where coffee and festival cultures collide

Cats in the Loft stole a few moments in the final weeks of Fringe to ask Stephanie Mitchell some questions about her experiences as winner of the 2016 Fringe poster design competition and participating for the first time as a photographer in her first ever solo exhibition - ‘There’s No Starbucks Here’ at Cats in the Loft gallery.

Exhibition Closes this weekend on Sunday 27th March!

Cats: I can only imagine how surreal it must have been seeing your winning poster design everywhere from cafe posters to the side of a Tram during the Fringe this year. The Adelaide Fringe poster competition is such a revered and iconic tradition for the festival with many a budding artist and designer vying for this coveted prize. As a Fringe festival junkie of many years yourself, can you tell us where you were when you were told the news that you’d won and what it meant to you?

Stephanie: I was on road-trip around Eastern Europe at the time I found out. Our car had actually just broken down somewhere near the border of Slovenia and Italy and I’d only turned my phone on for the first time in days to make a pretty expensive SOS call when I saw the email informing me I’d won. It was some pretty amazing and much needed good news at the time! It’s a huge deal to me and pretty much a dream come true. I have always loved the Fringe and everything it brings to Adelaide, so to be able to contribute in such an iconic way is really special.

Cats: Whilst your photographic works, ‘There’s No Starbucks Here’ are part of your first solo exhibition with us at Cats in the Loft, the images for this body of work started some time ago. Other than the excuse to consume lots of great coffee while travelling, what was it that drew you to this subject as an artist/designer?

Stephanie: I started the project a few years ago, at the time I was living in Germany. I had just moved there and was still pretty nervous about speaking German, so I found myself almost daily going to the Starbucks because of the luxury of being able to order off an English menu. I then went on a trip to Rome and it struck my attention the little quirks and habits around the way the Italians drink coffee and the cafes themselves. I was able to see a huge difference in the cafes I’ve known my whole life in Australia. I loved how something so simple like drinking coffee, something most of us do habitually every single day, actually had so much cultural significance. And that the chains like Starbucks, which lots of us (me included) seek out because of familiarity, are causing us to miss out new experiences.

Cats: One of my favourite images from your Fringe exhibition is ‘Roman Coffee Dates’. As a photographer myself I know just how challenging capturing such an elegant and seemingly unassuming moment so perfectly is. Do you have a particular personal favourite from this series and why?

Stephanie: I didn’t realise at the time how big of a challenge I’d set for myself. Trying to capture natural photos of people inside of these, often small cafes, was rarely successful. The few that worked well, such as the ‘Roman Coffee Dates’ image are among my favourite because I know that behind that one photo that caught a perfect moment is an entire days worth of me visiting cafes and many less perfect shots. My favourite image is the photo of the gypsy woman begging on the street with her coffee cup to collect coins. It was the first thing I noticed about the coffee culture in Rome, that no one sells take away coffee. Here in Australia it’s so normal especially during the morning, to see the masses with their coffee on the run in their take-away cups. So when I noticed the gypsy woman, it was the first time id seen a take-away cup in Rome, and in such a different context, it really resonated with me.

Cats: So where to from here? I know that you have been completely immersed in the Fringe experience this year and whilst it’s not over yet, is there anything in particular that you’ve seen or done so far that has left it’s mark on you from a creative perspective?

Stephanie: The whole Fringe experience, having my design splashed all over the city and everyone able to see it and have an opinion on it, is something that I’d expect to be quite daunting. But it’s made me realise that putting your work out there, while scary, is really rewarding. So I’d definitely love to hold another exhibition in the future I’m really enjoying sharing my work and I’d really love to start working on new art to exhibit later in the year as well as for the next Fringe.