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A conversation with Alex Webb about InSight AmericaOn the eve of the election, a number of Magnum photographers have been venturing into American to capture what they can of this historic moment in time. The project is called InSight America. But rather than publish this work as a book a year after the fact, Magnum is posting the work online and on the fly. I caught up with Alex Webb after his recent journey to Ohio:
Alec Soth: Hey Alex, before we start, maybe you could explain how this project emerged. Who came up with the idea of InSight? And how quickly did the concept turn into you being in Ohio. Alex Webb: The idea of Magnum photographers going out and documenting the U.S., particularly in relationship to this historic election, has been batted about at Magnum for some time. It only coalesced as a project in September, when Fred Ritchin, Melissa Harris, and the rest of the team -- as well as some funds -- came on board. The notion of my going to Ohio came at least partially out of a personal interest of mine. It is part of a larger project that I hope to continue in the future -- to photograph in several struggling Rust Belt and Sun Belt cities.
Soth: I'm guessing you chose Ohio because it is a swing state. But was there any particular reason you chose it instead of, say, Florida. I mean, you are the author of From the Sunshine State? Have you ever previously worked in Ohio? Webb: I chose Ohio at least partially because it is a swing state, but also because it fit into my larger idea of photographing Rust Belt and Sun Belt cities (I plan to go to Miami the week before the election.) My wife [the photographer Rebecca Norris Webb] pointed out to me an article which discussed Youngstown, Ohio as a shrinking city. The article noted not only Youngstown's drastic population drop since the closing of the steel mills, but also the innovative program started by the city's mayor to raze abandoned houses and buildings in order to reduce crime and create more green space. The city, rather than sounding the tired refrain that jobs would somehow materialize, had decided to embrace the notion of a shrinking population. I was intrigued by this. Soth: One of the dangers of this kind of project is turning it into a smaltzy 'Day in the Life' book. In your first trip to Youngstown, you tell this great story about a peculiar groundhog type creature you keep seeing around town. In a conventional election photo-essay, there wouldn't be much emphasis on bizarre rodents. Were you worried that this sort of observation would be seen as less than relevant? Webb: I respond to what I find -- that is one of the things that I find most exciting about this kind of photography. I never know what I will find when I step out the door. It's like embarking on a journey with no clue as to where it will lead or end. In this instance I was initially startled to find all these groundhogs on the edges of the downtown in Youngstown. The presence of these creatures strikes a serious note, in that they are a manifestation of how nature is transforming what was once a booming steel town.
Soth: One of the comments to this story was as follows: "I'm sorry you didn't see some of the beautiful things that I get the opportunity to shoot daily as a multimedia reporter at Youngstown's newspaper... No shots of my friends and I at the martini bar, no shots of our thriving arts community, no pictures of Mill Creek Park - one of the most beautiful in the country... We're a very diverse town." If you are like me, you get this sort of reaction a lot. How do you respond? Webb: I make no claims that my photographs -- or text -- are in any way objective. They are a personal interpretation, as is an interpretation of Youngstown as a place of "martini bars", "a thriving arts community" with a beautiful park. (I do, by the way, agree with the commentator that Mill Creek Park is gorgeous.) What I am consistently struck by in Youngstown is a sense of emptiness, and of nature taking over the city. Soth: Okay, a couple geeky questions. In one of the essays you mention working with an assistant. Can you tell me how you use assistants? Webb: I used an assistant, Rebecca's and my intern, Justin Hunt, a photography student at Drexel, because I was working digitally seriously for the first time and was scared that 1) I might not be able to figure how to transmit images and that 2) I might do something really stupid and erase a bunch of images. I have a lot of digital anxiety. So I had Justin overseeing my digital transmissions and making sure I didn't screw up the files. For the writing -- which is unusual for me, since I rarely write anything but captions from the road -- I had Rebecca -- the poet in the family -- editing my text pieces before I submitted them. Anyway, Justin and Rebecca proved to be invaluable. Soth: How do you feel about working digitally? Webb: Look, there is no doubt that I am happiest using film. But in this instance it was necessary to transmit immediately. So I decided to use this opportunity to begin to try to work digitally. As the films that I have relied on for some 30 years are being discontinued, I realize that I may have to learn to work digitally. If I could just keep working with Kodachrome 64 and Kodachrome 200, and printing digitally from scans, I probably would just continue doing that. But the latter film has been discontinued. Who knows how long the former will be with us. So I am experimenting with other transparency films. I am experimenting with negative films. And I am also experimenting with digital photography.
