Ice skating in the park. I took cameras, photos. I couldn't capture it. I am pretty sure I just can't photograph in my own hometown. I need to be away and have that awayness anonymity, that cloak of invisibility. Here I have a self. There, not so much. Away is foreign and exotic. Home is oppressive sameness. There is so much written in academia about such things. There are visual anthropologist who hold strong ideas about the nature of photographing others. If you are not familiar and are interested in that, take a look here, for instance. If you are even more interested, read the comments. For examples of what the author is not talking about, go here and browse awhile. Then, if you are still interested, click on the links of her recommended photographers.
You should not think I do not like these photographs or photographers. It is not that. It is that I want to explore and obviate their ideologies in some of my projects. I want to enter the visual conversation, if you will, and to challenge some of the assumptions. Some days. Others, I just want to be left alone.
Everything is like that, though, wanting to be one thing and another.
I find that is especially true this time of year for me...I don't do holidays well...and the pull to be one or the other seems stronger.
ReplyDeleteYou are cruel.
ReplyDeleteI have massive amounts of work to do. And this post and leading links make this feel just like Pandora's Box.
I saw the Hyena men photos last year and was drawn to them. I am drawn to the new work in Nollywood as well. And I've already bookmarked the Corey Arnold and Amy Stein.
Many of the Hugo photos confront -- much like Manet's Olympia does. And it is difficult for me to avoid engagement -- engagement is important to my enjoyment of art. Millions of doorways -- art opens.
My head hurts due to all the thinking I've done this morning about this (and it is now afternoon and I'm so behind). It is too difficult for me to put into words any sensible utterings when my brain is just buzzing. Wait maybe I never am sensible to begin with.
sigh. good post c.s.
oh. i think also, for me, it is originality -- that newness that most whets my appetite. and gets me excited.
ReplyDeletederivative work is tiresome. and definitely what keeps me from writing most of the time. everything has been done or said -- i don't want to add to the pollution.
and the noise of people creating can be overwhelming for me. both good and bad.
Your links were blocked at school so I got a chance to look at them when I got home. The most fascinating part to me were all the comments. I saw the Hyena Men series before and thought they were wonderful and none of the racial issues ever entered my mind. I can be naive at times. So I was a bit surprised to see the controversy. But I love controversy and I feel it is the only way to advance art...and your projects are a great way to explore the issues and push some buttons.
ReplyDeletePostcolonialism, Identity Politics, New Historicism. Cool stuff.
ReplyDeleteBut I want to pick at the scabs, put screwdrivers in the cracks.
I really liked one of Sebastian Boincy's lines. I think I can make a series out of it, make it the title. To quote:
"CRAZY LOOKING NIGGERS DOING CRAZY LOOKING SHIT."
You can't go wrong with that. Rather, you can't go right. I think his ideal audience for the response was Spike Lee.
But as Clint Eastwood said as John Huston in "White Hunter, Black Heart," "Sometimes you just have to do the wrong thing."
It's worked for a lot of people for a very long time. You can make your own lists.