Re: Where's Waldo... errrr I mean Christina?
On Tue, 20 Mar 2007, Christina Z. Anderson wrote: I arrived home (begrudgingly) Sunday night in time to teach all day Monday. I am exhausted, as my list of things to do grows by the hour (one of them being to finish a PowerPoint on Judy Seigel's Read My T-Shirt book to present to my non-fiction class).Did I sin in another life? Do I deserve this torture? Do I have to fly out there on my broomstick to find out what I've done? But actually, that will be another sortie (and a surprise !). I'm writing at this moment to mention that IMO Chris' "hubby" is on to something... that is, there's a lot out there that's merely trendy, or merely large, or large and trendy... As for the persiflage, Chris, 'twas ever thus. You don't get on an SPE panel for being cogent and concise. And never did. But FWIW I mention that, stalling on something else today, I picked up January 2007 Artforum (every issue gets heavier than the one before, and having a subscription is like it's always thesis week and you just get further and further behind) but this issue showed Sherman's "A Play of Selves" from graduate school... IMO they would have done the reader a service by making the small photographs larger, hence readable, but I find Sherman's work interesting, especially the B&W... tho in this case Sherman's own "thousand words" on the topic was more interesting. Among the MOST interesting photos I've seen lately, however: If you're in NYC go to Macy's and walk the sidewalk along its length on 34th Street from Broadway to 7th Avenue. They've got a bunch of photographs mounted as backdrops for displays, the whole length of the store. I was in a rush, so when I realized how delightful the photographs were, I didn't go back to check the auspices, which were at the eastern end, but I noted that it was from several photographers whom Macy's was annointing (or vice versa). They were basically VERY savvy, bold, even enchanting photos pretending to be grab shots (like a hard line of shadow running right down a man's face) and so engaging and refreshing -- subjects from ancient crones to ingenues, weird landscape, adorable children, flowers, water, sand, birds, whatever.... B&W & color, just INTENSE. I'd been looking at photos on the web, esp. a couple of "shows" touted in the Times... The difference between seeing these actual photographs, AND in a store window, but actual photographs, and "commercial" or "fashion" photographs on the web was amazing. OK... enough now... to be continued... and I'd love to know if other folks found those windows as engaging as I did. (But don't buy anything in Macy's .... Federated dept stores gave all its donations to the T-shirtless political party)... Judy photography. Where else can you browse around with a full tummy and drink and have your nose up to a grouping of Cindy Shermans from grad school that you have never seen, Winogrand, Gursky, Ruff, Becher, Crewdson, New Topographic photographers, video installations, photographers too numerous to mention. It blew me away. I have to say my hubby was not as impressed with the work as I was as he isn't into contemporary photography but oh well--probably how I felt in some of the SPE panels that talked so much about trope and slippage and conflation and eliding that I wanted to just say, could you PLEASE show me your effin' work???
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