“In 1985, I began getting serious about photography,” he
shares. “I lived in Boston where I started producing architectural
photography, building a client base and contributing to
their portfolios. After a time, I moved to San Francisco and
started an architectural photography business that lasted 7-8
years. I did extremely well throughout northern California.
I photographed numerous buildings and private homes with
market values upwards of $40 million. I was shooting interiors
and exteriors, every night, weekends and holidays, pretty
much for the seven years. I kind of got burned out at that
time taking photos.”
Preuss moved to Chicago where he now resides, and,
taking a break from photography, began to design furniture,
which inspired him for about three years. “I felt like I
needed to get back into photography, but I wanted to do it
for myself,” he claims. “I wanted to produce more fine-art
black-and-white photography.”
He perused the Chicago art scene, viewing photography
collections of museums and galleries and elsewhere in his
travels. He realized through that experience what he wanted
to do. He was inspired to pursue working with platinum
and palladium photo printing.
Platinum was first considered for use in photography in
1856, and palladium in 1859, both as intensifying agents
for silver prints. William Willis is widely credited with having
created the platinum printing process.
“The one thing that really drew me to the platinum process
is that it blends well with the images I was capturing
at the time,” he says. “I wanted to create very soft tones and
subtle tonal ranges, and platinum really handled that well.
These are images that have a timeless feel. I wanted something
that would last for a very long time that would have a
wonderful archival element. Platinum is one of the longestlasting
print media that will endure for generations without
fading.”
Preuss continues, “Some people describe the work I do as
nude photography, but I describe it as more figure studies.
I work with the lines of the subject. I am not really looking
at the details of what’s within the image I am creating; it’s
mainly the lines and the flow of it. If it’s their arms versus
their hair or the fabric that is draped around the person, I
really concentrate on the lines. The outline has a nice flow
to it even if you don’t see the detail of the image. It’s kind of
like a sculptor working with clay for the first time. He begins
by building the first part of what is to be sculpted. My
work is sculpted. I don’t just expose the person. My images
are not sexual or erotic; I deal with the shape and form.”
Preuss describes his photos as more of a study in a personal
instant with a person. They may be brushing their
hair or getting ready to scratch their back. He says, “I try to
capture a moment. My images fall into different categories,
too. There are the staged, theatrical-type images and then
there is the more personal moment type of images.”
In the beginning, many people Preuss photographed
weren’t models. They were friends, other artists, people he
collaborated with. He would begin by having a conversation
with them before a photo shoot. “I try to bring their personality
into the photo,” he says. “It’s how I perceive how they
are. I look for gestures in the way they carry themselves. I
try to capture that into my images so they have a personal
feel, a personal meaning to the photograph.
“I usually have one or two ideas of what I would like to accomplish
with a photo session right at the beginning. Once
we begin working, I usually go an entirely new direction.
