runs The Giving Lens, bringing together travel photography and humanitarian work, and has worked with dozens of NGOs worldwide. When not traveling she calls Victoria, Canada home and spends her time teaching, mentoring, running TGL, and being a mama.

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What inspires your art?

Travel came first. I grew up in a wealthy, ‘safe,’ boring, blaise, and obnoxiously rich part of Vancouver. My parents chose to raise us there for the mountains and beaches, but the downside was everything felt so shallow to me. I busted out after high school and already had this idea in my head that the opposite of being shallow and condescending and materialistic was to go backpacking. So I did. My first trip away was Australia at 19 years old for six months with my best friend and my future husband. But it wasn’t enough - I came back from that going ok cool, I lived simply but I basically just surfed and hung out. What difference did it make? So that inspired my second trip to three countries in East Africa, volunteering along the way. Striking out alone, going ‘that far,’ immersing myself in another culture, and using the time to serve and give and see more real sides of these places had me hooked. Hooked on experiencing and seeing first hand not only how differently people lived around the world - but also how much we had in common too. Hooked on forcing myself to smash stereotypes and see beyond my narrow views of the world. Hooked on humanity, everywhere I went. I’ve learned a lot since then - I know now that traveling and volunteering have dark sides and negative impacts - so I’ve since committed myself to educate other photographers on being more ethical, more respectful, more compassionate photographers - and travelers. Yet I remain hooked on humanity and that drags my cute butt to various corners of the Earth and my cup overflows from that. I am so grateful. 

So the travel first, and then the urge to tell the story came next. I originally wanted to be a travel writer and I went to university to get a Fine Art degree in Non Fiction, and I’m glad I have that degree but knowing what makes a strong story overlaps to all kinds of art. But writing takes time and I found photography to be a much faster, deeply satisfying release of my need to unfold a story.  At first, this desire was from a selfish place. I wanted to tell MY story of traveling around. But very quickly I learned that I was not the centre of the universe and stories about these places and these people were much, much more interesting. So I focused on trying to tell the visual story of the people I met and the lesser seen side of the place I go. Little scenes like chapters of a book, like pieces of a portrait, that when brought together paints a larger picture or tells a deeper story. 

The more I learned to really see through my lens - really see people, moments, details - the more I fell in love with our world and with the power photography has to contain an entire story in a single image. 

What do you shoot with? Camera body and favorite lens?

I began with a Canon Rebel xsi and a kit lens. Some of those images are still in my portfolio. It’s so much more about fighting/planning to be at the right place at the right time and waiting for fates to align than it is about lenses and gear. 

As I was making a name for myself, I used to pack a full bag with two bodies (canon 5d3’s) and 5 lenses. I thought in order to stand out in a genre dominated by men I needed all the tech to prove I deserved a spot in the line up.  It literally weighed me down, to where I no longer wanted to go shoot anything because the bag was such a burden. Heavy, too many creative options, but I had anxiety about leaving anything behind. This is when I switched to mirrorless and began to go lighter. I even backtracked to the cropped a6000 for a while with a pancake 35mm lens for a long time (and still do). It fit in anything and was super light and covered most of my bases. While it wasn’t ‘professional’ gear it opened many more creative doors for me. These days,  my go-to now is the Sony a7iii and a 35mm 1.4 lens. That’s my ultimate combo. I used to lean on the 24-70 2.8 though, that was my go-to travel lens for a very very long time.  I would recommend something like that to anybody breaking into travel as a genre. It’s versatile. For me, the versatility became an obstacle - I enjoy working within the limits of the 35mm, and the journalistic vibe of the length. 

What other ways do you express your creativity?

These days I bake bread from scratch and attempt to garden. I’m dusting off all my film cameras and getting back into that, learning how to scan film at home and prying at the local film shop a lot about methods. I want to capture the beautiful island I call home on film, that’s my hope for 2020 while none of us are traveling.  I work hard to help my daughter ask big questions and expose her to world issues so we can have hard conversations, somehow that fuels my desire to create and for my work to do better things for the world - so she is, in many ways, my greatest expression of all the creativity I have to give.  

How do you de-stress at the end of the day?

