Behind the Scenes of the First Antipode Photograph

In January, Amelia and I ventured into the cold and discovered many globes at Midland Antique Mall in Indianapolis. I have a $10 rule (one of the reasons why I have not acquired many new ones in the last couple years) and most of them were beyond that price range.

One caught my eye and I surrendered to the higher price of $14 but not without a lot of angst as to whether or not I wanted to destroy it. It helped that it was in sorry shape and fell apart at the cash register. That piece of tape held the two pieces together like a pro, however, as it was the stand that collapsed immediately.

I am continuing my love affair with responding to Toiletpaper Magazine's calendar in 2017 on Instagram and knew that in addition to creating a new photograph, it would be a "twice used prop" as March featured one of my favorite Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari's images [above] as first seen on the cover of The New York Times Magazine.

My sphere was black and I had no intention of matching the exterior color. I tried to guess the most appropriate ocean blue while at the hardware store without a globe in front of me (I should know better by now as I was wildly off). I asked the man at the paint counter how much I should buy and he thought a quart would fill it. I was deeply skeptical and opted for a gallon instead.

Two people had recently sent me this link on how globes were made in the 1950s so I was not that surprised to see this was how the interior was constructed.

I plugged the hole in Antarctica with duct tape and after extensive contemplation, hoped this towel and plastic sheet method would hold the globe still, not toppling over onto the floor and backdrop the moment I poured the paint.

I had the wherewithal to photograph the unhappy moment when I realized that a gallon was not enough [insert lots of swearing here]. I scrambled all over the building trying to resolve this issue, all the while knowing that this was a cardboard structure and my time was limited.

This did not work...

... but the very scary filling it with 100 ounces of water and stirring it did. Unfortunately, it was not easy to move and my compositions were limited but it did produce a hue that looked more like "globe water."

I was able to make 16 responses as a "twice used prop" before I threw everything away. One of my colleagues told me I looked like I was hauling body parts out of the building in trash bags. I still have the top half and wonder what role it will play in the future.

Lenscratch Indiana: Amelia Morris

Amelia Morris: Indianapolis born and bred. Canning specialties: pear ginger jam and chutney. Librarian assistant. Photographic Muse. Former owner of a Honda Civic Wagon named Henry. Life drawing model. Product photographer. Jointly responsible for two felines: Carlos and Marco. Chocolate Maker. Tattoos: zero. Sewing machine brand: Singer. Doughnut lover. Sufferer of the “post-recession blues.” Practices perfect penmanship. Once stood beside Christian Marclay during a screening of The Clock. Preferred light source: natural. Hidden talent: Photoshopping human and animal heads on found photographs from the 1980s. Grows hair long for art. Mail Artist whose last postcard featured her partner Drew’s financial calculations of their future. Avid reader. Introspective genius.

Read the rest here.

Nancy Holt's "Star Crossed"

Undated and unattributed photograph from the Center for Land Use Interpretation website

According to the CLUI database, Nancy Holt's Star Crossed would be closed due to its dilapidated state. Sunday, Amelia and I were on a mission to see it and vowed we would photograph it whether or not we could get close. It was the summer of many earthworks after all. Why not see one in a neighboring state that was only an hour out of our way?

This is what it looked like shortly after it was built (1979-1980). Image via. 

The CLUI link above also states:

"The piece is made primarily of earth, originally mounded to a height of 14 feet, covering two concrete tubes, one aligned north-south and the other east-west, held in place by a buried steel frame. Until recently, the grounds crew of the University has been attempting to maintain it as part of the landscaping of the property, and it has not been treated as an artwork with special conservatorial needs. Some years ago, due to insufficient irrigation, the grass covering died, and the soil, thus exposed to erosion, slowly slumped down the steep slopes. The sculpture was rebuilt, but with the existing clay subsoil mixed into the topsoil, making for a less resilient form. Efforts to preserve the piece are said to be moving forward, under a new director at the art museum."

 

Here is the satellite map we were armed with to find Star Crossed after leaving the car in the Miami University Art Museum parking lot. We were hoping for something in between the CLUI photograph above and the cover of Sculpture magazine. We were also grateful that the huge rainstorm (number 746 of the season) had passed. The grass was wet but not muddy. If you think the following photographs are overly saturated, blame the non stop rain as they are close to accurate in color temperature.

First sighting.

Creeping closer...

and closer. There is graffiti on the right side of the interior of the tube. It was a little dank and trashy so we did not venture inside.

View of the 6 PM sun through the concrete tube in the opposite direction. Unlike visiting Sun Tunnels in May, the solar rays were plentiful this afternoon.

Overgrown plaque.

The whole point of the piece (or at least the placement of the top tube) is lost without water. Even all the rain could not fill the pool. We climbed up to the back (yes the soil is still uneven but at least it is not mowed) and looked through, wishfully thinking it would be restored soon.

