Tina Tyrell

EMOTIONS REVEALED (pic 2728)

2012-01-19T06:31:00.000-08:00

(Oliver Sacks has written, “No one in the world has studied facial expressions as deeply as Paul Ekman. In ‘Emotions Revealed’ he presents — clearly, vividly, and in the most accessible way — his fascinating observations about the covert expressions of emotions we all encounter hundreds of times daily, but so often misunderstand or fail to see. There has not been a book of such range and insight since Darwin’s famous ‘Expression of the Emotions’ more than a century ago.”)

PAUL EKMAN: In picture 2728 she is showing a social smile or a smile for the camera. The signs of an actual enjoyment smile are just not there. There’s no sign of any negative emotion. She’s doing what people always do when they pose for a camera. They put on a big, broad smile, but they’re not actually genuinely enjoying themselves. We would see movement in the eye cover fold. That’s the area of the skin below the eyebrow before the eyelid. And it moves slightly down only with genuine enjoyment. … In one of her pictures I get a chance to see her with no emotion on her face. That’s picture 4034. So I can see what the eye cover fold looks like when she’s not smiling. And it’s just the same as with the smile. That’s the crucial difference between what I call a Duchenne smile, the true smile of enjoyment, named after the French neurologist who first made this discovery in 1862, and the forced smile, the social smile.

(In “Emotions Revealed” Ekman quotes Duchenne: “The emotion of frank joy is expressed on the face by the combined contraction of the zygomaticus major muscle and the orbicularis oculi. The first obeys the will but the second is only put in play by the sweet emotions of the soul… The muscle around the eye does not obey the will; it is only brought into play by a true feeling, an agreeable emotion. Its inertia in smiling, unmasks a false friend.”)

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/the-most-curious-thing/

THE LOOK OF LOVE

2011-12-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

That's Italian.

BLANCHE & BUCK

2011-12-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

Blanche Barrow, sister in law of Clyde Barrow, lived a relatively long time, 77 years.
Long enough to see her portrayal by Estelle Parsons and decide, despite the Academy Award win, that she made her look like "A screaming horses ass".
Here she is screaming as her husband lay mortally wounded nearby, July 23, 1933.

REVISITATION OF LORENA BOBBIT

2011-10-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about having a blog is that you can bring people's attention to something you did a while ago, something that maybe happened abroad, like in the UK, and no one really heard, or noticed, or asked you about it but you really thought they should. Anyway what a blog does is give you the chance to show this thing again, as I saw cleverly noted on someone's website recently, to flashback. In the case of my portrait of Lorena Bobbit, commissioned in 2008 by the Sunday Telegraph UK, it allows me 2 flashbacks. My own personal memory of shooting her, in the D.C. suburb of Manassas Virginia, and the collective flashback to 1993 when she so famously cut off her husbands penis. She came to the shoot accompanied by her current husband, a large man who mentioned that he would like to be played by Vince Vaughn should a movie of her life ever be made. She herself was quiet, a bit wary, and very nice. She did what I asked her to, which was to raise her hand to her face in somewhat doleful manner (either self-consoling or shielding, both indicative for me of her famous history with domestic violence), and wait that way, the gruelingly long time for me to adjust my large format camera.

PLANTCARE RESIDES

2011-09-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

If you are in Berlin, and in need of some dental work, why not pay a visit to the impressive dental practice of Dr. Goetz Parloh? If you do, you will no doubt notice that the walls have been adorned by the fascinating "Plant Care" photo series, a collaborative project between myself and Ryan Schaefer.

These digital C prints are approximately 26x30 inches, framed, and, yes, available for purchase along with the companion manual,
PLANTCARE: Exploring the Relationship Between Houseplant and Man.

(excerpt of introduction)

Though many are inclined to treat them as mere decorative objects, houseplants are living beings in need of love and regular care. Each houseplant is unique unto itself and demands at least a few measures of support on a daily or weekly basis. One must remember that it has been taken out of the context of its natural environment. A thoughtful caretaker must do his best to ensure his plants will have the support system it needs to live a healthy and fulfilling life. Through this connection between houseplant and man, both entities will no doubt be immeasurably rewarded. If you take these first essential steps, you will be well on your way to successful cultivation.

Now until an unspecified end date.

The offices of Dr. Goetz Parloh

Jagerstrße 61, 10117

Berlin, Germany

MORE FROM ST. VINCENT

2011-09-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

I started asking myself the tough questions, photographically speaking. For instance: Why have wide angle lenses gone out of fashion as a portrait lens? What about cross processing? Sloppy borders? Particularly in music, where these techniques, for better or worse, defined the visual ephemera of a generation. I guess that is my answer, but anyway, my next thought was, why not bring some of this back? And so I used the Hasselblad 503CW with a 40mm lens for these, the Annie Clark "baby sessions." One of the most creative, fun, open and exciting collaborators I've ever had.

