9/14
It's a little tricky coming to terms with trying to do a documentary type photo project (in this case street portraits in the city of Chelsea, MA where I live) since it seems that this kind of work is discouraged in MFA programs. That somehow, documentary work is no longer valid; especially portraiture. This goes against much of what I believe in, since so much photography now leaves me cold and so much portraiture feels contrived. the overly produced, highly stylized imagery that feels closer to commercial photography than art photography. It also feels cold and distant, and so often there seems to be no connection between the artist and subject. Where the people photographed appear more like specimens.
This contradicts a lot of the art that I have always responded to, especially photography. I recently saw the documentary film, 'Man on Wire' and it was fantastic. A simple film about the French high wire walker who walked between the twin towers in 1974. There was something incredibly powerful and moving in just seeing the still photographs of him up high between the towers or lying down on the wire. It gave me chills and made me realize, once again, how intensely interested I am in photographing the world around me. Other people can take care of the self portraits or the intimate portraits of family members, I want to go out and look at the unknown and the unfamiliar. I'm more interested in the real than in the conceptual. Todd Papageorge (director of Yale's graduate program in photography) addresses this by saying, 'there's a failure to understand how much richer in surprise and creative possibility the world is for photographers in comparison to their imagination'.
This contradicts a lot of the art that I have always responded to, especially photography. I recently saw the documentary film, 'Man on Wire' and it was fantastic. A simple film about the French high wire walker who walked between the twin towers in 1974. There was something incredibly powerful and moving in just seeing the still photographs of him up high between the towers or lying down on the wire. It gave me chills and made me realize, once again, how intensely interested I am in photographing the world around me. Other people can take care of the self portraits or the intimate portraits of family members, I want to go out and look at the unknown and the unfamiliar. I'm more interested in the real than in the conceptual. Todd Papageorge (director of Yale's graduate program in photography) addresses this by saying, 'there's a failure to understand how much richer in surprise and creative possibility the world is for photographers in comparison to their imagination'.
7/15
Marshall Crenshaw made a live recording a few years back called, "I've Suffered For My Art...Now It's Your Turn" to which I say, exactly.
Had a chance to see Chantal Akerman: Moving through Time and Space on the last day at MIT's List Visual Arts Center and it was really amazing. It was five film/video projects that she produced over two decades. A couple were just single projections of films and three were rooms with installations using numerous video monitors. I particularly liked 'Sud' (South) which was a film that dealt the death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas in 1996. He was an African-American man who was taken by three white men, tied to the back of a pick-up truck and dragged to death. Akerman's film has interviews with whites and blacks and then proceeds to show the three miles of road Byrd was dragged on. The shot is from the back of a vehicle and allows the viewer to imagine the horror Byrd went through as he was dragged to his death. It is one of the most powerful things I've ever seen. A portrait of violence like no other.
I also finished James Lord's 'A Giacometti Portrait'. In it Giacometti refers to things that he's working on as being 'en route'. I really liked that idea. The feeling that while we are working on something and it isn't finished, it's 'en route'. It sure feels better than, 'I started this thing and actually have NO idea where it's headed'. It also reminded me, unfortunately, of something George W. Bush said to Tony Blair. He once commented to Blair that 'the problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur'. The scary thing was that he wasn't kidding. I wonder if they have a word for hors d'oeuvre or cul-de-sac?
Had a chance to see Chantal Akerman: Moving through Time and Space on the last day at MIT's List Visual Arts Center and it was really amazing. It was five film/video projects that she produced over two decades. A couple were just single projections of films and three were rooms with installations using numerous video monitors. I particularly liked 'Sud' (South) which was a film that dealt the death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas in 1996. He was an African-American man who was taken by three white men, tied to the back of a pick-up truck and dragged to death. Akerman's film has interviews with whites and blacks and then proceeds to show the three miles of road Byrd was dragged on. The shot is from the back of a vehicle and allows the viewer to imagine the horror Byrd went through as he was dragged to his death. It is one of the most powerful things I've ever seen. A portrait of violence like no other.
I also finished James Lord's 'A Giacometti Portrait'. In it Giacometti refers to things that he's working on as being 'en route'. I really liked that idea. The feeling that while we are working on something and it isn't finished, it's 'en route'. It sure feels better than, 'I started this thing and actually have NO idea where it's headed'. It also reminded me, unfortunately, of something George W. Bush said to Tony Blair. He once commented to Blair that 'the problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur'. The scary thing was that he wasn't kidding. I wonder if they have a word for hors d'oeuvre or cul-de-sac?
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