Soth: In the The Mahoning Valley story, there is a picture where you show Obama supporters going door to door. What kind of reaction did they get from people. Webb: The Obama supporters were campaigning in Canfield Ohio, a predominantly Republican district. I was impressed with the volunteers' fortitude in continuing to go door to door in the face of opposition, ranging from polite rejections, to people not answering the door, to, in one noteworthy instance, a furious slamming of the door. Towards the end of our tour of the neighborhood a few Obama supporters emerged -- to the relief of the volunteers. Soth: In the same story, you talk about a registered Democrat who says, "I'm not much on the two candidates. I liked Romney," She goes on to say she "really, really like Edwards." What is going on here? And be honest, do some of these undecided voters drive you crazy. I mean, c'mon, make up your mind already. Webb: I am as baffled as you are.... Links
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Reader comments (29)
ALEC:
thanks for the new blog and informative interview with Alex....enjoying much this new Magnum-blog approach
ALEX:
Loved the Ohio work alot. I mentioned earlier on this blog and over at David Harvey's blog, that I thought both the Youngstown and Mahoning Valley work among my favorite of the new Magnum Insight Project. Visually, i was really knocked about by the pics from the Mahoning Valley project, but as a conceptual approach (i hate to use this word, because I know the "idea" for the rodent didn't pop up as you were knockin' back some tall boys of Iron City), I LOVED THE YOUNGSTOWN. I cant be sure but maybe this rodent was a muskrat?....what i loved about the Muskrat (rodent) story is that it IS REAL! in other words, I spent a good deal of my teenage life driving around the coal/steel region of Pennsylvania (not all that dissimilar from the Western Pa/Easter Ohio/W.VA area): Allentown, Easton, Scranton, Hazelton, Jim Thorpe,
Carbondale, Ashland, etc, etc, as well as the upper Pa/lower NY (deer and bear country). And this story rings completely true with my life in the late 70's/early 80's. One couldnt drive through a back road or through one of these towns without seeing a roadkill, especially if it were a skunk, muskrat, opossum, raccon or squirrel...and the truth is that these amazing small towns are run by the feral. I also as a kid weeded out of the big city (nyc) and taken to farm country (bucks county, pa), who ten started traveling around that part of Pa for wrestling tournaments...later as a teen to discover it was really really easy to get served booze in these small towns (friday night road trips) and much easier than it was to try to Jersey, these towns took on a large part of my teen years....and what makes them special for good and ill, is the incredible "emptiness" that exists there. I dont use that work in a pejorative or negative sense, but these towns (even now, im sure, with the martini bars, maybe more because of it) always have a ghostly identity, that is the past (because of the monumentality of their pasts, their pride of that) looms tremendous and often laden there. I've always feel that one cannot enter these towns without smelling everything that came before: the land: the mining, the steel, the deal animals, the autumnal decay that leads to winter and later the vibrant spring. Maybe others see these towns as "dead" but i think they are actually bellwether places that tell us more about ourselves that the strapping energy madness of NY, Toronto, LA, etc....at least in n. america....
and that rodent just broke my heart.....
that in mind, i think that this work is a terrific bookend to what Dave Harvey is doing, in many sense both of your essays (for me) represent the spectrum of what's going down in the states. Dave's approach, as part of his Family Drive Album work now, is to get in close, depict the specifics of a family he spends time with and yours the more sociological eye....just as Dave began with wealth (the family in colorado and the military in VA) and has shifted gears, i'd love to see you do an essay on a city that seems relatively unaffected (or has prospered) by the down turn over the preceeding years...maybe that's where Florida comes in?...though, that state's been hit hard too....
anyway, thanks for the words...where do you go from here?.....
thanks for sharing Alex!
all the best
bob
Comment posted by Bob Black on October 27, 2008
and just a note or qualification in case i get pumpled by my comment about small town emptiness...i meant that visually, not "spiritually" or culturally...all the space in these towns, the encroachment of nature (ironic, considering our breaching of nature), the streets scattered by people and time that has desserted them...the presence of ancestors and former glories...whenever one approaches a frontier, and these towns always seem like frontiers to me (sociological, physical) there is always emptiness...and that people leave these towns, particularly the young, or those who wish to "escape", it becomes as palpable as the creatures left in the middle and the sides of the roads...no intent to criticize these places what so ever...if it were that we all were so connected to our communities as these small towns often foster, maybe we wouldn't be in the mess of state we're right now in....
cheers
b
Comment posted by Bob Black on October 27, 2008
There has been a recent change in the Magnum Blog transforming it from a place where you can respond in ways other than as a pure groupie and feel you might be both heard, but better yet, get an insightful response.
