The Circle is Completed: Chris Toalson Responds to My Postcard Prompts

In January 2012, I completed Chris Toalson's prompts from a Postcard Collective entry he sent in November 2011.

The results were published here.  I replied with the following which Chris printed on note cards to carry around in his wallet for several months.

During the Society for Photographic Education conference in Chicago, Chris gave me this book which was not only a huge surprise but one of the greatest artist's books anyone has ever given me. What follows are three of my favorite pages or answers to the questions above.

When I receive postcards that ask me to do something, I am compelled to follow through. Sometimes it takes a very long time (still working on the mini wallpaper from Jeremy Jams) but eventually it happens. Chris' response was the most gratifying experience in solicited collaboration.

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

Postcard Collective Fall 2012

One of the best parts about the Postcard Collective is the wide range of items I receive in the mail in addition to forcing myself to create an image 3-4 times a year. The postal clerks have admitted to reading them (thanks for being honest) but I never know if they mean mine or those that are sent to my box.

Here are some of my favorites (in no particular order) by James Luckett, Camilla Oldenkamp, Amelia Morris, Brittany Eaton, Julia Bradshaw, Chris Toalson, Jonell Pulliam, Camden Hardy, Laura Hruska, Cat Lynch, Any-Thuy Nguyen, Cindy Morrissey, Emma Powell, Liu Miao, Daniel Marchand, and Kathleen Ryan. 

There is a new call for entries for Winter 2013 if anyone is interested in submitting!

Once upon a time....

.... I completed this.

Last week in the mail I received this:

I can't wait to see the rest!

The Postcard Collective Prompt That I've Been Considering for Two Months

On 10 November 2011, Chris Toalson sent the above postcard for the Fall 2011 Postcard Collective submission. My first response was "Crap! When am I going to find time to do this?" That was followed by several thoughts on how good it would be for me to do it which resulted in how depressing it would be to think about Muncie, Indiana as an art project. I knew I had to complete the prompts though for reasons that I can only describe as personal obligation plus it was a fun tangent to whatever "serious" thing I was working on that week.

I set certain rules for myself before starting: 1) I could only take brand new photographs not recycle ones I already had as enticing as the latter sounded due to finishing it quickly. 2) I must follow his prompts verbatim without radically reinterpreting them (though I would fail on one account). 3) I would do it to the best of my capabilities even if it took two months, hopefully without over thinking every aspect of the process (yeah right - failed partially there too). 4) No iPhone camera photographs or use of Instagram - only high quality resolution depictions.

Some of them would be very easy tasks yet others were surprisingly difficult. The images follow with commentary below.



1. Take one self-portrait at home. I knew this image had to be composed in my newly arranged living room (though the new bookshelves are hardly noticeable on the far left). It is also the only room in the house that resembles "me" without the popcorn ceilings and 1970s duplex architecture taking over. It's impossible to take a photograph in this house without a cat appearing. The trace of Oatmeal's tail is on the far left blue square only to be hopped on by Button Omelet on the couch all within the span of the 20 second exposure.


2. Create one photograph from around Muncie, Indiana. This address on North Aspen Lane is where my first cousin lives who I have never met and probably never will. I've often wondered where he and his family reside. He has no interest in meeting me because he doesn't care to explain to his wife's family and their mutual friends how we are related (1930s illegitimacy is still a problem with some deeply conservative and religious Midwestern viewpoints). This was a very difficult photograph to take because it meant hunting down someone who refuses to acknowledge my existence. It also moderately reflects my interest in the Artist Stalking series and some curiosity was satiated in finding this location.


3. Record an item of personal significance that is reminiscent of another time or place. Like I said to Drew and Amelia last week: "You mean like nearly every single photograph I've ever taken for artistic purposes in my life ever?" My 39 year old teddy bear photographed especially for this project.


