Larissa Leclair

It was with great sadness that I heard the news about Joe Deal’s passing last Friday from Mary Virginia Swanson. As a young photographer studying at Washington University, we were very lucky to have Joe Deal as a dean, an icon, a photographer, a teacher, a mentor, and friend. And through the years, I am thankful for the support he provided to me as I found my own path and voice in the photography world.

I wrote this review of Joe Deal’s book West and West several months ago. Today it was published by photo-eye.

Joe Deal
West and West: Reimagining the Great Plains
112 pages, 51 duotones, 3 maps 10 x 11
Published by the Center for American Places, October 2009
ISBN: 9781935195009

In the midst of all the press surrounding the new “New Topographics” exhibition organized by the George Eastman House and the Center for Creative Photography now on international tour through at least 2012, Joe Deal, one of the original photographers and curators involved in the 1975 pivotal show has added to his oeuvre with a fantastic body of work and book “West and West.” Joe Deal introduces the plates in the book with a wonderfully written essay about the Great Plains and reflections on his own photography over the years. Deal’s written voice is just as important and astute as his photographic one. He begins “[t]he Great Plains of North America exists for me both as a physical landscape and as an idea, or internal landscape.” The Great Plains, as explored by Deal, cover an area larger than I had realized; Deal photographed in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. The black and white photographs reveal a surprisingly nuanced prairie landscape in both its natural topography and in Deal’s mastery of light and shadow. The images are devoid of visible man-made structure, but are constrained in theory by surveyor grid lines and the square-format of the camera. Formerly, in “New Topographics” and his series “The Fault Zone,” Deal often shot from a high vantage point looking down, deleting the horizon from his images, and packing the image with information “each element holding its own weight” each detail just as important as the other. With this new work, however, Deal has tilted his camera up, viewing the Great Plains landscape in all of its expanse. But that expanse is only illusionary. Deal writes, the photographs present “a finite section of the earth and sky and restores them in the imagination to the vastness that now only exists as an idea: the landscape that is contained within the perfect symmetry of the square implies infinity.” These photographs, taken between 2005 and 2007, seem to continue Deal’s exploration of “man-altered landscape” and its boundaries but he focuses on what lies between himself and the horizon and not what may be in his periphery vision. Joe Deal embarked on this journey during his last few years at RISD, recently having retired in 2009. The book and exhibition are poetic and my favorite of his. West and West is on my list of Best Books of 2009.

The exhibition “West and West” in on view at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, June 5-August 1, 2010. The CCP recently acquired Joe Deal’s archive and includes negatives, work prints, ephemera, and a complete set of master vintage prints. The Robert Mann Gallery, who has represented Joe Deal for many years, showed work from this series earlier this year and wrote a wonderful tribute to Joe and his career here. The St. Louis Beacon, the New York Times, and Mary Virginia Swanson have also honored Joe Deal.

We will miss him.

Join me for some fantastic photography tomorrow night!

Permanent Impermanence
an exhibition curated by Larissa Leclair
featuring photographs by Christopher Colville, Todd Hido, Kate MacDonnell, David Maisel, Curtis Mann, and Doug + Mike Starn

June 11-July 9, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, June 11, 6-8pm
Exhibition Hours: Monday-Friday 11am-5pm
Location: Washington Project for the Arts (WPA)
2023 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.234.7103
(map)

The WPA is pleased to present the exhibition Permanent Impermanence. This project is part of the WPA’s Coup d’Espace series which invites member artists and curators to stage their own exhibitions an programming in its Dupont Circle space. Come enjoy some great photography! Permanent Impermanence explores fundamentals of the photographic medium, through artistic expression in both subject and process. The exhibition will include works by
Christopher Colville from his Emanations series;
Todd Hido from A Road Divided;
Kate MacDonnell from 100 Ways;
Curtis Mann from Modifications;
David Maisel from History’s Shadow; and
Doug + Mike Starn from alleverythingthatisyou.

One Hour Photo, curated by Adam Good, Chajana denHarder, and Chandi Kelley, closes today at the Katzen in Washington, DC. Quoting from the website, “[t]he premise of One Hour Photo is simple: project a photograph for one hour, then ensure that it will never be seen again… Each work will exist only in the limited moments of perception, in the individual and collective experience, then memory, of the observers.” In conjunction with this project, Larissa Leclair asked each photographer to respond to the same three questions – describe the photograph in three words, talk about the selection process, and thoughts on letting go of the image. The photographers’ responses have been posted throughout the exhibition on the day their photograph was projected at the Katzen – 26 days, 128 photographers. See the schedule of photographers here. The photographers’ responses may provide a glimpse of the projected image, but they also reveal something about the photographers themselves. The last five photographers are Penelope Umbrico, Clayton Cotterell, Matthew Gamber, Ann Woo, and closing out the exhibition is Ruben Natal-San Miguel. Curator talk and discussion today at 2:30pm. Come and say farewell.

