Q1 Could you introduce yourself? How did you get involved in photography?
My day job (as a book publisher's sales rep) involves driving around Los Angeles in a car and traveling out of town on a regular basis. At some point several years ago, I started taking an old Polaroid camera on my road trips to Phoenix and other parts of the southwest. There wasn't a specific reason for this, and I didn't have any intention of getting into photography, but simply having a camera close at hand gave these trips an extra sense of purpose. I started paying closer attention to my physical surroundings, at how the intense sunlight in southern California can make everything look so strange and artificial - and even fictional. The Polaroids seemed to emphasize that quality. A lot of pictures accumulated during that time, as did the need to edit, organize and juxtapose them. The whole thing became a mild obsession. |
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Q2 Why do you prefer to use Polaroids?
The simplicity is a big part of it. It's fast, uncomplicated, easy to travel with. I use the film as a kind of visual notebook or a recorder, and these 'notes' are later edited into various projects such as my books. All this could be done just as easily in a digital format, but there's something more direct and physical about working with a self-contained Polaroid camera. I've gotten attached to the aesthetic limitations of the film and I enjoy working inside them, even if the format restricts the type of pictures I can make and how they can be exhibited and sold. Until I've exhausted my interest in those limitations, I'll keep making Polaroids.
Q3 Could you tell us about your books, 'Ok Ok Ok' and 'Scorpio' ? What is the concept behind it?
For me, both books are puzzles that may or may not have a solution. There are a lot of visual and thematic clues but no specific way of connecting the dots... At the end of 'Ok Ok Ok', there is a quote attributed to Louis Pasteur: "Chance favors the prepared mind." I came across this quote in a biography of Edwin Land (inventor of the Polaroid) and the concept seemed to inform every part of the process that led to the creation of 'Ok Ok Ok' - from how I began using the camera and making pictures, to the way I met J&L Books and got the book published. At every stage, there was a sense of finding meaning or humor in unexpected places, taking advantage of mistakes and accidents, that sort of thing. |
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Q6 When is the happiest moment as a photographer?
Communicating something abstract to another human being through a photograph is satisfying in a way that's hard to explain. About a year after 'Ok Ok Ok' was published, I made a trip to Japan and then Korea where I met up with some American friends in Seoul. I was very depressed at the time, and decided to take a train trip by myself to Gyeongju, in the southern part of the country - as far outside my everyday life as I could get. I rented a bicycle and rode aimlessly around rice paddies and burial mounds for a few days, trying to stay warm (it was November), getting lost several times, making Polaroids of nothing in particular, unable to really communicate with anybody since I don't speak Korean. On the last night, I had a late dinner at the hostel where I was staying, and spent the evening around a fire with two Korean medical students who spoke some English. At some point we all looked at the Polaroids I had made around the town. |
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I was a little embarrassed and thought the subject matter might be totally confusing to them, but one of the students became very thoughtful and said to me, "I like this...very much. It's strange, it gives me...a new feeling." His response was so immediate and honest, I almost burst into tears.
Q7 Do you have any plans to use any other format cameras in the future? What do you think about digital?
If I had a digital camera I'm sure I would find a good use for it, but I don't have any immediate plans in that direction. I've been using a medium format camera recently and am curious to see where that takes me...
Q8 What's coming up in 2007? Could you tell us little bit about your new project that you are working on right now?
At the moment I am collaborating on a project with Bettina Hubby, a fashion designer here in Los Angeles (http://www.hubbyco.com). The show will consist of new pieces of hers that are loosely based on shapes and abstractions in my Polaroids, plus an installation of those pictures and a publication documenting our collaboration... I also just made a series of 'multiples' for an unusual show in New York later this month (http://www.ychia.com/newyork.htm) in which and all the work will be given away free to the public. My piece consists of 100 Polaroids of the sky directly over my house, made on a single day in February... |
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'Ok Ok Ok' is not directly about that idea, but it grew out of my attachment to the concept over a long period of time... Similarly, as I was editing 'Scorpio,' I kept returning to the idea that "one machine is always coupled with another" - not the theory that Deleuze & Guattari elaborate in Anti-Oedipus (which I've never actually read past page 35), but just those seven words on their own, a fragment taken out of context. It hints at the ways in which the various picture-ideas can interact with each other, and also suggests a relationship between 'Scorpio' and 'Ok Ok Ok'... The title 'Scorpio' is from a picture I made on a small boat chartered by The Center for Land Use Interpretation for a group tour of Terminal Island in San Pedro, CA (the boat was called 'Scorpio'). The title 'Ok Ok Ok' is from a picture of some words that were spray-painted onto the ground near a construction site in Indianapolis, IN.
Q4 Are these all locations in the US? Do you travel abroad a lot?
'Ok Ok Ok' was shot entirely in North America, mostly in California, Arizona, Indiana and Hawaii - familiar places where I was living, working and traveling at the time. The pictures in 'Scorpio' came from a wider variety of locations, including Australia, Japan and Korea. The place names are listed in the back of each book but not in direct reference to the pictures, most of which could have been made anywhere. I travel abroad from time to time but not frequently. |
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Q5 How come people rarely appear in your works? What do you look out for when you're shooting? What is your favorite subject?
People may not appear in my pictures as the main subject, but they're never far away... Instead of a favorite subject, I keep a long mental list of things that I try (and often fail) to avoid shooting. That list includes: funny-looking bushes; chain link fences; street signs; arrows of any kind; empty parking lots; painted brick walls; weeds; stairs; shadows; doors; rain gutters; tools; words; hats; the backs of people's heads; trash; trash cans; empty roads; plush toys; food; loading docks; telephones; cracked sidewalks; shopping carts; manhole covers; water towers; inanimate objects that resemble sex organs; airplanes; shoes; telephone wires; water puddles; clouds; stray dogs; ugly office buildings; brightly colored flowers; the ocean; empty hotel rooms; long hotel corridors; birds; air conditioners; fire hydrants; curtains; framed paintings; crashed cars; cell phone transmitters; and sofa cushions. |
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And there's a third Polaroid book I'm working on. It won't be published in 2007, and it may or may not be called The Savage Detectives...
Q9 Any plans for exhibitions? We would love to see your work in Japan!
I would love to see my work in Japan too. Who should I talk to?
Q10 Any last words?
I mentioned something about the sunlight in L.A. earlier, and I've been reading this little book called Weather of Southern California by Harry P. Bailey. It seems appropriate to leave you with this quote:
"The momentary state of the atmosphere we call weather; its long-term state is climate. Since weather is variable, climate embraces a multitude of unlike events, and no simple method has ever been found to express all of them with complete accuracy. The climatologist knows before hand, then, that in the eyes of some he will commit sins of commission or omission; he must find his satisfaction in bringing any description to a partial state of order." |
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