Color / Large Format / Tu Madre

Yeah Yeah Yeah...I saw Paul Graham's "stuff" at the New Museum last year. I didn't read much about it before seeing the show. It was, in visual terms, photos of places around the U.S. (man mowing lawn / afternoon light, people at crosswalk, man holding cup) and kinda drab pallet wise...(it's a matter of taste people...). That was the first reaction! Then, I was like, "oh really. you're going to show us 3 photos taken within the same 10 minutes in the same setting? Pssh." And then I was like, "hold up borja...why aren't you moving from his photos..." and then I was glued and I was staring into his scenes trying to figure out what the fuck was going on (like the first time I saw Stephen Shore's photo of that intersection in New Mexico...was it NM?)(so many intersections Shore, so many gas stations...) and it wasn't pretentious and it wasn't vacant and it was honest AND staid and it was oddball...slash I think what I really want to emphasize is honest. It was honest work. I.E. he had something that was his and that may have been the intent behind the photos but it was his and it was kind of like he accidentally slipped onto the walls given the company around him or had a curatorial hook up and then you realize he wasn't lucky he was true to himself and goddamnit why aren't more people like him 'represented' and he was neither fact nor fiction and belonged to NO photographic camps...and that is a triumph, albeit unrewarded...producing unpretentious work seems risky, no? As walls are STILL where it's at...

ANYWAY --- Breezy aka Sergeant Chipper has passed along a poignant piece of writing (would I say seminal?!) by Mr. Graham that was apparently READ at the NY SHMOMA this past week but according to Breeze he "had no clue" about it as he lives "in a cocoon unfettered and uncontaminated." Yes BREEZY! The first rule of being a photographer is that you don't talk to photographers!

Point being, the man is on point. And this young philly is on board...and appreciates that he has managed to get enough distance from the clusterfuck that is whatever photography scene is around him to call attention to a few very serious topics relating to outdated terms and definitions, the scope of photography, its uses versus the THING itself....oooo lordy it just keeps getting deeper this photography thing...it's juicy at the meat of the matter...MEAT! If this doesn't interest you, just look at me vacantly, and I'll put your face up on the fucking wall.

Leer es Poder: http://www.paulgrahamarchive.com/writings_by.html
Please note the use of the words "dance" "just" "snapping" "shooting" "documentary" "real" "life"

Also, apples are key here...but you've known that since you were 5!