Catch-up: Flashes & Purist vs. Pictorialist

Amy, Dec. 09. 09.

Dan, Dec. 09. 09.

Marcus, Dec. 09. 09.

Me and photography are taking things slow, I feel. We have our moments of getting excited and wanting to just do it all at once. We discuss things, her and I. I say Wouldn't it be fun? She says You're not ready.

In the past few days, since my last entry, I've found my inspiration and thought spreading itself into many different directions: I'm writing an editorial piece on the history, culture and appeal of hip-hop, discussing politics every Tuesday and Thursday, looking at the works of Crewdson (thanks Stefan) and Juergen Teller and all in all trying to have a definitve debate in my head about the merit of both pictorialists and purists in photography. Trying to discover my niche, thinking about my future at odd intervals throughout the day.

Needless to say my head is in a million places - but photography has told me today, to focus on Teller and the P vs. P debate, today.

I just read an article on the life of Teller himself and found myself a little challenged and a little displaced by his rawness and his emotional connection to photography. It seems obvious. It's about the real, the exposed and the grit, the personal, and the embrace of all that is truth as beautiful. A sort of aesthetic stoicism that matches the build of this man. He's stocky, and rough looking, with evident Germanic roots. And he taks about sex a lot, and beauty and women. And he's honest and so are his photographs - honest about himself, that is.

But he seems like a punk, and I don't think I'd like him if I met him, but that doesn't mean I would not appreciate him. He seems a bit obnoxious and very strong minded, but I love that in any person. And in an artist in his dominion (fashion and artistic photography) it seems not only appropriately rebellious, but necessary. He's the little black dot on the Ying and Yang of the world of fashion and fantasy. A one man backlash (if you don't count Terry Richardson, who Teller claims borrowed from him).

That's because he's a "straight shooter." And in an industry where jealousy and envy and idolization becomes the basis of consumerism of products as well as ideas, he seems to make that connection more directly and with a more real grip on the psychology of his public.

Of course, I have always retouched my photographs, never being fully satisfied with the way one look, or sometimes, just wanting to try something new and achieve a specific look for a specific feel. The way, for example, that photographs I have taken sometimes have this age to them, or this nostalgia. I've been in love with that aged look forever because it reminds me of the stock piles of family albums my mother has back at home, some filled with pictures I'm not even in, but can still transcend.

This love for the reality in photographs but this attempt at showing the world more closely how I see and want them to see my work, creates a bit of a hypocritical paradox. I think I sometimes want my photographs to be raw and rough. But I also want some photographs to be beautiful. But I can't just leave a photograph as it is. It feels detached. Maybe I haven't learned to really think before I shoot yet. Not as strongly as I would need to in order to fully practice the "straight" method of shooting and see where it leads me.

Today's exercise in photo class kept bringing Teller to mind, and his harsh lighting and in-your-face pictures. The above pictures came out with him in mind.