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ART

ART ACCORDING TO ME (MIK)

VOLUME I

I meet my hero, share some anecdotes and discuss some of the work that has played a significant role in my life (don't worry, there are a lot of pictures)

I.

 

So maybe I bit off a lot more than I could chew. Art is a pretty general...expansive...umbrella...topic. It's like saying "WORDS" and expecting you to have some sort of idea of what I'm going to talk about. It could be poetry, it could be fiction, it could be nonfiction, it could be short fiction, it could be long fiction, it could be a list of my favorite words, it could literally be anything. And the same goes for art. There's a lot to cover. And I'm not going to get even remotely close to covering a small portion of it. That would be insane. That would also be impossible. We'd be here until the end of time. The world would be over and we still wouldn't be done. I'd have to ask the apocalypse to give me a hot second.  

I once went to Russia and visited the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. It was summer, the windows were open, it was hot, it was humid, everyone was smoking cigarettes. The walls were filled with priceless art. I come from a family that doesn't like to sit still. We like museums but we don't dilly dally. We're in, we're out, we're onto the next. As you can imagine, the Winter Palace is large and like I said before, it's filled with art. So much art that someone did the math and figured out that it would take a single person 72 years to view every piece of art in the palace. And that's just one giant ass palace in Russia. So then imagine the world. My point being, which we already know, there's a lot of art out there. I'm not going to talk about all of it but I'll be tackling the art that matters to me. The stuff I could talk about for hours on end. 

II.

 

When I was 13 my Dad was getting rid of some of his things and handed me his old 35mm camera. He wasn't a photographer but he traveled a lot and used this heavy dinosaur to take snapshots. By the time I got it, it was a relic of the past - something people my age learned how to use in a classroom. 

 

Sometimes I like to imagine what the world would be like if the only tool available to fuel our self-absorbed self-curated social media identities was a film camera. Carpal tunnel rates would sky rocket, kodak would still be a thriving business, and our abstractly virtual world would retain some form of physicality again.  

I was lucky enough to have access to a darkroom at school and a photo teacher named Ms. McCarthy who always handed me photobooks to look through so I'd shut up and stop distracting other people. The first photo book I spent a significant amount of time digesting was a series called "American Prospects" by Joel Sternfeld. In 1978 and 1982 Joel received a Guggenheim Fellowship and spent the following years living out of a van on the road. He used a large format camera (re: those accordian looking things). These things are amazing and an absolute pleasure to work with but they're not meant for quick snapping. They're large and slow you down (in a good way). Oh and you load the film one film back (which holds a single sheet) at a time. And the film backs have to be loaded in complete darkness. Oh and since it was color film, back then Joel had to ship the film he took to get processed. What does this mean? It means that Joel took 2-3 photos a day. Yes I just said 2 or 3. If that's not perspective, I don't know what is. 

The resulting series is what I remember most clearly as that definitive moment I thought "I want to do that, I want to make photographs like that". And Joel's work was just the beginning. From there the flood gates opened and I couldn't get enough. Eggleston, Shore, Meyerowitz, Parr, diCorcia, Sherman, Crewdson, Soth, Hido, and on and on it goes. Their work is something I constantly refer back to.  

When I was a sophomore in college I was in a Photography & Color course with a professor who played a significant role in my development - Meggan Gould. For one assignment she made us interview working photographers. I reached out to quite a few but one was Joel. 

"Make sure you know your bottom line: for me it was that I could always work in a 7-11 at night, live in a tiny apartment above main street and make pictures all day long. That looked pretty good to me as I was starting out so I never worried -- and it still looks pretty good to me now"

Four years later I managed to end up at a dinner for Sarah Lawrence College where Joel coincidentally works as a professor.

 

Joel was at my table.

 

It's sort of a funny experience meeting someone who 1) single handedly influenced your life trajectory and 2) is an influential photographer. The latter being interesting because how you feel like you know them is through their eyes. For me, Joel Sternfeld is a way of seeing the world. He is colors, people, landscapes, suburbia, a sense of nostalgia. He isn't this glasses wearing Dad with a crazy wirey afro who had his iPhone text at 200% because it's easier to read. 

 

I spent a lot of the dinner reconciling that. There were a few performances throughout and I remember watching him navigate his iPhone to zoom in to take a pixelated photo of the performance which he then sent to his wife. There was something so perfect about watching this absolute master take that shitty photo we've all taken to send to that family member or significant other or friend we think might care. We know they don't but we still do it anyways. I wondered in that moment if that's why Snapchat was created. If the founder was tired of getting sent those dumb inaudible concert videos. He knew someone would always send them so he created a platform where they could live and die. 

 

I got to sit next to Joel for three hours and just listen to him answer my questions. I asked him everything I could. He told me stories and referred to other photographers who have had a major influence in my life as if old friends shared between the two of us. In some way they did feel like old friends but the kind you haven't seen in years. At one point he asked to see my work. My stomach dropped. I sheepishly pulled out my phone and pulled up my website. Most of my work is old. From college. If you look at something you make long enough, it starts to make you cringe. You see its flaws and you know what you would do differently. But I pulled it up anyways and handed him my phone. 