ART IN THE AGE OF:

2011-09-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

If you lived in Paris, at the Louvre, and you were the Mona Lisa, this would be your view on most days.
(click the image to see it's entirety.)

GAMES OF MADNESS

2011-08-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

“The point is that you can’t get at the thing itself, the real nature of the sitter, by stripping away the surface, the surface is all you’ve got. All you can do is to manipulate that surface — gesture, costume, expression — radically and correctly.” The above quote by Richard Avedon.
The above image, of his collection.

ONLY FROM HERE: THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE PRESENT MOMENT

2011-08-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

Did you see the August 18th edition of the New York Times Magazine?
To accompany a photographic re-visitation of famous images, A.O. Scott wrote something about the nature of photography I quite liked. It was this:
Every photograph stops time. This is the most banal, technical fact about the medium and also the source of its uncanny and remarkably durable power. The relentless momentum of mundane existence is stilled by the shutter, and some of the mysteries implicit in everyday life open up. A moment — of high artifice or raw candor, of posed elegance or composed chaos — is captured and then, later, delivered to our contemplative gaze.
We, the beholders, are always late to the scene, which makes looking at a photograph a species of time travel. We look back, aware, at least unconsciously, that the world has moved on. After a while, so do we, turning the page and returning the image to its natural state as a permanent piece of ephemera. But sometimes we wonder: What happened next?

Rineke Dijkstra's Almerisa series pictured above, to my mind, answers this question.

ST. VINCENT

2011-07-13T16:48:00.000-07:00

Today on Pitchfork the record cover I did for St. Vincent was revealed. Since the album is not due
out until September I think the most I can say about it for right now is to expect more revelations
from these sessions soon.

http://pitchfork.com/news/43184-st-vincent-unveils-new-album-details-tour/

BEFORE IT WAS RHETORICAL

2011-07-07T16:49:00.000-07:00

Freedom. 1962 by Bob Adelman.

SOMEWHERE SOMETIME

2011-06-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Every time I ride a train, I think of this photo.

MY 21st CENTURY

2011-06-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

The so called kissing couple of the Vancouver riots last week affirmed a few things (forgive my recent inclination for list making):

1. Despite their proliferation, a single photograph most certainly retains the power to arrest people's attention.
2. Still moments provide a somewhat porous vessel for the imagination to seep through. Looking at the still image, information is limited, and so we must fill in the gaps ourselves, making the experience of viewing the photograph quite about us, as well as about them.
3. And perhaps it ends there. It took from 1950 until a 1992 lawsuit for Robert Doisneau to admit that he staged the famous, Le basier de l'hotel de ville. Prior to that, the identities of the couple remained anonymous, of course, enhancing the mystique of the photo.
It took exactly one day for the identities of the Vancouver couple to be determined. By the following week they had appeared on The Today Show, and by doing so, naturally dispelled the intrigue of the photograph. We now know the exact circumstances which led to that moment and have an aerial video to savor as well.

THIS WOMAN'S WORK

2011-06-20T07:54:00.000-07:00

3 very interesting images of or by Lee Miller:

1. Appearing as a statue come to life in Cocteau's The Blood of a Poet.
2. Her photograph of a suicided Nazi girl (daughter of the mayor of Leipzig).
3. Miller herself, bathing in Hitler's bathtub, 1945.

THE POWER OF NOW

2011-05-20T14:09:00.000-07:00

Having said all that in the previous post- and I am extremely reluctant to admit this- but I took the photo for this ad with the iPhone.

THE MANY AND THE FEW

2011-05-04T19:09:00.000-07:00

It's incredibly clear, recently, the craft of photography, and the appreciation for it, has rapidly changed. The emphases now less on process and instead on production. A photographs currency has been greatly diminished as a result of the market flooded. We are each owners of thousands of photographs, their preferred storage, quotidian and practical, but also precarious, our mobile phone and laptop. There is something extremely ephemeral about the new nature of photography and our relationship with it is equally as transient. Perhaps it's worth considering something so easily produced should be so easily lost. I use an image from Tina Barney to recall the tragically defunct Polaroid. We have more now, more images, more devices at our disposal, but the effect and effectiveness of our current obsession with picture taking and it's methods remains to be seen in the long term. And after all, photography exists in extremely large part as the treasure of then. Yet as it is becoming, the chintz of right now.

UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN

2011-04-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

TONIGHT AT MoMA

2011-04-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

Here is another still from my video for the New Skin for the Old Ceremony project. 11 videos by 11 artists playing according to the original track listing of Leonard Cohen's 1974 album. Tonight it will screen 3 times at MoMA, and eventually I will be able to link the whole video, but for now, this.