4. Take a portrait of someone close to you. This was clearly the most difficult prompt of them all. Questions that were running through my head: What does close mean? Is it okay to photograph someone I approach on the track at the gym from behind as I gradually overtake them or is that too creepy (i.e. getting closer)? Can I photograph someone standing too close to me at a line in a department store three days before Christmas and will that suffice? How does one photograph "close" when one is so far from those they love? If I chose to photograph one person for this series, what will all the others think who I could have photographed and am just as close to? UG!!!

When I first moved to Muncie, my friend Kelli photographed me as part of a series she was working on with people who live alone. I wanted to sit by myself eating at the kitchen table because that was (and remains) the time I feel most distant from those that I am close to. I reinterpreted this prompt in this manner because I had to. I'm hoping the absence of the person represented only by the overturned photograph is indication enough of "portraiture."


5. Photograph Muncie, Indiana's historical significance. I was convinced that my portrait of a Muncie native would result in her answering the obvious - the Ball Family, the Ball Jar, etc. for the next two requests. Rather than photographing the same topic, I chose the Middletown Studies (perhaps the second most important thing Muncie is famous for). I obtained access to the archives at the Ball State University Library and photographed what is officially known as the "Middletown Documentary Films Outtakes." I felt very fortunate to get access and was also thrilled to see two areas of the library that are off limits to the general public. The whole process of taking this photograph forces me to get in gear and start Part 3 of the Library of Loss series (once I finish half a dozen other things).


6. Take a portrait of someone who grew up in Muncie, Indiana. This was the very first photograph in the series (rather shocking since I'm not one to take portraits). Braydee Euliss was also the first person I thought to ask and fortunately she was born in the Ball Memorial Hospital right down the street from me. It was photographed on 4th December on a dreary day in her studio at home.


7. Ask them what Muncie, Indiana is famous for, then make one photograph of their suggestion. I took lots of notes in my conversation with Braydee. The first thing she mentioned was the reality TV show "Armed and Famous" starring LaToya Jackson and Erik Estrada. It was filmed seven months before I moved to Muncie and clearly left Braydee unimpressed. Mock responses to underage drinking at parties were filmed for more footage. She was "disappointed as an intellectual person who grew up in Muncie who wanted more for her community than it seemed to want for itself."

I, too, wanted more for Braydee than to photograph this so my first attempt was her second choice which unfortunately ended in failure. Braydee's mom worked for the Ball Corporation where Muncie was the headquarters. The buillding where the Muncie Star Press is located downtown was their former head of operation. Braydee told me they used to have a room inside the building devoted to the Ball Corporation as a small museum. That was my first choice to photograph. When I ventured into the building, I quickly learned that it had moved to the Minnetrista Cultural Center. Since I was following Chris's list verbatim and Braydee and I hadn't discussed this change in location and presentation, I reverted back to "Armed and Dangerous."

The above image was taken on Monroe Street where prostitutes wearing sweat pants often congregate on bicycles with child seats. It is where LaToya Jackson dressed up as a hooker (not with Muncie in mind - only Hollywood) to simulate a prostitution sting for a reality TV show.


8. Travel for 10 minutes in the direction of Carmel, Indiana. Stop and make one photograph how this momentary journey made you feel. I took this photograph en route to completing #2. "The end of the road" is the most apt description.


9. Take one photograph looking toward Carmel, Indiana's geographic location. This local scenery generated from this project was really getting depressing so I resolved to complete this task elsewhere. This was photographed at the top of the Hyatt in Bellevue, Washington looking toward Carmel, Indiana.


10. Show me something that I've never seen before. (!!!!) It wasn't until Amelia showed me her Christmas present that I knew this could possibly be the item Chris hadn't ever seen before. If I had never beheld an old school Gangsta Rap Coloring Book, maybe he hadn't as well? Thank you to Amelia for allowing me to photograph it and borrow her camera in my attempt not to use a cellphone photograph for documenting any of these images.

Please respond by sending these 10 photographs to me along with a prompt of 10 images which I will create and send your way. And now the moment I have been waiting for...

• Photograph the place furthest from home.

• How would you visually interpret the title of Wim Wenders' book Places, Strange and Quiet?

