One reader wrote that she was tired of the nude with mask on couch images. One of my friends seized the comment and posted that. But I can't begin a series of hubcap images because you think it might be a good idea. Tired of Balthus's little girls. Tired of Monet's haystacks. Tired of Mattisse's odelisques. Tired of Bonnard's wife in the tub. Tired of Sargeant's portraits of matrons. Tired of Adams' black and white Sierras. Tired of Mann's children. Tired of Faulkner's Yoknapawtaphna County.
I work all day, I photograph at nights and on weekends, and in between I process the images. I write this blog. I eat and drink. I sleep a little. I can't get this project done any faster. I have no social life to give up. Meanwhile, this is all I have to show. Sorry. I guess that's why they made channel changers. Believe me, I am full of doubts. You can't spend this much energy on something and not worry that you've just wasted a lot of time and resources. I've gotten nothing from this so far but debt.
That and more readers, I guess. Maybe all the criticism and controversy is good. The number of visitors has increased lately. There are 6.8 billion people in the world. I get a thousand of them. But you can't count China, so the ratio improves.
I'm tired, I guess. I need a break.
Ah. I love my name in lights.
ReplyDeleteGeesh. You don't lack for confidence -- I read you putting yourself in the company of all those folks you mention up there. :O
Text on a screen is a funny thing. I love it I think. I am beginning to understand how kids are giving up actual talking and just using text. It is so fucked up some times. The lack of tone makes for great, wrong, confused interpretation and therefore, I guess, sometimes deeper conversations. I've always loved writing and reading. I think they will always be my first loves. My constant true companions, my faithful menage a trois.
Though I love paintings and sculptures too. Sculpture over the last few years has made me pretty crazy. Bernini especially.
Photography is strange for me. I don't trust it as I do other art. It seems always once removed from "essence" or something. Mechanical. I mean of course occasionally I see art in photographs (and I can hear all your photography friends blasting me now -- but it is okay, I can take it). Maybe it is the epitome of all the arts and I'm just not in tune with it. I'm always trying to reach and learn.
But in all honesty I didn't come to your blog for your photography. I came because of your writing.
A friend told me you were one of the best blog writers. He didn't actually say "blog writers" but --you know, I came to read. So it makes perfect sense that I often don't get or feel "reached" by your photos cause:
A. I don't trust the art
B. I'm a word whore.
I am also a critic. I know this. But what's the point of not being honest? I've said this before. Blogging is bizarre to me. I don't know what it is "supposed" to do or be. So when someone posts their creations on their blog -- I assume it is to share and get reactions. I know how awful it must be to post everyday but you do it. For some reason you keep doing it. So you must "get" something from the reactions. Yes?
Process also has a place here. But I'm going to be late so I guess I'll just skip that part and sign off.
Yay for Cafe Selavy because it is a place to talk about things more important than budgets and strategic planning. I'm grateful for its existence even if I often feel like the strange cousin from somewhere else.
sessemes,
x0
P.S.
ReplyDeleteWe're all tired. It's the American Way.
I have yet to tire of these images. I believe the one from yesterday is among the best thus far. And yes, I would place him among the company he listed, as he rightfully places himself. Though that group would also be crowded with many unrecognizable names as well. If art is some reflection of what it means to be human then I find these works to be the very "essence" of that particular definition.
ReplyDeleteI have made some jokes here and there about some of the positions taken by batman-selavy, and I have been laughing along the way at most of it. I do strongly feel however, in this regard, that he is quite right to pursue the motifs that are the most powerful and representative of what he is trying to do.
In that, he is succeeding.
It is the writing that I find tedious...
No, I'm kidding.
-S
I admire your tenacity! I've always wanted to stick to a long term photographic project but lacked the will power. And I'm not saying why I come here...because it doesn't really matter! I too am grateful for your blog and look forward to opening it everyday to see what you have for us...
ReplyDeleteA friend wrote to me to tell me how lucky I am to have you all commenting here. He is right. Thank you warmly and deeply.
ReplyDeleteI never think of anything I do as art. I want to make things, make things up, suggest and represent. And often, just piss off. And mostly, I'm trying to preserve the shit that is in my head and I don't feel I have much time. People think and dream, die, and then it is all gone. Nobody ever knows. I'm letting people know about the bucket of snakes between my ears. Ego, I guess, the drive to leave something other than graffiti on a monument saying "I was here," though it is not much more than that. I've begun late, but that's O.K. Maybe it is better that way.
Good lord.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
Lanurg, definitely.
"What could be more Modern than a camera?"
ReplyDelete- Cafe Selavy, "Camera Obsession"