ROAD TO NOWHERE

2011-04-06T12:15:00.000-07:00

Last December I shot this video comprised of hundreds of still images for Partik Ervell's Spring 2011 Collection.
All I can say about it's content is a young man's struggle into or out of oblivion. Certainly his clothes ended up worse for wear.
I counted 78 bug bites after our second day of shooting in the brush of the Florida Everglades.
Talented director M Blash of The Directors Bureau edited and interpreted the images with animations from Second Life.
Apocalypse Then.

DIAGONAL COMPOSITION

2011-03-31T09:49:00.000-07:00

Le Corbusier rooftop garden. Paris, 1929.

MAKING YOUR WAY IN THE WORLD TODAY

2011-03-10T12:50:00.000-08:00

Peter's House Music "The Mirror Has Two Faces" from All Hands Electric on Vimeo

Charting an afternoon in the life of an extremely tall amateur photographer.
Here, this most wonderful new video by Brett Milspaw for Peter's House Music.

THE SECOND SEX

2011-03-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

I had the idea for this photo in the fall of 2009, but it took me until the fall of 2010 to find someone to agree to pose for it, here, the lovely Isabel. My aim was originally regarding a disconnectedness of the top side versus the bottom side, so to speak, and a sort of obliviousness to ones perceived sexuality. A pristine and wholesome young woman, who somehow has failed to notice that she wears nothing below the waist. But how could this be an empowering position to be in? The end result was far more subtle as the knowledge of her expression indicates something else. She may be beckoning, she may be aloof. You must study the portrait to see what is going on here. In any case, I want to find new ways of representing women, I am trying to discover what they are.

THE TWO SHALL MEET

2011-02-23T15:55:00.000-08:00

Top Image: Reuters photograph, which appeared in The New York Times today of the damage near Christchurch.
Bottom Image: Jeff Wall's masterpiece, "Destroyed Room".
Quote: "Art is a lie that makes us realize truth." -Picasso

PAUSE FOR PERFECTION

2011-02-15T09:52:00.000-08:00

There is an inherent perfectionism to a photograph. An image representing actual life, but whose future and past are merely allusions if existent at all. The image therefore lives unencumbered, and it's reality is only for itself. All possibility for control exists within this tiny universe, for it can be as we make it. There is no narrative arch and no causality. All that is up to us to imply and to determine.

The possibility for true perfection can only be the perfection of the moment, ironically eternal.

HAUNT MY REVERIE

2011-02-13T12:49:00.000-08:00

McDermott & McGough recently at Cheim & Read.

Sometimes quite successfully appropriating and reinterpreting some of the best photographs of all time, and using, incidentally, the same color printing process used and perfected by Paul Outerbridge.

TAKE THIS LONGING

2011-02-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

Here I'd like to paraphrase, parse, and decontextualize Paul Bowles:

One year is like another year.
Eventually, everything will happen.

NUDE

2011-02-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

Fantastic Man. Ceaselessly the most clever and well executed fashion magazine on planet Earth.

This story highlighting a trend in nude.

THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY

2011-01-25T05:51:00.000-08:00

There is a realm which lies somewhere between words, the words mark points of interest as though on a map, but they are merely indicators. The depth of meaning must be imagined and it has to be felt to be understood. Though I am using Philip-Lorca di Corcia's remarkable Heads Series to illustrate this thought, this is not a post about photography directly, but rather the insufficiency of language as a mode of self expression. The other day I thought to myself, I am only 32 and I am already running out of things to say! Though really what I meant was, I am running out of the words to say them with. The language I use now feels only adequate but not complete.
I relate this back to photography and art in general. What it can get at is those spaces between, the direction and area the words simply point to. The trouble is, to share the experience it must be put back into words, reconstituted and therefore of course, degraded.

WATCHING YOU WATCHING WE

2011-01-20T17:50:00.000-08:00

You don't need me to explain the impact of this the most recent example of a photograph gripping the public's imagination and emotion. Surely you don't need me to mention the power of this one image. You don't need me to tell you how our eyes collectively stare into his eyes as he singularly stares back through the single lens which recorded this single moment shortly after one of the most upsetting and nauseating acts of violence in recent time. A particular American tragedy.
I'm reminded of a New York Times blog post I read several years ago by Errol Morris. In one entry he explained the importance of understanding context when viewing a photo, that generally a photo without context (or caption) is rendered meaningless and perhaps even dubious. However in this case, though we don't lack an understanding of the events, the expression and gesture contorted onto the face of this person and recorded in that one split second confirms to us (the collective) all we need to know about him.

MAMMA MIA MADONNA

2011-01-15T17:43:00.000-08:00

Madonna is so iconic and (I guess I should just say it), so old, that she is in a position where she can reference herself in earlier incarnations. And who but her exemplifies the slutty Catholic miscreant we all now know as archetypal?
Archetype and persona; her genius has been to manipulate these concepts, and once again, she nails it. No pun intended.
These photos appeared last year in Interview Magazine.

MATA MATA MATADOR.

2011-01-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

More from and about this collection of photographs from the much admired Tina Barney soon, but I was impatient just now.