So I’ll dabble on the edge of looking critical verses looking appreciative; please take it for granted I am very appreciative!
No offense Alec, but I think you missed out on asking the most relevant question for this time, for these photographers; specifically:
How does a photographer collect images of an important period of time like this when they are constrained only to collecting the surface of it?
More specifically, there is loads of thinking and feeling going on during this time, but most of these things are best transferred using media we can read or media we can hear. The actual images of this time tell very little of the real things that are going on with regards to what we are thinking about.
How are the photographers handling this pressure? How do you feel that there’s loads going on and you’re meant to be collecting the story, but the images you collect and the stories that are going on bare very little resemblance?
In the same spirit of this constraint, we discussed this on this thread about the James Nachtwey story:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/onthestreet/discuss/72157607629943797/
Is there some wisdom you can offer or at least some suffering to share when you’re asked to show something that surfaces do very little to reveal?
Thank you in advance,
Joe
Comment posted by Joe on October 27, 2008
i dont think that there is a wisdom or suffering to share....this is about going to places and photograph what you see.... waltk.... talk.... wheatever comes into the screen or the film is the mixture of what photographers learn on the way, and more if is an issue that obvious generate feelings, concerns, thoughts like this project that the agency is doing
if there’s loads going on, im sure that is exactly what photographers are showing...
Comment posted by mauricio palos on October 27, 2008
bob
..."there is always emptiness...and that people leave these towns, particularly the young, or those who wish to "escape"...
we see this things like this in mexico everywhere, but the people here go to the states...where does the young people of this towns in the us are going? inside migartions?
Comment posted by mauricio palos on October 27, 2008
Mauricio :))
yes, this is an important and interesting question...many of these people migrate toward the big cities, the urban areas (this trend is global) but also, in the US, toward areas that appear to be econominically prosperous.
for example, upstate NY has had a serious "brain drain" beginning in the late 80's early 90's....a remarkable example is in the Buffalo are. Buffalo is a very interesting and beautiful city. In fact, architectually it's one of the most beautiful N.american cities...it's unimaginably beautiful...the extraordinary and often excessive gothic and victorian buildings (both the downtown buildings and the homes) are just remarkable and yet, it's an incredibly empty city...economic loss, crime, violence, segregation...and yet it has a "thriving" art community...still, one wonders about it's vibrancy....
there was alot of migration to the south: florida (where part of my family lives), North Carolina (a brother lives there), Georgia, Tennessee as well as, of course, to California....it's a wonder that these small town survive at all in the North East, Midwest or in the deep south....
increasingly, the population is segregated around the Urban rings...duplication duplication duplication....one wonders about this...
songlines, global migration...the patterns are interesting and often maddening...
it's what i find so interesting about the Webb stories,...not just for their economic implications :))
cheers
bob
Comment posted by Bob Black on October 27, 2008
thanks bob...sounds strange considering the concept that we have in mexico or latin america, or maybe is just me...
alex.. are you photographing this particular issue as a personal project, or is just for inside america... i mean exploring similar towns or what you are showing in this photos
Comment posted by mauricio palos on October 27, 2008
Joe, one of the things I'm really happy about is the tone of the comments on the blog. People have mostly steered away from both bitter sniping and groupie reverence. I'd like to keep it that way and am eager to hear thoughtful criticism.
As for your question: "How does a photographer collect images of an important period of time like this when they are constrained only to collecting the surface of it?" I'd say that pretty much sums up the whole frustrating enterprise of being a photographer in just about any period of time.
I just read a short little book called 'Well, What Is Photography" by Urs Stahel. He ends an essay dissecting (and pummeling) photojournalism by saying: “Visual narration, despite all of the new uncertainties, remains a feasible form of understanding and documenting the world. But photojournalism will only survive if it becomes radically subjective, radically daring and distanced, or radically ambiguous. It has to give up petrified attitudes and must become as agile as a cursor.”
Comment posted by Alec Soth on October 27, 2008
Alec, I guess I’m always wondering where the next Robert Frank’s Americans or Martin Parr’s Last Resort is going to pop up; these for me personally were two photographic essays where I think the photographer was able to provide strong visual evidence about a strong mainstream social condition right under our noses; that upon reflection was in fact re-enforced by other forms of media.
