What are three life moments that made you who you are today?

That’s a tough opening question! Off the top of my head, the first is that I moved overseas for 6 months when I was 18 (after living in suburban Arizona my whole life) and really learned a lot about myself and my worldview. The second was the birth of my son, which happened during the very beginning of covid, which was scary but also incredible at the same time! The third was probably me leaving my evangelical christian upbringing—anyone who group up that environment would know—but it really reshaped how I view the world.

Who or what is inspiring you these days? What’s shaping your thinking?

This is going to sound super cliche, but lately I am finding a lot of my creative inspiration from my son (who is 5). He is at the age where everything is new and exciting, and he is constantly having moments where he is doing something for the first time—riding a bike, calling someone on the phone, seeing something for the first time—and I’ve been trying to really encapsulate that exciting and that feeling into my work. I’ve been in the world of photography for what feels like a long time and (maybe this is just because of the pace of instagram and how we absorb content) but there is just so much good work out there that I feel sort of numb to it all. But I remember when I first started taking pictures and I would get that excitement, giddiness almost when I took a photo that I was really stoked about—I’ve been looking for that that feeling lately in my work, and trying to find it in places that aren’t so obvious.

Do you feel you are more instinctual or intentional when you create?

I am definitely more instinctual. Although I really envy people who work more intentionally. For me personally, any of my work that I am overly intentional about feels to me like it comes across as trying too hard (maybe that’s only in my head) but the work I resonate most with is because of the feeling it gives me, (whatever that feeling is) and I try to lean into that.

Can you speak a bit about your artistic process (printing, re-photographing, altering) and how that relates to the themes of memory and the passage of time that you explore in your work?

So this specific process is one that I actually only used for this book project. So much of photo is done digitally these days and I love seeing work in print. So I had all these prints of photographs spanning the last decade or so and I would often go and look through them, especially when I felt like I needed a bit of inspiration. I noticed that each photograph didn’t only carry the memory of the time I took the photo, but also of the time I printed it—maybe a photo was printed while I was at the old house, now it’s just in a box—or I would remember not liking this version of the print etc. (memory is really hard to describe with words!) But for this project specifically I wanted to create a new memory with each of my prints—“the time I photographed this picture for my project” sort of thing. And it just so happened that while doing so I would photograph these pictures at random times, sometimes in the afternoon when the light was good, sometimes it was the last evening light and my son just went to bed so I could sneak in a bit of work. In doing so I got all these alterations depending on the lighting, the angle, how I would hold the print etc. And it created kind of a cool effect so I rolled with it.

You draw on your own reflections around family and childhood. Can you share one of your favourite (or strongest) childhood memories?

One of the things that really got me excited about this project is how much I loved looking at old family photos of when I was a kid. My family was a big picture family so we have all these boxes of old photos of all sorts of events, family vacations, birthday parties, random outings. All growing up my sister and I would go find the picture box and spend hours looking through the photos. As I was approaching this book I realized that one of my favorite childhood memories is actually just that—when we would get the pictures out and all look at them together. I don’t live in the same state as my parents anymore but we still do this almost every year when I am in town for the holidays.

What do you want people to think or feel about as they flip through the pages of your book?

I would love for people to appreciate their own memories/photographs as they flip the pages of this book. I think that because of the way that social media has shaped how often we see pictures (especially pictures of other peoples lives/memories) it is easy to feel somehow less than or inadequate. My hope is that this book reminds people to slow down, to enjoy the mundane and the moments that are created.

Can you think of one piece of good advice someone gave you, and who said it?

I feel like I was extremely lucky to learn from and be around some pretty incredible photographers early on in my career. I can’t think of just one thing but I am always learning a lot from Mark Mahaney (whom I now consider a friend and a mentor) because of how much care and thought he approaches each photo he makes with—a really good blend of intentionality and instinct as you mentioned in the question above!

What is one thing you want to accomplish this next year?

This is not work related but I am wanting to run a 50k later this year! We’ll see.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in your lifetime?

I would love to be known as someone whose work somehow made the world a little brighter. Even if it’s just inspiring a future photographer, or making work that speaks to climate change etc. I would like for my work to play a tiny part of it all.

Caleb Thal’s Website

Caleb Thal on Instagram