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Day 12 - Mona Kuhn and Metabolic studios

So this comes to the final day of the trip. We spent the morning with Mona Kuhn, mainly exploring her way of developing projects. It was interesting hearing her speak about her work in so many different viewing methods and expermiental gallery shows.

But, the highlight of the day was visiting Metabolic studios in the afternoon. I had no idea what to expect from this place and I was absolutely blown away. It made me realise how loose art can be and how far it can span to different mediums. But I think I got the most out of the camera obscura and the darkroom underneath. I had never been inside a camera obscura before and naturally, it blew my mind, like it did everyone. Hearing the artists in the darkrooms talk about how much they experiment really opened me up to the fact that photography, although a limited medium, can be pushed in any direction to create something genuinely unique.

Thank you all for the trip and I can’t wait to get all of my photos scanned and to make work from all the photos I’ve made on the trip.

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Day 11 - Mike Slack

Today we met Mike Slack for a workshop based off his contribution to the photographers playbook. Unfortunately, I had to leave early to chase my project for task 2, but also for my personal project I’m working on. 

I went down to Irwindale speedway to explore the loose theme of masculinity. Every thursday they let members of the public bring their cars and drag race to blow off steam. This felt like the perfect place to bulk up my project. Although it wasn’t quite what I imagined and took me by surprise. I think if I didn’t have the workshop with Mike Slack before this, I wouldn’t know what to make images of and would be stuck. However,  I used the advice given by Mike which was “Don’t be afraid of cliche’s” and “if you’re bored, you aren’t looking hard enough”. This really helped me as I managed to find things that were more representational and symbolic of what I’m exploring, instead of all just straight photography. 

I will definitely be sticking to this way of thinking photographically in the future to uncover the overlooked.

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Day 10 - The Broad

So today we went to ‘The Broad’ museum in downtown LA. Although a lot of contemporary art in the strain of Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons have never really resonated with me, I did get something out of our visit to The Broad. 

I came to the realisation that photography, as an art form, doesn’t have to sit by itself in it’s own category, It can be more fluid than that. It can be incorporated into other artmaking practices whilst still holding the properties that make photography magical. Robert Longo’s work with charcoal on paper struck me as holding some of a photographs dramatic realism properties and surprisingly felt like it is able to represent reality fairly closely to a photograph.

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Make the photos you want to see

Alex Prager

Day 09

Although Alex Prager doesn’t share much in common with my practice, it was interesting to see an artist who has a family, who is self taught and who is still at the height of their career, show signs of common struggle between personal life and art-making. This is something that I struggle with. It is so easy for me to get lost in the world outside of photography, and then try and come back to it. When I do come back, more often than not, I find myself rusty and uninspired. Something that I learnt from Prager (and a lot of artists on this trip) is that you need to keep flexing the photographic muscles to keep the ball rolling. 

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Day 08 - 2nd travel day

So this is just a quick one because we didn’t do much today other than thrift shop but this is just something I found interesting. I am very aware that I KEEP talking about Jason Fulford but ill calm down soon I swear. 

So we stopped off in Bakersfield on the way to LA and looked at a massive, 3 story thrift store and I was taking heaps of photos of just weird stuff. For some reason, that wasn’t apparent to me at the time, I took a photo of this power ranger figure. I moved the arms to what felt right and just took a quick snap. It wasn’t until later that I realised the reason I took this was because I had this Jason Fulford photo of a power ranger in the back of my head. It probably isn’t a massive deal but I just found it really really interesting how my subconscious worked in this scenario. These photos are evidence that my photographic inspirations are working in the back of my head without me even realising. This reinforced my realisation on this trip, that if I just let myself intuitively shoot, something interesting may come out of it.

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Day 07 - Travel Day

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Day 06 - SFMOMA

Although Richard Mosse’s work ‘Incoming’ was insanely impactful and definitely left a lasting mark on me, the work that I got most out of at SFMOMA was the work of Hal Fischer. I think the reason behind this is because his work is mostly the result of a playful, experimental practice and his use of text with image. Take his work ‘18th Near Castro Street x 24′ for example. This work just implements the simple idea to document one bench in the Castro district over 24 hours, taking a photo once every hour. This is a very basic idea but the work that came out of it says so much about the people living in the area at the time, but also it speaks to a wider notion of American life. Although it’s a playful experiment, the work that came out of it holds a formal and serious subject matter.

This work has inspired me to stop overthinking everything like crazy and has made me realise that even the smallest photographic intervention CAN say more than a meticulously thought out, long form project. I began to realise this through my close connection to Jason Fulford playful work but now I feel like i have the mental capacity and tools to carry this into my own practice.

