civilized ku # 45 ~ the mighty Penn & the mighty pen

Summer seduction & The Mighty Penn • click to embiggenI'm back in the saddle again ... but this time I'm a bit restless because the saddle's got a burr in it. Rather than just a single-pointed burr, this one is more nettle-like - lots of little irritating hairs - so it's a bit complicated to figure out.

One thing I do know about it is that one of the more irritating points is about The Landscapist. After having some time to speak a big part of my piece and, in the process, deal with and resolve some personal hanging chad issues (photography-wise), I am re-evaluating the idea of blogging. The thought process revolves mainly around the concept of what's in it for me?

From all of your many email cards and letters I know that many of you enjoy and appreciate The Landscapist. By all accounts it gives cause for many of you to think about the medium of photography beyond the equipment/technique/entertainment bounds. Good for you. I'm glad to be of service.

As much as I enjoy climbing into the pulpit (almost everyday) and sermonizing, I need more than just the wife to tell me I'm full of s*** (or whatever). By all accounts, you're out there thinking and I really want to read and see what it is you're thinking about. Chantal did a great job last week of doing just that. Don't more of you have something to show and tell? The Guest Photographers Forum is open to all (just ask for the keys) and I think I would also like to extend the invitation for journal entry content from anyone who is interested.

In the best of all worlds, I would like to assemble a cast of regular contributors - and not-so-regulars as well - who can add their occasional 2 bits/bytes to the proceeedings.

Any takers?

And, PS - is the Mighty Penn really America's Greatest Living Photographer?

Update on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 09:23AM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Robert wrote; 'The Vogue looks so out of place... which is probably the point. Hey, did I get it right?'

my response: well, sort of. The Voque was rather 'out of place' - not exactly the type of reading you expect to find in a cabin on an island in a 'wilderness' setting. But.. the genius being in the details, what struck me as really odd was the cover article about photographer Irving Penn - I felt kind of like Rick in Casablanca ..."Of all the gin mills in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine..." I mean what are the chances that of all the rental cabins, in all the Adirondacks, a Vogue magazine 'walks' into mine? And not just any Vogue, but one that has a cover article naming Irving Penn (the mighty) as 'America's Greatest Living Photographer'.

Weird karma.

civilized ku # 44 ~ I'm back

On top of it all • click to embiggenI'm back and sorting through about 500 pictures from our trip. Hugo and the wife and I flew half way home in a seaplane. Does Hugo look like he's having fun?

Much thanks to Chantal for a job well done. I have yet to spend time reading everything in-depth but I am especially intrigued by the Hilliard interview. I have the book and its one of my favorites. Cinemascapist Aaron also has it. He contacted Hilliard and introduced him to his Cinemascapes and Hilliard sent Aaron a very generous note of encouragement.

Good stuff, Chantal, and thanks again.

Meet David Hilliard

As I mentioned earlier this week, my journey, fascination and obsession with photography began when I was about 15. I found myself strongly attracted to the beauty and fantasy of Anton Corbijn’s b&w images. I was mesmerized of the power of shock and awe created by Robert Mapplethorpe, and later became captivated by the sheer honesty and beauty of his work. Over the years I studied and was influenced by many great photographers, notably Diane Arbus and Gordon Parks . The power of a photograph, the ability to tell a story, to evoke reaction, and to simple expose us to a world unknown, this is why I chose to become a photographer. I had to be part of it.

I was always aware of the emotional power that a photograph can hold. But it wasn’t until browsing through the photography section of Barnes and Noble, that I was instantly struck, and nearly moved to tears. It was the day I discovered a monograph by David Hilliard.

