Talia Herman is a San Francisco-based documentary photographer who trained at the International Centre of Photography in New York City. Now, having returned to her Northern California roots, she is reconnecting with the region’s residual counterculture through an ongoing project called Queer Habits about a rural non-profit founded by a group of drag queens that raises funds for the local community.

A regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek and Wired, Talia’s assignment work sees her capturing the personal stories behind the headlines – from people living on the breadline to victims of rape – with the same sensitivity that defines her personal work, which centres mostly on family and friends in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County.

In our ongoing series Answers On A Postcard – an existential visual Q&A – Talia sifts through an ambient archive of hot summer moments, butt-naked muses and rural California life and retrieves the stills that dig the deepest.

Answers On A Postcard #5

Who are you?
Talia Herman.

What does home feel like?
As an internal space: peaceful, connected.

What does faith look like?
I like the idea of it having something to do with an intrinsic compass.

What’s your greatest fear?
The Bell Jar.

What keeps you up at night?
Photomechanic…

What helps you sleep?
Making my dog put out and well-played antics.

What’s the meaning of life?
I know what it feels like, meaning that is, and I’d like to experience as much of it as I can.

Any vices?
Sure.

Keep up to date with Talia Herman’s work on her blog.

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