AMP

Charlie Ward is doing a series of interviews with various photographers in an effort to discover which photography books have had the most impact on us. You can read my response below (and also on the Little Brown Mushroom blog):

“The first photo book I can remember having a lasting impact on me would have to be my family’s photo album. I imagine my thrill upon its initial discovery was largely narcissistic, but the album played a major role in how I came to understand my identity, my past, and the formation of my earliest memories. The album itself is as thick as a phone book. The front cover is baby-duck yellow and says ‘Family Album’ in an embellished font, complete with photographs of some generic family enjoying an autumn picnic. Its thick adhesive pages were once a creamy white but have since gone yellowish-brown, a prime example of non-archival storage. The album starts right off with my birth and goes until I am about four or five years old. I think I noticed the album when I was around six, and revisited its contents once a week, experiencing what I can only imagine was a twisted sense of false nostalgia. Yes, I was six, reminiscing about the ‘good ‘ol days’. I kept looking through the album until it was memorized and I still don’t understand why I was so obsessed with it. Any way, no book of photography has affected or moved me in a similar way since. If I was to pick a commercially available photo book: Chronologies by Richard Misrach.”

Since I haven’t seen that photo album for some time, I asked my mother to take a picture of it and send it to me.

Turns out my memory isn’t so good after all. My overall impression was correct, but when I tried to remember specifics, I was wrong several times over. A perfect case of photography ‘correcting’ a memory.

New Year's Eve, 2007

Over the holiday break I went back home to my friends and family in Minneapolis. I’m not sure if it was the holiday spirit or what, but man, we went out A LOT. Like every night. The holiday break also coincided with me purchasing my first digital point-and-shoot, which has become pretty important to my photographic process. For years I would just shoot my old Olympus Stylus point-and-shoot on Tri-X or Astia. So suddenly, photography is back into my life–and in a big way. This makes me re-think some of my earlier thoughts on photography and it’s relationship to the way we experience the world. In the past I’ve argued that it can cause quite an interruption, but I’m ready to argue the other side now.

Photography Studio ~ 1890's

Let me explain. I believe that in photography’s early days (mid 1800’s up until the end of the century), the process of photography was the same as the experience. Many people were photographed just for the experience of being photographed. Thus, I would argue that the interruption of experience through photography was minimal–in most cases the interruption was THE experience. (Terrible Contemporary Analogy = Television is our everyday life experience, and commercials are photography. What I’m saying is that upon the invention/discovery of commercials, people wanted to watch to the commercials just to see what they were like–to experience the watching of a commercial. Only after their newness wore off did commercials become an interruption).

Walker Evans, Subway Passengers, 1938

However, as photography became more and more integrated into modern life, it became more and more of an interruptive pause in experience. Hardly can a family have a group outing without the breaks of posing for the snapshot.

However, my experience with a particular cultural subset (call them Generation Y, Hipsters, or anyone born after 1980) leads me to believe that there is a new contemporary experience of photography that does not treat the technology as an interruption, but rather as a supplement to the experience.

Nan Goldin, Rise and Monty on the lounge chair, NYC, 1988

I believe that this cultural and photographic trend can be traced back to a genre of street photography–’shooting from the hip’. Photography is at it’s most disruptive when your vision is physically interrupted by the camera. A foreign object is placed between you and one of your sensory organs. However, when held to the side, or really anywhere other then in front of your eyes, it simply becomes a supplement–not a replacement.

Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1966

At parties and clubs, I now see cameras and phones being punched upward, attempting to capture a scene that the photographer is unable to see with their own eyes. Due to the fast feedback loop of digital cameras, the rising popularity of DIY documentation, and the omnipresence of cameras, this has quickly become a common sight.

Ryan McGinley, Morrissey 3, 2004

This use of the camera also serves as a supplemental documentation to what may otherwise be a foggy recollection. In fact, if one’s brain-memory fails (which happens more than we’d like it to), the camera-memory can actually supplant itself in the brain memory and serve as THE representation of the original experience.

Underwear Party, 2008

I’m still undecided if this is a good or bad trend. I’m not one to propagate the myth of an ‘original experience’, but I’m also hesitant to trust our memories to consumer electronics.

I realize I’m a little late on the list-train, but I thought I’d chip in my two cents regardless. Here’s what I think are the best albums from the last decade, in chronological order. If you missed out on any of these, you best retrace your steps. For reference, I’m a white male pushing 30.

Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump (2000)
Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of Bewilderbeast (2000)
Microphones – The Glow Pt. 2 (2001)
Sparklehorse – It’s a Wonderful Life (2001)
The Postal Service – Give Up (2002)
The Wrens – The Meadowlands (2003)
The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come For Free (2004)
Cut Copy – Bright Like Neon Love (2004)
Vitalic – OK Cowboy (2005)
Junior Boys – So This Is Goodbye (2006)
The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America (2006)
Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond (2007)
Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (2007)
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (2007)
Shocking Pinks – Shocking Pinks (2007)
Nouns – No Age (2008)

I haven’t listened to any new music in the past year I guess, so I’ve got some catching up to do. Recommendations?