David Hilliard’s photographs are like a window into his life. Beautifully constructed multi-panel images create more than just a glimpse, they show the complexity of relationships, the joys of childhood, the struggles of manhood, and they hold the power to connect the viewer to David’s own experience. 
Broken Parts, David Hilliard, '06 - click to view larger

David holds a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art, and MFA from Yale. He is currently Assistant Professor of Photography at Mass College of Art, Boston; has also taught at Yale and continues to teach workshops throughout the country. He has exhibited his work in numerous group and solo shows in galleries all over the US and abroad and is represented by the Bernard Toale Gallery in Boston, the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York, as well as galleries in Atlanta and Los Angeles. All of this, and he still took the time to answer a few of my questions:

CHANTAL STONE: Please tell me something about you…where you're from, what first attracted you to photography, how you got started

DAVID HILLIARD: I’m from Lowell MA . Photography has always been a part of my history. As a boy I remember my dad taking lots of pictures and often joining them together to create sweeping landscapes…not in a fine art sense though. It seemed more about the need to fully describe a place. But it made an impression. After that I was always the kid with the camera. I would document everything; friends, family, toys and places that I liked. Looking back it seemed a form of control. I’ve always felt a lack of control in my life and making photographs, from the very beginning seems to give me back some aspect of control…I was here, look at this, this looks better this way, this is wrong etc..

CS: What format do you prefer to work in?

DH : 4x5. Color. I love the potential for large scale viewer and detail that holds up.

CS: Where do you like to shoot, any favorite places? Do you do much traveling?

Dad, David Hilliard, '98 - click to view larger DH: I shoot everywhere. My back yard, the homes of family or friends. I tend to respond to rural/suburban landscapes…really beautiful spaces but not too over the top. I do travel quite a bit and usually try to bring the camera. Presently I’m in Colorado teaching a two week summer course. So far I’ve photographed suburban belly dancers and, I think, made a pretty interesting image of some teenagers making out in a golf course sand trap. I’m trying. It’s often difficult to find some sort of edge…a slippage that warrants a photograph. Sometimes I just find it and sometimes I completely create it

CS: Describe your method; do you plan your shoots or are they more spontaneous?

DH : I think I just kind of answered this one. But yes, sometime I’ll just happen upon a subject and think “wow this really lends itself to a photograph”. Other times I’ll be day dreaming or in the midst of a conversation and I’ll have that eureka moment where an idea will come to me and I start spinning the wheels as to how to create it.

CS: What single element do you try to emphasize in your work?

DH: Big question. I’m not exactly sure I have one single element. I have a few that are consistently running through the work though. The sense of being a spectator…that all this stuff is going on around me, sometime wonderful sometimes not, and I’m just watching. Taking it all in.

I’m very much interested in where the viewer is situated when they take in the work. I like the idea that this viewer has to work a bit to make associations between images (shifting focal planes and depth of field) and often physically move to take it all in. I love that in some of the large vertical images the viewer, along with the subject of the photo, are often sharing the same experience. Meaning that there could be an image of a person reclining, looking up into the sky and that the viewer also works to take in the same view.

I also like a tension between a real event and something staged/static. A tension between reality and fiction. I think this goes back to my boyhood desire to control things that I couldn’t.

CS: Are you currently working on any projects? If so, please describe.

DH: I’m making a series of images where there might be this latent desire for some of transformation or escapism. Lots of images of people changing clothes, deciding who to be that day. Images of people performing…for example the Colorado belly dancers. That for a few hours these women can become something else, transport themselves elsewhere. I’m also making a series of photos of people reading, deeply absorbed in the page while perhaps sitting in a landscape that further echoes this feeling. This work is very new and still unfolding. I’m excited about where it’s going though.

CS: I often write about my influences, you being one. Who are you influenced by? 
Rising, David Hilliard, '98 - click to view larger

DH: Early on it was my father for sure…and really wonderful 70’s television and early Technicolor movies.

As an undergrad student it was a strong faculty at Mass College of Art in Boston . Abe Morell, Barbara Bosworth and most especially Laura McPhee. She really pushed me to strive for accountability in what I was creating. There was never any hiding with her around.

Then there was the Yale grad school experience. I actually had a pretty good run. I worked with some amazing artists and my work grew significantly. It wasn’t the warm and fuzzy Mass Art journey…but it was formative.