I think election times are the most pregnant times for one of these historic essays to be conceived, they seem such good candidates as there is loads of human animation during these times and incidental text based signage to include in the frame lines…. but apart form SNL billboards, there is not enough still photography evidence to show the concerns we have over Palin and apart from CNN articles there seem to be very little information so key to the election’s outcome like Joe the Plumber.
I appreciate it’s an ambitious effort to try to line up the visual evidence with other forms of media when so much is going on below the surface, but as you say “that pretty much sums up the whole frustrating enterprise of being a photographer”
Thank you Alec.
Comment posted by Joe on October 27, 2008
By the way, I wonder when we will see the profession of photojournalism (not fine art photography) become singer/songwriters, judge & jury, filled with photographers implementing with cryptic images their feelings and personal opinions…. verses how it is now, pure watchers, destined to become historians or servants to journalist that use their images to show it as it is?
the prevailing PJ ethic might make you a heretic to think such a way Alec ;-) .…. but if it does become that….now that is a profession i’d go back to school for…. it’s an education that has typically been reserved for the writers of novels or poetry and not as it is now where it’s more like classrooms destined for the news rooms :-)
Regardless of the prevailing attitude and ultimate outcome, I think darwinism will play an interesting role on the photojournalism.
..
Comment posted by Joe on October 27, 2008
By the way, the Urs Stahel essay uses a picture by Gilles Peress. And Peress's breathtaking Magnum In Motion essay for InSight might be described as 'agile as a cursor.'
Comment posted by Alec Soth on October 27, 2008
joe/alec:
photography is a language and like all language attempts to distill or reckon with the expression of that which transforms, metastisizes, disappears....i've never understood the reluctance of PJ's to avoid (generally) this kind of understanding, instead clinging to a nomenclature of "objectivity", "impartiality" and, dare i say, I "secular" approach to "witness"...the act of seeing alone is an extraordinarily complex and personal one (an interesting read are oliver sacks essay on sight and blindness), and any photographer that still clings to this orientation seems to be, well, "un-seeing"....
the great thing, for me, about great "journalism" just as with great art is the expression of the individual authors...their perspective on things...the reason why i read the books i read, or listen to the music i listen to, to swallow the images from the photographers whom i turn toward, are because their perspective, even if it is world's away from my own, is what encorcells...their perspective is what nibbles inside me, draws forth questions, picks apart thoughts or perspectives i either have/had or have never thought of people...
as for the Peress essay ....
have either one of you read John Berger's essay on Peress' homage to Guernica??....
have you seen Peress' homage to Guernica??...
i am out the door to meet someone...but maybe someone can link up to both the Peress exhibition in the Musee du Picasso and Berger's response to it....
if not, i'll find the links later...
ok, gotta split...
cheers
bob
Comment posted by bobblack on October 27, 2008
The Berger essay on Peress was in this summer's APERATURE, edition No. 191
http://www.aperture.org/magazine/back-issues/aperture-191.html
how images can break the silence...
running
bob
Comment posted by Bob Black on October 27, 2008
Too bad that Urs Stahel essay is out of print (like many an interesting book it seems). This sounds exactly like something I'd like to read right about now. I'll have to try and track down a copy sometime.
Comment posted by Kevin Saborit-Guasch on October 27, 2008
Alec: "But photojournalism will only survive if it becomes radically subjective, radically daring and distanced, or radically ambiguous. It has to give up petrified attitudes and must become as agile as a cursor."
That's nearly correct except that I would just forget about radically in that first phrase... Being radical petrifies, closes minds, closes the eyes.
Comment posted by John Vink on October 27, 2008
I found Alex Webb's musings regarding digital so true!:
'I can't touch them -- are they really there???'
It's nice to hear someone of his caliber echo my own thoughts.
