PHOTOGRAPHS

To tell you the truth many of them bore me to tears. I much prefer
taking them to looking at them. . . for me it’s all about experience.

Now, it could be said that looking at fotos, any fotos, will expand
the viewer’s experience. I disagree. I think that a lot (most) of the
images we come across these days are just too watery to do much
of anything. There are too many fotografers out there who settle
for craft and staying in the box. Safe. Their fotos don’t really define
any experiences at all. There is no adventure and that leaves them,
for me, just small talk. Boring.

No, the fotos I like looking at, the ones that turn my crank, are fotos
where it’s obvious that the fotografer was in search of experience,
where the fotos define and illuminate that pursuit of experience, is
part of their raison d’etre.

I bring this up because this week I received LowLife, a book of fotos
and words by Scot Sothern.

Words and pictures from LowLife © Scot Sothern

The back-story is that in the 80’s Mr Sothern went a bit, well. . . .off
the rails. He would cruise around L.A. and its environs, pick up street
prostitutes, have sex with them and take their pictures. He also wrote
stories about these encounters.

This pursuit of experience and Mr. Sothern’s honesty about it blows
me away. Here is an artist who, for whatever reasons, embarked on
a journey and documented it in all its glory. An artist who was brave
and driven enough to do down the rabbit-hole of his own psyche and
bring back evidence.

For a less emotional, more reasoned take on LowLife please see
this post by Timothy Archibald. . . .one smart guy and a hell of a
fotografer. I must also tell you that Tim has been a supporter of
my work and one of a few go-to folks for me whenever I question
just what the hell I’m doing. His blog is bookmark-worthy no
matter what.

Anyway: here’s the link to his thoughts on LowLife (complete with
links to further info.) XXXXX

BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY

This month’s BJP contains an article written by Colin Pantall about
photographers who collaborate with their subjects.

I was happy to be included, along with Arlene Gottfried, We Are
Yout, Timothy Arcibald, Klaus Pichler. Anthony Luvera and Chris
Capozziello.

A long list but the BJP is nothing if not thorough and respectful
so each photographer got more than a mention.

I thought it interesting that Colin starts his piece by saying:

It was hard work but fascinating to talk to all
the photographers involved. What came across
was a lack of certainty about what they were
doing, a refreshing questioning not just of
what others do in photography but what they
were doing as well. Nothing was clear cut and
people were extremely eloquent in making their
doubts apparent, whilst also being willing to
defend their perspectives and their practice.

Regular droolers will know that that certainly rings true for me,
I’m always wondering just what it is I’m doing, up to.

Here then is the thing on yours truly:

And a big thank you to Colin for being interested and smart and for
a job well done.

Some links:

Colin Pantall- XX
Arlene Gottfried- XX
We Are Youth- XX
Klaus Pichler- XX
Anthony Luvera- XX
Chris Capozzielo- XX

THE ANSWER TO MY QUESTION

Last week I asked about whether to show all of LIVE THROUGH THIS
on the web, seeing as I’m hoping it will be published (in its entirety)
as a book, sooner rather than later.

An overwhelming majority said to hold it back, which is also the
advise I received from the first publisher I showed it to (and who
is thinking about publishing the work).

Many also said to publish a teaser, to get folks interested. Well, I
don’t think I’m a tease but I do think that that advise is sound.

I can’t tell you how much it pains me to not show LTT. I suppose if
you were really keen you could always go back in drool (November,
2010) and scroll forwards to see what happened. But that’s a pain as
well as being really scattered and not finally edited, either. But at this
point in time, other than the dummy of the book, that’s the only place
LIVE THROUGHTHIS exists.

This decision not to show it all, now, coincides with the custom Word
Press template for LTT being completed. (Big ups to Halogen Marketing
for chipping in on this, over and above, I tell you).

I will be using that template to tease you with the first 7 or 8 pages of
the book and expect that, over time, I will also be adding out takes and
some other stuff there to keep things moving forward.

I conducted a random draw (names from a hat) of all the droolers who
responded to my question. The lucky winner is Remi Theriault.