11-noon: Penelope Umbrico

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
used photo labs

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
The images I used for my piece in One Hour Photo already exist elsewhere, in some form, on the internet, and given the nature of the types of images, and the nature of the internet, I have unlimited access to new or similar versions of them, that represent the same thing. In contrast to the idea of the photographic edition (where each singular material print is the same as the others in the edition but limited in number), the mutability, ubiquity and replacability of digital images allows for a kind of regeneration to take place. It doesn’t matter if the specific arrangement of images that make up my piece are never seen again, because the work can be thought of as one moment in the life of an ever changing fluid project – an ongoing process of accumulation, re-combination, recontextualization, regeneration.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
I asked these questions: Is the forced act of absence or erasure in a digital context inherently antithetical to digital representation, or as an artificial construct imposed on an digital image, could it point to fundamental issues inherent in digital representation? does it question what it is we ask of digital representation?

So I didn’t think of it as letting go, but as a staged act that addresses some issues to be worked out – specifically, in my mind at the moment: the oddly dialectical paradox of a kind of presence of digital form (in its infinite multiplicity, synchronic ubiquity, and ephemeral immateriality) vs and a kind of non-presence of material form (in its finite singularity, immutability and localized specificity).

Website: http://www.penelopeumbrico.net/

12-1pm: Clayton Cotterell

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
engagement, disengagement, construct

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
I made my piece specifically for the show with an image I knew I wouldn’t use anywhere else.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
The image began to grow on me after making it, but lead to others working with a similar idea. I’m ok with letting it go.

Website: www.claytoncotterell.com

1-2pm: Matthew Gamber

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
It is erased

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
Some photographs exist as outliers, or as transitions between projects. However interesting these images might be, they are often never seen by others.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
If we did housecleaning more often, we might be able to reduce our personal collections to the ones that are most important to us.

Website: www.matthewgamber.com

2-3pm: Ann Woo

3-4pm: Ruben Natal-San Miguel

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
Absence Presence & 9/11 victims

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
It was not easy. This photo in particular in my opinion, can not be part of any of my current series, it is a random one, strong and needs to be shown by itself so, when you see it you reflect on it and not be distract by anything else but, the words and its message.As a curator of many shows, I thought right away that was perfect for the show theme and was very happy how well it has been received as part of it. Sometimes, it is good to part with things you love the most…

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
Do you miss me? (image title) The presence and the absence. Here today ….gone Tomorrow. Life is short, live it to its fullest.

Website/Blog: http://artmostfierce.blogspot.com/

THE END

Larissa Leclair has teamed up with One Hour Photo to feature photographers from this exhibition. Read the initial post here. Today’s photographers are Lisa McCarty, Michael Kenny, Chris Davis, Katy Rossing, and Matt Austin.

11-noon: Lisa McCarty

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
Ghostly, inexplicable, fortuitous

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
When submitting an image to any show I don’t think in terms of quality, but what image do I feel strongly about and would best fit the concept. The knowledge that my image would be seen for one hour and then never again actually made me want to select something I wouldn’t want to let go of rather than an image I was ok with never seeing/showing again. I saw it as a challenge to give away something that was truly meaningful me.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
I’m really excited. This is an experiment, and I can’t wait to see how I’m affected, how the viewers are affected, and eventually how the image changes in my mind as time passes.

Website: www.lisamccarty.com

12-1pm: Michael Kenny

1-2pm: Chris Davis

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
mantis on windshield

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
all data has a shelf life, some longer than others: there is no permanence.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
this photo has been sitting in a box for almost ten years, i am happy that it will have a moment to shine. the photo is of a truly fleeting moment in time – an unexpected event where a mantis hitchhiked a ride from College Park, MD, through DC, and left us somewhere around 14th and U St NW.

Website/Blog: http://blog.defbyte.com
I’ve just started this whole blogging thing, bear with me…
it doesn’t really reflect me in totality

2-3pm: Katy Rossing

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
Full-sized American jest

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
I looked for a photograph that I thought captured something I found both quotidian and thought-provoking. Those qualities seemed to fit the bill.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
The photograph was taken spontaneously; I literally did not break my stride to photograph it as I walked by. So the image itself seemed like a lucky fluke to me, so I feel like it’s somehow right to let it go this way.

