USER (less confused)

Well, there was a great response to last week’s post. The one about
me being confused. I guess people can relate.

I must fess up now and tell you all that, while I was (and continue to be)
confused, that’s totally normal.

You see, it seems to be a part of my creative process, especially when I
begin a personal project. I tie myself up in knots, second guess myself
and am full of doubts and anxiety. Obsessed, in other words.

Truth is, I know that it (confusion) will happen and I’m pretty sure that
I encourage and nurture it during the early days of projects. I believe
that the confusion, doubt and anxiety, the obsession, are all mental
tools that drive the process forward. (Of course, if you give in to these
things, rather than fighting them, they end up defeating the process
altogether.)

I’ve been back to the corner since that last post and can report that,
as expected, there has been progress. I’m beginning to understand
that the shots from this year will be more varied, in terms of their
look and feel, than those I’ve done here before, where I used a much
more strict and rigorous approach. But I’m finding images from my
most recent shooting that are pointing the way…..

This shot of Helena was pretty much a fluke (unless you factor instinct
into the equation). I love the mysterious, ethereal, spur of the moment
feel this shot has. It kind of reminds me of the shot of Joce, from last
week’s post, that I liked.

Helena, Ottawa, 2010

The next couple of pix are the direct result of the subjects making a request.

Deidre and Richard used to be boyfriend and girlfriend and are still friends.
They asked me to take a shot of them together, so I did.

The very similar shot below that is of Jeff and his mother, Lorrie. Jeff is a crack
addict and his mom is addicted to heroin. I had shot Jeff the first time out this
year and when I met him again I gave him a copy of the shot. He studied it and
started to cry. Later on he returned with his mom and wanted me to shoot them
together.

Deidre and Richard, Ottawa, 2010

Lorrie and Jeff (mother and son), Ottawa, 2010

I’m not too sure how I feel about how similar these 2 fotos are, but something
tells me that their vibe is different enough that their sameness might actually
be a good thing. We’ll see……

Finally, here’s a shot of Stephanie.

Stephanie, Ottawa, 2010

Some who have seen and studied this latest USER shooting have commented
on how similar these are to what I did last year: USER Men.

I get what they mean but to me they seem so different. While USER Men was
about jagged emotion and rough edges, with a nod to German Expressionism,
this year’s images are much more tender and lyrical.

I suppose the obvious similarity is the light. I’m so in love with the way the light
on that corner falls on and envelopes the people. But to my mind last year and
this year are different animals.

There’s lots more shooting to be done. I’m starting to see what I’m thinking and
how I can apply my strategies to make this year worthwhile. These past few drools
have been a way for me to think out loud, work shit out and get some initial feed-
back. I find that that, too, is an integral part of my creative process.

Thanks for bearing with me.

FOUHSE BECOMES PART OF THE SONY PROPAGANDA MACHINE

A few months back I won the WinInitiative 10BEST10 contest thingy.
Co-sponsored by SONY. Won a SONY camera and some other stuff.

One of the things the 10 winners around the globe had to do was a
shoot, and they had to provide SONY with some video footage of that
shoot. The powers that be then edited that footage and posted the
thing onto YouTube. Some form of social media marketing.

Here’s what they did from the raw footage we provided. I’m pleasantly
surprised that they left in one “motherfucker” and the bit about being
a part of “the SONY propaganda machine”. I’m also pleased to report
that the camera, a 550L, is quite swell.

CREDIT

I’m happy to tell you that the USER work being shot this year
is being supported by the City of Ottawa. I received a Senior
Arts Grant to carry on the project.

One of my obligations is to publicize that fact and to include
the City of Ottawa logo in published materials.

Thank you.

Most of the time
My head is on straight
Most of the time
I’m strong enough not to hate
I don’t build up illusion ’til it makes me sick
I ain’t afraid of confusion no matter how thick
I can smile in the face of mankind
Most of the time

Bob Dylan

Editing some new USER shooting

For me, photography is still about discovery.

And I don’t mean discovering how light strikes an object, or how
“cool” some shape might look in a foto.

No, I’m talking about discovering how I can go out in the world,
shoot, bring it back and make it (my passage through that time
and space) make sense.

And, by “make sense” I mean a few things.

First of all, how can I interact with what’s in front of me, how can
I shape the people I meet and their environment into interesting
photographs? For me photography is a combination of my aesthetic
and social predilections. This process is kind of like mining. I have
to make sure I extract enough raw material to give me options at a
later date.

Then, when I bring all those fotos, this raw material, home, the
refining process begins. I want to sift and shake and shape the
fragments that are fotos into a sequence that will somehow define
that thing.

And, by “thing” I’m not referring to an actual thing. I’m referring
to my passage through the time and the space that gave rise to
the images in the first place.

It’s kind of like a puzzle with no one correct solution, but some
solutions are more correct than others.

Does that make any sense to you?

