Photo blog Look Underfoot recently tagged me in some type of blogging-chain-letter-type of thing, requesting that I publish 7 things about myself that most people do not know. Hmmm...wtf I ask?? I am flattered that someone...like the Look Underfoot lady for instance, wants to know my secrets...but I just don't know who else would want to know this stuff? And some of the really personal stuff, well...I just think you will end up burdened by such information. But I'll do it if we keep it to the history of photography...k?
None the less...I need a blog today, so here goes:
1. In 1989, my girlfriend and I sat on the bed in a Motel 6 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, looked up Joel-Peter Witkin in the phone book, found that he was listed, dialed the number....and he answered.
2. In 1984 I was in high school and attended a lecture with my parents by photographer Duane Michaels at Skidmore College in Saratoga, N.Y. In 2000 I was having dinner with blogger Olivier Laude and artist Thorina Rose. As we were speaking we realized we were all at the same lecture, Laude and Rose were students at the college at that time. WASW?!?! ( What A Small World ! )
3. When I was 19, a girlfriend wrote a letter to photographer Larry Clark and purchased a signed poster from Clark's project "Teenage Lust" for me as a birthday gift, depicting a girl masturbating her boyfriend in the backseat of a car. I hung it in my room at home, though my parents often hid it behind blankets when guests or repairmen came to the home. Clark included a nice note with the poster, requesting a photograph of ourselves from her as part of the exchange. I have that note to this day.
4. While on an editorial assignment in NYC, I met the shooter who later went on to gain national attention as the anonymous blogger Bitter Photographer.
5. I once had an email exchange with famed literary hoax J.T. LeRoy.
6. In 2005 I sat in a conference room of The New Yorker with their photo editors. They looked at my project "Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews" and asked me, un-smiling, "Why would you ever think we'd want to see this project?"
7. Um....I think that may be it. The last one was a good one though...it counts as two.
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9 comments:
You rock. Can you elaborate on the JPW phone call? Heavy breathing, lots of giggles, and then a hang-up?
I'm very impressed that your passion for photography and passion for passion asserted itself at a young age, and that your parents allowed you to hang a poster of a teenage girl masturbating her bf in the backseat of a car. How open were they?
Maybe you should just slap up a sex-machine print in your kids bedroom right now: Prepare for greatness child! Terry R. watch out!
And if I could I'd give you the photographic equivalent of the purple heart for #6. Wounded in action and still serving. Keep it up T.A.
Oh, for sure. I was way into JPW and was trying to go to University of New Mexico for grad school because I liked the conceptual work the prof's and JPW had been into...I liked that direction, scratching on a negative, setting things up, etc.
It went like this:
JPW: Hello?
TA: Hello, is this Joel Peter Witkin?
JPW: Speaking
TA: Mr Witkin, I really called just to tell you how profound of an influence your work has had on me. I just graduated college and drove across the US with my friend, and we thought that we'd give you a call to tell you just that, and we never thought you'd pick up...
JPW: Thank you. I appreciate your words. I just got back from ???? and the shoot was very exhausting, not glamorous at all and we are all just recovering. I have a new collection coming out in the fall that we are working intensely on, and it is all very tiring. But I thank you for calling. What is your name again?
TA: Timothy.
JPW: Take care Timothy.
Regarding the Larry Clark poster...oh, I dunno how to interpret that. My parents appreciated the arts, I was an Art major and we just assumed it was Art with a capital A. I was 19, I liked the idea that my gf would give me a gift that had an intelligent appreciation of photography to it but also had a sexual buzz to it...and it would be worse if I tried to hide it, so I didn't really think about it. It just seemed kind of odd in retrospect.
Regarding #6: Nothing makes as great of a story as a stunning, shattering crash and burn.
Dude-
You are a total photo geek. Do you think of nothing else? It doesn't sound fun. And what about that Bitter Photographer freak? Give it up.
I've had breakfast , lunch and dinner with Joel Peter Witkin and a portfolio review.
And I've had a nice dinner with Duane Michaels.
And I've seen "Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews" and thought it was
great!
you should send JPW a Sex machine.
This is just such a great image by Larry Clark. Having the signed poster from your girlfriend should also count as two items on your list.
Point taken george. Thanks I am humbled.
I have now officially become a "blogger", how nice! Revenge will be sweet......
Good day !.
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