January 19, 2012
December 30, 2011
I would have liked my grandfathers.
Recently I came upon a number of photographs which I always wished my family had, but never knew about. I found thousands of photographs, most of which were taken in the 50s and 60. However, I found some from the 30s and 20s when my grandparents were toddlers.
I spent two entire days sorting out photos from both sides of the family. I sorted them into groups based on the quality of the photograph. There must have been a couple thousand photographs in total. I narrowed down the pile to around 150 photographs. From there I began laying out the photos on my dining room table. I thought about how I would present these photos. I felt that an album would be intimate, but knowing my family, the album would be looked at once and then forgotten. I feel that hanging a photo on a wall causes the viewer to have a relationship with the photograph. It becomes a permanent part of the viewers universe.
On the dining room table I began laying them out as I would imagine they would appear on a wall. Subconscious patterns began to take shape. Soon I was able to make those patterns visual. In one of the most obvious patterns, I placed two photographs of my grandfathers together.
Above on the right my maternal grandfather, Seymour Fader poses in front of Trocadéro in Paris after the end of World War II in 1945. Throughout his army service he was stationed in France, Germany and Italy. My paternal grandfather on the left, Erwin Krule served for the United States Air Force around the time of the Korean War.
Until recently, I had only seen photos of my grandfathers when they were much older. Aside from a few memories of my maternal grandfather, I never really knew either of them (Erwin died long before I was born, Seymour died when I was 7).
By having this large collection of photographs I understood a lot about familial dynamics. It was amazing to see five generations of Krule/Faders. I learned that while families appear different, often they are similar in the significant aspects. Including the relationship one has with their parents.
When looking at these photographs I also thought a lot about what the subjects were thinking when the photograph was being taken. Did they know their grand, great grand or even great-great grandson would eventually be seing this? Why did they decide to take that photograph in the first place? Either way, I am happy they did.
December 28, 2011
December 18, 2011
At times, I don’t like how I only capture one moment in time with a regular camera. I experimented with finding a way to show movement in photographs and not just hint at it with a single image. I agree with what Susan Sontag said about videos, each frame cancels out the previous one leaving no specific significant image. I think an important aspect of photography is that there is an image that can be viewed for as long as someone chooses to view it. In movies the director dictates that. I recently purchased a Fujifilm Instax Mini 7 camera and thought it would be interesting to take photos with it and tape the print it made onto or near whatever I photographed. I would then photograph that resulting image with a digital camera. The resulting photo would show two images, one of the Instax print and one of the original composition from a new angle. In the case of the above photo, the photo could even show the lack of movement from one photo to the next but still show the passing of time.
December 17, 2011
My father recently sent me a photograph of himself when he was my age in the 70s. When I first saw the photograph I immediately had questions about who he was at the time the photograph was taken. My father appears to have changed dramatically since those times. I asked him to send me as many photos as he could find from those days so I could learn more about him. While I was sifting through the photos, I thought about how the photos I have of me now (Facebook, Yearbooks etc.) would shape the image of who I was for people who didn’t know me at that time. I wanted to have photos like these ones so eventually my children could have this same experience. I thought about recreating the photographs, but I felt that wouldn’t properly express my idea. Instead, I created photos that compliment the image and tell the viewer who we were, by showing how we were different (or not so different). Here is one of the images from the series.
December 6, 2011
November 19, 2011
November 14, 2011
I am showing one of my photos as part of a group exhibition at the Milk Gallery (450 W 15th St). The opening is this thursday night from 8-12. I’ll be showing this photo. Hope to see some of you there.
November 12, 2011
