When asked about Begin Anywhere: Paths of Mentorship and Collaboration, a project realized as a book and an exhibition hosted by SF Camerawork, photographer McNair Evans described its origin as “a sense of overwhelming gratitude.” 

Evans, Amanda Boe, and Kevin Kunishi experienced dynamic professional and personal growth through working with mentors during and after completing their graduate degrees in 2011. Through conversation, the three determined that a collaboration focused on the challenges and benefits of mentorship was a fitting way to thank those who had so profoundly influenced their respective practices. 

In 2012, the primary artists contacted their mentors, and those who would become their mentors - Todd Hido, Alec Soth, Mark Mahaney, Mike Smith, and Jason Fulford - to ask about their interest in participating. Five years on, after multiple rounds of photographic exquisite corpse maintained via regular mail, word games, and the production of new work, the primary artists seek to answer the question posed by curator Monique Deschaines: “how do you show mentorship?”

Humble's Senior Editor Roula Seikaly interviewed Evans, Boe, and Kunishi about this unique project, and how being both mentee and mentor has impacted their work.