Nathanael Turner is 23 and has eyes that change colors. 

MOSSLESS: What interests you the most about people?
NATHANAEL TURNER: I am often attracted to people by their physical appearances, but then, after that initial crush has worn off, by what makes them different from myself. I just finished the first week of a five week trip through Scandinavia. I am staying with strangers the entire time, which gives me a lot of opportunities to meet interesting people and make lots of portraits. I have been staying with a French guy who moved to Helsinki about 3 years ago. We are completely different people, but after spending a week living together in his one room flat, hanging out naked in saunas and getting drunk together, I think we have formed a comfort level that has made it possible to make intimate portraits together that reflect something of his personality, being, ect. It is these kinds of personal experience that I love most about traveling and making photographs. 

ML: What keeps you shooting?
NT: Sometimes it takes giving yourself five weeks away from work and friends to really concentrate on making new work. I am always shooting, but not always happy with the outcome. The worst thing I can do for myself is to get completely comfortable with my surrounds, where I am living, or where I am working. When that happens I tend to get lazy about making new photographs. I’m really excited about the rest of this year. I don’t have an apartment anywhere, I hardly own anything and I don’t have a job that ties me to a single place. It’s the feeling I get from this kind of freedom that keeps me going. 

ML: What’s the most heinous thing you’ve ever seen?
NT: Hmm, The word heinous makes me think of something that is intentionally grotesque. I spent three weeks in Uganda when I was a freshman in college. I saw some pretty disturbing things while I was there, but heinous? Well, just this week I watched an extremely intoxicated young man try and pick up a girl at this bar in Helsinki. There was a punk show going on so he was yelling in her ear. I’m not sure if she could hear anything. While he was yelling at her, his beer slipped out of his hand and shattered on the edge of the table. Beer and glass flew all over the girl. She looked like she wanted to cry. He just brushed off some of the glass that was on her lap and continued to yell at her. I’m not sure why she didn’t punch him in the balls. After another 10 minutes of drunk blabbering he left her and came to sit by me. As he very slowly sat his drunk ass next to me, I gently pushed him as far down the bench as I could. I thought he might try and break his next beer on my lap. 

ML: Since this is something you’re very capable of: how do you think a photographer can project real sincerity into their work?
NT: I’m glad you see some sincerity somewhere in my work. I want my photographs to reflect at least a hint of what I remember a person or a place being like. I’m not sure that reaching this works the same way for everyone. I try to not be too hasty about making a photograph of someone, but sometimes this comes back to bite in the end though. I think it has a lot to do with building some level of trust. This is where it takes time. For example, I knew Larson for two years before I made a photograph of him that I felt was “real”. But, its not like I wasn’t trying those first two years. All of a sudden, something happened, and we began to trust each other. It doesn’t always take that long, but for me, its not worth it if I don’t have a certain level of intimacy with the people I work with. Its hard to fake genuine effort and respect.