It's called "Scream", a shameless title swipe from Edvard Munch, whose show was at MOMA earlier this year. Except for this painting, or was it just drawings (I think the painting is MIA, right?) of the same title, I wasn't very impressed. Munch had ten good years, then sold out ......ooh, I haven't used that term since college hippie days. Well, we all have to make a living, don't we.
A hundred years ago people with their first car every once in a while needed to get back on a horse. So I, on occasion, like making pictures the old fashioned way, with a camera and film. Shhh, I even have a darkroom.......that's like shoeing my own horse, or sweeping out the barn, or shoveling........well, not really.
With, at times, up to ten slide projectors and often the help my ever resourceful co-conspirator Will Landin, I've done in camera collages for myself and clients for over ten years. Most of my collages are portraits, with the subject strategically placed within the projections. The process usually starts with an idea, followed by the selection or creation of numerous slides to fit the plan. This technique works very well with a subject whose work environment doesn't inform much about what he or she does. It's also great for the subject, surrounded by images of their "stuff", to be involved in the creative process, something not possible if I"m by myself in front of a computer. Nothing against computers, mind you.
Stay tuned for more of my garden.
2 comments:
As a college student, when I lived in a flat in San Francisco with five photojournalism majors, anytime we had a party people would bring a slide carousel (remember those?) of their work and project it across the back yard onto our neighbor's Victorian house. It was years before Mapplethorpe projected his images onto buildings, but it had the same feel. This was raw, unedited student work, but captured the range of human emotions. Everyone shot 35mm, but projecting it at that scale across the yard somehow had the same levelling factor as putting photography up on the web. I guess my point is, no matter what the tools are (pinhole, film, daguerrotype, digital, Holga), the artistry always happens somewhere in the relationship between the eye, the brain, the hand, and the tool. Pick the right tool for the right job, and then the only limitation is the imagination.
Along these lines, something to consider:
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71599-0.html?tw=wn_index_3
A belated thanks for your comments and that link to the "Wired" article. Quite a firestorm that provoked. Nice to witness a civil war starting over art. My favorite line: •
Closet Luddite Redefines "Art" to Reflect Personal Tastes. News at 10.
Dennis
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