Time and space. Every foto from USER, for 4 years, has been shot within the red area on this map

If you’ve been following along you know I’ve started shooting USER
again, and you know I don’t know what I’m doing down on the corner.
You also know that I’m committed to figuring it out. And the only way,
for me at least, to figure it out is to go and shoot, look at what I’ve
done, scratch my head, ask myself a whole bunch of questions and
remind myself that it’s all process, baby.

Each year I’ve shot USER I’ve shot it differently. To add interest (for me)
and to show that there various ways one small society can me represented.
The overarching plan is to combine all 4 years shooting into one fairly
complex sequence that will mash up the various takes from the years.

This being the last year I plan to shoot there, the idea is to “flesh out”
my options for this final sequence.

Here are four fotos I shot for USER a couple of days ago. Pictures of
Joce and Alex:

Alex, Ottawa, 2010

Joce and Alex 1, Ottawa, 2010

Joce and Alex 2, Ottawa, 2010

Joce, Ottawa, 2010

Okay, I’m confused.

There seems to me to be something right and something wrong with all
of these images (except the last one, which seems all right to me).

I look at them and try to picture how they could possibly fit in with the
work that’s come before. I feel the pressure of knowing that this is my
last chance to gather enough different images there to round out the
project.

Of course, these are early days (this year). I tell myself to just keep
shooting, to not worry too, too much, that my job is to trust my
instincts.

Add to this creative confusion the fact that I know most of the people
I photograph on the corner. Some I know quite well, others I only met
once or twice before they drifted away. Got straight, went to jail or took
their addiction to some other corner in some other city.

Some of them die.

James, dead

Candace, dead

Bo, dead

Jonathan, dead

How’s that supposed to make me feel?

I’m as confused about this, personal, aspect of the project as I am about
the creative side of it. Probably more confused. I often wonder just what
the hell I’m doing down there, inserting myself into these peoples lives.

But then I get an email like this one:

I was one of the people that you took a photo
of for your exhibit USER. My name is Dawn and
I was in a picture with Kevin. I am no longer using
drugs, it has been 2 years this past June and I was
wondering if possibly you would still have a copy
of the picture that you took. Me and Kevin were
leaning back to back around a pole. I have tried
to find it on my own and couldn’t and may I say
I am quite happy about it. I would like the picture
so I can remind myself that I do not want to look
that horrible or be that desperate again. I really
do appreciate your work and all that you do. I
have followed your work since I got clean. Please
let me know if you have a copy of the picture.
Thanks again.

Dawn :o)

And, while words like this don’t really alleviate my confusion, they do
go a long way towards giving me heart.

So, Okay, I’m confused. Okay. But my heart is strong.

Dawn and Kevin

BACK ON THE CORNER

I had always intended to shoot one more year of USER.

All the previous years I had gone down to the corner with a pretty
good idea of what I wanted the pictures to look like. But this year
I had no idea.

Well, that’s not entirely accurate…..I knew I wanted the images to
be less dramatic than those I’d shot before, more “straight-up”, and,
maybe, I wanted some of the new work to show bits of the narrative
of life on the corner.

But I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that, what I actually wanted
the pictures to look like. So I kept putting off returning to the corner.

Then, this past Sunday I just said “FUCKIT”, loaded my cameras
and went down.

The very first person I met there was a stranger to me and in no
mood for anything other than hitting her pipe. So I wandered
down the street some and, before you know it, old acquaintances
started to drop by, chat a bit and pose for fotos.

Shooting Jeff

Jeff

My shooting was all over the place. I figured I’d just make stuff
up as I went along, follow my instincts and not worry too much
about what I was doing or how I was doing it.

Clark

droolers know how I feel about allowing myself to make mistakes,
and I figured I may as well just shoot and see how the film turns out.
Hope that in there, somewhere, I’ll stumble upon some way, some
image, that shows me where I need to go.

It’s all process, baby.

Then I bumped into Star and her friend Rikki. They wanted me to
take a shot of them together and, even though I had only been
shooting one-shots, thought: “Why not?”. They sat down and
Rikki started to put on some makeup. Star helped her and,
there you go, stuff just happens. Doesn’t it?

It’s all process, baby.

Shooting Rikki and Star

Rikki and Star

Star and me after the shoot

A photo of Star from last year

HIPSTAMATIC ISN’T HIP

Hipstamatic, the iPhone app that turns snapshots into touched
snapshots, is all the rage. You’ve seen them posted online. You’ve
heard (or is that: read?) the oohs and aahs from commenters saying
how wonderful the images are.

Here’s a typical comment from a user:

I love this app. It has completely changed my photography, and
it has opened up a whole new creative avenue for me.

But drool believes that using an app to transform your snaps isn’t a
“creative avenue”, its a dead end street.

