After the first residency there were a lot of issues to sort out, dealing both with my personal work and in general with the medium of photography. Being confronted with these issues that before I brushed off, led on a path to seek out a dialogue and revisit both foundational texts on photographic criticism and current day, postmodern issues around photography. Ideas that were of particular interest were photography's relevance to social practice, the believability of the photographic image, and the relationship of photographers to their subjects. My artist mentor for the semester was Christine Collins. She has been really insightful directing me to artists and articles related to my work. Her critiques have pushed me to think about the questions that come up in each series I pursue.
In my studio work I began by taking street portraits on the fourth of July. This was an emotionally charged public gathering after the Boston Marathon bombing. Among the crowd of thousands, I decided that I would ask everyone that was wearing an American flag if I could take their picture and allow them to present themselves as they wish. This was a good exercise to make some portraits within a system set up for myself. One particular striking image was of two arab young women covered with patriotic symbols. Other days I spent many hours on the streets of Boston and Cambridge, but there was not a lot that caught my intuition. While I am still interested community portraiture, I became interested in exploring new ideas and directions after synthesizing the critiques from the residency and exploring the issues that were brought up in my research.
One project that I pursued is to set up a camera in a highly trafficked public space and to take a time lapse series. The images were immediately uploaded to a Facebook page. The technical aspects took a lot of trial and error to find the right combination of programing. For several sessions, I set this up in the storefront window of the Cambridge community access television station. In the window there was a computer monitor with a timer and the last image that was shot. This allowed people to be aware of the camera and know when a picture would be taken. Ideally I wanted to slowly fill a gallery until every inch of space was filled with thousands of photos and have a gallery opening where the public would be welcome to come and receive the photos. My mentor encouraged me to just go for it and not worry about the end result. The results were not as I had expected. Most people passed by with out noticing or caring about the camera, and the social media aspect did not develop much traction. It could be that I need to work on better signage or publicity. Also I need to experiment with other places and possibly leave the camera for a longer time.
In addition to leaving the camera with a sign and timer, I also experimented with placing the camera in other situations without letting people know about the camera. The images show a public urban environment over time. The most aesthetically interesting aspect for me was the passing of day to night and night to day.
For my final meeting with Christine, I brought 122 prints from four different series of the project that I have been focusing on this semester. We reviewed many of the issues that we discussed in passed sessions including the idea of authorship, surveillance and privacy. Phillip-Lorca diCorcia series “Heads.” is good to contrast my work against. We discussed titling and different ways the viewer would react to the pieces. In my series of images there are hints of narratives with a visual conversation about the light. The works leave the viewer with questions with of what appears in the images and questions about what continues in the incomplete information of the set of images. Two other photographers that have elements of time in their work are Nick Nickson and his yearly photo of the Brown Sisters and the self portraits of Karl Baden.
We discussed exhibition options with huge prints of color fields and other walls with grids. We also talked about how to bring particular attention to a set of images in a series by moving away from a straight line of frames. There are layers of experiencing the work with a controlled and prescribed way of looking. There is an embedded anticipation about what will happen next. In one of the series I used a heavier edit with less images to push forth a narrative. We both felt that it was not as strong as the other systematic series. We discussed other places and ways to continue the project. I tried it at the ocean, but it seemed too simply about aesthetics. In urban environments, the stakes are different. Cambridge is where I live. I thought about exploring places where something of interest happened and looking at that place for an hour. Also would it be possible to bring my interests in documentary and portraiture into this project?
Artist Statement:
What does an hour look like? This series of work explores the passing of time in urban environments. After choosing a location and setting the camera to capture images on an interval, the camera is left without my intervention. Reflecting on the body of images produced, I am interested in the narratives that develop as time passes with people, cars and light moving through the chosen space. Privacy, public spaces and surveillance are some of the issues that the viewer encounters.
Each work is a series of images showing changes in the view over time bringing out the observational, potential narratives and simple aesthetics in the changes of light. Time becomes visible.
Bibliography:
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry. Dir. Alison Klayman. Expressions United Media, 2012. Netflix.