HISTORY: AN ACCOUNT, MOSTLY FALSE

2010-12-28T16:15:00.000-08:00

A quote from Ambrose Bierce:

HISTORY: n. An account, mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves.

Despite this, which is mostly true I think, these photos of American soldiers between tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan provide a rather indisputable parcel to the historical record. Emotionally, subjectively, yes. Made in 2004/2005 by Suzanne Opton.

VIEWS FROM THE MACHINE

2010-12-21T22:19:00.000-08:00

I've just spent 5 days in my hometown of Los Angeles. I offer this series by Lee Friedlander.

ELAINE KAUFMAN. ANOTHER END TO AN ERA.

2010-12-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

A few days ago New York lost an icon. Elaine Kaufman, who sat as a fixture at her restaurant Elaine's for the past 4 and a half decades, herself an institution. This was, in my family, our home away from home and Elaine a close family friend since my dad started going there when he lived across the street in the early 70's. I honestly don't know what we'll do or where we'll go now.

LEAVING GREENSLEEVES

2010-12-01T12:35:00.000-08:00

On December 16 at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, a video I made will be shown along with 10 videos by 10 other artists, creating a visual reinterpretation of the 1974 Leonard Cohen album, New Skin for the Old Ceremony. I am including a still image from my video here, which stars New York City Ballet principal dancer Ashley Bouder.

"WE ARE FIXED AND CERTAIN ONLY WHEN WE ARE IN MOVEMENT." AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY AND MARK STEINMETZ

2010-11-23T12:51:00.000-08:00

There is a style of photography which is American in every way. It quietly exalts the small, finds beauty and strength in the unheralded and common moment, and enthralls in a sort of poetry of everyday life. (An accomplishment, I would add, for which photography is particularly adept.) I'm not certain where this tradition began. I would think it came directly from the tens of thousands of iconic images produced by the photographers of the FSA in the 1930's; Walker Evans, Dorthea Lange, Marion Post Wolcott and others. They helped define through photography an essential vision of this country, and showed America to itself. From there it continued with Robert Frank and the requisite compendium of 1950's America, "The Americans", which led to Larry Clark and "Tulsa" and onto Lee Friedlander, William Eggleston and Gary Winogrand (not in that order). This is a deep American tradition, and it refers to American ideals; tenderness for small things of everyday life, and everyday people. I recently discovered the sublime Mark Steinmetz, who works perfectly in this tradition, more contemporarily. Everything posted here was done by him, in technically dazzling black and white, through the 1980's and 90's.
By the way, the quote I used to title this entry is by Thomas Wolfe and reads, in its entirety, "Perhaps this is our strange and haunting paradox here in America-that we are fixed and certain only when we are in movement." For some reason I found it relevant. Possibly because this is what photographs quite literally acheive-out of the freight train of time, fixed, frozen moments.

ONLY THIS TODAY

2010-11-13T14:03:00.001-08:00

BRINGING THE WAR HOME, MARTHA ROSLER

2010-11-09T05:47:00.000-08:00

In 1999 there was a show at the Whitney. It was called, something like, Art of the 20th Century, and they divided it into 2 fifty year periods. I didn't live in New York yet and was only visiting, so I only caught the second half. At the time, despite being in art school, I wasn't nearly as conversant or even all that interested in art as I later became. But the thing I do remember, after looking at the show, was being struck, and totally enamored with Martha Rosler's series, "Bringing the War Home". Stylistically it appealed to me, as it was made in an era I was interested in, but once again the use of profoundly simple gestures to convey complex and brutal realities to me seemed really smart. The juxtaposition of ideal American home environments, our banal cultural aspirations of the good life, contrasted with imagery of brutalized suffering, somehow tacitly justified by that very ideology of the good life we sought, and seek. Horrifying. And brilliant.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD

2010-10-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

These matadors look particularly young. Perhaps because they are Portuguese and not Spanish. And maybe that's also why their costumes are less ornate. I decided a week or so ago to go as a bloody matador for Halloween. The genuine costumes are thousands of dollars, so what I ended up with is not quite that and more similar to a boat operator at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

But aren't these Rineke Dijkstra images the best? She is so gifted at at attaining the uninhibited moment, so concise in her clean and quiet portraits. I read her quote that "people go into a sort of trance because so much concentration is needed from both photographer and the subject when you're working with a 4x5". I've certainly found this to be the case when I use my Master Technika to take a picture. It must be so boring for the subject, the process is so slow, and tedious, but the boredom is disarming.

WHAT ARE YOUR REFERENCES?

2010-10-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

As of this year I've begun teaching photography at Parsons. One of the aspects I'm usually stressing is the importance of clear communication and strong references. I did this shoot as an in-class demo with the inspiration of the crumpled canvas backdrop and some hats. But it sort of developed into something else, something that I found myself having trouble adequately describing. I kept saying 80's glamor shot, but I hate that reference and it totally misses the mark. Also, I should hope this has more sophistication than that. Plus, you never want a straight reference, you've got to mix them. So just now, quite after the fact, I realized what I was going for; a sort of Timothy Greenfield-Sanders portrait meets Yugoslav portrait studio, after and before a mob funeral.

