Rebecca Norris Webb: Ideas From Start to Finish

By Behance Team

Beluga Whale, New York 1998

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Rebecca Norris Webb's project, "The Glass Between Us," started as a simple idea and evolved into a series of exhibitions, a book, and a website. With her work, Rebecca hopes to "raise questions about the complicated and vulnerable relationship that exists between people and animals in cities." Behance caught up with Rebecca to discuss leading ideas from start to finish.

"The Glass Between Us" evolved organically. As Rebecca explains it, "My idea got off the ground when I came across an unusual site at the Coney Island Aquarium: A pale white beluga whale seemed to soar high over the heads of the few remaining visitors whose faces were reflected in the long curved glass tank. 'I'll get rid of that reflection,' I first thought to myself. Instead, intrigued with the relationship between the people's reflections and the whale, I clicked the shutter. Seven years later, that small seed of an idea grew into my first book, The Glass Between Us (Channel Photographics, 2006), a website, and my first New York City solo exhibition at Ricco Maresca Gallery.

Rebecca encourages creatives to be led by the natural evolution of their projects. As she explains it, "I think the key is not to follow a strict script; instead, be open and willing to follow the project where ever it leads you. For me that involved letting the project expand from that first day of photographing in an aquarium in New York to my eventually photographing in zoos and natural history museums and circuses in Paris, Havana, Istanbul, and New Delhi...ultimately in some 25 cities around the world. Another unexpected turn was meeting a curator, Enrico Vigano, in Italy while I was photographing there, which lead to my first solo exhibition at a museum in Milan. Also, because of the project's environmental theme, it was awarded sponsorship by the Blue Earth Alliance... None of these turns in the path of the project were conceived by me initially. I just followed the project as it made its way out into the world."

One of Rebecca's greatest challenges was figuring out when her project was finished. As she explains it, "no one could give me much concrete advice about (how to know that the project was finished) except, "Don't worry. You'll know when it's done." Mostly, I found this vague advice more perplexing than helpful. Fortunately, two years ago, I experienced this hard-to-describe feeling for myself." Rebecca recalls the situation behind this sudden realization:

"In 2005, I visited the Warsaw Zoo. Looking back, I see now that it was probably no accident that I took the last photograph for the book in Poland, the birthplace of Czeslaw Milosz, the Nobel Prize winning poet whose following quote inspired the title of the book, The Glass Between Us: 'We're separated by nature as if by a glass wall...We are akin to it, and yet we are alienated by our consciousness, our curse and our blessing.'

...As I was photographing in the Warsaw Zoo, I came across this crabby, grey-haired chimp who was very ill-tempered and agitated and for good reason -- a group of school children were teasing him mercilessly. Later that day, however, I found myself unable to resist returning to the elderly chimp. When I walked into the dark ape house, I was startled by what I saw. A young Polish girl, who was squatting on a ledge not two feet from the chimp, was looking at him so intently, and with such love and awe in her eyes, that the old chimp closed his eyes as if finally at peace. The reflection I photographed in the glass mirrored their actual relationship: in the reflection it appears as if the grey-haired chimp is holding the lovely four-year-old girl in his arms. When I returned to New York and looked at the film, I knew the book was finally done."

Rebecca maintains a balance between administrative responsibilities and the act of putting a camera to her eye. "No matter how busy and preoccupied I would become over the course of this project with the many, many tasks connected with it - editing film, writing grants, visiting editors and curators, fundraising, updating my website, returning emails, giving slide talks, teaching workshops around the world - I made sure that I photographed at least once a week on my project. The act of photographing always put me back on track, reminding me why I was working so hard on the multitude of less-than-glamorous tasks involved in getting a project out into the world."

"Be true to your own vision. Ultimately, this will make your project unique and memorable and successful, that is if you are patient, passionate and persistent enough."