So I guess consistent with all of this work is a kind of negative view of America, a critique of America, done, again, in the interest of nothing but aesthetic or artistic success. In other words, there’s no money to be made doing this. There was something very pure about it. As Garry Winogrand once said, it’s fit work for a grown man. Or a grown woman.
I understand. It was a different time.
[Laughter] That’s right. And Diane [Arbus], Diane was working then! But with the success of the galleries, the defining energy became that provided by money. And so what do you see now when you go to a gallery that’s selling photography? You see big, huge color prints, most of which really aren’t about very much. They’re illustrations. [Points to the cover of his book] No mind could ever imagine that concatenation of forms. I mean, maybe Velázquez could, but it would take him eight months to paint it out. So I’m not very interested in most photography today, because it is defined by the galleries. It’s going to be very interesting to see what’s going to happen with the economy going down the tubes.
OK, egentligen borde jag ju inte gilla det, ännu en fyrtiotalist som pratar om att allt var så mycket bättre förr; men kanske har Tod Papageorge en eller annan poäng när han diskuterar sin bok American Sports, 1970 or How We Spent the War in Vietnam (Aperture, 2007) med The Nation.
Jag svär i kyrkan, men är inte den svenska motsvarigheten till pengarna i den amerikanska galleriekonomin den stipendiedrivna konstnärsfotografin? Helt enkelt, var finns min generations Jens S. Jensen?
[via 2point8].
Andra bloggar på bloggar.se om: diane arbus, garry winogrand, jens s jensen, politik, The Nation, Tod Papageorge, Vietnamkriget
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