Center for Fine Art Photography

UPDATE

I recently found out that the CENTER FORWARD 2011 show that includes one of my conceptual composites, now up at the Center for Fine Art Photography will be traveling to the Denver Colorado Airport in early July and will be there through August.

I recently got an email telling me that I have been included in a show at the Center for Fine Art Photography entitled CENTER FORWARD; a survey of new and current trends in photography. The show opens on May 6th in the centers main gallery in Fort Collins Colorado, so I have to send them a framed print of the picture and consider myself fortunate to be selected from over 2600 images from around the world, ... but it's hard to get really excited with everything that's going on in the world. I also have to include a statement about the photograph and what I have to say about why I made it and what it means to me is even more troubling. So what do I get from showing the work? Is showing the work, no more and no less ... I do wish I was happy about it all right now but I'm not. Maybe I will feel better later.

This is the piece the juror chose:

Untitled 2010

Comments

[Jenifer]

Good questions you ask yourself and let us in on. I would like to see what you name the piece after all. It doesn't really seem to want a name, does it? How about a name from your text above. A cut-out of thoughts about the process, like: "What it means to me is even more troubling", or "Even more troubling", or "Even more", or "What I have to say about why". A dilemma indeed.

[charles]

Since I posted this for the first time (without the update) I named the piece and submitted it to another show but the juror selected another one the pieces I showed him instead of this one. The name that I gave it was the name that was always intended for it but it is so direct and potentially controversial that I kept looking for others that might be more elusive. The title for this piece is "Why I Like White Girls".

I'd love to hear your thoughts since I adore your mind and the way it works.

[Jenifer]

Interesting story.

"Why I like White Girls" is not bad, perhaps it's the simplicity I like. While I was thinking about this for a few hours (I could not get back here, lost in space...) I let my mind flow and started thinking about the White Girls syntax. I was asking myself if I had seen many pieces named White Girls something or other. Definitely have seen Black Girls and Brown Girls. And definitely have been privy to the white gaze...all my life. I do have people that help me out of it from time to time, so i can do some parallel world gazing ( a great activity - I highly recommend it, it does take help from a fellow gazer who lives in a parallel world... I digress). So me, the white girl gazer, gazing at the picture called White Girl something is good -- to slip me into another place/space. The non-omnipotent white gazer. Gazing at myself. Oh, gosh, look this is me. Being gazed at.

I was also thinking about the idea of a "White Girl Series" like your self portraits, cemetery, etc.. That could be interesting. It could be wild. You would surely bend the rules, turn gazing on its head (not a good mixed metaphor, I know..) let white people be gazed at. God, what a relief. There should be more of that going on. White-people-gazing. "Look there they are, honey get the iphone and take a picture. Can you hear what they are saying? What are they doing over there, anyway? Oh gosh, here comes one."

And then there is the simplicity of color. White girl. Black and white photo. Or, the possibility of "Why I like White Girls in Black and White Photos". Dunno. I like the photo a lot. I wonder what happened before and after the photo. Good things? Bad things? Mundane things? This photo speaks to me of the before and after. A whole life of before and after. The photo was a moment. Long gone. The television program was a moment, still here. Well, maybe she's still here too. Man, charles, you're messing with my head now. I better go. Love to you, Jen

[charles]

for some reason I am just seeing your reply. promise to respond soon. love you too! charles