• Photograph Carmel, California with Carmel, Indiana in mind.

• Make one artwork inspired by On Kawara's "I Got Up At..." postcards (see below).



• My brother wants "an island" for his 36th birthday. What should I take a picture of that conveys this?

• Geotag something on the Southside of Indianapolis and document what you find.

• Describe monotony and repetition in the landscape in an aesthetically pleasing way.

• In 100 words or less, tell me about the image you most recently missed the opportunity to capture with your camera.

• Attempt to recreate that photograph.

• I've always been interested in this Umberto Eco quote: "Two clichés make us laugh but a hundred clichés move us, because we sense dimly that the clichés are talking among themselves, celebrating a reunion." In response to your prompt of showing something you've never seen before, photograph something I've seen hundreds of times before in a brand new way.

I can't thank Chris enough for instigating this project in addition to coming up with an usual theme for "newness" while forcing me to consider my surroundings for the first time in a long while.

A Sneak Peek at Chris Toalson's Postcard Collective Challenge

Hopefully this task will be completed over Winter Break. Details upon completion of all ten prompts.

H.H.

One of my favorite Diane Arbus photographs and holiday images in general and then...


from Ball State Photo Land's Thomas Kinkaide painting over the fireplace to yours. Image courtesy of Matt Compton.

Montana

Lee Friedlander, Montana, 2008

I grew up in a state bordering Montana and am always surprised at how few times I have visited and how little I know about it. My first memory of Montana was crossing into the border from Northern Idaho and stopping at a small convenience store to buy ingredients for S'mores when I was 12. That night while camping, the graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate bars made an appearance. After biting into a delectable looking dessert, we realized it tasted funny. After a few minutes, someone thought to look at the expiration date on the box of crackers and noticed they had expired six months before my birth, 12 years earlier. For many years, my experience with Montana was associated with (very) stale graham crackers.

In the summer of 1995, I traversed slightly further into the state by visiting Glacier National Park with a friend from undergrad. I remember high snow along the road in the middle of July, a hike above the treeline, and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to the East. I was also impressed with the scale of Flathead Lake.

Perhaps I had also visited Montana with numerous trips to Yellowstone but it is hard to know what states overlap the park when there are no "Welcome to Idaho" or "Welcome to Montana" signs in the middle of nature when the park is predominantly located in Wyoming.

When I moved to Indiana, my father and I traversed the southern portion of the state in an effort to avoid driving through Nebraska from Oregon. We drove up through Idaho Falls into Dillon, Butte, Bozeman, and Billings before heading south to Sheridan, Wyoming. The most meaningful trip and incidentally, my last visit, was driving from Indiana to Vancouver, BC on a 71 day road trip in 2008. I don't remember much of I-94 arriving from North Dakota but I distinctively remember seeing mountains for the first time in 10 months and their white capped peaks on the horizon brought tears to my eyes.


Chris Toalson, Madison Valley, Montana, 2009


Evelyn Cameron, Buttes in the Badlands of Eastern Montana, c. 1900


Ian Van Coller, From Growing Up Montana: Lake Louise


Ian van Coller, From Growing Up Montana: Iceboats

Montana is Big Sky Country. It's a land with limited cellphone reception, taxidermy, skiing resorts, fly fishing ("A River Runs Through It") and that's all I can think of right off hand. That will change as of today. My trip occurs during a season I've never experienced in Montana. Somehow boots, a puffy coat, hat, long underwear and a big scarf all crammed in my carry-on in addition to clothes. Bozeman and my Visiting Artist gig at MSU - here I come.

Photographs of Paintings Part 2

Part 1 felt like ages ago.


Michal Chelbin, Sailing Boat, Juvenile Prison, 2010


Rebecca Sittler


Erik Boker, River, 2007


Chris Toalson, Aunt Dot's Paint by Number, Dewey, Oklahoma, 2008


Carolyn Drake


Alexis Pike, From We Sagebrush Folks, 2010


Lex Thompson, Mural Ceiling, St. Benedict's Catholic Church, 2010