ATTACK

Okay, I’ll admit it…..I’m a little bit obsessed these days with USER.

A few weeks ago I restarted that project and then, BAM, the New
York Times did a feature on it. Both of these things have led to
a ton of feed back….straight into my head.

The fact that USER exists is a fluke (well documented, I won’t go
into it here). I started it, like I start all my personal projects, only
with the intention of going out into the world, having experiences
and photographing them. Period. No other agenda. Call me naive.
Okay.

Shooting Mark

It would seem, though, that USER has taken on a life of it’s own.
Inevitable, I suppose, given the subject matter. What’s fascinating
is how different people weld their own prejudices and morals and
emotions onto the work. Some support it, others hate it. That’s
good. I was stuck by the comments in the NYT thing, struck by
the attacks and by how other commenters attacked the attackers.
(You can check out the comments here.)

Shooting Joce

I was on the corner a few days ago, hanging, talking, shooting.
This businessman walks by. He obviously knew who I was, what
I was doing, had seen the photos. So, he walks by and, without
stopping, says this to me:

“You’re disgusting. You should be ashamed. What you’re doing is
disgraceful, exploiting people’s misery”.

As he retreated (without having the guts to stand and fight) he
kept up his muttering attack. I didn’t catch the rest but, believe
me, I’ve probably heard it before.

After he disappeared around the corner I turned to Bob, an addict
I had just photographed, and asked if he thought I was exploiting
him. Bob says:

“No. I’m exploiting myself:”

Talking on the corner/video crew

Anyway, I’ve pretty much decided to not respond to any comments,
for or against. I’m willing to let people react as they see fit. But I
must tell you that a bit of me is very pleased to be touching a nerve.

CONFUSION

Perhaps I was being a little bit disingenuous when I said, above, that
my personal projects are merely about going into the world, having
experiences and photographing them.

Of course all experiences are mediated. Or, to quote T.S. Eliot:

Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions
Which a minute will reverse
(from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, 1915)

Which pretty much seems to sum up my approach to photographing.

The whole world exists. There’s as much happening behind you as
there is in front of you. (Turn around and have a look…..you’ll see.)
The photographer’s job is to organize that world. But there are as
many ways to organize it as there are photographers (which, I guess,
is where the art comes into it).

So I’m down on the corner, working with the people there. Setting
up situations, asking them to stand here, look there, turn your body
this way, no, I mean that way…….and I don’t really know what I’m
doing.

These are early days for Phase 3 of this project. I’m feeling my way
(in every sense of that word: feeling). Allowing myself to make mis-
takes, figure shit out, refine.

But as the thing progresses the idea is to make fewer mistakes. So
I’m looking at these first efforts with great interest.

Which ones work? Why? Where is the line between emotion/melodrama/
”truth”? How close to that line do I want to go? How close can I get?

I don’t know. But I want to figure it out.

Here are 4 photos of Joce. See what I mean…..