Morning ought not
to be complex
The sun is a seed
cast at dawn into the long
furrow of history
Michael Dransfield
People will ask: why Dransfield out of nowhere? Well, for a while I was imagining what Dransfield would be like in NY. Don't think it actually matters which decade. They are all inevitably the same in a 'way'.
And tonight spending an evening with photography galleries in NY's Fuller Building...thinking again. I always just want to keep my mouth shut. But when one opens it to speak oftentimes you are smart! There was a great double-bill tonight at Howard Greenberg, The Mechanics of Depression (..sorry Expression;) and the photography of Judy Glickman Lauder. Judy's 'reflections' photos are not a revelation to photography by any means. And I stupidly;) opened my mouth to a photographer about 'reality' yet we ended up agreeing (sort of after 15 minutes) about what is photo-journalism versus art versus in tandem with expression. Like painting: it all seems like nothing could ever be re-invented or re-expressed. Yet: expressing the 'self' even objectively always creates either a rocket of failed math and flawed objectivity or a soaring fireball of wonder. Judy Glickman Lauder's color photos (2 have just been bought by the Whitney Museum confirmed it's director this evening) are simply reflections- no digital manipulation. These reflections exist in reality. But how many people see them? And every artist will see or not see so totally differently. THAT is the magic of photography. When everyone now has a camera but relatively few see how can that be so?
It's a weird thing being a photographer and snapping photos at photo gallery openings. Not yoyeuristic just like snapping your best friend when they are...it really isn't the thing to do and yet...I made of lot of photos in my head tonight. That is somewhat rare. And the same on the subway returning home. There is something terribly invasive about that to actually tale the photo. Yet where would we all be without the Helen Levitts or indeed the Vivian Maier's (who but for the grace of a keen archivist eye might have been relegated to nowheresville of photo history.)
photograph?......
I think I have experienced your symphony. I felt the struggle for illusions; I felt the pain of one disillusioned; I saw the forces of evil and good contending; I saw a man in a torment of emotion exerting himself to gain inner harmony. I sensed a human being, a drama, truth, the most ruthless truth!- Arnold Schoenberg, 1904
