Assignment 3

Motels

Proposal 2: Artists in their Studios

Purpose



The artist studio is an intimate place where objects and ideas are forged and technical and creative hurdles are overcome. I want to see the creative process in progress in the space that the artist has chosen for that purpose. I am interested in seeing the routines, “off-task” and seemingly mundane or meditative practices of artists in their studios. This project seeks to uncover the relationship between artist and room, artist and materials, and artist and his or her creation. The images of the dirt, grime, order, obsessive-compulsive, caffeine, nicotine, the steady and unsteady hand guiding the work that we see.

Techniques

A.   I will be using a Nikon D40 to shoot and the project and display it as prints.

B.    I would like to both frame the artist within the space by using the ceiling height and walls, as well as more detailed images of the artists and their work to decrease the scale and capture the intimate moment when idea goes through the hand and into the medium.

      C.  I have access to photograph at least 3 artists in Tucson and more in Phoenix.

Significance

The process of making art can easily be overlooked when presented with the final product, I would like to capture artists at work and their unique way of inhabiting their space and their relationship with their materials.

History

No history exists thus far with the project, I have thought before about photographing artists who live in warehouses and their need to make the space ‘personal’ by adding ‘homey’ touches to the otherwise barren, out of proportion, generally dark world. 


Plan of Work: 



I will ask permission to photograph artists in their studios, I would like to begin with at least five artists and then select the most favorable, or perhaps juxtapose the different experiences of creators in studios. I will be able to start working on the photographs immediately and work evenings after five, Sundays, and three mornings a week starting in a month. I believe that I will end up working mostly with Tucson artists unless I have the ability to drive down to Phoenix and photograph the artists I know in their warehouses. 

Expected Results


I expect a body of work that explores the emotions and actions of artists in their creative havens. My concerns for the project are that artists may feel uncomfortable at first with another person being in their studio, they may act unnaturally or not feel the urge or ability to work normally.  


Budget

I only anticipate paying for gas money to get to the studios, and the occasional compensation for the artist in the form of coffee, cigarettes, or food.

Proposal 1: Motels

Purpose



I am interesting in exploring the trash left behind by people staying at motels as well as the cleaning crews that restore rooms to their ‘natural order’. I want to photograph the room after the customer leaves it and as the cleaning crew is working. Motels seem to be anonymous places, with an almost identical set up- beds with polyester comforters, cheap carpet, a bedside table with a bible inside, and mass market paintings, in this artificial environment events play out and the ‘aftermath’ in the form of stains, trash, and personal belongs can tell stories about the past inhabitants.

Techniques

A.   A. I will be using a Nikon D40 to capture the images, and I will exhibit the images as prints, at the present time I do not see the benefit of a slideshow but I will record the ambient sounds of the cleaning crews for possible use.

B.   B.  I am unsure what kinds of beautiful objects I will be able to find in a cramped room, where valuables are not laid out lest they be stolen. I would like to pair the realism of the trash with small moments of beauty, the glow of the light or organic patterns that form by accident in the bed sheets or a clump of hair in the drain.

C.    C. I do not yet have access to regularly photograph this project. I would need to ask permission from the motel’s manager and the cleaning workers. This could present a problem if the cleaning workers are not legal residents and fear their names or likeness used. A question I have is when the rooms would be cleaned, if checkout is during the afternoon then would cleaning always occur around the same time, does my schedule permit me to leave school and document this time, or does cleaning happen throughout the day depending on whether people have late checkout. I have all day Sunday to photograph, and after 5 the rest of the week.

Significance:

People feel a sense of anonymity in motels, and it allows them to act in ways they might not normally act. A motel is a place you do not have to make your bed, but I want to photograph the people that do. The significance of the project is to show a place ‘in between’ its normal use and the dialogue between worker and room.

History
: 


This is the very beginning of the project for me.  

Plan of Work: 



I will go scout out motels along Miracle Mile and Oracle and speak with the managers about the project and what kinds of access I can get. I initially want to begin with three or more motels and continue the project with one or two that have the most consistent material or subjects. I will speak with the cleaning crews and get their permission to be photographed. For the next four weeks I will only be able to photograph mornings on Sundays, as well as Monday through Thursday after five pm. After that I will be able to start shooting mornings three days a week as well as evenings.

