© Greg Wasserstrom
I don’t know why, but I’ve never submitted anything to JPG Magazine before. A post on Liz Kuball’s blog reminded me that I should probably do this from time to time, so I just uploaded a photograph I took of Britt a couple weeks ago that I think fits the current fashion theme. Maybe pop by and vote for it?
I’ve been embarassed to post this to the blog for a couple of days but right now I have a couple of drinks in me and I’m going to do it just the same. My friend Carmen is getting into erotic photography and I put together a little page for her to look at where I sort of talk through erotic photography as far as I know it, which is not very much. So if any of you kind people want to add to the page, let me know.
© Christian Patterson
Another post about my favorite subject: me. I’m awfully sorry about this. Amy Stein wrote a great post a couple of months back about how the readership of her blog expanded so much when she stopped writing so much about herself and more about photography. I hope to soon follow her example, but apparently not today. An entry over at Conscientious just got me thinking about how I define myself. Joerg said:
A couple of days ago, Ed Winkleman posted about a scientist who produces beautiful images, but who refuses to consider herself an artist. As always at his blog, the discussion that followed is quite interesting. Needless to say, part of my interest stems from the fact that in my day job I am a scientist myself, and I keep running into people who just can’t comprehend how a scientist would know something about photography. So when people ask me what I “do”, I’m always a bit of a loss what to say, since I don’t want to define myself through any single activity.
I sort of feel the same way as Joerg does and I too often have trouble answering this question. Clearly, photography is a serious pursuit of mine; but I’m also finishing a degree in political science. As we finished out senior year, we were all asking each other what our plans were. Acquaintences were surprised to hear I’m planning on an artistic career instead of a political one, “wow, that’s a big a change,” etc. And since I’m not trying to get a job covering politics as a photojournalist for the Washington Post, I guess it would seem that my passions of mine are unrelated.
To me, of course, political and social, critical writing and photography are not at all unrelated and each are tools I can use to put forth a cohesive view of American culture. My work is not inherently political because often times I find art with too heavy-handed a message off-putting. We live in an era where we let viewers interpret what we make for themselves so I by no means want to advance any kind of agenda or anything like that. But I am looking to bring all the things I do together and put forth complementary projects of all kinds encouraging, and hopefully stimulating, critical thought.
I’m an aspiring pointer-outer-of-things.
© Greg Wasserstrom
© Francisco Scavullo
I just picked up a ticket to see Black White and Gray: A Portrait of Robert Mapplethorpe and Sam Wagstaff at Silverdocs on Saturday. I don’t know all that much about Wagstaff, but obviously I’ve had quite a bit of exposure to Mapplethorpe. Just from reading the description of this film, I learned that their roommate in the early 1970s was Patti Smith. This flick’s gonna be sweet, I’ll write about it after.