Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/16
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I think I saw my first CS exhibition in, maybe 1987 or 88 in New York. I
remember going along with another photographer, and thinking it was 'kind
of' interesting. But I've grown more and more irritated with it, partly
because it turned out to be a blind alley IMO... I'm really not that
interested in CS's reified fantasies or postmodern tableaux... hollywood
cameramen do *exactly* the same job (I mean exactly... good ones are just as
aware of the symbolic/subversive content of their imagery as CS) so much
better, with the advantage that they are engaging with a massive public...
but even more so because her enshirinement as tutelary deity to a generation
of photostudents has cut off mainstream 'art' photography from its sources
of energy and inspiration -- namely the 'real' world.
Think what you will of CS, but her work has nothing to do with the 'real'
world... it's a comment on an interpretation at best... a riff on a riff...
no matter from the heart, for me.
Helmut Newton, I continue to just draw a blank on. Being cruel, it seems
like photography for porsche owners. His images may be 'about' power but I
find them unenlightening, and I agree unsexual. I saw the American Photo
retrospective last time I was over, and I stil didn't get it. It looks like
car photography using women to me. But then, maybe I'm just blind to fashion
stuff... as big a fan as I am of Klein, his fashion stuff never lit my
candle... the best stuff in his recent monograph IN AND OUT OF FASHION
seemed to be the recent backstage project... that was great.
However, the point I suppose is that it is great that we all differ on our
views of this stuff. "If everybody looked the same we'd get tired of looking
at each other", to quote Groove Armada of all people. I don't say that Cindy
Sherman isn't a good, or even great photographer. Helmut is certainly good,
Nan I think is probably great. I'm just saying that their work doesn't
engage with my heart in the way that, say, Winogrand's, Adam's, Eggleston
(yes, really), or my current discovery, the truly astounding Boris Mikhailov
does. His 'Unfinished Dissertation' is a revelation.
You know what, though? It's great to be talking about this stuff, John.
> From: John Collier [mailto:jbcollier@home.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 9:07 AM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Emperor's new clothes: Cindy Sherman
>
>
> I have been watching Cindy Sherman's work right from the beginning. I have
> found it to be a fascinating journey from her early days, where American
> Photographer picked her as a someone to watch, to the present "exalted"
> position in the art photo world. She got there by pursuing her own vision
> not jumping on all the flavour of the month bandwagons. As with any mature
> work, one sometimes feels a little lost jumping in at the end or the middle.
> If you can find at your library a retrospective of her work, I think that
> you might appreciate her more. Anytime I find a work particularly dense, I
> remember how impressionism was received and give it a little time before
> making any pronouncements. When I say my first Helmut Newton my first
> reaction was revulsion at what I felt to be strong degrading S&M overtones,
> again it took time and exposure to a range of his work to begin to
> appreciate him. I now find his work to be about power and surprisingly,
> considering the time in which it was done, that power is given to his women
> muses. I do not find them sexual at all now. American Photo just ran a
> retrospective on him and I would highly recommend getting a copy. In Nan
> Goldin's defence it is very difficult to maintain the lifestyle necessary
> for her early work and she has had to reinvent herself. So far I have found
> her search very interesting and her use of colour breathtaking. By the way
> she uses Leica Ms now, not that it makes any difference. Larry Clarke's
> early work reminds me a lot of Nan's early work and, though the journey must
> have been horrible for him, I like the stuff he is doing now as well. He
> used Ms but now I believe is mostly exhibiting stills from his films.
- --
John Brownlow
photos: http://www.pinkheadedbug.com
music: http://www.jukebox.demon.co.uk