Expected Results
:

I would like photographs of trash, the bedroom and bathroom, as well as portraits of the workers.  I anticipate 20 prints that explore the relationship between people and their work space. Their job is to clean up as best they can, the indication of past inhabitants. In a way, the room is second hand in that it is intimate to a person for a time (just like a shirt that was worn by someone else), however it is also not personal property but

another realm where we let ourselves forget all the other people that slept in the same bed and all the unseen acts that occurred there- from the most mundane to the most vile.

I fear feeling like an outsider to the cleaning crew, my Spanish is not good enough yet to communicate completely.

Budget:

I do not anticipate any costs outside of gas money to get to the motels, and the cost of rubber gloves used in inspecting trash, I do not think the budget will be a concern.

10 Images to Bring to Space

    

The images I chose hold no intrinsic value, they are not specific to me but their forms are symbolic. I wanted figures that could be used as an alphabet, as a cast of characters with which to depict stories, memories, meaning and forge a language of interpretation for my new life.

These forms, while mostly impersonal, capture concepts that I thought would become obsolete in a small empty room- such as the simple act of looking up, textures and other tactile experiences, daylight and expanse, the shadow/shell aspect to a body, an appreciation of the body, and a text which I could read and was coupled with a few objects forged from the earth. The box contains symbols of social practices that I would no longer have a chance to participate in such as marriage, travel, music, unhealthy vices, and art. The last photograph is the unknown, pure form which would resonate with me to a greater degree in a void of interaction. I see the content of these images not as important, but as tools with which to explore inner/outer space. 

For Memories Sake

Angela Singer takes photographs ‘for memories sake’ but unlike many memories which are often laden with meaning and significance for us, her images are often of small incidents which might otherwise be forgotten. A photograph of a birthday cake or a kitsch cabinet or frost on the mailbox, these are all images we encounter everyday and perhaps appreciate but do not give the significance to preserve. I view her habit of capturing images daily as admirable and because Singer’s notion is that “if its not worth photographing then it’s not worth doing” all subject matter is open to the camera and she does not rule out the possibility of beauty in any situation.

The film discusses Angela’s lack of authority as a Southern homemaker, with limited education and mobility but how she was able to garner insight of the world through her small life through photography. The strength of Singer’s work comes from the closeness of viewer to subject, how everyday items encountered are now imbibed with new meaning, a chance for significance for the mundane and the overlooked. Through photography she was able to cope with her life and illustrate the depth of her vision of a place she knew well. In this way Angela was an expert.

The committed practice of Angela Singer compares to my own in that she carries her camera around with her daily, even to the most overlooked places. I am similar in that I keep a small digital camera with me almost wherever I go- and I constantly shoot photographs of mostly strange and small moments. Tiny compositions occur in the everyday landscape and I would like to capture them. I am interested specifically in shape and color and I usually shoot miniature scenes that highlight the fundamental nature of an object, in that way I am framing moments to capture what I want. Singer’s work is different in that she shoots larger scenes and appears to want to capture the moment as it exist in its entirety, while I like to crop out most things and keep only a snip of form.

I wonder whether Singer actually finds beauty in everything she photographs or whether some of it is merely to ‘not forget’. I wonder if her process is less of an art and more of an obsession with preservation. Some of the images appear to be a form of hoarding, in which ALL moments are kept without the ability to discern between the significant and the insignificant. But perhaps the power of Angela Singer’s photographs is in their consistency- her mission to document her life and memories in their minutia. This is a subject matter that is not necessarily radical but is under the noses of many great photographers but never explored. What I find compelling about Angela’s work is how it expresses the commonplace and routine that surrounds us that we often discount. The work invites the viewer to look more closely at the small moments.

Sally Mann: What Remains

The relationship of Sally Mann to her personal world exhibits an ability to see beauty without judgment. She widens the definition of beauty and intimacy by taking on subject matter outside the normal scope of what is acceptable and worthy. Her investigation and celebration of both the quotidian and the grotesque illustrates that both are natural parts of life- it is only our opinion that renders them inaccessible. The title of the work, “What Remains”, refers to her subjects- both ‘remains’ of the deceased, an exploration of death of the body, as well as those things that ‘remain’ such as the landscape and those people and animals that are with her daily, but perhaps the only thing that truly ‘remains’ are the photographs.

