If you are creating and sharing, you gotta get used to the fact that people may or may not get what you are working on. Or sometimes they get it, but most of the time they don't. Or they think they get it...and you think they get it...but you slowly realize they just aren't getting it. And sometimes you meet someone who totally gets it. But maybe they are insane? Crazy like you? Or insane in the way that manifests itself as just bad taste? Or are they the only one whe understands your genius? Or maybe you mis-interpretted them? This stuff can go on and on and on, but there is good that comes from sharing, no question there.
m
Jealous of my buds who are going to Review Santa Fe this year...I kind of wish I was going myself. Whether people are getting this project or not, it is solidifying into something that I can call a project, and that feels good. I haven't really figured out how to present it. For now...it can all be seen HERE.
15 comments:
Hi Tim,
It doesn't matter if anyone "gets it"
He's your blood and you are right there with him..engaged.
Follow your impulses and edit later.
best wishes,
G.
Having read your blog since it's inception I am assuming you are not being coy. I hesitate to say "I know" since in the virtual world that would be presumptuous. I don't think this is a "everybody, tell me you get it" post.
That being said, the body of work is one of the most powerful I am seeing. It is better considered, executed, articulated and edited than most of the gender/adolescence/environment/political/social/conceptual contemporary photographic series I have looked at. It firmly takes posession of childhood away from Disney; and gives it back to the child, the parent and the rest of us lucky enough to consider it.
Nah...no need to state whether or not one gets it or not. I think that confusion is often inherent in any project, especially one the is one is sharing while it is in the process of creating. It is interesting to use the blog as a test to see what images people get more than others, and then judging the messenger from there.
But...but...but...how would one present this work? It's not really all mine and the power is more from the collection rather than about creating a single great image. Is it a tightly edited thing of 15 images, a scrapbook thing of 50 images?
i think the body of work is very strong. i'd also like to see it in a different format, not on black background, and sized the same for each image. but more than that, i'd love to see some kind of narrative by you, to give the work greater context. whether it's something like toledano's phone sex book or similar, i just think accompanying words would make an already strong body of work even stronger. just a constructive suggestion. I know that, for me, once i read your post about the "medication" then the entire group of blog images began to take on a whole other context. but that's just me.
hey t.a.
did you ever do any drawing or painting? well, anyway, before you start to draw, there's this scary moment of blank paper. and even though you've drawn hundreds of images before, each new drawing starts from somewhere that seems to sidestep prior experience. then you start drawing and get in that "not connected to time" zone. and you get it;without question but then you realize why you let it all slip away again.
because the discovery part never gets old.
ms. frap- oh,,,that feeling is probably universal with creating stuff in general. The hardest part is starting, or something like that.
Anonymous- Good advice, well stated and I hear you. Tricky to find a model for this type of final thing, incorporating text, images and these things we scan. Toledano's thing was helped by the text immensely, as a recent thing we all have looked at online. Can you bring up any books that have the approach nailed that have been out over the past 20 years or so?
Like...Larry Sultan's Pictures From Home? Bill Burkes' I Want To Take Picture? Found Magazine touches on this aesthetic as well, especially in Dirty Found, if you have seen that.
Can you think of any more reference points Anonymous?
Thanks for your input, totally.
I think of Duane Michal's books, or Jim Goldberg. But honestly, what more evidence do you need beyond Toledano's phone sex web presentation. The words help a great deal.
For me, i don't know an inkling of what your son is dealing with; what degree. That is none of my business. But I do know that once I read that one particular post, EVERYTHING changed for me about this work. It wasn't just some sappy parent snapping away with a 5D any more of their cute kid; it became so much more. I just knew you were immensely involved, and in a much more concerned way.
I just think if the words were added, that explain that to whatever degree, it really helps to get what you're going through, and dealing with.
That's just my honest opinion.
Anony-
I hear ya, totally, but I had hoped that alot of that stuff was in the photos already...but I do see the need for words
I appreciate your input. Who are you? Drop me a note, please.
Best-
TA
Hi Tim:
Alot of that stuff was very clearly in the photos already - the postings on medication just made it less ambiguous - though I'm not sure why. Pictures of pills are quite literal in their way.
Anyway, it looks great, and is really panning out well, expanding as you go on.
There's some great stuff in there, but are you missing that much in Sante Fe? Really?
Colin
Having given us/me the privilege of looking over your shoulder for this work, the "this? or this?" questions you have posed to your self as much as anyone else (much as Zoe Strauss does with her editing posts I suspect)the immediate form that comes to my mind is Roni Horn's "Doubt Box". When it first arrived I had great concern handling the prints and keeping them in "order". I soon realized that I was subverting her intent. A box of two sided cards, not unlike children's flash cards and matching puzzle games, that would be combined and recombined endlessly by the reader. For me? Perhaps an introductory essay, perhaps not. For me this work has tapped into the universal mystery of being and becoming, which is highly individual.
M
Words? Nah, you don't need words unless you're afraid of people without brains. The work is quite eloquent. Save words for facts and stuff like that.
Nice to see the images together Tim. After looking at them in this way it seems clear that you have two different projects here- and I don't mean the scans vs photos. I think most of the images of your "kid" are photo illustrations- using a model to tell a story in the way you are using the objects to tell a story. Then there are the images that are more 'real' shall we say for lack of a better word. The one of the flowers, and the one from Halloween seem to be just pictures- nice ones, part of a series, but not part of this project. This project seems to be the physical manifestation of problems, or emotions- both brought to life in a sort of contemporary diorama that is your scanner or as scenes played out by your son (on the stage of the diorama perhaps)...?
nice work.
emily nathan
Hi Emily-
Oh...that is an interesting way to look at it. I can see it breaking down into that categorization....thats a neat idea. So you are saying the scans and certain photos mix together when they are part of the big manifesto, but the odd shots out are the shots that are a bit more literal and matter-of-fact. I think that makes sense. I don't know what to do with this information now though...I gotta digest it, ok?
TA, I love this work; it's kept me coming back to this blog daily for a while now, and the best thing for me has been hearing you talk about it and reading the discussion about it. I don't think it needs any more text than a tight, concise statement; basically, I think people need to know going in that he's your son. Having tried to describe this project to friends myself, the best I can really do in words is "he photographs his son but it's more interesting than that sounds." I think in the end the images are really going to speak for themselves, and you should be congratulated for that, no doubt.
What can I say, but I LOVE this work...even though it's your son, it everyone's son, it's everyone's kid's scribbles and toys and growing up...and I love the combination of things and people and moments. I'm sure you're aware of "Everyday" by Byron Wolfe...just make the pictures and the rest will come. No one I know got into Review SF...personally I think these photo reviews have gotten out of hand. We all need to stay home and use the $$ to buy gas.
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