Website/Blog: http://www.katyrossing.wordpress.com

3-4pm: Matt Austin

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
accidental elegiac goodbye

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
It wasn’t easy to choose. At first, I was sorting through images that I’d made a long time ago that I really liked at the time but never did anything with. I was thinking it would kind of ensure the idea of never using it again in a more formal way. But then after searching far too long for the “best image” of that category, the concept of swearing to never show it again interested me much more. The idea of challenging myself with that kind of discipline became far more appealing than choosing which image would best represent me to the public. I wanted the concept of saying goodbye to something to be embodied by the image that would then be embodied by the exhibition. The process of spending the time selecting the photograph was rewarding in itself, I was satisfied with that experience on its own.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
It feels good to do; I choose to interpret it as a kind of tribute or honor. The photograph was initially a mistake: an accidental double-exposure of my mom’s boyfriend Richie’s bed and snow falling on his front lawn. I made the images on the day that he passed away on January 25, 2010. I wanted to take the opportunity of the one-hour existence of the piece and use its impermanent dynamic to create a photographic elegy for Richie.

Website: http://mattaustinphoto.com

Larissa Leclair has teamed up with One Hour Photo to feature photographers from this exhibition. Read the initial post here. Today’s photographers are Esther Hidalgo, Rodolfo Vanmarcke, Frank DiPerna, Osvaldo Cibils and Sasha Bezzubov + Jessica Sucher.

11-noon: Esther Hidalgo

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
loss, memory, desire

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
I chose an image that I would never be able to go back and re-shoot, one that I found beautiful and enjoyed gazing at, one that I would have wished to print and preserve.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
With regard to the business of art, letting go of the image excuses me from having to think in terms of ownership and rights to reproduction–issues that are often in play for me as a photographer. Artistically, this project invited me to shift the way I perceive my work. My photographs are proof that I have been here and have acted. Yet the ephemeralness of this exhibition, by showing the work only once, is like wiping away my fingerprint after touching a glass.

Website: www.estherhidalgo.com

12-1pm: Rodolfo Vanmarcke

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
The absolute self-exile.

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
Each race is crucial. There are no small enemies, no small challenges. When I decided to participate in this project, I delivered grapes that were picked from a great harvest. I would never allow myself to exhibit something that is not “amazing” just because it will never be shown again.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
Each and every day in life we let go many things. The important thing is knowing what we win when we let go of something. This photograph will vanish between the walls of a museum, but not without passing through the visual registry that goes from the curators to the staff of the museum; and with luck, through the eyes of some visitor walking around the place. Knowing this, one way or another has already made the piece invincible in time… or at least invincible until those who saw it, no longer live.

Website: www.rodolfovanmarcke.com

1-2pm: Frank DiPerna

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
Unplugged Ghost Woman

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
I chose an image that is more or less outside of the mainstream of what I normally do; I’ve often wondered what I might do with and this was the perfect opportunity.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
I like the concept of the show so letting go isn’t that hard, I lost an important negative in the street once that was hard.

Website: www.frankdiperna.com

2-3pm: Osvaldo Cibils

Larissa Leclair has teamed up with One Hour Photo to feature photographers from this exhibition. Read the initial post here. Today’s photographers are Jon Lee, Scott F. Hall, Christopher Manson, Lauren Mosinka, and William Hundley.

11-noon: Jon Lee
 

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
I saw this.

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
I selected the concept because its impermanence works well with the One Hour Photo concept. I selected the image itself because of it’s starkness and meditative quality. Basically, it’s something I want to stare at for an hour.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
It feels perfect.

Website: www.wearescience.org

12-1pm: Scott F. Hall

1-2pm: Christopher Manson

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
-

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
The quality of the photograph was not as important as the consideration I paid to it’s content. Much like the concept behind “One Hour Photo”, the television set (my photograph depicts a gold television set) has attained a dream-like status different from any other object in the world. With a flick of a switch, we are able to engage in a “truer than”, but also more fleeting experience of everyday reality. It is this transitory notion that I felt was in keeping with the ideology behind “One Hour Photo”.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
Nothing is really lost anymore. The human desire to fragment, codify, classify and control is a powerful one; from private family photo albums, to public libraries, and online photo archives, systems of organization both public and private surround us. Lost cultures survive in museum collections and photographs hold passing moments frozen in time. Despite the abstract nature of “One Hour Photo’s” temporary archive, I believe that the obsessive way at which people claim parts of culture as their own will see that my photograph will live on.

