Photographing Family: Phillip Toledano, Doug DuBois, Elizabeth Flemming, Jack Radcliffe, David Newsom, Tierney Gearon, Dona Schwartz and TA.
Curated by Aline Smithson for Too Much Chocolate.
It's an insightful grouping on the genre, and the essay's bring it all together. Interesting quote from myself, I think I was addressing the idea of exploitation and how I wrestle with it and embrace it:
If your subject is your kid, access is rarely the problem- everything you need is right in front of you. Being the Dad and then trying to let go of that role and then try to collaborate with my son… oh that is the problem. What will I do to get the photograph? What license will I give him? What line will I cross myself to make the image happen, only to then switch over and be the Dad moments later when the shoot is over?
Here we are re-creating an accident together. Here we are wrapping him in rubber bands….something he did already but this time in just the right light. Is he consenting to this stuff? I showed this work to a friend who responded “ Photographers always claim to be collaborating with their subjects. The truth is we are willing to do anything to get what we want from them. We’ll steal what we can as quickly as we can or pay any price after that if the stealing doesn’t work. You know that is true.” I didn’t disagree.
But with Echolilia, I feel my son is a co-conspirator- he knows we need to make these images.
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Toledano's work even better than I remember it being. It buries everything in it's wake. Tierney and Dubois are Gods incarnate. Newsom I actually met a few years back at a book fair in LA...he is like a handsome actor and insightful photographer...enough to make everyone jealous. Tethered delivers the goods...and Jack and Dona's work is new to me and carries that punch of the unknown I always enjoy wrestling with. See it, read it HERE.
Curated by Aline Smithson for Too Much Chocolate.
It's an insightful grouping on the genre, and the essay's bring it all together. Interesting quote from myself, I think I was addressing the idea of exploitation and how I wrestle with it and embrace it:
If your subject is your kid, access is rarely the problem- everything you need is right in front of you. Being the Dad and then trying to let go of that role and then try to collaborate with my son… oh that is the problem. What will I do to get the photograph? What license will I give him? What line will I cross myself to make the image happen, only to then switch over and be the Dad moments later when the shoot is over?
Here we are re-creating an accident together. Here we are wrapping him in rubber bands….something he did already but this time in just the right light. Is he consenting to this stuff? I showed this work to a friend who responded “ Photographers always claim to be collaborating with their subjects. The truth is we are willing to do anything to get what we want from them. We’ll steal what we can as quickly as we can or pay any price after that if the stealing doesn’t work. You know that is true.” I didn’t disagree.
But with Echolilia, I feel my son is a co-conspirator- he knows we need to make these images.
*******************************************************************
Toledano's work even better than I remember it being. It buries everything in it's wake. Tierney and Dubois are Gods incarnate. Newsom I actually met a few years back at a book fair in LA...he is like a handsome actor and insightful photographer...enough to make everyone jealous. Tethered delivers the goods...and Jack and Dona's work is new to me and carries that punch of the unknown I always enjoy wrestling with. See it, read it HERE.
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