A TRUCKSTOP NEAR BORDEAUX

2010-10-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

I dug this print out of my archive to go on auction for the Society of Publication Designers, the only organization specifically dedicated to promoting excellence in editorial design. It'll be November 16th at MILK Studios. I didn't set any sort of amount for its opening bid, so maybe you should think about buying it, huh? It's real nice and it's real film.

WAYS OF SEEING FEMININITY 1972

2010-10-26T06:39:00.000-07:00

I think about this all the time.

INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER, KENNETH ANGER 1969

2010-10-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

It's hard to remember what limited access felt like. Before youtube, widely available DVDs, netflix. If you wanted to see something obscure, you had be lucky enough to know when and where that thing would show and it probably wouldn't be very often. When I was in college in the late 90's I took a class in cult and underground film. My instructors went to great lengths to track down prints of Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, Andy Warhol etc. Then, they were good enough to show us the work of Kenneth Anger.
I was k n o c k e d o u t. As though the gorgeous, vivid, transgressive films weren't enough, this was also the human being who had written a book I had always been fascinated with, "Hollywood Babylon". I started connecting the dots and the dots connected further: I met someone who knew him, I learned that he lived somewhere in Echo Park, where I had lived until 2000, he was from LA, as am I. His sensibility, mired in tinsel, occultism, glamor, the macabre and corporeal. These private worlds- this is pure Los Angeles and it's no wonder I liked him.
I mentioned I met someone who knew him, and that dear person, Walt Cassidy, was responsible for taking him out and showing him to the art world, when, in 2004, he curated a show of film stills from "Invocation of my Demon Brother" at Stuart Shave/Modern Art Gallery in London. A selection from that I am showing here.
Then came youtube, his entire collection of films were released on DVD, and this year he shot a Missoni ad and I bought a piece of his work.
Welcome to the 21st century, where cultic obscurity is a thing of the past.

LEE FRIEDLANDER'S MADONNA 1978

2010-10-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I posted a deathbed picture of Marcel Proust. About it I wrote something along the lines of being surprised, not that a deathbed photograph of Proust existed, but that it was in fact made by Man Ray. Today I had a similar experience as I came across the 1985 issue of Playboy featuring Madonna. I had never seen it before. The photographs are beautiful, a bit awkward, and I knew they were special. What I didn't know, and was surprised to find was that they were shot by Lee Friedlander in 1979. She answered an ad, and he paid her 25 dollars. 6 years later, he sold the sitting to Playboy for a 100 grand. The most explicit one sold again at auction last year for somewhere around 37 thousand bucks.

NOBODY DOES IT BETTER

2010-09-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

The thing that thrills me about the work of Robert Mapplethorpe is the flawless way that he mixes high and low. He always approaches his subject with classical reverence, no matter what or who it is. When the contrast is most striking, for me the photograph is most interesting.

NORMALCY IS EXCEPTIONAL

2010-09-13T08:18:00.000-07:00

A new video from Kai Althoff's music project FANAL. Directed by Brett Milspaw. It has been heralded by filmmaker Colin Whitaker as, "like a coffee commercial mixed with a depressing student film about life on the streets".

PAUL MOTHER-F#%@ING OUTERBRIDGE

2010-09-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

About a year and a half ago I had the pleasure of meeting with former W Magazine creative director, Dennis Freedman. I found him to be insightful, smart and so passionate about art and photography. My meeting felt more like consulting an oracle, I respected him so much. As he was critiquing my work he said something along the lines of, "its clear where you're coming from, your influences, Paul Outerbridge, etc." But I had never heard of Paul Outerbridge at the time. When I went home I looked him up and bought 2 of his books. I realized to my amazement, that I had had an image of his ripped from a magazine on my wall all through high school. The nude with Freddy Krueger hands. Even way back then I was interested in leather and lace, so to speak. Dennis Freedman definitely knows his stuff.

THE SODOM AND GOMORRAH OF DIGITAL DETRITUS

2010-08-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

This story in the New York Times Magazine last week was one of the best photo essays I have seen in a long time. Brilliant for so keenly elucidating a reality I hadn't known or thought about before. These photographs were taken in Ghana at a graveyard/mine for computers donated from abroad to help reduce the "digital divide", the disparity in digital access between rich and poor nations. Instead of being used for this purpose however, they are often burned and the precious metals within extracted for resale.

