Does Living Abroad Spark Creativity?

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Ernest Hemingway at the Finca Vigia, Cuba, 1953, JFK Presidential Library and Museum

A recent piece in The Economist highlights a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that suggests living abroad may do wonders for your creativity. The results certainly seem intuitive. I've lived abroad and the experience shook up my influences.

But, not so fast says Jonah Lehre on his blog, The Frontal Cortex. He thinks the conclusions in the study may be sketchy and cites issues of causation vs. correlation and using email as a testing tool as factors.

This matter is too important to leave open for debate. We need certainty and I'm willing to step up and be a guinea pig. Scientists, please send me to Spain with my camera, pump me full of sangria and hook me up to any all manner of diodes and testing apparatus you have. Let's get to the bottom of this pressing scientific matter once-and-for-all.

Cool Hand Luke RIP

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© Peter Schroeder/drr.net

I Heart William Lamson

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© William Lamson

I just happened upon this video that typifies the playful genius of his work. Really brilliant stuff.

If you dig his work like I do don't forget you can own one of his Me In America prints via Humble Arts Foundation.

Light Rail Coyote

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Inspiration rarely lands fully formed in my lap ready to party. Sometimes inspiration comes in fevered flashes of random images as I sleep; most of the time it comes in a slow march of real world dots and dabs that eventually add up to something grand. For Domesticated some of those dots came from the now defunct band Sleater-Kinney.


Sleater-Kinney's exploration of the tense space between the natural and human world seemed to begin at about the same time I was exploring the initial ideas behind my project. Starting with the song "Light-Rail Coyote" (inspired by the newspaper article above) and ending with the cover art for their final album The Woods and the video for "Entertain," Sleater-Kinney's choice of imagery and words helped inform the direction of my work in ways I didn't fully realize at the time.

My Dinner with Doug DuBois

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© Doug DuBois

During a holiday visit to Southern California in 2006 I saw the Where We Live: Photographs of America from the Berman Collection at the Getty. In a show filled with great images by American color legends like Shore, Eggleston and Sternfeld, Doug DuBois’ tense and intimate narratives jumped off the wall and stayed with me long after I left the show.

At the time I was just out of grad school and still discovering and devouring the canonical names and images of photography. I had never heard of Doug DuBois. I had no idea he was featured in the landmark Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort show at the MoMA. I had never seen the hypnotic images from his Family Photos series. I had no knowledge he was a respected photo educator at Syracuse University. Discovering Doug and his work has been one of the great joys of my short time in the photography world.

Shortly after the Getty show I started an email correspondence with Doug. Right off the bat he was open with his advice and heartfelt in his encouragement. He pushed me to apply for the Light Work residency (and may have had a hand in my selection). He even invited me to come up to Syracuse to speak to his class. Doug is the best kind of educator because he doesn’t confine his wisdom to the walls of the classroom.

My Mother’s Scar © Doug DuBois

Friday I was finally able to spend some in-person time with Doug. He showed me 25 years worth of beautiful, rich C-prints from his Family Photo series. Each print feels like a subplot in an expansive epic narrative. The image above of his mother is particularly stunning. It makes me think of my own mother and the pain of seeing one's parents aging and vulnerable. As Alec Soth has said, Doug doesn’t seem to take a bad picture. After seeing the entire series in sequence you can't help but want to go through it again and again. Fortunately, Aperture will be publishing a book of this work in the spring and I will be able to dive into his photos whenever I want.

Don't Call It a Comeback

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Love Kills, 1979 © Jill Freedman

The New York Times has a great profile on Jill Freedman. Jill made a name for herself in the 70s and 80s with her gritty black and white images of a city in serious decline. She is now enjoying a bit of a renaissance with a show at Higher Pictures.

It's great to see an artist get her due after so many years, but it's disheartening to know you can have the goods and still fall off the art world map. The sad truth is Jill's story is probably more common than the stories of artists who enjoy a consistent and sustained success throughout their career. Too often I focus on career lessons learned from those who have made it, but the wisdom of those that struggle is just as valuable. "You have to be good at hustling," Jill says.

