The Vantage Point of Photographer Louisa Gould
Story by John Budris
Long before Louisa Gould was old enough to say no, her parents told her
to go sit on the boat rail. Both her mother and father came from
several generations of summer Islanders, and sailing often trumped
laundry and shopping on the daily to-do list.
Louisa has never been far from that directive, first as a competitive
sailor at the Vineyard Sound Regattas as a kid, and later at the
America's Cup in New Zealand as a young woman - with much water and
rigging in between.
Combining sailing and art had early beginnings, though she could hardly
know that her painting lessons and sketches of boats at the Old Sculpin
gallery as a grade-schooler on summer afternoons would be the
antecedent of her living as an adult.
She admits, there were detours on the way. After graduating from
Longmeadow High School in western Massachusetts, she passed on a path
of painting and photography at the Rhode Island School of Design for a
degree in political science and Chinese at the Catholic University of
America in Washington, D.C.
After college, Louisa embarked on a decade of banking and finance in
New York City. "Let's say that decision was also at the strong
suggestion of my father," she laughs. "But sometimes I would sneak out
with my paint box, and I even got caught a time or two."
Though the demands of the corporate world were unyielding, she somehow
found the time to study oil painting at Parsons School of Design and
the Art Student League of New York. "And I kept sailing on weekends on
Long Island, which ultimately took me to the America’s Cup 2000
competition in New Zealand to crew," she says.
Actually Louisa's steadfast determination to sail again Combining
sailing and art had early beginnings, though she could hardly know that
her painting lessons and sketches of boats at the Old Sculpin gallery
as a grade-schooler on summer afternoons would be the antecedent of her
living as an adult.
She admits, there were detours on the way. After graduating from
Longmeadow High School in western Massachusetts, she passed on a path
of painting and photography at the Rhode Island School of Design for a
degree in political science and Chinese at the Catholic University of
America in Washington, D.C.
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After college, Louisa embarked on a decade of banking and finance in
New York City. "Let's say that decision was also at the strong
suggestion of my father,” she laughs. "But sometimes I would sneak out
with my paint box, and I even got caught a time or two."
Though the demands of the corporate world were unyielding, she somehow
found the time to study oil painting at Parsons School of Design and
the Art Student League of New York. "And I kept sailing on weekends on
Long Island, which ultimately took me to the America’s Cup 2000
competition in New Zealand to crew," she says.
Actually Louisa's steadfast determination to sail again competitively
delivered her to New Zealand. "When my employers would not give me the
kind of leave of absence I asked for, I up and quit," she says, with a
satisfied grin.
With a plane ticket and a new camera, Gould began to pack. As it was
with her art lessons as a child in Edgartown, she did not quite
understand how her new Canon camera outfit would serve her in the
future. "But right then and there in the taxi on the way to the
airport, with the camera still in its original box on the seat next to
me, I knew somehow it would play a part in things to come," she says.
After her boat, "America True," from the San Francisco Yacht Club was
eliminated from the competition, Louisa picked up that Canon and began
capturing the event frame by frame. Her long years of sailing joined
with her photography skills and enabled her to anticipate and catch key
moments of the event. Instinct and training dovetailed. It was, she
explains, as if she could see a shot long before it happened. Once
again, she found herself on the boat rail, this time with a camera, not
a line, in her hand.
"I thought to myself - I like this. It was the first time since high
school that I didn't have to be somewhere, thinking about something
else. I had the time to think and shoot, and I liked it," she says.
But once back again stateside, another kind of training and sense of
responsibility temporarily took over, and Louisa decided to again
return to the corporate world in New York. "I was learning that I could
pay the rent with my photography, but not pay into any retirement
plan," she chuckles.
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But her scheduled return to Manhattan on September 12, 2001 was
cancelled, and Louisa again looked to the boat rail and the lens for an
answer. “I decided then and there to make sport and travel photography
my career, once and for all, retirement plan or not,” she says.
At major sporting events Louisa can now be found in either in a
helicopter, chase boat, or on the sidelines. She has covered events
such as the Olympics 2002, America’s Cup 2003, and the Around Alone
Race.
Her travel photography has taken her to the corners of Asia, across the South Pacific and soon to Antarctica.
"Photography allows me to interact with my world, from children at
recess at schools of the remote hill-side tribes of Vietnam, to
children on Lucy Vincent Beach," she says. "I get to participate, even
if only for an hour, or sometimes only minutes, in another human beings
life. They trust me enough to take their photo and share a part of
them."
Louisa is also currently preparing a classic yacht photography book of
Vineyard Yachts and a sailing documentary of the Volvo Ocean Race
2001-2002.
"Why photography and not painting? Oil paints need time to dry." she says. And Louisa Gould is moving far too fast.
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