Mann’s process of photography is slow and time-intensive. The viewer realizes that perhaps much of the intimacy that arises in Mann’s photographs stems from the fact that her experience with the subject is more then a ‘snapshot’. Her unflinching presence that accepts the decaying bloated body in the forest, her tick-bitten daughter, or the bones of her dead dog and the hauntingly beautiful - allows the viewer a longer look as well. The photograph illustrates both the moment (a look, a pose) and the deeper essence of the subject. There is a quiet acceptance and whether in pain, a moment of sensuality or impersonal decay- Mann’s subjects are THERE. Because this intimate moment is captured, the viewer gets a chance to forget for a moment to be upset. Her acceptance allows her to frame situations and begin a dialogue between private subjects and the viewer who might otherwise be too frightened to look.

Sally Mann’s description of her early years as a feral child made a deep impression on me. Mann still seeks her space from childhood in her current work- the hollowed out cave in a honeysuckle bush. I believe that Mann’s ability to perceive and capture childhood and nature in such an intimate and direct way through her photography stems from these early experiences.  Edith Cobb in ‘The Ecology of Imagination in Childhood” states that, “…the middle age of childhood-when the natural world is experienced in some highly evocative way, producing in the child a sense of some profound continuity with natural processes and presenting overt evidence of a biological basis of intuition.” (Cobb, 538) It is also interesting to note that,  “In recollections of their own childhood by creative thinkers…it is principally in this middle-age range in their early life that [they] say they return in memory in order to renew the power and impulse to create at its very source, a source which they describe as the experience of emerging not only into the light of consciousness but into a living sense of the dynamic relationship with the outer world. In these memories the child appears to experience both a sense of discontinuity, an awareness of its own unique separateness and identity, and also a continuity, a renewal of relationship with nature as process.” (Cobb 539)

            I hold two images in my mind from childhood that continue to comfort and rejuvenate me, despite the fact that they are no longer physically accessible to me. Because both are spatial I find myself seeking them out- it is the yellow glow of twilight through blinds and standing in the corner of a backyard with trees, a sense of presence and security and the ability to expand. I am very interested in recreating and capturing them through my photography.

On the subject of diligently and intimately documenting the people I know best, are the hundreds of photographs of both my sister and my old boyfriend. Their willingness to be photographed and my ease around them made the capture of their daily living possible. My sister’s beauty is captivating but accessible, and seeing her engage in the mundane with grace made me want to capture ‘how a capable young woman lives’. More of her happiness then her sadness was seen because I chose not to preserve her most miserable times, out of respect. In my eyes it would have been a breach of loyalty, being behind the camera would have distanced me, if only by the width of a camera lens, by miles. I documented my boyfriend for about three years and as our intimacy increased so did the depth and breadth of my photographs of him. Although I was able to probe deeper into both the unusual and the routine as I was living next to him, many terrifying and human moments were excluded merely because the camera did not exist in my mind at the time. I would like to think I encapsulated a small portion of their lives, but realistically the images when seen together speak only a portion of the truth because of the exclusion of the darker side we all experience, but often fail to capture. This is the true beauty of Sally Mann, the depth of the human experience she communicates.

            My other experience with documenting a life in detail was not of a person, but a park in Mexico City. Chapultepec Park was under my loving scrutiny for a semester long ecology project, during which I amassed thousands of photographs of the seemingly mundane and miniature. I was striving to assemble a collection of images that would describe the park in its essence over the change in season from winter to summer. I wanted to express both the sweeping landscapes and a more intimate scale- the objects, plants, and processes that are often left out. Plant litter, gnarled trees, trash, mold and lichen, dead animals, broken concrete- what would appear ugly and unkempt to others was the reality and the lifeblood of the park for me. I began to see the land and its health in a new way that, coupled with my growing understanding of the history and ecology of the place, produced a profound appreciation and a sense of nourishment. I experienced the changes in the land, the color of the river from cloudy with algae growth to crystal clear and devoid of life. The project was successful overall, but I did not spend enough time with each subject to convey their small yet essential life though a photograph.