I mean, by the time I get my kid to sleep, I’m spent. I’d love to say I do yoga or drink tea or read books or all 3. The truth is I have a craft beer and watch something lovely and dumb, like Brooklyn 99. My brain is forever relieved to rest this way at the end of another long day. Some nights I feel itchy for fresh air and I fire up our firepit and take a drink outside and just sit. 

What kind of music do you listen to while editing?

I would love to say something really smart or worldly here but the truth is podcasts. All kinds of podcasts. Some are enriching like parenting podcasts, some are growth as a person like news or commentary. Some are business related, like understanding ads or a good website or write better copy. Often it’s just true crime like My Favourite Murder, or just straight up fun like Office Ladies. Basically if one part of my brain is really focused on my art, another part of my brain needs to take it easy. 

What is your favorite book?

In general my favourite book of all time is The Poisonwood Bible. I read it every summer, I’ve read it at least 15 times and it only gets better. 

My favourite book on photography, the one that changed everything for me, is Within the Frame by David Duchemin. 

Name one movie that inspires you.

Not a movie but parts Unknown with Anthony Bordain comes to mind. He really had a skill for being authentic, doing his art his own way (food or travel or his show, and more), and for really meeting people where they are at when traveling. He didn’t just bring together his passion for food and his love of travel, he brought them together to tell a bigger story about what it means to be human. 

How do you handle self-doubt or creative slumps?

I don’t look sideways, I look ahead. And then I change lanes. If the lane i am in, whatever it might be, it’s working, I move to a different lane. I can’t travel right now in 2020 so my brain is feeling like I can’t accomplish anything, because even I get into this mindset that travel photography requires travel (hint, it begins at home). So I am kicking my butt out the door once a month to photograph somewhere nearby and with big westcoast vibes - and do it on film. 

Another thing I do is network with other local creatives - any kind. This is tough in a covid year but it’s also easier in some ways because we’re meeting online now. Anyway, just being around other creatives fires me up. Whatever they’re into. I still have little moments where I think “damn it, that’s a great idea, i’m really jealous of them, why can i think of stuff like that,” but like i said before, I just refuse to look sideways and just focus on looking ahead. 

I also always, always advocated saying yes before you feel ready, If any opportunity presents itself to you and you think i’m not ready for that, just do it anyway and tell yourself you are ready. Become ready by doing. (except weddings, don’t mess up someone’s wedding day … no redo’s and all that).  All my best advances came when I felt not ready - including parenthood. Fuck being ready. It’s so overrated. Just change lanes and put your on the gas. 

What has been the most difficult part of your creative journey?

Descructing my privileges and learning how they affect my experience in a country. Being able to travel in and of itself is a massive privilege - to have the time, the funds, the right passports, a language that is welcomed most places (as an English speaker), etc.  And recognizing that entering a place with privilege (as a traveler, as a white woman, as a rich person - and yes, if you’re able to afford to travel, you are indeed rich by global standards) means locals do and will treat you differently. It plays out in various ways but think of how we gush over our house-guests just in everyday life. You rush to grab them a drink, get them comfy, you want them to like your house and accept you as a host. It’s the same when we travel.  

Making space in a male-driven industry. Throwing my elbows out and claiming a spot in the line. Having to really excel to get recognition while my male counterparts seem to just have opportunities land in their lap. 

Recognizing that white perspective and the colonial gaze is pervasive in travel photography. Meaning, we love when locals play their roles and just be objects for our photos, especially when they pander to whatever stereotypes we were expecting or hoping for. And that many photographers don’t go further than that.  And that I am as guilty as the next and working to pull it all apart and push myself further even though it’s uncomfortable work. 

Who is one of your favorite photographers?

David Duchemin’s work really opened my eyes and heart to what travel photography could be when I was just beginning my journey with it, and every year since. 

That said I am pushing myself to find travel photographers from other cultures, travel photogs of colour, and female travel photogs. I especially love finding intersections, like black female travel photogs, lgtbq travel photogs, because it shatters so many stereotypes and makes space for more voices in the travel world. I made this list in 2017 of female travel photogs, and this list in 2018 of black female photogs capturing Africa their own way --- I still follow and am daily influenced by all the women on these lists.