I love and respond to so much photography that I can’t really tell you of one particular artist. I do know that the very photo that I fell in love with was August Sander’s Pastry Chef. A perfect photo.

CS: What are you currently…?

DH:

Reading … Andre Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name and stack of New Yorker’s that I can never get ahead on

Listening to … Smog’s A River Ain’t Too Much and Rufus Wainwright’s Release the Stars

Watching … A Jack Nicholson movie marathon…One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Easy Rider etc.. Good stuff

CS: I find your photographs to be deeply personal and often very emotional. On your website you state:

"The casual glances people share can take on a deeper significance, and what initially appears subjective and intimate is quite often a commentary on the larger contours of life."

I feel that your photographs are not only about the relationships between the individuals pictured or between yourself and your subject(s), but also about relationships we all share: between lovers, friends, parent & child. What, if any, is the larger statement that you are trying to make?

DH: I think that is a large statement. Larger than that I’m not sure; I guess that we’re all fragile and searching…and that ultimately there’s no correct path or lifestyle. They’re all viable, challenging and occasionally painful.

CS: Your photographs give a feeling of familiarity, like a glimpse into the very personal aspects of your life. Are you purposely being so revealing or is it part of an illusion? Do you know all of your subjects personally (vs. hiring models)?

DH : Revealing. I almost always know my subjects on some personal level. When I hire I feel like something is lost. I think it’s that collaboration between fact and fiction that I mentioned earlier.

CS: As a teacher, I'm sure you're always asked for advice. Is there a particular bit of wisdom you'd like to share?

DH: Maybe not wisdom but one of the first things I’ll tell a class is that none of us have it all figured out. I never want to be that teacher. We’re all searching for a kind of resonance in our work, a personal truth. Perhaps I’ve just been doing it longer…but I’m still searching for answers.

AND, stop doing it when you no longer love it. There are just too many photographers out there who seem to be forcing it…

David Hilliard’s next exhibition will be at Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta from September 14 to October 27.

~Chantal 

Take The Journey

 

“I want to cast my line and capture your mind, then have you turn, take over the story, and somehow make it your own.  I want to inspire you to some deep feeling, but can’t tell you what that feeling should be.”
click to view larger

That sounds like someone’s artist statement doesn’t it?  To me it sounds like the goal of every photographer who shoots with purpose….or any visual artist, for that matter.  It could easily be my own statement.

But it isn’t.  It comes from a book that I read about two years ago that completely changed my life: The Great Western Divide, by John Spivey.  Like I said previously, I’m not trying to write a book review (I don’t have the vocabulary to do this book any justice).  All I can say is if you never read any other book in your life, you need to read this one.

I wrote a short blurb for the book on Amazon.  It reads, in part:

"John Spivey invites us to explore the landscape of our minds in this inspiring and thought provoking journey through California's Sierra Nevada. Part autobiography, part environmentalist, part history, with much philosophy, this book takes the reader on an adventure not soon forgotten.

Without sounding preachy, Spivey challenges us to see things differently; not to abandon already held religious or metaphysical beliefs, but rather to dig deeper and to question How we came to believe these things, and Why."

I discovered the writings of John Spivey during a time in my life when I was beginning to question things of a spiritual nature, but also was having a bit of a creative crisis.  There was a convergence of sorts, where at one moment I felt as though I was in a fog; I couldn’t see, I couldn’t feel. I didn’t know what to see or feel, but I knew that out there, there was something more.  Then suddenly, things became so clear.

The first thing I read of Spivey’s was an article he wrote (based on a portion of The Great Western Divide) called Energy and Imagination.  The line that woke me up was: “Energy without awakened imagination is eternal damnation.”

Think about it.  We all have a certain level of energy within us.  Not only physical energy, but spiritual energy, creative energy, intellectual energy.  Imagine walking through life with eyes closed (metaphorically).  Maybe some of you are.  Maybe you don’t have direction in your life.  Maybe you are unaware of how to fully release your creativity, therefore you feel stuck and stagnant.  Eternal Damnation.

