Today I had lunch with my friend Costa. He is a remarkable photographer and is wise in his experience and image making. We realized today that we have been friends for nearly twenty years… perhaps seventeen to be more exact. Anyway, he has been a remarkable friend and mentor and in our too brief lunch, he continued to guide and jabb at the institution of art photography. There were two specific things that jumped out of the conversation:
1.
B and B
Costa coined a great expression in describing an exhibit he recently witnessed at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston: B and B (Big and Boring.) While flip, it does address the scale issues I have been thinking a lot about lately. It seems that gallerists and artists and collectors have somehow been courted and won over by technological confections over innovation of thought. Big images hanging on gallery walls around the world have become the confection of the day. Just because you can print it large, should you? Where are the notions of small and intimate? And boring is an unfortuante truth behind so many of the images that have rolled off these amazing digital printers.
2.
Photography has been corrupted by the institutions of art
This was quite the loaded statement. I have been reading The Photograph as Contemporary Art by Charlotte Cotton recently. I have to say, that while Costa’s strong opinion on such matters often seems extreme, I found myself sympathizing with his idea. Our conversation spun around the issue of “truth” in images for a while. The chat brough to mind the James W. Loewen book Lies My Teacher Told Me. The premise being that in reality there are so many more compelling moments than in fiction. So what does this mean about Jeff Wall and Gregory Crewdson and their peers? The manufactured truth? The manipulated image?

And, if art has corrupted photography, where will photography find a friend? What does it mean? Does it mean that photographs are a thing of their own… neither art, nor commerce, nor trade? Maybe photographs transcend definitions:

From dictionary.com

tran·scend
v. tran·scend·ed, tran·scend·ing, tran·scends
v. tr.

1. To pass beyond the limits of: emotions that transcend understanding.
2. To be greater than, as in intensity or power; surpass: love that transcends infatuation. See Synonyms at excel.
3. To exist above and independent of (material experience or the universe): “One never can see the thing in itself, because the mind does not transcend phenomena” (Hilaire Belloc).

So our chat went on for much longer and covered a lot of ground around his Magnum Photo friends and his recent works etc. He is off to his annual Magnum meeting next Monday so Im guessing thats why it was all so top of mind. Sounds like that meeting is quite an event.

Anyway, Costa is a wonderful friend and a great conversation. I miss the times we had together way back when…

Recently the expression “I have no more tears.” came up in conversation. It made me sad. Does it make you sad? What a powerful statement. Is that going to happen to me? Has it happened to you? I have to say, hearing this sent me into a private panic… will there be a day when “I have no more tears?” What will that day look like? What is a world without tears? What is a world without happiness? Hmmmm…

So I begin this blog thing timidly. This is mostly a notebook for myself. This coming Autumn (2006) I will begin studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art under Carl Toth. Carl has suggested that I start to keep a journal as I head toward my studies. Here it is.

Wish me luck!
Andrew