Meeting Eric Gottesman was foundational to my training as an art critic. In late 2011 he advised me to apply to study with David Levi Strauss. When I eventually came around to looking at his photographic work two years later, I found him an exceptionally curious artist, patient with his subjects, and deliberate with his intentions. A week after we had this conversation over Google Chat he arrived New York for a meeting. I hadn’t seen him since December 2011. But it struck me that not once in our meal did we have the awkward pause of strangers.

In looking over our transcript I realized the many talking points left unaddressed. I hope readers would not consider his work finished, regardless of the intensity with which he has worked, and continues to work.

Eric Gottesman is a photographic artist and organizer. Central to his practice is collaboration. He uses photography, writing and film as vehicles to engage others in conversation and critical thought about the social structures that surround them, and him. He works slowly, often spending a long time in a community, and exhibits work locally first, to an audience determined by the co-creators of the work.

Gottesman studied politics and economics and, later, art. In 2003, he was named one of the top 25 young American photographers. He has earned a Fulbright Fellowship in art as well as awards from the Magnum Foundation, Artadia, the Aaron Siskind Foundation, apexart, the Open Society Foundation and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. His work is in various collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. His first book, Sudden Flowers, was published in 2014. He was named a 2015 Creative Capital Artist.

He is currently a Faculty Fellow at Colby College and has taught at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Amherst College, the International Center for Photography, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and conducted workshops in Lebanon, Jordan and Ethiopia.

To see Eric Gottesman’s work, visit his website.