Meet Kendall Waldman

“Kendall Waldman is a freelance photographer and location scout based out of Brooklyn, New York. She has been published by Princeton University, Oxford Department of International Development, MoMA PS1, Maker Magazine, Vice UK and is a contributor to The New York Times. Her work has been exhibited in Berlin, Chicago, New York and most recently at SFMOMA’s Artist Gallery in San Francisco. She enjoys attempts to organize information (compendiums, anthologies, encyclopedias, dictionaries, catalogues, archives, server farms), other people’s hobbies and is familiar with most baby animal videos on the web.”

♫ LISTEN TO KENDALL'S PLAYLIST | ⌨ LAST GOOGLE SEARCH

““I love the whole process, the creative problem solving challenge of each new assignment. I love having an excuse to imbed in a neighborhood for a week, learn the areas architecture and lunch options.””

— on her love for scouting locations

on her morning routine

My morning routine looks like the movie Memento, every morning. I need clues from my nighttime self to let me know what my goals are, who I am, what pants to wear...I leave notes everywhere, set a million alarms, pack my lunch and backpack the night before, lay out my clothes. Then I try to remember where I parked.

on moving to nyc

I moved to the city when I was 16 and I pretty much got fired from restaurants and took epic long walks. I’d walk from Crown Heights to the South Bronx or Astoria to the West Side Highway or whatever. Coming from the suburbs I loved that you could walk seemingly through whole worlds and never be stopped by a highway or the cauterized end of a development. In between then and now I got fired from more restaurants, worked at a camel ranch in the south of Israel, studied photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Universität der Künste Berlin, moved back to New York, worked as an art assistant, courier, dog walker, production assistant, archivist, odd jobber, freelance photographer and now location scout.

on her start in photography

I took a photography class second semester of sophomore year of college and immediately knew that this was the appendage I had been missing my whole life. I like how photography can trojan horse art into more utilitarian spaces (see Arnold Odermatt’s car crash photography or 9-eyes.com) and can reach audiences outside the traditional gallery and museum circuit. I knew I wanted to travel and to hear and tell stories and photography formed a natural umbrella over all those criteria.

Top, L’Agence ; Pants, Levi’s — *Top,* *L’Agence* *; Pants,* *Levi’s*

on getting out of the house

As an artist you will never be that guided by the how or history of how other people built their careers. There is no overarching ‘way it's done’. That said I’m always admonishing myself to go out. No one ever remembers you from that time you were alone in your house.

on her style

I either want to be in a costume or a uniform. I like pieces to be archetypical, the most classic minds-eye version of themselves; a yellow rain slicker, Levi jeans, shoes like a paper doll would wear… Or I’m looking for something super referential; Nastassja Kinski’s angora sweater from Paris, Texas, lucite disco heels with goldfish in the platform, Margot Tenenbaum’s polo dress…Any recent edition to my denim pantheon has been from Worship Vintage in Bushwhack and I can’t pass Beacon’s Closet without going in.

on her favorite novels

Maude Martha is a novel by the Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks. It was published at almost the same time as Ralph Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man’ and addresses the same socio-political themes of the time but through a domestic feminine lens. It is short but not spare and each sentence is so lovely it makes you want to tent the book on your chest and cry a little. I would also recommend: Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit, Rules for Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky, A Living Dead Man Declared by Taryn Simon, The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski, After the Tall Timber by Renata Adler, and Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks.

on her beauty routine

My beauty routine is simple and almost entirely driven by nostalgia. I use Dove sensitive bar soap and jojoba oil. Once a month or so I’ll make a mask with apple cider vinegar and bentonite clay (or “indian healing clay”) to feel like i’m getting some of the city out of my pores. It’s one of my beauty goals to start putting on mascara at home instead of at red lights.

““I didn’t listen to much besides Aqualung in high school, and I maintain that is because its really really good.””

— on her previous music taste

kendall’s favorite places in nyc

Gratitude Cafe - Avocado egg and croissant sandwiches, strong coffee and fast wifi for morning research.

Immaculee Bakery - You have not lived until your hangover has been cured by their $1 herring patties.

Trinidad Roti Shop - Get a chana roti and a Roots Man drink. Could feed you comfortably for a week but it won’t matter because you’ll never be hungry again.