Photographic Kinship

A few photographers really capture my attention/imagination, incl. Winogrand, Friedlander, Kertesz, Frank, Mark, and Arbus. I am doing a life study of Arbus right now, first watching a warped movie that really distorts her life quite a bit ("Fur") and then I went to read the biography from which the movie was inspired, even though the script writers took HUGE liberties. I've known of Arbus for years and even have a the famous Aperture monograph of her work, plus the monstrous Revelations, a book of unpublished Arbus photos, text, and even some of her own writing, a book for the real Arbus aficionados. That comes next, as soon as I finish her biography, which is coming to its tragic conclusion.

I don't care to take portraits and that is really want Arbus was all about. But I find a certain kinship with her fascination with offbeat subject matter. When I started reading the book, I thought perhaps that her fascination with freaks was manufactured, but now I am pondering the possibility that she was really a freak herself, something I can relate to a bit, a person who just doesn't quite fit in with the rest of 'you.' And on that plane, I totally identify with this woman. She talked to her subjects quite a bit before snapping photos, and probably let her subjects in a bit to her secret world.

She is such a complex person that I am finding her biography quite intriguing.

Besides that, I am trying to make sense of 'art' and photography. My tastes are rapidly changing, or rather I am allowing them to surface after more or less allowing my watchers to determine what I shoot. I am not happy going into Detroit for photos because I am expected to, in the sense that if I don't post such photos, people won't stop by and look at my stuff. They aren't and I'm growing apathetic. The idea of dropping off from Flickr is more appealing each day I look at some of the photos I've shot that I really liked getting just a few page views.

I'm looking.