Website: http://www.christophermanson.com

2-3pm: Lauren Mosinka

Larissa Leclair has teamed up with One Hour Photo to feature photographers from this exhibition. Read the initial post here. Today’s photographers are Shane Lavalette, Vicki Sher, Chandi Kelley, Borislav Alexandrov, and Peter Zachary Voelker.

11-noon: Shane Lavalette

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
Growth, Time, God

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
It’s a difficult process at first, which I’m sure I wasn’t alone in struggling with. That said, once I came across the photograph I knew it was the one.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
For myself it was important to find an image that was not only appropriate for the context of the exhibition but perhaps also strengthened by it. I think that’s how I’m able to justify “letting go” of it.

Website: www.shanelavalette.com

12-1pm: Vicki Sher

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
My Son Eli

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
It is important to want to create a Moment -for your subject and the photo – rather than thinking of the piece as an object. It is more performative.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
It’s difficult – even though I have other pictures of my son, and other versions of his school photo, but this one is good…it feel like a loss.

Website: www.vickisher.com

1-2pm: Chandi Kelley

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
Eagle captures car

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
For me, this image captured a rare and magical moment that, through the photograph, became true in a sense. If one tried to describe the moment portrayed, its possible no one would believe it. The proof lies in the photograph – the documentation of the moment. In choosing this image to be seen only once, and never again, I return it to a mythical place. Everyone who sees it becomes witness to a rare moment that they can only describe but not prove. I felt that in the context of One Hour Photo, this image says more than it does on its own.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
It has been more difficult than I anticipated. As soon as I submitted this image, it became imbued with a sense of importance. As if the act of letting it go, made it something to be cherished.

“In an initial period, Photography, in order to surprise, photographs the notable; but soon, by a familiar reversal, it decrees notable whatever it photographs. The ‘anything whatever’ then becomes the sophisticated acme of value.” -Roland Barthes

Website: www.chandikelley.com

2-3pm: Borislav Alexandrov

3-4pm: Peter Zachary Voelker

Larissa Leclair has teamed up with One Hour Photo to feature photographers from this exhibition. Read the initial post here. Today’s photographers are Yasmine Soiffer, Ryan Boatright, Alex Kisilevich, John James Anderson, and Kalle Kataila.

11-noon: Yasmine Soiffer
 

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
Fleeting, Displaced, Temporal

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
It was a strange thing! I thought about it. Generally, you pick an image that is your best work, because you want to show it. Here, it was an interesting tension between picking a piece that was worthy, but that I could accept not showing again.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
Ultimately, the concept appealed to me and I wanted to participate. I wanted to create a piece that was about loss, so it was very fitting, the work fits the concept and the exhibition. The image that I sent in is of a snowman on the beach. I was thinking about the things that you do not get to keep, in terms of loved ones, and happened upon this snowman, melting into the sand at the beach, a strange marker, another thing that cannot be kept.

Website: www.yasminesoiffer.com

12-1pm: Ryan Boatright

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
Google Directions Home

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
By selecting works that illustrate various perspectives on memory, permanence, and the nature of photography.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
The way in which this piece functions in the context of this exhibition is appropriate.

Website/Blog:www.ryanboatright.com; www.ryanboatright.com/Notebook.html

1-2pm: Alex Kisilevich

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
Hauntingly wry hair-lady.

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
I treated the selection for this exhibition with the same regard and significance as with any other exhibition I have been a part of.

In the process of selecting a photograph, the idea of the image fading in and then out, along with the notions of ‘fleeting’, ‘permanence’ and ‘disparate memory’ were all considered. The final image represented all of these ideas.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
I am definitely attached to the image I submitted but it is so refreshing to be part of this unique exhibition. One Hour Photo removes the commodification aspect of photography in a gallery setting. It is art for art’s sake and because of this, letting go of an image I am attached to, is completely worth it.

Website: http://alexkisilevich.com

2-3pm: John James Anderson

Describe the photograph selected for One Hour Photo in three words:
Amargosa Opera Sign

How does one go about selecting a photograph that is good enough for an exhibition but that can never be seen again?
I thought of an image that would reflect the concept of the exhibition. Four people live in Death Valley Junction, and I have no clue how many people attend a performance at the Amargosa Opera House, or take refuge in its hotel each year. What I do know is that there are many ghost towns that dot the land around Death Valley National Park, and Death Valley Junction has the potential to join that fraternity of abandonment.

What are your thoughts on letting go of this image?
I had a professor in undergrad, Brenda Jones, who emphasized that nothing in art is precious. Besides, the concept of this exhibition outweighs the photograph.

Website/Blog: www.johnjamesanderson.com;
http://www.johnjamesanderson.com;
www.johnjamesanderson.blogspot.com

3-4pm: Kalle Kataila