Here is an excerpt from the photographer's website:

For the past year Hugo has been photographing the people and landscape of an expansive dump of obsolete technology in Ghana. The area, on the outskirts of a slum known as Agbogbloshie, is referred to by local inhabitants as Sodom and Gomorrah, a vivid acknowledgment of the profound inhumanity of the place. When Hugo asked the inhabitants what they called the pit where the burning takes place, they repeatedly responded: ‘For this place, we have no name’. Their response is a reminder of the alien circumstances that are imposed on marginal communities of the world by the West’s obsession with consumption and obsolesce. This wasteland, where people and cattle live on mountains of motherboards, monitors and discarded hard drives, is far removed from the benefits accorded by the unrelenting advances of technology. The cycles of history and the lifespan of our technology are both clearly apparent in this cemetery of artifacts from the industrialized world. We are also reminded of the fragility of the information and stories that were stored in the computers which are now just black smoke and melted plastic.

Essay by Pieter Hugo.

AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE, BUT NOT SIMPLER

2010-08-16T12:49:00.001-07:00

I find it interesting, when thinking of photography as an art form, that the subject of the work is intrinsically so close to the reality itself.
In that way, as a medium, it is totally unique.
This quote by David Bailey is relative to this:
“It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter, because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the ordinary.”

The African-American Flag, by David Hammons

2010-08-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

This is not a photograph, it is an artwork that I saw recently at the MoMA. But it so effectively embodies what I love most about the language of contemporary art. When a profoundly simple gesture can imply a very dense and complicated meaning.

1945, PRISONER IDENTIFYING CONCENTRATION CAMP GUARD

2010-08-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

There is not much else I can think of to say about this. The photographer is unknown.

TIME'S ARROW

2010-08-07T04:34:00.000-07:00

I think its rather hard to be a photographer and not be obsessed with, confused by, and desperately trying to make sense of time. At least that is true for me. Photography provides us with a way to capture and possess time, and to revisit what's lost. More often than not it is the photograph which jogs a memory rather than the memory itself.
But I would say also, that recently, the general population has too succumbed to this. Now with the pervasion of low-risk digital photography people are more interested in capturing moments rather than living them. On the one hand Facebook has offered a perfect outlet for this, photo taking is a performance now, a display for hundreds, but on a deeper level you could argue it's a generalized fear and anxiety regarding mortality.
After my mother died my father became extremely excessive in his photo taking.

AIN'T I A WOMAN?

2010-08-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

I have always been moved by Sojourner Truth's famous 1851 speech, "AIN'T I A WOMAN?". Today on ICP's website, I found it's photographic, distinctly male counterpart from the modern civil rights era, "I AM A MAN".

Here is a text of Truth's speech:
"Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman? Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full? Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say."

STROMBOLI

2010-08-05T08:35:00.001-07:00

There is an island in Italy from where I just returned, Stromboli. Roberto Rossellini made a film about it. So did Marina Abramovic, whose still I included here. Nan Goldin photographed it from the water at dawn. Something about an active volcano can't help but inspire art, but also dreams and fantasies. It is eternal.

APOLOGY FOR ABSENCE

2010-08-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

Please excuse my absence from this blog. I have been traveling and without access to the internet or to my brain in this capacity. I will resume now.

SPEAK, MEMORY

2010-06-30T17:06:00.000-07:00

We have photography, to face us with the past and support the fragments of thought (memories) which comprise our life.
In a way its all we have.

PROUST ON HIS DEATHBED, 1922

2010-06-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

I saw this while reading the paper this morning and was floored.
Not that a deathbed photo of Proust exists, but that it was made by Man Ray.

46 PORTRAITS IN 3 HOURS

2010-06-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

I was assigned by Vanity Fair online to photograph a portfolio of this years Tony nominees. Here is a selection from that shoot.
An Olympian 46 portraits in 3 hours, shot on May 5, 2010 in New York City.

PITY IS SUCH A SAD WORD. LA PIETA.

2010-05-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

I was reading about La Pietà on Wikipedia which said, "It is an important work as it balances the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with naturalism." And so I say (to myself), "I've got the apotheosis (of your aesthetic ideal), right here."
I included a couple Pietàs of my own, which I challenge you to find within this lot.

D I S F A R M E R (non plus ultra)

2010-05-19T14:29:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had my birthday, which marked, somewhat momentously, at least in my mind, that half of my life I have practiced photography. To commemorate that, I'd like to make this post about Mike Disfarmer, who was non plus ultra, at least in my mind, when I began in photography way back in the mid nineties.

MEN OF THE CLOTH

2010-05-14T08:21:00.000-07:00

These men are priests, and apparently, not actors or models. Never in my Catholic life have I ever encountered priests who look like this. Granted, I am not very observant.

YOUNG, PREGNANT AND HAPPY

2010-05-04T06:36:00.000-07:00

As I approach ten years in New York I am really starting to miss California, my home state. That aside, I photographed Katrina for Suno's 2nd season about a year and a half ago (an image from that on the left). I caught wind that she had since relocated to Los Angeles and is pregnant. I wanted to take the opportunity, which she so graciously gave me, to photograph a pregnant girl, and I wanted it to be not so much about the exaltation of womanhood you often see with these kinds of photographs, but just something more humble, and straightforward. This is my first nude. Blond wig courtesy of Sean James.

