FIU Photography Professor Talks Her New Book and Being a “Badass”

FIU photography professor Peggy Levison Nolan's son opens presents on the morning of Christmas Day. The photograph will be one of 160 photos that will be published in Nolan's second book, which is scheduled to be released in 2021. Photo courtesy of Peggy Nolan.

Anna Radinsky/Entertainment Director

Peggy Levison Nolan pissed off a lot of people in her life. An abusive ex-husband. Angry parents. Annoyed kids. Racist high schoolers. Snotty artists.

It makes sense. When Nolan speaks, she refuses to be interrupted. Her thoughts come out without hesitation. You cannot speak unless she finishes what she has to say.

Being a mother of seven children, a survivor of an abusive marriage, a previous resident of hut housing and starting her photography career in her 40s has taught her to speak that way.

“[In Homestead], we were the only white family. We were not liked. It was hard,” said Nolan. “I had to prove myself. I pushed two babies out there at home. That was one thing I did.”

Nolan has been through a lot but she hides nothing with her body language.

She may blame it on being sick, but whenever she sees one of the photos she took of a teenage boy that died in a freak accident or a girl from a drug overdose, she sniffles. Seeing a photo of her son after a car accident makes her extra quiet, even for half a second before changing the subject.

But she doesn’t want her audience to feel pissed off or sad.

“Most of my work is about family and relationships,” Nolan said. “I had no hesitation about being in anybody’s face. It doesn’t interest me to get into some stranger’s shit and expose something. I’m just not wired for that.”

Nolan faked press passes to be in the front row concerts at Lollapalooza, one of the most popular music festivals in the world. She was a “notorious shoplifter” for film. She took photos of teens that mooned her.

Peggy Nolan stands in front of her photographs. Gerard Albert III/PantherNOW

While she grew in confidence to produce emotional work, it was her son that pushed her to get her first big break.

“I was in grad school and the photography teachers didn’t like my work that much,” Nolan said. “To graduate, I created a book that I used for my teachers to review in a museum. I had three people on my committee that reviewed my work. Two of them were pretty nasty. [The third] said, ‘You know Peggy, photography is not just a hobby.’ And the other guy on my committee was so shocked that they said, ‘How can you even say that to her?’ So I went home. My son called me and I burst into tears on the phone.”

Nolan’s son suggested her to ignore her critics and send her book to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and she agreed.

“I got a phone call from the curator as soon as they got it. And they said, ‘We want to buy some of your pictures. Who are you?’ I was washing dishes and I said, ‘Oh, I’m a housewife,’” said Nolan.

Since then, Nolan has exhibited her photographs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and was voted Best Photographer by New Times West Palm Beach/Ft. Lauderdale in 2013.

“As a 75-year-old, I’m doing the best I’ve ever done,” said Nolan.

Nolan was awarded $1000 for FIU Adjunct of the Year this year. She’s also preparing to publish her second book that is expected to come out in 2021. She’s going to subtitle it, “Blueprint for a Good Life.”

“[My ex-husband] wanted me to stay home and just cook and take care of the kids,” Nolan said. “Photography [was my breaking point.] It gave me something that was mine. And I wanted to do it. I wanted to do it so bad.”

From the 80s until the 90s, Nolan only took photos in black and white. Her new book will show the life she captured before switching to color.

“Before the late 90s, I refused to do color. I thought it was tacky,” Nolan said. “But there’s this famous book by Nan Goldin, where she has a picture of a couple that had just stopped crying and I just looked at it and thought, ‘Man, there’s no way to do that in black and white.’ It’s a color thing.”

When looking through Nolan’s photos, you see her children climbing up poles, jumping off bridges, having bikes fly over their heads at skate parks and making out with their partners on couches.

Nolan says that she does not have a key moment in her career.

Nolan’s granddaughter, Madison Moon Garcia Nolan, cries in one of Nolan’s photos. The photo is the cover of Nolan’s first book, “Real Pictures: tales of a Badass Grandma.”

“It hasn’t happened yet! I’m just worried about tomorrow. Can I make some more work tomorrow? I got a few more books in me. That’s what my plans are,” Nolan said.

As for advice to young photographers: take it from a celebrated artist that has been teaching photography for 31 years.

“Any kind of photography that requires a camera requires you to put the machine right next to your brain, in front of your eyes,” said Nolan. “If you’re invested enough, what’s going to come out is your feelings about the world and I think that’s very valid information,” said Nolan.

Those interested in seeing Nolan’s work can visit dinamitranigallery.com/peggy-levison-nolan.

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