The notion of juxtaposing multiple images in photography is not a new idea. Diptychs and triptychs or grid presentation of photographic images are all commonly used. But watching several films which use, usually two, simultaneous images within the same frame, I started to think about if there is anyone working in photography with this idea in this sense. I find that there is a big difference in the thinking of filmmakers who use this technique and photographers who use multiple images. In film, this breaking or dividing of the screen disrupts the illusion of continuous space, by providing the viewer with multiple points of view. In “Sisters” the split screen is utilized to show us two simultaneous perspectives of the same event. The interaction between the two perspective builds the suspense of the scene and as the action evolves in each space, there are juxtapositions that occur in gesture and dialogue which can be harmonious or create a discord between the two scenes. In film, this is one way that the split-screen can be utilized, to show simultaneous action. Probably one of its better recalled uses would be in depicting a phone conversation between two people, such as that between Rock Hudson and Doris Day in “Pillow Talk”. However, in photography I had trouble thinking of photographers who used the idea of the split in quite the same way. In photography the use of diptychs or images that work across a pair of images, refer to time in a different way. Perhaps it is the difference between the moving image and the still image, how we perceive time relationships across images, that changes how the split functions in different mediums.

Probably the most common use I can think of in photography is using the split screen to create twin-ing effects, such as in the work of Kelli Connell who composites multiple negatives together in Photoshop to create the story of a relationship between two people (who are the same person). In both these cases the split is intended to be invisible, we are intended to believe that we are seeing two different people.

There are a lot of great films, usually dealing with twins that use this type of split screening. Films such as the 1946 thriller “The Dark Mirror” which tells the tale of two twin sisters, once innocent and one a murderess. There is also one of my favorite films “Dead Ringers” directed by David Cronenberg that tells the story of the two twin gynecologists who have a relationship with the same woman, and one goes a little nuts.

Perhaps there is such a difference in our perception of the photographic pair and the moving image pair because we are used to seeing still images divided from each other. Where as the moving image (which already consists of multiple frames appearing in quick succession) disrupts the perception of the “reality” of the screen, by breaking it down, and away from typical human vision. So Perhaps it is not possible to create a similar suggestion with still photography because we already accept that the frame is broken and events exist across multiple frames.

Another interesting example from film is Andy Warhol’s “Chelsea Girls” which is shown entirely in split screen, and combines both color and black and white images.

One of the differences that I also thought about was that when we see too simultaneous moving images, we are in a sense asked to choose. In photography, we can go back and forth between the images, they are static, but we have trouble giving our attention to two actions happening at the same time. In both cases however, we as viewers are getting more from the multiple images than we could physically see with our own eyes. Be it the perspective of two different participants, or a perception that extends outside of our normal view. In this respect David Hillard comes to mind.

I think with the internet and television we are becoming faster at reading images, particularly multiple images presented simultaneously. Even as I work now, I have several windows open on my computer, all of which I am working with. So I think that this idea of multiple screens or images, still or moving, is still evolving and I’m curious to see if anyone uses it in a significant way in photography in particular, in a different sense that breaks outside of the more conventional pairings and groupings of images.

“Get out your measuring cups and we’ll play a new game. Come to the front of the class and we’ll measure your brain, we’ll give you a complex and we’ll give it a name” (Measuring Cups, by Andrew Bird)

I also decided to include a portrait I took of my Grandmother, who is in her final stage of the Alzheimer’s disease. It has no connection to the new series idea, but it’s incredibly personal and that’s how this all got started after all.

One of the main goals of many emerging photographers, is to have a  photobook published by a major publisher. In my personal work I have been really interested in the relationship between showing work in a gallery and sequencing work in book form. In talking about this with the other grads we thought it would be interesting to ask a photographer with some first hand experience to shed some light on their thoughts on photobooks. So we asked photographer Dave Anderson some questions on the subject of photobooks, and he was nice enough to reply to our questions with a video.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

This is part 1 in a two part video interview. Part 2 coming soon.

Dave Anderson has had two photobooks published in the past few years. His first a work Rough Beauty (Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2006) focused on the small Texas town of Vidor, which has a long standing stigma of being a KKK hotbed. His photographs create an intimate portrait of a town that has been marked by it’s past. His second book recently released is One Block (Aperture, 2010). In this body of work Dave has focused on New Orleans post Katrina deciding to focus on one specific block’s struggles with reconstructing after the devastating storm.

What has always struck me about Dave Anderson is his unique ability to connect with people from all walks of life. This is an ability that I feel all  photographers of people must possess, and something not all photographers do. Like Arbus, Dave has a interaction with his subjects beyond just a passive observer, often befriending his subjects. Its this ability that has helped Dave  create the striking humanist photographs contained within Rough Beauty and One Block.

http://www.dbanderson.com

Dave did a nice audio slide show for Orion Magazine that can be viewed here

and an NPR audio slideshow for his first book Rough Beauty can be viewed here

Even as someone who is fairly familiar with German culture, at first glance, I wasn’t sure what to make of this book. This is because though its photographs are in a documentary style, similar to that of Martin Parr’s, there is an air of whimsy and artifice about them that makes one question their authenticity. However, it is this ambiguous style that elevates it, in my opinion, to the level of an artist’s book. In particular, the photographs show a surreal cityscape of isolated outcasts, abandoned buildings with dark pasts and sexy strangers, often disjointed—far from a typical view of what would be attractive to tourists. Instead, Tafel and Drel take low culture and make it high through their arty photos and playful descriptions of the seedy and forgotten. This could be their love letter to their Berlin; a dark yet affectionate tribute to a place they deem worthy of the effort.  And the people and places shown, as a whole, form a cohesive, unique view of the city due to Tafel and Drel’s careful curating.