Comment posted by davinellicson@mac.com on October 27, 2008
alex
i think the 1st 'youngstown post' and the 'mahoning valley' work speak loudest to me.. the t.v. debate photos as well.
they seem to bring a view of america to the world which much of the world will not imagine to be america.. they remind me of dusty streets in countries with a much less illustrious world image.. and much less agressive foriegn policy.
i think the insight project as a whole has had the potential to do a great deal in terms of presenting the real america - not to be found in thriving arts comunities and martini bars..
i have noticed something on my travels - mainly in countries which have experiance war or serious political unrest.. the arts and creative community notice the problems first.. highlight the porblems best.. and then leave or, devestatingly, kill themselves...
this is true of the north or ireland as well as the balkans.. the people who feel the most, see the most and project into the future with a more astute ability without a doubt are hit the hardest.
therefore - regarding a complaint that your coverage is not complete i utterly agree with you.. subjectively you and others are noticing the difficulties, reporting the difficulties and reporting it to a world which, for the last 30 years, has imagined an america where 'the dream' is real.. the opportunities are abundant and the living is easy.
great that you're showing people otherwise..
i think one of my favorite reports on the credit-crunch in the u.s. is beautifully illustrated by david mcgowens 'garage sale' project, which is ongoing..
http://www.humanfiles.com/garagesale/garagesale.htm
please enjoy.
david
Comment posted by david bowen on October 27, 2008
alex
as an aside - i adore 'the glass between us'..
please pass that on..
the giraffe, for me, is the most upsetting of the photos.. while all hold a real sense of disregard for other species fundamental needs and a lack of respect for habitat..
apart from the cows ear.. which is funny.
but then - cows are, are they not?
http://www.bophoto.co.uk/singles/singles.htm
Comment posted by david bowen on October 27, 2008
Alec, sorry to go a bit off-topic here, but this does extend a concept you raise here and I’d rather not gamble that a better thread to ask this question will surface.
John Vinck,
We all know that James Nachtwey just released a set of images on an Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis.
http://www.xdrtb.org/
Can I be so bold to ask you John if you think the edit was too deliberate in creating the visual message?
do you think it has the same risk of:
“Being radical petrifies, closes minds, closes the eyes” ?
Is there a more cryptic, subtle, and somewhat more moving photographic technique to pry open the minds of a punch drunk audience when it comes to getting them to help remove situations of suffering like this?
Do photojournalist really need to become more main-stream marketing gurus and show things that are more suggestive to our ‘basic’ needs rather than conclusive to our ‘moral’ ones?
Personally, I think using our moral compass to find things worth showing may not be the best way to message them back if we want to move the mob.
Thank you in advance for your response,
Joe
Comment posted by Joe on October 28, 2008
Sorry Alec and Alex...
Joe,
I just have a problem with the word radical, which is well... too radical, too excluding and... petrifying... I would have used bold instead...
Jim's pictures were efficient as usual. The difference this time were the distribution/marketing techniques he used. At one point the buzz and the teasing made me think of the iPhone launch ;-)). Oh well... both good products... so in fact I don't mind about the marketing technique too much.
I don't think the edit was too deliberate. It was, yes, efficient, in tune with what I guess Jim's preoccupations are. They are subjective in that he chose to talk about that particular topic, but I guess that, you'll have to ask him, after that he let a well researched story unfold in front of him and captured the essence of it, with commitment and passion but with emotional control.
That is where I would draw the line myself: he is not so radically subjective that he ends up talking less about his subject than about himself. Because this is what I believe could be the danger, in the particular context of photojournalism, of being radically subjective.
I know it sounds old fashioned these days but I believe photojournalism ethics are still relevant today, and maybe more than ever. One of those old fashioned rules is that your story is more important than yourself (that limits your subjectivity somewhat doesn't it). Ethics make the difference between information and propaganda.
Oh, and it is Vink without a c... ;-))
Comment posted by John Vink on October 28, 2008
If for no other reason than to apologise for misspelling your last name John; I offer an interesting quote from the past:
“first of all, what I do as a photographer is much more akin to an editorial columnist than a reporter. I unapologetically offer my opinion”
- Christopher Anderson.
I think this fits nicely into the subjective continuum of:
- Watcher
- Recorder
- Historian
- Columnist
- Entertainer
- and pure Propaganda…
I like the grey area between historian and columnist the best.
Comment posted by Joe on October 28, 2008
The Stahel quote got me thinking... It's obvious to say that we are bombarded with images, and that can lead to apathy, fatigue and a profound desensitization. I'll go out on a limb to say this visual overstimulation has also created a visually sophisticated, and hyper, population. We are a world of connoisseurs, of advertising, propaganda, pornography, photojournalism and film... all one, instantly parsing pictures, extracting our nugget of pleasure before moving on. I think the general assumption is that all photographs are subjective, are rhetorical... are selling us something whether it's a pair of shoes or a political agenda.