Apparently, I cannot pass up taking a photograph of my muse in a Smoosh t-shirt.

I do not know what it would take to restore Star Crossed and whether or not that would be Holt's intention. I wish all universities that commissioned these earthworks in the first place had the capability of Western Washington University to maintain them.

Amelia and Laurie Conquer Erwin Wurm's "Euclidean Exercises" at the IMA

... while Jacinda relished in the excuse that she is recovering from surgery and could not participate.

The museum guard convinced us that lying sideways on the plank was best. Amelia held on for nearly a minute in that position and aced the foot balancing exercise.

Laurie, on the other hand could have taken a nap in this position. She held on for well over a minute with such ease, it hardly looked like a challenge.

None of us wanted to turn into Wurm's One Minute Sculpture Forever. Euclidean Exercises is still on view at the Indianapolis Museum of Art until the 21st June.

 
P.S. This may be the ugliest/least inviting art museum bench I have ever seen.
Signed,
The Hater of All Things Beige

Photolucida Porfolio Reviews: 1/10 Prepared

I do not have my portfolio printed nor have I designed and ordered my promotional take-aways (time is running out) but I do have the reviewer bios ready to go. Sadly, my partner in all events photographically stressful and often far away, will not be joining me this year. Amelia will be with me in spirit though. Yes she will.

"Russell, Russell who was [s]he?"

Once a couple years ago, I wrote this about my "photographs not taken." The Daily Iowan obituary of a Professor Russell's death at the University of Iowa in the 1960s and its prominent position in my father's office for several decades, will haunt me forever (much like it did him). Unfortunately, I cannot find this article online nor can my father find the yellowed clipping.

Today I recreated it by installing vinyl letters of the phrase on my office door. I have steadily rotated the slide tape crumpled into an abstract design from the back to the front of the door all semester so its placement is not staged. I sewed the curtains my first semester - some of the last fabric I bought at Bolt while living in Portland. My only fear is that it looks like the text was Photoshopped.

In the meantime, Amelia once told me that karoshi will be my downfall. I need to prove both these statements wrong.

2014 National Society for Photographic Education Conference

The illustrated version (someday when there is more time, these posts will feature elaborate descriptions):

Frantically printing an 8.5" x 11" portfolio the night before the conference.

Frenzied assembly of panel discussion powerpoint at every available moment (ATL airport).

Nerve racking minutes before the panel discussion began.

James writing my introduction while Camden looks on (five minutes before).

James's introduction that I snagged afterwards and photographed in the hotel room.

Taking a photograph of James and me while Camden introduces the Postcard Collective.

Sadly, my SPE partner in crime, Amelia Morris, was missing this year but was represented in the panel and on the above postcard.

[Pause...] No photographs represent the following:

• student portfolio reviews in which I was out of the room by 8:15 AM, speaking somewhat coherently at 9 in the morning (!!!)

• three professional portfolio reviews where I put those 8.5" x 11" prints to use (also out of the room before 9 AM speaking less lucidly than the previous morning)

• Joan Fontcuberta's guest lecture on truthfulness and photography

• winning a raffle print after promising if my name is called, I would give the print to James (he now owns a photograph by Donna Ferrato)

• my horror after seeing a sign for hotdogs topped with mac and cheese and lump crab cake as a menu item

Student work from the photography department at MICA .

Paulina, James, and I photographing the candles that we systematically swiped in the name of Conceptual Art (and performance) from nearly every table at the dance party (photograph by Camden Hardy).

Sixteen candles before party goers came to our corner of the cavernous room and removed them to return to their own very dark tables.

SPE: where very little sleep is had by all (as usual falling on the weekend when we lose an hour because of Daylight Savings).

Thinking about the Balmorhea Photograph

[ignore the iPhone quality images]

I photographed a person for the first time since 2009 Friday (with the intention of using that image for art). These 8.5"x11"s are on the studio wall while I debate which one to use.

I'm leaning toward one of these as it represents the idea of a body of water as self-portrait most. The tape shows the artifice though I am not yet sure how much I would like to pretend.

"Perceptive Stills" in Fort Wayne

Come check out Amelia's photos in Fort Wayne if you are in the area! I love her new image from the series An Honest Assessment so much that I am posting it twice.

Amelia Morris, You Know How He Feels About Power Couples, 2013

From her website:

"An Honest Assessment is a series of public declarations and private confessions. Staged self-portraits address feelings of anxiety and inadequacy. Colorful banners disarm by conveying negative thoughts in a cheerful display. Home-made whimsy through temporary tattoos, an illogical breeze, and coordinated outfits create humorous artificial scenarios. This is a light-hearted portrayal of serious concerns."

