– Roald Dahl
As a child I harbored a secret jealousy towards Alice, she of the blue pinafore and literary fame. Oh,to fall through the looking glass into wonderland.
I feel much the same about the work of photographer Gabi Mulder. If only I could fall through her camera lens into the world that she documents. This is not so much wonderland as a dreamscape. Here the girls are freckled and sunflower fields are forever.
Hereafter, the winsome Miss Mulder herself, on dreams, schemes and the true meaning of
success.
Can you paint for me your big vision – What
do you seek to create in this lifetime?
I could turn this answer into an essay very easily so I’ll try and keep it brief (which doesn’t tend to work for me very often haha), but ultimately, my hope is to travel with my work, meet, interview and capture in photos and words the people I meet and love.
In the perfect world in my mind, my 20s will be filled with days spent meeting people from all corners of the globe, speaking to them, interviewing them, hearing about their lives, their hopes, their plans, capturing them at that moment with my camera in hand. big collection of the stories of our generation and photos that capture those people and their
stories. Thats the dream.
I would love to then put these interviews and photos up in magazines, books, websites for others to see and read. I think it’s a nice feeling when you see someone is going through something similar to you by reading or hearing about their life and experiences, even if they are over the other side of the world.
At the end of my time I would love to have a big, big collection of the stories of our generation and photos that capture those people and their stories. That’s the dream.
Tell me a story. I am wondering how you got to this point in your career. What has been the most important part of your education?
I think this whole journey started because of my intense interest in human life. From a very young age I was always immensely interested in hearing peoples stories; about their lives, their plans, often to the point where I was just asking questions constantly, and I’ve never really stopped doing this. From that interest in the human mind, stemmed my love of capturing people in photos. I love that no one will ever be the same as they are at this exact point in time. I think it’s amazing that we can take a snapshot and that snapshot will forever remain the same
What has been your most rewarding creation to date?
I couldn’t pin point one exact project that was more rewarding than the rest, but I think any moment you see your work in hard copy print is always a bit of a “pinch me” moment. I remember seeing my work in print for the first as I walked into a newsagency, I don’t think I’d ever had such a large cheesy grin on my face before. It was a proud moment.
The struggling artist is a cliche for a reason. What is the hardest part of creative work? Do you have a demon?
I think the pressure an artist puts on themselves is much more intense than the pressure from anyone else. When you’ve been working on a piece for so long you begin to see so many tiny faults and you critique yourself like there’s no tomorrow which is a real issue. I would say the other difficult part is that being in the creative field comes with such intense competition. Which I’m not a big fan of.
I am curious about how you draw from the people around you. Who lights you up? What is the best advice that you have received?
Inspiring, positive people light me up like nothing else. In the past year I have continuously been meeting the most wonderful people who are so driven to make something special of their
lives. It’s not “success” in the typical sense though. It’s about being successful in making life as full and as emotional and as connected as it can be. About connecting with people, doing what you love every single day, loving, laughing and seeing and experiencing as much as we can. Taking the time to see and experience the casual magic of everyday.
I think this quote so eloquently sums up my attitude towards life “Life is not perfect; it never will be. You just have to make the very best of it and you have to open your heart to what the world can show you. Sometimes it’s terrifying and sometimes it’s incredibly beautiful. And I’ll take both, thanks.”
Let’s talk dreams and schemes. What’s next for you?
There is so much in the works right now but my only definite is that New York City is on the horizon. I’ll keep you posted on this exciting venture of mine.
