Last week I took the A train uptown to Washington Heights to meet with NYC artist and photographer, Tobias Batz. I was originally drawn to his works because of his unique blend between street art and fashion photography. He met me outside and as we ascended the four flights of stairs to his studio, he mentioned that he can only spare an hour before he has to run downtown to do a live art installation of his latest work.

Where does your inspiration come from?
My inspiration usually starts with my subject. I will meet people through friends or sometimes on the street or the subway and I will see something in them, maybe a spirit or some kind of physicality or something that speaks to me on an artistic level. I usually approach the person about shooting. Sometimes it works out and most times it does not. Some people can be funny about being photographed, they are not into it or just not ready. Those that are ready we go on to a secondary process and I try to figure out what I am going to do. So now I have a subject and they have inspired me and now what? It is very much a collaborative process. I will go back and forth with them and throw out ideas. How about a get away driver or Rock and Roll and that will grow the theme of the idea. Then we decide to do it. Many times the whole thing will go out the window when they get here, and the whole shoot will be improvised. Then there is a matter of lighting and post processing.
I get a lot of my ideas looking at books at Barnes and Nobles. It is like my personal library. Everyone knows me there. They have an art section that is set up with painters, photographers and fashion. I draw a lot of inspiration from looking at those books and there is a huge well to draw from. I am like a creative sponge. Fashion inspires me and it has a huge influence on what I do. It allows me to be creative and has everything that I like.

How does your studio space influence your work?
New York City and its people is a theme in most of my work and this space inspires me because it gives me enough space to paint on the floor and do other things. I love this space and am surrounded by atmosphere and my equipment. But most important it is being surrounded by the city and the sounds. That is inspirational as well.

What do you listen to when you are creating?
I have different music for different parts of the process. When I am shooting I listen to more upbeat music; hip hop or maybe daft punk. It depends a lot on the girl that I am shooting. I want to put her in a place that she feels comfortable. That is part of the process of developing the shoot. I need to get to know them so when they get here I can put them into a space. There was a piece that Norman Spinrad wrote about me and he said that I have this ability to cajole my subjects into this certain head space. I think it is
really just drawing this something out of the person, cause everybody starts off in their shell. It’s nerve racking for them, especially under these lights. It’s a scary experience. So I try to make them feel good. They are all really beautiful and great people to begin with so the music becomes important. In my post process I listen to funk and soul; Luther Vandross, Bobby Womack. I am not sure why, but I just have to listen to them. It is very relaxing and its part of the process. When I put Luther on it just works really well for me. I also am listening to Mark Ronson and Pandora’s Box. I have Versions by Mark Ronson and I have worn it out. I like the music that Pandora picks. Sometines I listen to Scrillex, and Daft Punk or some jarring techno music.

What visual artists do you find interesting?
I go back and forth between painters and photographers. I am influenced by Shepard Fairey, Warhol, Kandinsky. Keith Haring. My favorite photographer is Helmut Newton. I love his tone. I also like Richard Avedon, Mark Rothko and I worship Marilyn Minter. She is my favorite artist that is on the scene now. I go to all her shows. Her style is called damage glamour. Not only is she completely recognizable, but she has carved out her own niche in photography and is also an amazing painter. That is where I would like to go with my work eventually. Instead of printing it out on a digital printer she has it painted on huge scales. To have a unique style of photography is incredibly difficult, but she does it. I just went to her opening at the Swan Gallery in Manhattan. She has four large pieces and it just blew my mind.

How many hours are you generally in the studio?
I am a bit obsessive about my art and if I am not in the studio I am thinking about it all the time. The only time that I can really stop is when I watch T.V. It’s the only time that I can shut my brain off. I need to do that or else the wheels are always spinning. I like Hell on Wheels. The styling is pretty good.

What would the perfect studio look like?
I have thought about this many times. I would like to have three distinct areas; a shooting area where my lights are, an area to paint, do my spray painting and airbrushing and my third room would be the production room which would include the computer. Two clean rooms and a dirty room. That would be my ultimate studio.

What is your theme in your most recent work?
I have been collaborating with Hatomi Nakamura. She has been a huge help to me developing my skills as a photographer. We have shot a lot together and built up a nice repoire. She is a rock and roller and I like to shoot things that express her style. Sometimes she comes in with a distinct idea like the The Night Porter. We shot it and it was great. Sometimes there is nothing. Last week we had this little toy car that was sitting in the closet for about a month and we decided to use it. The theme behind that was for her to be a bad girl. We called it, Get Away Driver. It’s tongue in cheek because the car is a child’s toy. It’s a bit sexy, a bit silly and we used some new techniques. The theme was rock and roll but I didn’t set out to do that, it’s what she brought to it and it all came together. I titled it after I looked back at it. I spend a lot of time looking at my work afterwards.

What do you want people to take away from your work?
I think in many ways my work has some very obvious elements in it. I shoot a lot of very beautiful women. I try to shoot women that I think are real. The trend in fashion is to photograph women that are these supernatural beings. It’s hard to imagine that these are real people. I like to think that I shoot real people. I don’t shoot a lot of dark stuff, yet my last project was somewhat dark. It was a commissioned project for ArtTag. There is a myth that many artists die at 27, so that commission has influenced the work. But I am not about darkness. I want people to see beauty in a different way, to have the viewer see my style and see art in the model’s form or face or arm. Just to see beauty in a different way. It’s really just an expression of female beauty, female strength, sexuality and joy.

That evening Tobias installed a mural called Alter Ego and did a live photo shoot at a new club in Tribeca called, Work In Progress. The mural is 178 X 107 inches.

To learn more about Tobias go to www.tobiasbatz.com

In The Studio: collected by Paul J