And so I hustle...

Saturday Night Party Then Sunday Afternoon Kong

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Edinburgh, UK 2003 © Brian Ulrich

Last night I went to a party at the fabulous home of photography collector Joe Baio. Each year Joe throws a big shindig during AIPAD to show off his amazing collection of photographs. The walls were covered in photographs by Sally Mann, Brian Ulrich, Arthur Tress, Vik Muniz, Loretta Lux, Angelika Rinnhofer, Muzi Quawson...the list goes on and on.

The joint was packed with a who's who of gallerists and photographers featured in Joe's collection. I found myself in many amazing conversations with people I have admired for a very long time but never had the opportunity to meet. I had about three glasses of wine too many, but I think everyone else did too. It really was a special evening and I am now counting the days until next years party.

This afternoon I am paying the price for my partying ways. I am nursing a decent hangover and consuming copious amounts of coffee so I can get on with the business of the day. During my downtime I watched the documentary King of Kong. If you haven't seen it yet you must stop everything you are doing and watch it now.

Now I am off to AIPAD one last time.

But The Good News Is...

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© Juliana Beasley

There is a ton of good stuff happening in the photography world these days, or at least that's what one would believe judging by my feed aggregator and inbox. Each week I am going to do a roundup of some of the more interesting projects, opportunities and announcements I have come across. There is a lot of crap in the world, but the good news is...

Juliana Beasley is one of my favorite photographers and one of my favorite people. She continues to knock it out of the park with her work and the world is starting to take notice in a big way. Her new series, Eyes of Salamanca, was just awarded second place in Prix de la Photographie's Human Condition competition. Well deserved recognition of stunning work.

The title of one of my favorite albums by Talking Heads is now the title of a great new book project from photographer/prolific blogger, Shane Lavalette, and Karly Wildenhaus. They are currently seeking submissions from photographers who would like to be featured in the first volume of Remain in Light. You can get all the details about the book and submission information here.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the power of the book for emerging photographers. Having your work featured in book form can be a huge personal validation and a heck of a promotional tool. Photographer initiated projects like Remain in Light and Pause, to Begin have sparked a kernel of a big book idea that I would like to pursue after things quiet down a bit in the next couple of months. I will keep you posted as it starts to take shape.

The Most Disturbing Thing I Have Ever Seen

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Sleeping Rat Baby © Anne Geddes

I am back in New York after seven sun-soaked days lazing around the beaches of Orange County. I am mildly resentful, but ultimately happy to be back home. The OC is all about excess. Shiny expensive cars, big hillside mansions, Botoxed and pulled faces and everyone wearing Ugg boots for one more season. Over the course of a week the gross parts become part of the perverted whole and it's hard to be moved to comment by any single excessive fragment. But, amid this ocean of excess one thing managed to rise above and hover like a grotesque surfeit island of beautifully useless swill. I speak of the Anne Geddes flagship store.

After a day spent at Disneyland (don't ask) waiting in mind-numbingly long lines to ride their latest cross-promotional brand experience, I was not to be easily aroused by marketing clutter. But, as we walked through the chilly streets of Downtown Disney I saw the Geddes store in the distance and I became transfixed by the sheer totality and audacity of her vision. Inside the store were the typical cringe-inducing photos of her Doctor Moreau-like flower and animal babies, but that was just the beginning of the Geddes merchandise empire. There were baby clothes, hats, t-shirts, maternity kits, books, and most disturbing of all, a series of plushy dolls that resembled the hybrid monsters in her photos. These dolls were all around you, eyes closed and sleeping. Or were they dead? After a few moments I began to imagine that the local Union Carbide plant had sprung a leak and these babies lay peacefully departed, the casualties of a terrible industrial accident.

Then it hit me like a store full of dead plushies; Anne Geddes is a genius and my new inspiration for pimping dry every last bit of my art to maximize exposure and profits. Now, when I close my eyes I don't just see my work hanging on gallery and museum walls, I see my own flagship store hawking the Amy Stein logoed line of hats, t-shirts, golf tees and mouse pads. I see a line of plushy deers and coyotes playfully chewing away at plushy garbage. And, I see a touring ice-show featuring a bear and a little girl tensely skating to "The Final Countdown" around a chain-linked enclosed swimming pool. The sky and my own sense of decency are my only limits.

