Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Clouds and Larry Sultan





I am getting closer to being done with this project, I'm gonna print these pretty small, not sure how small yet, but I want the viewer to be able to hold them in their hands. I want them to go from expansive, huge images to small precious objects that a person can carry with them. I'm going to mount them on mat board and trim the edges so you see no mat board at all. I hope they turn out as cool as they are in my head!
These are going to be for my class 'The Document' where we are currently discussing readings from Roland Barthes, Sarah Kember and Marjorie Perloff we are talking about the experience of photography as a viewer, subject and a photographer. We have discussed the way a person relates to images and what makes him or her like or dislike them. So far I'm not concrete on how to relate my images to the text, but I'm working on it.

OK now to Larry Sultan, Ryan and I attended his lecture at the U of O last night and it was amazing! I found him not only brilliant but also very personable and charismatic. He was quite funny and talked about his many successes, awards and books but also talked about his insecurities and problems as an artist. These were very comforting to hear because it makes me feel better about the questions I have of my art and myself.
He showed us images from all his books and talked about some of the process and his intentions with the images. It was amazing to go into this having already seen a great deal of his work and knowing about his many accomplishments. It made him seem like such a celebrity in the photo world! Along with images from his books he also showed some editorial work he had done on heiresses and wealthy individuals for magazines. Having him talk about his mental process and his own personality that he was determined to show even in images that they was commissioned to do. He offered up great words of advice through out the lecture;
"Engage in doing stupid things, build on those stupid ideas."

He said this while talking about his early work such as repainting billboards and creating street art. He felt that even his mistakes and stupid ideas lead him to some of his most brilliant work. While talking about the idea of advertisement his discussed his billboard work where he would remove all text from an advertisement and leave the image, he went on to say,
"Photography is a trace, a fact. We wanted to take their fact, our poetry and create our story. To dismantle assumptions of photography."
The lecture was amazing and well worth the time! I hope I get the chance to meet him one day!

Back to editing!
-S

Stumble Upon Toolbar

1 comment:

connie said...

I love these and I really like your idea. I did not fully understand why you wanted to make the prints small but I love your idea. The lecture sounds like it was wonderful.

 
Add to Technorati Favorites