THE PROCESS – The neighborhood.
I have posted photos taken in my neighborhood recently and received a few more on a roll I got back yesterday. There is a small voice in my head however, leftover from the days of grandiose misconceptions that says that my fascination is trivial. That this project, and I have to acknowledge that it is a project because I’ve shot enough local photographs - is small. As I’ve matured as a photographer and as a person however, I’ve gradually accepted subtlety. I think we’re all initially attracted to shock and awe but discover the understated as time goes on. It’s also interesting to compare these neighborhood photos to the one below (FROM THE ARCHIVE) which was taken eight or nine years ago, with a Mamiya 7 in Atlantic City. The comparison really reflects my evolution in mood, self-awareness, and relaxed attitude in exploring what I am interested in finding visually. The photo of the reading glasses (not the best scan) is a dark image; I’ve still retained a similar sense of humor (though not as black) but I remember my influences were the same that most emerging photographers had at the time. It was a post-Eggleston, medium format snapshot influence with many young photographers looking for irony and sometimes trying to find the joke at someone else’s expense. I’m not on some moral high ground, it’s just that it quickly turned into a game of “find the Trans Am with weeds growing around it” or “real American with a Budwiser can in hand” popularized by imitators of photography printed in Vice magazine. There was little exploration and many photographers unknowingly fell into a knee-jerk pattern of looking for imagery that already existed in their minds. The style was really very narrow, but easy to see why it was enticing.
The work that I’m doing now is brighter, more consistent not only as a series of ideas, but to my personality. I accept what I like to see and create; it’s truly the only way to make original work and hopefully there are some other people that connect with it on a similar level. Even the camera I use is not so “serious” and I intentionally chose it because of it’s stripped down nature, which enables me to make a more primal connection with it as a tool designed to express what I see.
So the idea here is the acceptance of subtlety through personal growth. It took me fifteen years to understand while Lee Friedlander published such editions as ‘Flowers and Trees’ which I initially viewed as dry, stiff and dull. As I write this John Lydon (Sex Pistols, PIL) is being interviewed on East Village Radio and has unironically offered “… over the years, I’ve developed a real love for nature,” revealing how cuddly he became with gorillas on a recent safari. Sincerity is the new punk.