Thanks, Anne!

Oscar Peterson RIP

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To All My Friends

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Five Sour Cherries © Neil Plotkin

I am very fortunate to be surrounded by a tight group of very talented friends and family members. They are a constant source of inspiration and each seems to firing on all their creative cylinders right now. Over the past week I have had the privilege of sharing in some of their professional and personal successes.

Saturday we took in an open studio event for my very dear friend Neil Plotkin. Neil is an amazing painter and his newest work includes beautiful landscapes from a month spent in the Loire Valley and a new series called Empty Studio.

Before Neil's open-studio we attended the wedding of my printer, Carl Saytor. The ceremony was conducted with fire by the Reverend Billy and featured a joyous assembly of friends and family. The whole affair was something like the cast of Rocky Horror meeting the cast of Cirque du Soleil at Burning Man. They even had a man in a banana suit stalk the aisle! Definitely the most entertaining wedding ceremony I've ever attended.

This past Friday my cousin, Andy Guthrie, rocked Galapagos to make it the semi-finals of the 2007 Williamsburg Live Songwriter Competition. Andy performed one of his amazing new songs, It Goes On, which you can listen to here.

Last Wednesday the always lovely Jon Gitelson stayed with us while he was visiting New York showing work to some A-list galleries and museums. While he was here, Jon shared plans for his massive new public arts project in Chicago. Very cool.

It's so motivating to see their efforts being validated by others and, more importantly, by their own happiness.

Travels With Charlie

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© Charles Traub

One of the joys of my time with the Do You Know What It Means project has been working with Charles Traub. I have known Charlie for a while now, but our relationship has been defined by highly structured situations. First, with me as MFA student and Charlie as department chair at the SVA and next with me as Director of DYKWIM and Charlie as the visionary and leader behind the project. So much of our time together has been spent in roles other than our primary pursuit and passion; photography.

Yesterday, we finally got to spend some time in New Orleans just taking pictures and it was a great experience. Two photographers taking advantage of some great light and the luxury of daring and experimentation that digital cameras afford to explore and see and capture together.

Charlie is an amazing photographer and the experience definitely challenged me and opened my eyes to different ways of seeing. It got me thinking about how little time I spend with other photographers taking pictures. I go to openings and portfolio reviews and spend way too many nights drinking with my photo friends. We talk about the business of photography, the logistics of process, and the gossip of the photo world, but we never seem to get together to do the thing that brought us together in the first place. How come we photographers don't get together more often to take pictures?

What Makes a Great Photo?

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Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1968 © Robert Adams

Joerg Colberg of Conscientious fame asked a number of photographers to help him answer the eternal question: what makes a great photo? Joerg's inquiry prompted some very thoughtful answers and produced some truly great photos. There is no recipe for a great photo and most folks, myself included, wrestled with describing their emotional response to the photo rather than defining the technical elements that made the photo great. Ultimately, the photographs mentioned have nothing in common except the punch-in-the-gut response they elicit. The truest answer to the question of what makes a great photo may be as equivocal as Justice Stewart's definition of pornography: I know it when I see it.

Photo Show Madness

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© Brian Ulrich 2003

So many good photography shows going on in Chelsea right now. Finally caught Brian Ulrich's work at Julie Saul. Wonderful stuff and I overheard gallery folks saying the prints were flying off the shelves like so many patriotic chairs. Brian has had so much praise heaped his way of late he doesn't need me to tell him how amazing the work is, but I will say it anyways. Brian, the work is amazing.

Also worth seeing are shows by SVA faculty member, Andrew Moore, at Yancy Richardson and SVA alum, Suellen Parker, at Daniel Cooney, as well as Adam Bartos at Yossi Milo.

David Byrne's Daydream

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Hello, Mr. Byrne. I am going to make this picture. I will send you a print. Thank you for the inspiration.