“AP News Values and Principles.” Associated Press. Web. 2013.
Augscholl, Daniel and Jashbar, Anya. “Interview with Judith Joy Ross.” Ahorn Magazine. 2011. Web.
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Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art In The Age of Mechanical Reproduction. New York: Penguin Group, 2008. Print.
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Dexter, Emma and Weski, Thomas. Cruel and Tender. London: Tate Publishing, 2003. Print.
Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph. New York: Aperture, 1972. Print.
Estrin, James. The “Shame of Memory” Haunts a War Photographer. Lens. The New York Times. Web. 9 Sept. 2013.
“The Field of Social Practices.” California College of the Arts, n.d. Web. Aug. 15 2013.
Fineman, Mia. “The Portraits of Judith Joy Ross: Not Just Faces in the Crown.” The New York Times. Web. 2 April, 2009.
Gross, Frederick. Diane Artus's 1960s: Auguries of Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012. Print.
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Kismaric, Susan. Judith Joy Ross: Contemporaries, a photography series. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1995. Print.
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Maenpaa, Jenni. “Photojournalism and the Notion of Objectivity.” Past,Future, and Change: Contemporary Analysis of Evolving Media Scapes. Ljubljana:University of Ljubljana Press. Online. 2013.
Mitchell, William. The Reconfigured Eye; Visual Truth in the Post Photographic Age. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1992. Print.
"NPPA Code of Ethics." National Press Photographers Association. Web. 2013.
Photographs by Iraqi Civilians, 2004. Daylight Community Arts Foundation. Petapixel. Web. 2004
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Rosenberg, Harold. “A Meditation on Likeness” Richard Avedon: Portraiture. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976. Print.
Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003. Print.
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973. Print.
Tojner, Poul Erik. “Preface.” Richard Avedon Photographs 1946-2004. Ed. Michael Juul Holm. Humlebæk: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2007. Print.
Thurman, Judith. “Heart Shot.” Richard Avedon Photographs 1946-2004. Ed. Michael Juul Holm.
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University, n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2013
Exhibits:
Museum of Fine Arts. She Who Tells a Story: Women photographers from Iran and the Arab world, Boston, Sept 20, 2013.
Photographic Resource Center. Framed: Identity and the Photographic Portrait. Boston, Sept 21, 2013.
RISD Museum. General Collection. Providence, Nov 7, 2013.
Gallery at the New England of School of Photography. Miah Nate Johnson: Perceptions Garner. Boston, October 16th.
808 Gallery. 2013 Boston Young Contemporaries. Boston,
Boston Printmakers North American Print Biennial
Barrington Center for The Arts. Recent Work: Faculty and Alumni Exhibit. Wenham, Sept 5, 2013.
MIT Museum. Joël Tettamanti: Compass Points. Cambridge, August 15, 2013.
Artist Talks:
Mary Ellen Mark, Boston University Sept 26, 2013
Mark Dion, Boston Public Library October 29th
Also referenced:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/stunning-timelapse-video-shows-young-girl-aging-elderly-woman-article-1.1455387
http://www.thephotographsnottaken.com/
http://www.unphotographable.com/
Alec Soth: http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/niagara
http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/07/31/war-photographers
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/the-shame-of-memory-haunting-war-photographers/
http://mediastorm.com/clients/ripple-effect-images
Documentary on JR's worldwide collaborative project: "Inside Out: the People's Art Project."
Conscientious Photography Magazine: http://cphmag.com/
Brian Schumat's photo series: "Grays the Mountain Sends" http://www.bryanschutmaat.com/
Arnes Svenson series, "The Neighbors" http://arnesvenson.com/theneighbors.html and the following court case http://blogs.nppa.org/advocacy/2013/08/05/photographer-prevails-in-first-amendment-vs-privacy-case/
Michael Wolf's curation of google street view images. http://photomichaelwolf.com/#paris-street-view/1
documentary: "102 Minutes that Changed America"
Hitchcock's "Rear window"
http://www.paulgrahamarchive.com/possibility.html#a and his book "The present" How little moments change with space and time.
Chauncey Hare, "Interior America" and "Corporate America"
