SOME FURTHER THOUGHTS: OF or ABOUT

I was reading a thing about string theory the other day. It’s one
mind-bending way to look at quantum mechanics. No one, really,
can “see” what string theory is about. (It postulates that there are
10 dimensions of space and possibly 2 of time).

Anyway, the author used a phrase she had borrowed from James
Joyce, one he used in Ulysses (a book, by the way, that changed
my life). The phrase being, in relation to trying to get a grip on
something that is, for the most part ungrippable, “almosting it”.

As far as I can tell, that’s the feeling you get when your brain
almost fits all the pieces together, where you get a taste of
the vision you are wondering about, but it never quite resolves.

I bring all this up because whether a foto is just “of” something
or is actually “about” something can be a lot like trying to figure
out quantum mechanics. There’s often a lot of “almosting it”.

©Richard Avedon from: In the American West

Take these shots, for example. Seemingly ripe for being fotos “of”.
After all, they are humans against white seamless. . .specimens.

There are a million knock-offs of work like this and almost all of
them are merely fotos “of”. But Avedon’s fotos move beyond that,
become “about”.

That’s because of his (Avedon’s) intent and his talent and technique
and because of what he demands. Demands of himself and of his
subjects.

Too often fotografers settle for the easy solution; taking a foto just
because, and saying to themselves: “Seems to me that that’s that”.
A surefire recipe to end up with fotos of, really, nothing but surface.

I believe that a foto of almost any subject can be “about” something
if the fotographer won’t just settle for the easy way out, if the fotografer
demands more from themselves and more from that which they are
pointing their camera at.

Otherwise what’s the point?

RECENTLY PUBLISHED

Finally get to see, in print, a project I worked on for
the Carleton University alumni mag. Not only worked
on, but worked on with the better half, Cindy (who is
a writer).

We, for some reason, don’t get to work on too many
projects together. And, truth be told, it was Cin who
got me this job. She had pitched a story about Jesse
Stewart, a professor in the School for Studies in Art
and Culture. He’s a percussionist who plays in all
kinds of unconventional environments.

Fateema, the editor, bought it and then my name came
up as someone who might shoot the thing.

And a complicated thing it was, too. Had to choose and
then find 4 environments that were not only photogenic,
but were also righteous.

As well, each shot kind of needed to have a sliver of context
(i.e. percussion instruments) and show a lot of environment,
seeing as the story was about the weird places Jesse plays.

Kind of complicated. And, boy, was that cave ever dark.

You can see Cindy’s website here. I’ll bet you’ve never seen
writer’s website like hers.

Also out this past week, an interesting take on a rookie
Member of Parliament Ruth Ellen Broussard.

Ottawa Style asked 3 fotografers to shoot her to see what
would happen.

(For those of you outside the country, or those Canadians
who just don’t remember, she was running for the NDP
in Trois Rivieres West, didn’t expect to win and so spent
some of her time in Las Vegas rather that in her riding,
campaigning. She won.)

Here are the spreads:

The fotographers being (l to r) Angelina McCormick, yours
truly and Darren Holmes.

You can see the thing online here. Hit “next page” (top right)
for, duh. . . .the next page.

STEPHANIE (about, not of)

Part of the book of LIVE THROUGH THIS is going to be Steph’s
story, as told by her. We’re working on it now.

It starts with her earliest memory and just a few days ago she
started sending me words about when she first moved to Ottawa.

Just moving there I had no money and no family
and no home I felt alone so I started selling my
body just to have enough money to support my
habbit. I didnt buy food cause thats the last thing
on your mind. I remember thinking to myself “How
did you get so far from home?” I had no family or
friends and the most fearful thing is being alone!!

As usual, she is totally honest and brave in how she expresses
herself, what she will allow people to see and know about her.

These words are not “of”, they are “about”.

Here’s a foto of her from that time, the time she was still very much
living a junkie’s life.

She has been heroin-free now for over 8 months.