Sure, technology has its place in this post modern world of ours.
But to rely solely on an app for your “creativity” is bogus. Not to
mention that most Hipstamatic practitioners use a very heavy hand.
Kind of like they think that the more the image is manipulated and
the more nostalgic it looks, the better it becomes. I look at some of
these totally touched images and can’t help but wonder what would
be wrong with them, as snapshots, if they were just straight-up?

But the Hipstamatic creates synthetic nostalgia. Think Norman Rockwell.
Think Hallmark greeting cards. Think unearned emotion.

If you are using Hipstamatic for fun…fine. Just don’t go thinking it’s
creative. It’s not.

Let me leave you with some real snapshots. The nostalgia is a
built-in fact of the passage of time, not software.

My sister and me

My sister

My sister and me

ADDENDUM

I published a status report on Facebook that read: “enough with the Hipstamatic already”.
Made allusions to the use of this app as the end of photography and a gimmick.

That led to a few comments, all defending Hipstamatic use…..

- It’s fun
- It’s not the end of photography
- Everyone has a gimmick

Fine, yes, I agree. But only up to a point.

(Here, let me say that lately I’ve decided that drool will be more outspoken, more
opinionated, more shit disturbing. That drool will not be afraid to stir things up,
even at the risk of alienating drool’s readers and my present and potential clients.
So tune out now if you’re sensitive. Or stick around and get wound up. Heck, some
droolers might even agree with me from time to time. But I’m tired of being reserved,
tired of pulling punches and tired of settling for just getting along. This is a blog about
photography and I have certain biases and thoughts when it comes to that. drool will
never…..well….almost never, get personal. These are just opinions and you are allowed,
even encouraged, to dissent.)

Now where was I?

drool is definitely not anti-fun, but drool has its own idea of what fun is. And letting
some software program make your fotos groovy doesn’t seem like that much fun.

When I talk about the end of photography I often think about 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Remember the computer in that film, HAL. HAL knows best and will do whatever it
takes to “live” on, to get its way. Certain practices in the foto-world these days somehow
remind me of that dynamic. Perfection-seeking, technology-based, inhuman (or synthetically
human).

Gimmicks. All photographers have and use gimmicks, just like we all use clichés.
But let’s not mince words here. It seems to me that there must be recognition and
assessment of the quality of the gimmicks and clichés brought to bear by fotografers.
Sound elitist? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just the time in my life where I’m too tired of
the worn out, lazy look and the banal rendering of this craaaazy world of ours that
seems, these days, to be taking up so much space.

NOT SAFE FOR WORK

The Abnormals Gallery (Poznan, Poland and Berlin, Germany) has released this
video on YouTube, to publicize their upcoming ABNORMAL NUDES exhibition.
The video contains a piece of my shot: “April and Erik, stain“.

Seems like an interesting way to combine imagery, though I’m not too sure about
the swastika at the end. But, as you know….drool is anti-censorship and respects
the rights of folks to do what they want, especially in the creative realm.

Okay, enough.
Welcome to the new
and improved drool.
Get angry
if you want.
Get even.
Just get
something.

CAMILLE GUERER

I met Camille a few months ago. It just so happened that I was
thinking about finding someone to mentor and Camille was very
interested in photography.

After a bunch of meetings with her and her folks it was decided
that Camille and I would spend some time together, talking about
and committing photography.

I fully expect to learn as much from her, and from the experience,
as she’ll learn from me. And so far that’s been the case.

Because of her school schedule and exams and stuff it’s been a slow
start but now that summer’s here the plan is to ramp it up some.

In the meantime, here’s a slide show…..a short sequence of Camille’s
fotos.

DEBORAH LUSTER

I came across ONE BIG SELF, Deborah Luster’s five year project
photographing inmates in Louisiana, on Pete Brook’s great blog,
Prison Photography.

© Deborah Luster

I haven’t been this awed by a series of work since I saw Vanessa Winship’s
portraits of Turkish school girls. (Here).

I kindly request that you bounce over to Prison Photography, where Pete has
cobbled together a pretty inclusive post about Luster’s work. Source material,
videos, links and more.

Go look. Be amazed.

LYLE RICHARDSON

Yes! Paintings on drool.

Lyle Richardson will be showing his paintings for one night only
at La Petite Mort Gallery.

Lyle and I go way back. I’ve known Lyle since high school. We’d
skip class, hang in the basement listening to Muddy Waters,
Howlin’ Wolf. Lyle would play the blues on the piano and paint
pictures.

He still plays the blues, and paints them, too. His little water colors
are stunning jewels, sometimes clear like diamonds, other times dark
and deep as a blood red ruby.

He says he paints the weather, and I take that to mean the weather in
his head. Pure poetry…..the sunny days and the storms that sulk and
rage inside each and every one.

Go see this show. July 9th, 7:00 to 10:00.

TONY FOUHSE

Finally, what would an edition of drool be without some hype for
the master drooler?

A couple of images I shot of April and Erik will be included in a
group show at Abnormals Gallery, in Poznan, Poland.

Just printed them and took this shot before they were bundled up
and shipped……..