"Back and Forth: The Art of the Postcard Exchange"

I was fortunate that two friends visited Back and Forth: The Art of Postcard Exchange at the Florence Quarter Gallery at the Southwest University of Visual Art in Tucson, Arizona yesterday. Here are some installation photographs by Cass Fey.

The exhibition is curated by Camden Hardy with works by James Luckett, Cat Lynch, Amelia Morris, Anh-Thuy Nguyen, Jacinda Russell and Kathleen Ryan.

 Anh-Thuy in front of my giant photograph of the Thunderbird Hotel swimming pool in Marfa, Texas.

Detail with water sample.

Anh-Thuy and Cass with the water sample.

Camden's entire Postcard Collective collection spanning four years.

Detail of the collection.




Thank you, Cass, for sending this video and thank you, Nielson (a student at SUVA) for the poetic interpretation.

Society for Photographic Education National Conference: Chicago

 Valuable information learned at this year's conference:

1) The Photobook: A History Volume 3 will be published next year! I am a big fan of volumes 1-2 as envious as they make me of Martin Parr's book collection. Who wouldn't love a publication that prints photographs of opened books like this:

Daido Moriyama, Bye Bye Photography, 1972

2) Speaking of Mr. Parr, he is an endearing lecturer (by far my favorite talk of the conference). He showed his undergraduate school installation of photographs displayed in a living room, discussed Bad Weather at length, and his infatuation with collecting political ephemera, Saddam Hussein watches (he owns 85) and Osama bin Laden paraphernalia. So Long Osama Blood Orange Soda was the biggest oddity. Throughout most of the lecture, I dreamed of where Martin Parr stores all his objects (what does his house look like? how does he organize them? does he have room for more?).

 Martin Parr from Parrworld: Objects and Postcards

He also stressed that he is photographing fictions not realities as he intentionally captured litter at its worst in the image below.

Martin Parr from The Last Resort, 1983-85

I immediately placed Autoportrait on my interlibrary loan list when returning. Ending his lecture standing under a photograph of his head superimposed on a muscle man's body was the perfect conclusion coming from a soft spoken Englishman who excused himself for "having a frog" in the middle of his lecture.

 

Martin Parr from Autoportrait

3) Garry Winogrand is on everyone's mind since his first retrospective in 25 years opened at SFMOMA. I tend to love the photographers who make/made work vastly different from mine and he is no exception. Cass Fey and Leslie Calmes delivered an informative lecture on his archive at the Center for Creative Photography. His contact sheets are labeled PD if they are posthumously developed. If a print is made from one of those thousands of undeveloped rolls of film he left after he died, it can never be sold or de-accessioned. It exists only in the CCP archives. Small facts about printing work posthumously that I had always wondered about.

Garry Winogrand's Women are Beautiful on view at the Art Institute

4) Why or why wasn't Kate Palmer Albers teaching the history of photography at University of Arizona when I was in graduate school? Her lecture Abundant Images and the Collective Sublime resonated with me on so many levels. She discussed one of my favorite contemporary photography installations:

Erik Kessels, printing every photograph uploaded onto Flickr in a 24 hour period (image via)

Kessels piece, Penelope Umbrico's millions of sunsets, Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe's 100 Setting Suns at the Grand Canyon, and Gerhard Richter's Atlas were her primary examples of artists establishing mass.

Penelope Umbrico, Suns from Sunsets from Flickr, 2006-ongoing

These artists obsessively mark time with photography. She also stressed that the "self-archive is rapidly gaining headway" as a viable form of art. Albers' talk validated my current interests in masses of objects and introduced me to new artists like Hasan Elahi who explore surveillance and tracking in a contemporary way.

5) Richard Misrach's keynote lecture reminded me that I have to watch Spike Lee's follow-up to When the Levees Broke - If God is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise. I've refrained for a few years but after hearing Misrach discuss his latest photographic series, Petrochemical America, the time has come.

Richard Misrach, Untitled, February 14, 2012, 6:19 PM

Misrach is getting closer to making portraits of people as he zooms in on the faces of swimmers. He returned to the same hotel room where he photographed On the Beach (above) with a digital camera and telephoto lens. I don't know how I feel about those and am looking forward to seeing how they are received when he publishes them soon. I am so enamored with the vulnerable human surrounded by the sea (substitute me), I am not sure I want to know their identity.

6) SPE brought so many of my wonderful photo friends to Chicago some of which are pictured below.

 James Luckett, Laurie Blakeslee, and Amelia Morris

Adam Neese in the Empire Room

Mark A. Lee after winning the Richard Misrach raffle photograph

Sneaking an image of a famous photographer...

the back of Jerry Uelsmann's head.

Wishing I had a photograph of...

me talking to Richard Misrach about our meeting in 1996.

7) The biggest surprise I received will be featured in a post next week. I am not opposed to a sneak peek however:

Chris Toalson's A Long Overdue Artist's Book, 2011-2013