Steph, February 2, 2011

I have a feeling I’m going to write myself into a corner here.
Wouldn’t be the first time and won’t be the last. . . .

I’ve been teaching at SPAO, one-on-one with second year
students, portfolio development. I’m learning a lot while,
on the other hand, also entrenching myself more. Such is
the life of a Gemini.

OF or ABOUT

One of the things I’ve been talking about to the students,
and thinking about, too, is the difference between fotos
that are of something and fotos that are about something.

Now, because we’re talking (or is that: thinking) about
fotos here there will be a lot of gray area because, after
all, these things exist on not just one continuum but many.
(A continuum of continuums?)

For instance, say I look at a boring (to me) foto of a leaf
trapped in ice. (I won’t attach any samples here, you can
already picture it in your head.) It could be said that that
image is about the march of time, about Nature’s uncaring
power and so on.

But for me, it will always and only be a foto of a leaf trapped
in ice. That’s because it’s too cliché, too stupid to be considered
anything but. It’s really just about the surface, and that’s because
its creator (the fotografer) is shallow and/or lazy and/or afraid
when it comes to their fotografy. (There, I said it.)

On the other hand you have an image like this:

© Timothy Archibald. From: ECHOLILIA/Sometimes I wonder

And I pick this picture not because I know Tim, not because
I know the back-story to this image. I pick it because it was
shot close to home (a location we all have access to) and
because it seems to me that this image is undeniably about
something.

What it’s about I won’t go into here because, in a weird way,
that’s not germane to what I’m talking about and, anyway,
I’m sure you are already filling in the blanks just by looking
at it.

And that might be the difference.

While fotos of something typically describe a surface and
leave it at that, images about stuff add a layer of flavor
(or is that: depth) to those surfaces. They don’t answer
questions, they ask them.

And by the way, if you haven’t seen ECHOLILIA you should.
It’s here.

ADVENTURES IN PUBLISHING

Okay, I’m looking for a publisher for both USER and LIVE
THROUGH THIS.

How do you go about that? Who knows?

If you do know I’d surely appreciate it if you dropped me
a line with some hints or the booklet of instructions or
something, anything.

In the meantime I’m plugging away, trying to figure it out
on my own.

I spent the last week whipping both USER and LTT into
shape to get a few BLURB books of them printed. Not to
sell but to send to the lucky publishing houses that make
my list. (I’m looking for lists of potentially interested pub-
lishers, so if you have one of those send it to me, will ya!!!!)

All 148 pages of LIVE THROUGH THIS

All 64 pages of USER

Now, it’s true that the first publisher I showed the portfolios to
was quite interested in LTT. And thank you very much for your
interest. But I really want to turn over as many stones as I can
on this to see what kind of bugs crawl out.

Thus. . . .the BLURB versions, which are really just the dummies
of the books.

I figure I could direct any potentially interested publishers
to some web version for a look-see. But we’re talking books
here, to have and to hold. The old-fashioned guy in me tells
me that sending hard copies is where it’s at.

After all, the whole process of taking fotos and showing
them, it would seem, is not limited to just taking them.

The back-end. . . .post production, printing, hyping is
all part and parcel of the commitment and as I continue
my adventures in publishing I will keep you posted here
on drool.

Not too much drool this week. . .spent all my spare time getting
the wood in and doing a major update on my website.

Wood for our wood-burning fireplace. We are hardcore fire-in-the-fireplace people.

So you can just bop on over to tonyfoto right now to have
a look-see. Just click on the screen-grabs to go right to that
particular gallery. Remember to click fullscreen, there at the
bottom, for big picture goodness.

1/ A tightened up USER, as it is seen in the final-edit portfolio.

2/ The teaser for LIVE THROUGH THIS. The first 8 pages of the
book, with a bonus at the end: new writing from Stephanie.

3/ A 100% new EDITORIAL gallery.

And please let me know if you see any anomalies, mistakes,
tech errors and so on.

Thanks.

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.