Presented in a retro-modern documentary style, highlights of the compact book include depictions of fetish clubs, brothels, racing tracks, greasy chicken joints and even a place called “Old Texas Town” where fans of southern American culture of yesteryear can go to experience a simulated life. Fans of contemporary German photography as well as subculture life will find this book rewarding.

A Photographic Installation/Performance

Installation with 400 8″x10″ Archival Inkjet Prints

Jan 26, 2010, McCalla Art Building, Indiana University Bloomington

Exhibition Catelogue (PDF)

Artist Statement

“People Mountain People Sea” is a photographic installation and performance project by Yang Chen, a Chinese-born Photography MFA at Indiana University Bloomington.

The title “People Mountain People Sea” is a jocular word-to-word translation of the Chinese idiom “人山人海”, which means “huge crowds of people”. The project originates from a performance during which the artist explored the boundaries of comfort between strangers in a public space while attempting to get extremely close to them to take their picture.

In the installation the artist creates a huge “people sea” by photos from the performance in order to reproduce the crowded, over-intimate feeling of being involuntarily embraced by a crowd.

During the show, the artist performed “bumping into people” again with the viewers in the paper crowd.

Introduction by Prof. Claude Cookman

What is more fascinating than another human face? Child psychologists tell us the first thing we focus on, as infants, is our mother’s face. From this primal fixation, we branch out to every face, becoming experts in reading the subtle shifts in expression made possible by the complex musculature hidden a few millimeters beneath the epidermis of the face.

In his project, People Mountain, People Sea, Yang Chen offers a universe of faces — men, women, children, infants — each one a small reward for our study. Yang’s work synthesizes two major traditions, street photography and portraiture, but it also alters them. His locus of operation is the street, most often in large cities where for a range of reasons, residents are less likely to challenge his camera. Unlike most street photographers, however, he rarely treats the street as a stage for human drama nor as a design element in the composition. Rather it is relegated to background, typically out of the field of focus and occupying little of the pictorial space. Instead, the human face fills most of his frame. This positions his work as portraiture — not the studio or environmental varieties but the more rarely practiced genre of action portraiture. All his images are candid — faces caught on the fly, rushing to work, to the subway, to a rendezvous. Faces preoccupied. Each with an expression that invites our contemplation.

Yang plunges the viewer into this jumble of faces, at first frustrating our desire for contemplation. His installation transforms a classroom at the old McCalla School near Bloomington’s downtown into a pedestrian rush hour as 400 images hang from the ceiling. Visitors are immersed in Yang’s “People Sea” — forced to brush against the prints, forced to confront them from a few inches instead of the normal gallery distance, forced to engage them several at a time. To have the zone of space in which we westerners insulate ourselves so insistently punctured feels uncomfortable. But it also intensifies the imperative to read the expressions on all those faces. In violating the traditional decorum of a gallery space, Yang engages us in a visceral as well as an aesthetic experience. He has found the perfect form to match his subject.

Professor Claude Cookman
School of Journalism, Indiana University

exposure to risk

Photography captures a moment in time like amber preserves an insect: Looking at a photograph, we see a static glimpse of life’s eternal flux. We notice the intensity and direction of a glance, the depth of a shadow that shades a face, or the forced perspective of a busy city street. Photographs contain clues that allow us to experience what the artist is showing. This presentation is part calculation and part intuition. Good photographs hold layers of information that unfold through studied observation to reveal a truth or universal experience that transcends a single moment in time.

Yang Chen’s People Mountain People Sea, a photography instillation at the Fuller Projects, attempts to reanimate the preserved moments that are his photographs by placing the viewer in a sea of images. Chen’s instillation fills the gallery from wall to wall with hundreds of free-hanging double-sided prints suspended from the ceiling with translucent filament. The viewer has to physically push through the dense collection of images that Chen captured while literally bumping into people as he walked the streets of New York City. As the hanging and slowly spinning images part and yield with forward movement, new faces and expressions continually confront you. One feels a loss of personal space once immersed in his mass of images, as Chen succeeds in recreating the feeling of a densely populated city within a gallery environment.

The Fuller Projects is a laboratory for contemporary artists looking to expand their normal mode of working and experiment with new techniques and practices. Sometimes, a less-than successful result exposes the risk of such endeavors. However, all successful artists recognize that the known and comfortable way is an impasse, and that they must tread the fine line between new ideas and disaster. Yang Chen has walked this line and his instillation stand as testament to the reward of taking risks.

Phil Haralam
Co-Organizer
Fuller Projects

FULLER PROJECTS is a venue with the primary mission of providing emerging contemporary artists with the opportunity to propose, create, and present new work. Established in 2002 by Indiana University School of Fine Arts students and located in the McCalla Building, FULLER PROJECTS encourages dialogue on art within the university, the community of Bloomington, Indiana, and beyond.