Looking for the Light: Beowulf Sheehan on Photography and Cormac McCarthy

ABSTRACT In this interview, Stacey Peebles talks to Beowulf Sheehan, the preeminent author photographer working today, about his experience photographing writers. In particular, Sheehan describes the 2014 photo session in which he traveled to Santa Fe and photographed Cormac McCarthy, both at the Santa Fe Institute and at McCarthy’s home. The occasion was McCarthy’s forthcoming novel The Passenger—which would not be published, as it turned out, until 2022, and then as two novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris. Sheehan talks about the relationship of text, author, and image; how he approached the exciting challenge of photographing McCarthy; and his own thoughts about McCarthy’s work.