I am now fully awake.  I may not know exactly where I am going, but I know that if I listen to the voice inside, if I am true to my own vision, and if I leave myself open to the possibilities, I’ll wind up right where I need to be.

~Chantal

A few thoughts on projects...

click to see larger I’ve only recently made the switch to digital photography (March) but since then I’ve acquired quite an archive. It’s such a big difference from film; it’s all right there at the click of a mouse, rather than shuffling through piles of negatives, contact sheets, and prints. (I’m not trying to start a film vs. digital argument; all formats are great, depending on the objective one may be better than the other, but whatever format one chooses to use, as long as it effectively accomplishes what its supposed to---that’s awesome). And for someone with absolutely no organizational skills whatsoever, being able to click and drag images into neat little folders is perfect.

Having all of my images right here on the screen for easy viewing has helped my progress as a photographer too. I can easily identify trends and tendencies…things that have always been there, I suspect, but only now have I been able to see it so easily in such a pronounced manner. For example, I’m strongly attracted to the color green. In many of my own favorite pictures, green is the dominant factor. Also, scenes that evoke distance, passage, or even alienation are also commonly found in my archive: long corridors, long empty roads, large empty spaces. I never noticed this before until I was putting together a portfolio sample to send to a potential client. I then looked through some of my old film negatives and noticed this trend goes back to when I was high school.

Other subject matter I love: environmental decay (litter, vandalism, destruction), my children (that goes without saying, they are easy, ready and willing subjects), living spaces. All of these things singularly or combined could make for good projects. Noticing visual tendencies helps me to identify which projects would be best for me, which ones I’d actually stick with. 
click to see larger

I love to work on personal projects. They can be deeply and personally fulfilling. Exploring a subject matter can be very revealing and lead to so much discovery (self, and otherwise). And sometimes they can just be fun. Shooting with purpose is a very rewarding experience for me.

One thing that began to catch my eye a while back was (as cliché as it may seem) shopping carts. They’re everywhere, scattered across parking lots, gathered at bus stops, stranded along the street. Sometimes they’re so far of from their origin I can’t help but wonder how they got to where they were. Once I noticed one or two in odd places, I began to see them everywhere. So immediately I though: “what a fun/interesting project”.

click to see larger Then I discovered the work of Julian Montague, and his project The Stray Shopping Cart. Now Julian took it to a whole new level, by cataloguing the types of strays, damaged or not damaged, how they are used, etc. Visit the website, it’s quite interesting. He has shown his shopping cart project in galleries and even has a book! I thought “great, someone else had my idea, and made a career out of it!” I was off to look for a different project.

But the lone shopping carts of Columbus , Ohio continued to catch my eye. They call to me and gather for me to shoot them, as if they are posing. So why should I let the fact that someone else photographs shopping carts stop me from doing it?  

 The truth is, almost everything at this point has been photographed: flowers, mountains, the homeless, cityscapes, abandoned buildings.

What makes each picture unique though is how we photograph. Each photographer brings to the subject his/her own experience, making it new each time. My thought is, as long as I am honest and sincere in my approach, no matter what I shoot, it will have my own signature, therefore making it unique.

~Chantal 

For the love of color & light

In the previous post, Tim Kingston made a comment that instantly reminded me of a Picasso quote. (Read his comment and my reply with quote here.) It’s not that I just know random Picasso quotes (or any quotes for that matter) from the top of my head, but I remembered reading it and having a “hmmmm” moment, a few years back, when, for whatever reason, I felt all inspiration sucked out of me.

 
click to view large

It probably stemmed from a serious bout of self-doubt, but to counter-act my lack of inspiration I decided to put the camera down for a spell, and take up another creative pursuit: painting.

During this time, I read a book called Chasing Matisse, by James Morgan. I’m not going to write a book review here, but it was brilliant…very well written, even conversational. It’s about James Morgan’s journey across France and Morocco , tracing the footsteps of artist, Henri Matisse. The book is part biography, part auto-biography, part travel log and personal journal, as well as Art history and philosophy. From it I learned several things:

1. To follow my passion, to never give up, it’ll be worth it in the end.
2. To live life full throttle
3. To pay attention to color & light.