THE COLLECTOR

2010-04-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

In the San Fernando Valley, where I am from, and indeed throughout Los Angeles, in every bagel shop, dry cleaners and Winchell's, you will find this, the 8x10 glossy. Though what differentiates these from those, is that these people are actually famous. I came across most of these generously offered on Flicker, by an autograph collector named "Pat", but if I could find a collection of the obscure and never were, now that would be something, although, I doubt it would be too hard.

"I NEVER SAID I WANT TO BE ALONE. I ONLY SAID, I WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE. THERE IS ALL THE DIFFERENCE" -GRETA GARBO

2010-04-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

This incredible and incredibly rare image of JD Salinger appeared in New York Magazine last week. It was taken in 1988. It spurred my thinking about the nature of privacy and the nature of photography. Really, the two seem to be mutually exclusive, a photograph is, by definition an invasion of privacy, as the image outlives the subjects reign over it. A photograph also is, by definition, some sort of exploitation of the subject, but I'll deal with that later.
Nowadays though, I don't think people really value or understand the sanctity of privacy, as every thought, detail and idea must be on display for public consumption. It's almost as though any expression not validated by an audience seems hardly to exist at all.
So I've got this blog you see...

MY IDEA OF A GOOD PICTURE IS ONE THAT'S OF A FAMOUS PERSON, PART 2 (MORE RECENTLY)

2010-04-07T08:24:00.001-07:00

I guess this is a rather strange and rather small assortment of images that I've liked recently of celebrities. I guess that's cause there really aren't all that many. I remember reading a quote some years back from the brilliant photographer Katy Grannan. She talked about how she really didn't like to photograph celebrities much, and used an example of an assignment she had had to shoot Halle Berry. She said (and I paraphrase) that Halle Berry came to set as Halle Berry and never for one second stopped being Halle Berry and that there is no getting in or around that. I think its very hard when you are handling someone with a persona so defined, and so coddled. I found that fashion photographers though, can be successful here, as they heighten the image of the celebrity rather than dissect and break it down, which, in most cases is all but impossible, but let's face it, the portrait photographer's natural inclination.

"MY IDEA OF A GOOD PICTURE IS ONE THAT'S IN FOCUS AND OF A FAMOUS PERSON."-ANDY WARHOL

2010-03-31T16:36:00.000-07:00

And so in that vein, are these. Some of my favorite celebrity portraits.

MEN IN FASHION!

2010-03-23T16:39:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing I really love to shoot it's men, particularly when they are models dressed in fashion. Here is a recent thing I did along those lines. The fashion was furnished by Comme des Garcons and Lanvin and brought to us courtesy of Nicolas Klam, stylist.

MINDS THINK ALIKE; SOME EVIDENCE OF THE ZEITGEIST

2010-03-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

The work of Polish artist Margarete Jakschik was brought to my attention recently. Look at these wonderful photographs of hands doing things, and sometimes even with plants. They are from 2008. It may not surprise you when I say that I love them.

(SOME) WORK OF MY MOTHER

2010-03-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

These are 3 collages my mother Stephanie made from 1979-1981 that I have hanging in my apartment. Despite her obvious talent and training, she never really pursued her career as an artist. I think the passage I am including below explains, at least partially, why.

"Any analysis of human behavior, however rudimentary should take account of such phenomena. Historically such human beings have existed. Human beings who have worked-worked hard-all their lives with no motive other than love and devotion, who have literally given their lives for others, out of love and devotion. In general, such human beings are generally women."

-From Michel Houellebecq's, "The Elementary Particles".

FOR LOVE OF ADRIAN LYNE

2010-03-11T14:02:00.000-08:00

I don't need to say much more about this, except to add, that Jacob's Ladder is perhaps my favorite movie of all time. It is superb, and completely under appreciated.

LES HURLEURS

2010-03-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

This artist, who is a photographer, has made his work extremely inaccessible to the English speaking world. He is French, and his name is Mathieu Pernot. These photos, from what I can determine with my scant French abilities, are people shouting to their loved ones detained in a prison somewhere in Spain.

BACKSTAGE, MODELS APPARENTLY SPEAKING TO EACH OTHER

2010-03-10T12:33:00.000-08:00

I cut this out of the NY Times a few years ago, it's from the couture shows in Paris. Probably around 2006. And so I ask you, has there ever been a more beautiful and evocative backstage photo? The answer is clearly, no.

ANOTHER GREAT SASSEN

2010-03-10T12:23:00.000-08:00

I forgot to add this to the other Viviane Sassen post, but boy, I really should have. I love the pose of her feet.