With that said, I agree that photojournalism must be, if not radically, then profoundly something to compete for our attention. Subjective, daring, distanced or ambiguous are the words Stahel used, but I'm sure there are others...
This may sound cynical, but I'm not sure I see a particular problem with subjectivity... I'm not sure that it preludes ethics because at this point, it's assumed, or even accepted as a part of whatever contract there is between photographer and viewer.
Comment posted by mike on October 28, 2008
John:
the etymology of the word radical is "root"..to get at the "root" or base or most important of something...to radicalize means to get at the real, true heart of something...sadly, the word radical (like all words) has taken on a political context as well as a superficial context...like the word "trope" a word that the political/art world likes to often bandy about....though, i always loved the sense of the world radical chic...the radical folk often are that type ;))), but i think the term as implied by that writer (i dont know him or his books) suggests trying to get at the heart of seeing/reporting...i prefer bold too, but totally dont get bogged down in the world radical...unless it's tossed around as so much bombast tripe ;)))))...
I'd say you're a pretty radical dude yourself...who else is doing what you're doing with KR Trials and Quest for Land?...:))))))....
the other problem about "objectivity" is that too often when photogs (writers too, though we dont for some reason have the same difficult when reading writers: who was more important Orwell or the subjects he wrote about? ;)) ) speak of emphasizing the subject/content over themselves (sounds lovely in principle) is that they often forget that this often leads to this kind of thinking:
the way they depict the subject is the voice of the subject...
this is totally erroneous, at best, and um...problematic and pretentious at worst...at least with those who make the argument that their work is a priori subjective or "personal" (in that it is a kind of editorial approach, as what i think underlies Chris' quote), there's no getting around that they are the singular voice of that moment/subject/content....in our attempt to elevate the subject, we make a grave grave mistake (often) in objectifying the people and place of whom we speak...
so, the dilemma cuts both ways....
keep this in mind: what i am so drawn to about your work (as you know) is not only the remarkalby important stories you are sharing and the honor to which you dedicate your lifee's work about the people (particularly as it deals with land, in cambodia and elsewhere) but that your "personality" is so removed from the work...though, the poetic and incredibly sophisticated visual approach you take (like haiku, as i've mentioned before) in documenting and the unstinting effort you put into these stories, suggests a very specific voice and mindset....
my own life and ideas for story telling would be very different if i hadnt met you 3 years ago and been following the work....keep in mind, at the fore, are the cambodians for sure, but your story is only part of the story of cambodia, and what draws me to is also HOW you tell us that story....
too much "distant" can often couch a more "elevated" (or pretentious) ambition and by this we can actually remove the voice of the subject, make the photographer de facto more important...so either way, it's a tricky bit.......
to capture the world and the people in it is already an absurdly complex and difficult (impossible) task and so, for me, the simple attempt to bring all manner of insight through whatever tools or perspectives the writer/photographer/story teller has is important...
though, for me, it's never been about the reporters/tellers anyway, for me the problem is simpler:
where are the listeners....
so, for me, no rules but one:
tell a story the best way you know how and in the way that honors those you have been prividledged to photograph or write about...
that's my only ethic and mantra..
cheers
b
Comment posted by Bob Black on October 28, 2008
Someone mentioned looking for a copy of the Urs Stahel book - it's available at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, where he's the Director.
Price is CHF 12.80 (just over USD10) excluding shipping.
http://www.fotomuseum.ch/SHOP.2.0.html?&L=1
I have no connection to the Fotomuseum except as a visitor.
Comment posted by Nick Yoon on October 29, 2008
From Alex Webb: some responses to some of the comments/questions. And sorry to be brief -- I have not had a lot of time.
Alex Webb
Dear Maurice,
Are these photographs of Ohio part of a personal project? Maybe. Potentially, yes. I certainly chose this particular subject to work on in the context of the Insight America project because of personal interest -- a vague interest in taking a look at some Rust Belt cities. However, what kind of a personal project it might turn out to be remains up in the air. Particularly at the beginning of a project, I work out of a deep sense of uncertainty: I really don't know ultimately where a project will go -- or if indeed it will reveal itself as a project worth pursuing -- until I am well into the project. So I hope to return to Ohio and photograph again -- but what it will end up as, I don't know. It certainly has gotten me interested in photographing in the US again (for the first time in some years...)
