Images from Singapore

These Polaroids were taken at a hotel in Singapore exactly one year ago today. Click on each to see it larger.

Elinor Carucci

I had the chance to see an exhibition of Carucci’s work from her Closer series at the Photographic Center Northwest last month. I’d seen her book all over the place but hadn’t given it much time - as I mention in the blurb on the left, I’m not one who gets too fired up about photographs of a highly personal nature. For me, art is something that speaks clearest when it detaches itself from any particular “thing” or “place” and becomes universal. It’s always been hard to look at someone else’s self-portraits of images of their family and feel that connection to a larger world of ideas.

Seeing Elinor Carucci’s work changed much of that for me. I felt a breakthrough - it was intensely personal yet I felt a part of it instead of “outside looking in” as I do when looking at other artists personal images. There was a realization that an artist that shows the intimate moments of their life in their art is not always an exhibitionist … it just takes a powerful and concise vision for the images to transcend simple exhibitionism and take the next step into meaningful story telling.

> ElinorCarucci.com
> Elinor Carucci @ Ricco|Maresca Gallery
> Elinor Carucci @ Quint Contemporary Art
> Review of exhibit @ PCNW in Seattle P-I

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As you may have noticed the link to the artwork of Elinor Carucci has been on this page for quite some time. This was my attempt to have a regular feature where I would be able to show a piece of art by someone whose work I found particularly compelling. I’d swap the photo out from time to time and write a bit about the work and a good time would be had by all.

But I’ve just let it go. No changes since it went up there, no explanation, nothing. Mea culpa - and time to change all that. In the future I'll be swapping out that photo for a new one and posting some additional thoughts/links to more on artists who really bring it and show me something exceptional. Keep your eyes peeled.

[Image: Elinor Carucci, Orange Peels © 1999]

Distractions

As one would expect, I find a few links every once in a while that warrant passing on for further exploration ... here are a few from the past week:

• Ted Leo on UGO.com - A few beautiful acoustic tracks, including a mind-blowing cover of a *Kelly Clarkson* song mixed with the Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Maps"
  
• "Stuck in Lodi" - Pitchfork.com delivers a heartfelt rememberance of growing up in the same town as horrorcore legends The Misfits.
• Art Since 1900- Art textbooks can often leave a lot to be desired. This one emphasizes the critical/theoretical aspect of 20th Century art criticism ... for better or for worse?
  

Visual White Noise

It's hard to believe Don DeLillo's (right) White Noise was published two decades ago given the way it lays all of our contemporary fears before us in neat little piles. DeLillo's 1980s look a lot like our 2000s - the demon of technology's constant hum (now supplemented by the internet - look away!), the empty hope that medicine will save us (seen now in the failures of Vioxx, Celebrex, and more), and the constant threat of catastrophic events as a routine way of life (now codified as the Terror Alert Level).

I'm think I'm descending into a DeLillo phase. I just finished White Noise and began The Body Artist. My re-kindled interest in his writing was partly spurred on by inexpensive paperback editions featuring excellent photography on their covers. The Body Artist has a classic image by Bill Brandt, while White Noise features the work of one of my favorite contemporary photographers Jason Fulford.

While it may be inspired by looking at Fulford's images every time I picked up the book, I feel like the choice of his work for the cover was near perfect. While DeLillo's book focuses on the background noise of everyday life and it's influence on our hopes and sorrows, Fulford's lens finds similar visual experiences: his photos are mundane moments seen briefly, but when combined we find the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Like white noise, these scenes seem unimportant until you suddenly realize they are always there, shaping your perceptions.

Late Oscar Wrap-Up

I wasn't all that impressed with this year’s crop of Academy Award nominees. Admittedly, I only saw a handful of the nominated films, and as usual most of those were documentaries. For some reason I had no desire - and still don't - to run out and see The Aviator (I can't see DiCaprio as any age other than late teens), Ray (I can't see Jaime Foxx as anyone other than "Wanda" on In Living Color) or most of the others.

However, as a person that believes in the power of photography, I highly recommend Best Documentary winner Born Into Brothels. The sons and daughters of prostitutes in Calcutta's red-light district take a photo class and learn to interpret their world through the lens. In the process it's revealed that they are incredibly complex individuals, capable of both hope for the future and acceptance of the odds against them. All the while they joyfully snap pictures and give us images that are light-years ahead of most photographers in their curiosity and intimacy.

It was also great to see Michel Gondry share an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Eternal Sunshine. This was a film that found me marching out of the theatre, awestruck at the power of a well-told, well-seen story. I'd long been a Gondry fan - his videos for the White Stripes and Cibo Matto (among others) rank as some of the best ever made.

In the end the whole Oscar spectacle was a fun diversion, but the real magic and power of film was best summed up by director (and incredible photographer) Wim Wenders after a screening of his achingly beautiful 1984 classic Paris, Texas. Following the film, Wenders was approached and asked "Is that a true story?" Wenders replied: "It is now."