SPEAKING OF HERB RITTS

2010-03-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

As a younger person I never really liked or related to the work of Herb Ritts. Perhaps I found it too overtly homo erotic, or too commercial (in its time). But to visit it now, its so easy to see, this is top level work, work that I doubt anyone would be making, or even able to make, now.

THE RAPTURE IN CHRIS ISAAK

2010-03-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

Ive always found this image of a man ascending into the clouds a very beautiful and an extremely optimistic conception of the end of days. I found it on a website somewhere devoted to the (fundamentalist) Christian notion of "The Rapture".
This black and white still from Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" video looks quite like it too don't you think?
It was directed by Herb Ritts (RIP).

1997 WAS THE YEAR

2010-03-09T12:52:00.000-08:00

The year I took this, and I still like it.

THE PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY

2010-03-08T07:24:00.000-08:00

Early color photography is perhaps one of the most miraculous things to look at. Our impressions of the past are so influenced by the technical capabilities of their time.
These incredible photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorski were documenting the Russian Empire before the Russian Revolution- from 1909-1915. To look at these images is to look right into the face of the past, and, I say with utter seriousness, it's so close it almost makes me uncomfortable.

IN THAT VEIN IS THIS

2010-03-06T08:51:00.000-08:00

I love it when bodies and faces are used as architecture. That approach works particularly well in black and white. Yet here, in this Helmut Newton photograph, it manages to stay deeply human and sensual. This image was featured centrally in a collage of my mothers when I was very, very young and so it exists as a primary image of my mind.

MAN'S LOVE IS OF MAN'S LIFE A THING APART

2010-03-05T22:38:00.000-08:00

Im not sure what this image is from, or what it is trying to communicate actually. My feeling is that it is showing that the woman is somewhere else, in her head. In any case I am intending to use this as inspiration for a photograph I will do myself. Which reminds me, I remember a teacher I had in art school telling us a quote, that was something like, "an artist is only as good as the obscurity of their sources". I have no idea who said it, or even if it was actually said like that, but I never forgot it. Related to this is the quote that was allegedly said by Picasso, "Good artists borrow, great artists steal."

VIVIANE SASSEN IS GREAT

2010-03-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

There is such incredible work coming from Viviane Sassen. I saw that pink toned photograph several years ago as the cover of the lesbian magazine Kutt, and since then I have seen some of my favorite magazine work ever from her in Fantastic Man, both fashion and portrait.
Last night she had an opening at Danziger Projects on 24th street of photos taken in Africa. Its so, so good. You should go.

PLANTCARE/SEX AND DEATH

2010-03-04T14:18:00.000-08:00

This is an ongoing project with my friend, prop stylist and talented aesthete Ryan Schaefer about caring for houseplants. We hope for this to someday be an instructional guide book as well as a exhibition of the photographs themselves. One of them is appearing now, about 30x40, in the Brucennial until April 4th at 350 West Broadway.

PALMS VIDEO

2010-03-04T14:16:00.000-08:00

For the Brooklyn/Berlin based band PALMS
www.saypalms.com

UNLESS IT'S THIS....

2010-03-03T19:35:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the most erotic photo of all time, and certainly one of the best celebrity portraits I've ever seen. A lot is said about them (Lynch/Rosellini) through their very gesture. The way he considers her, and the subtle violence of his hand on her throat. Its very smart and it's Helmut Newton.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE AESTHETICS OF SUBCULTURE?

2010-03-03T19:27:00.000-08:00

For me, perfection is a comfort in disperate aspects. Here its the subject and the setting. This might be my favorite photograph of all time. Mapplethorpe.

THE WORLD'S GONE BEAUTIFUL

2010-03-03T19:13:00.000-08:00

These beautiful collages were done by my friend Christian Holstad for recent exhibition at Daniel Reich Gallery. The photograph of breakfast I made to appear as the ad in Art Forum as well as the flyer for the show. We liked the creationist feeling of that particular arm and hand and its placement. Bingo.

FROM LA JETEE TO LA RAMBLE

2010-03-03T11:39:00.000-08:00

That is a still from the Chris Marker film La Jetée. And this (in the Speedo) is DFA recording artist Gavin Russom shot by me in Central Park.

PATRICK CLEANDENIM WITH (WOMAN'S) HAND

2010-03-03T11:25:00.000-08:00

It must already be clear to you that I often use disembodied hands as aspects to composition and subtle narrative. This portrait is of the wonderful musician Patrick Cleandenim, whose head lies on a pillow at the Carlyle Hotel.

FROM SADE TO NADJA

2010-03-03T11:11:00.000-08:00

The color image is a still from a Sade video, the black and white one is my german muse Nadja laying nude on the beach in Miami.

STACY'S HEAD IN HER HANDS

2010-03-03T10:08:00.000-08:00

I met Stacy at the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel where she works. We chatted and she said she would be open to my photographing her. After much thought, I decided to use her incredible face in this way, and make a photo about mothers and daughters.