Alex
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Bob,
Where next? I am now in Miami, taking a look at a very different swing state prior to the election. It's a world that I am more familiar with than Youngstown. I spent a lot of time in the late 80's here working on my book From the Sunshine State. We'll see what happens. I have a feeling that I will return to Ohio.
Alex
----------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Joe,
A good question about photographing the current (or indeed any) time. You basically point to the limitations of still photography. I guess that ultimately I have reconciled myself to these limitations. For me, photography affirms reality, but does not explain it. Part of it's strength lies in in its ambiguity, its suggestiveness. I embrace that strength of photography rather than worrying about its weaknesses. If I was predominantly interested in explanation or analysis, or if my goal was to present what people are thinking, I would choose another medium -- film or discursive writing. I like to think that sometimes still photography can, through suggestion, get at complicated, inexplicable notions, much the way poetry does. More discursive forms like essays may not deal as well with these more elusive notions.
Alex
Comment posted by alex webb on October 29, 2008
ALEX:
:))))....
great...and believe me, you'll find other creatures along the roads of florida too (lived there for a spell)...often of the reptilian family (but mammals too)...
" guess that ultimately I have reconciled myself to these limitations. For me, photography affirms reality, but does not explain it. Part of it's strength lies in in its ambiguity, its suggestiveness.."-webb
that's it , that's it entirely :)))))))))......
and as i tried to just write at the post after this one, that we try so bloody hard for explanation, for an almost righteous understanding of things, that for me at least, it ends in just more sadness....questions more important than explanations for me....
and by the way, writing too, even though it appears to be a form of explanation (our delusion), is in truth not really about the answers either....;))))))))
happy trails alex :))
cheers
bob
Comment posted by Bob Black on October 30, 2008
Alex,
I like the word ‘reconcile’, it sort of crystallises an internal struggle with motives; it makes it more apparent that becoming a photographer is to untangle the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ …specifically figure out first why you photograph so you can spend the rest of your life figuring out how ;-)
For me, photography affirms reality, but does not explain it. Part of it's strength lies in its ambiguity, its suggestiveness.
I too believe that a still image still offers an illusion in that you don’t know for sure what’s happened before it and you don’t know for sure what’s happened after it, but you know something has already happened by the time you see it and you have the luxury of looking at that image, contemplating that image, studying that image indefinitely for what it is, or indefinitely as a metaphor for something else.
For this reason a still image will always have an unmatched strength against the flowing aspect of moving pictures and even written narratives, but…. only if that image actually carries the pedigree of authenticity; we simply need to believe that the image was not staged or we ‘will’ know what happened before (some one took a light reading) and we ‘will’ know what happened after (the model went back to his or her chair).
This is why the PJ ethic… ‘this is what i saw’… is still a prerequisite for the illusion,….even if ….‘this is the message I hoped to send’… might be a bit different than what’s on the surface.
Thank you for taking the time to answer my question Alex.
-Joe
Comment posted by Joe on October 30, 2008
Hey gang,
I got to Joe's original question, and like Alec, I was struck by the spirit of the conversation...nice to see. So, I skipped straight down to posting BEFORE reading the rest of the posts (prbably breaking the unwritten rules blogs), so forgive me if I go over territory that is already exhausted.
In going out to take a look at America, I think that there is a certain sense of making a portrait rather than reporting from an event. Sure, there are certain themes that a photographer can look for, and there are "events" that can be covered (I am just back from watching Bill and Obama together in Florida...InSight posting to follow), but really I think that looking at America this way is more about finding a certain emotional information much the same a photographer would approach intimate portraiture. I would say it has more to do with photographing a sense of who someone IS rather than what someone DOES.
I think of Robert Frank out photographing the Americans or William Klein looking at New York. One doesn't set out to show necessarily what is happening in America now, but rather, perhaps, what it "feels" like to be in America or to BE an American. I know it sounds a little squishy, but if it were easier to put into words, it wouldn't be photography.
Comment posted by Christopher Anderson on October 30, 2008
Sorry for the lack of depth from my next comment. I hope you don't think this some of the thousand filmvsdigital comments, but I have to say I feel kinda sad whith the Webb's photos from this essay.
Alex for me is one of my photographic gods and I am not happy to see this raw, flat, no attractive at all photos next to his name. I know We are speaking about the information from this captures but it is hard to aesthetically compare these ones with just the amazing colourful and attractive photos he usually offer.
Sorry again if my words can disturb someone but it is what I have to say.
Comment posted by sergio jaén lara on November 5, 2008