Ep. 2 – Creating Images for the Archives of History 📸
Ep. 2 – Creating Images for the Archives of History 📸
New podcast episode featuring Bethany Mollenkof
Driven by curiosity, Bethany Mollenkof stumbled into a career of photojournalism, ultimately fulfilling a desire to tell stores that are both personal and honest. Bethany joins us on the How You Create podcast to discuss breaking the rules of photojournalism, what it was like to document her own birth experience during the COVID pandemic, and some of her upcoming photography projects.
“I really want longevity, I don't want to burn bright and fast and have nothing else to do or say. I think having that long-term goal of creating images that go into archives of history is really valid and important and that's a long term goal that can never end.” – Bethany Mollenkof
Bethany is a filmmaker and photographer based in Los Angeles but has spent most of her time in the South. She creates both short documentary and still photography focused at the intersections of gender, identity and culture. Through portraits and interviews she finds meaning in telling stories that reframe familiar narratives.
Bethany graduated from Western Kentucky University where she studied photojournalism and art history. She is also a member of Women Photograph, Diversify Photo and Authority Collective.
She was recently named a 2021 Nieman Visiting Fellow at Harvard, and she will be creating a photo series documenting the toll COVID-19 is taking on Black life in the rural South, where Black people are contracting the virus at a higher rate and dying from it more often than others elsewhere. The work will examine how the coronavirus is affecting people’s mental health and fundamentally changing communities.
In 2020, Bethany and her family spent much of her time in the South documenting the effects of COVID, race, social justice, and more. Bethany also worked on personal projects with the National Geographic documenting her own pregnancy and birth of her daughter during COVID. In addition, she has been documenting new work being done on the Tulsa Race Massacre. Make sure to follow Bethany on Instagram to keep up with all the different stories and projects she’s working on!
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