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Conceptual thinking about my practice

Day 05 - 

So my work for task 2B is more grounded in the way I usually work, but I’m using this project as an excuse to see if I can work my images into a more formal body of work. I’m continuing my exploration of signs and symbols left by people that point to both an individual’s mind and also comments on the shared human condition and our NEED to leave a mark. 

I noticed around San Fran that this type of thing is EVERYWHERE! I’ve found it in napkin drawings on the ground, tags, etchings on trees etc. I trust that with this, and the other photos I have made, that I can bring something interesting together in the editing process as this is where my work comes together. 

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The photography I most respect pulls something out of the ether of nothingness.

Paul Graham

Day 04 - Pier 24

After visiting Pier 24 today, everything in my head finally detonated. It felt like that moment when a photobook suddenly makes sense on the 5th reading, everything comes together and then you can’t see it the same way again. This happened with me and my place in the photographic ecology. The lead-up to this “detonation” began a year and a half ago when I was opened up to the photographic art world and really sped up once this trip started. Once I saw that my photographic heroes were thinking the same things, doing the same things and dealing with the same things as me, it made me realise that that life isn’t out of reach if i work hard enough.

Seeing the ‘Sleeping by the Mississippi’ room at pier 24 also helped with this process as this work was a very important, early influence.

But the moment of this “detonation” was at the Fraenkel gallery when 5 of Jason Fulford’s framed prints were placed infront of me, that were from his work that I picked up on this trip. Seeing my idol’s work in person somehow made everything make sense. It made all the anxiety’s of my unknown future and exisential reasons for “being here” feel null and void. I can’t really articulate why or how at this point but it is something that I am going to heavily reflect on in the coming days but maybe I will never know why, and that’s ok with me.

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Day 03 - Allowing myself to be inquisitive

Today, I decided to revisit my love for the found image. I’m attracted by the found image because of how they’re totally stripped from their intended context. As my process of art-making is critically in the edit and how I situate the images, working with content that has no context allows me to create something new. I plan to use my own images to respond to respond to the images and text in a more poetic sense. My practice is becoming more and more influenced by the work of Jason Fulford and how he masterfully edits his work to challenge you. Because of this I have decided to try and channel my ‘Fulford’ and see if that way of working sits right with me. 

Below are links to some research on the way Fulford works but at this point, I am very happy to go with what feels right for my practice and dip my toes into other ways of working.

https://vimeo.com/101445671 - Jason Fulford Lecture http://www.jasonfulford.com/0082.html - Jason Fulford ‘Contains: 3 books’ 

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Day 02 - Janet Delaney and Mimi Plumb

“You have to allow yourself to be inquisitive” - Janet Delaney 2020

I was unaware of Janet Delaney’s work before this trip but being invited into her home but i’m definitely an admirer now. Seeing her unreleased work in progress and her process of editing was truly inspiring but probably the biggest thing that I got out of our time with Janet, was her careful respect for her subjects and the gentle interactions she has with them. This is such a refreshing quality to see in a documentary street photographer as she also incorporates poetics and metaphors in her edits.

The afternoon involved being taken through 3 different bodies of work from Mimi Plumb. I was aware of Plumbs book ‘Landfall’ before arriving and was keen to see the thought processes behind the book. Although I respect her original 2 bodies of work, it just doesn’t hold what I look for in photographs. In no means does this mean I don’t appreciate that type of work, but Landfall was her turn into a more poetic side of the photograph and took my attention much more vigorously.

Today I also finalised the ideas for my short series works in San Fran. I’ve tried to make these projects out of my comfort zone so that I can experiment with different forms before entering honours and continuing my ongoing personal project.

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Day 01 - Todd Hido

So to top off the fact that I’ve made it to California, finally, and I’m feeling more inspired than ever before, you got to meet the master of night photography and so much more, Todd Hido. Todd Hido was my gateway drug that lead me to this path of photographic enlightenment. 

To hear him speaking of his technical process (my weakness) and the way he edits and sequences, reassured me that my photographic insecurities shouldn’t be insecurities. To see someone, that you hold to such a high standard, have so many similarities to my art making practice, It filled me with comfort.

Hido’s process rarely involves pushing an agenda, but instead, leaves room for the personal experience.

Alongside everything I learnt in our conversations with Hido, it rekindled my love for working with found imagery, as Hido’s newer work incorporates it very delicately and intelligently. However, it left me with a burning motivation to find my metaphorical ‘house at night’ or ‘Mississippi river’.