The Blue Window, Henri Matisse, 1912; click to view larger I became obsessed with the work of Matisse, but also his contemporaries Picasso and Derain…even the earlier work of Van Gogh. I consumed Art book after Art book…dragging my kids on trips to the library and museum. My youngest was only 2 at the time, and now, at 4 ½ she can point out a Van Gogh in an instant.

After a few months and several bad paintings of my own, I was completely inspired. I felt equipped with the confidence and passion I needed to once again pick up my camera and I haven’t set it down since.

Up until this time, I worked primarily in black and white film. I loved stark contrast, grainy textures, the way lines created shapes and form. But my new found love of paint changed all of that. Painting taught me to see color and light and a whole new way. I always knew it was there, and I certainly loved to shoot a roll or two of color film every now and then, but I was so in love with b&w that I often overlooked the beauty of color. Then my eyes suddenly opened, and I realized that some images can be about something other than composition. In some pictures, color and/or light can take center stage.

 ~Chantal

The Seeing Eye

 
click to view larger I trust everyone had a great weekend. I believe introductions are necessary: I’m Chantal, and I’m honored to be your guest-host on The Landscapist for the next week.

Let’s get right to it:

I’m completely obsessed with photography. From the minute I wake up in the morning to the minute I go to sleep, it’s all about photography (with a brief moment or two of mothering in between). At first I did it just for the 'Art' of it, I was content with not making any money at it, but as my family grows so does our need for increased cash flow, hence my new pursuit at ‘photography as profession’.

It’s fun, and I love it, but it’s not always easy and I do sometimes ask myself this: of all the things I could have been, why a photographer? In "Dialogue with Photography" by Paul Hill, Imogene Cunningham states:

…There are too many people studying it [photography] now who are never going to make it. You can’t give them a formula for making it. You have to have it in you first, you don’t learn it. The Seeing Eye is the important thing.

That always stuck with me. The ‘Seeing Eye’... what is that exactly?

The Seeing Eye isn’t a noun, really, it’s a verb. It’s the act of seeing the world in a different perspective from everyone else: noticing the little things, the larger things, the lines and shadows, the colors and forms, and the spaces in between. It’s having a wide open perception of one’s surroundings.

The act of ‘Seeing’ seems to be an innate ability to see Life fully: the good, the bad; wonder in the tiniest of things, splendor in the ordinary or even beauty in things others would find unsightly. Those who See understand that its more about looking with your eyes, its about knowing, and appreciation, and in that, there’s a desire to want to communicate what we see, how we perceive our world. For many, it’s a near spiritual experience.

But the Seeing Eye is also about feeling. I’ve always felt that feeling a scene is just as important as seeing it. A photograph is merely a moment frozen in time, and a good photograph illustrates how that moment felt; how it felt to the photographer, and also how it feels to the viewer. The photograph becomes a shared experience.

And that’s what attracted me to photography from the very beginning. To be able to stop time, to create a ‘feeling’ and illustrate emotion in two-dimensional form, and to share it with someone else, is like, amazing to me. It’s what I strive to do with every click of the shutter. I may not be successful all the time, but the quest and knowing the possibilities and power that a picture can hold is what keeps me going.

For the next week I will attempt to share with you, The Landscapist readers, my ‘Seeing Eye’. Some days I may just ramble aimlessly about whatever’s on my mind, the next day I may want to discuss an incredible book I am currently reading, and I’ll hopefully even have an interview with my all-time favorite photographer and inspiration (it’s a surprise!).

Thanks for reading.

~Chantal

FYI ~ guest host

I have just turned the Landscapist reins over to Chantal Stone for the next week. Stay tuned. She's free to take it where ever she wishes. Should be fun and when I sneak into Inlet from the island, I'm going to the library to take a peek at the proceedings. Maybe even make a comment or two.

In any event, much thanks to Chantal for keeping the fires stoked. Have fun.