His nose scrunched, eyes squinted, iPhone close to his face, he goes "fuck". 

I'm thinking "did he just say 'fuck'? oh fuck". 

He pulls the phone closer to his face and goes "you're good". 

Joel Sternfeld said fuck and Joel Sternfeld liked my work. And I'm allowed to say this and not sound like a total asswipe because he then went on to tell me that he thought I should consider becoming a painter. I have to admit that his came a bit out of left field. But he had a point and it was something that I've thought about many times before. It was - How do you stand out in the ever increasingly digital world that we live in? Everyone with a smart phone is a photographer these days and that population of people with access grows every day. I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago how Joel could literally only make 2-3 photos a day. Compare that with how many photos you personally take in a single day. In a sense, photography, as an art form, has lost a bit of its luster. 

But back to the painting comment. Just to clarify, I suck at painting.  I'm terrible at drawing unless it's supposed to look nothing like the person and sort of like a cartoon. Oh and Joel never saw any sort of painting I had made. He saw some collages. Very different than painting. Spatial. Like photography. Not super technical. 

When we parted ways I thanked Joel for letting me totally comandeer his night. He gave me his email and told me to check in in a couple years. Maybe I'd have made something of myself. Whatever that means. We were standing up at this point saying our goodbyes and he paused and laughed to himself. He then looked up, his palms facing upwards, and said "if you really do want to be an artist and I mean really...you have to be okay with that world" I made a confused face and paused for a moment. "What do you mean?" I said. He looked me straight in the eye and said "I get the sense you want something more in life" He smiled and lifted his finger "but if you do ever become a painter, don't forget about me". I laughed and promised I wouldn't. He smiled, gave me a nod and turned around to speak to an old student. I smiled back and made my way towards the door. 

III.

The best way to learn how to make good art or a good photograph is to look at it. Of course, art is subjective and we all have our tastes and preferences but the advice still applies: learn from the masters whoever your masters may be. So here are my masters. This is the work that pushed me to pursue visual arts. It's the work that I constantly refer to and continue to learn from. So here we go with the first installment of Art According to Mik. I suppose we should start with Joel. It's only fair. 

JOEL STERNFELD

b. 1944 

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For a long time, black & white photography was the only respected form of photography considered to be fine art. Color photography was considered low brow. Only to be used for snapshots. Ansel Adams described it as "distracting". A pioneer in color photography, Sternfeld is most widely known for his large-format documentary pictures of the United States and helping establish color photography as a respected artistic medium. He has many works in the permanent collections of the MoMA and The Getty in LA.

PHILIP-LORCA DICORCIA

b. 1951

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Another seminal photographer in the big bad world of color photography. Philip-Lorca diCorcia is easily one of my favorite photographers of all time. Known for making images that ride the line between documentary and theatrically staged photography, diCorcia takes every day occurrences beyond the realm of banality, infusing what would otherwise appear to be insignificant gestures with psychology and emotion. DiCorcia employs photography as a fictive medium capable of creating uncanny, complex realities out of seemingly straightforward compositions. As such, his work is based on the dichotomy between fact and fiction and asks the viewer to question the assumed truths that the photographic image offers. 

If you ever get the privilege of seeing his prints in person, pay attention to the titles. Some are titled prices. If you see any titled as such, the prices are what diCorcia paid the subject to pose for him. 

WILLIAM EGGLESTON

b. 1939

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I suppose William Eggleston would be considered another mackdaddy of color photography. As Robert Frank is to B&W, William Eggleston is to color. I'll take it further. If Robert Frank and Henri Cartier Bresson had a child and this child could only use color film, it would be William Eggleston. Eggleston worked at the same time at Sternfeld and is another from that canon of photographers who worked to establish color photography as a fine art form. And he's good. Real good. 

MARTIN PARR

b. 1952

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If you follow us on Instagram you'll probably recognize most of these photos. If not, it's my personal pleasure to introduce you to a man by the name of Martin Parr. Martin Parr is another one of my favorite photographers of all time. But for a bit of a different reason than the others - his humor. Martin Parr has an unbelievable knack for picking out the absurdities in every day life. Not only that but he manages to do it in an incredibly visually appealing way. Composition. Color. That decisive moment. Culture personified and captured in the best way possible. 

STEPHEN SHORE

b. 1947

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Stephen Shore. Another pioneer of color photography who like many of his counterparts also focused on American life and culture. Shore is most well known for depicting the banality of American life and landscape. This theme plays an important part in the work I gravitate towards - the idea that the camera can show you what you already see. But in picking out these mundane moments you see something more. That sometimes beauty can exist in light and color and in the most unexpected places. 

JOEL MEYEROWITZ

b. 1938

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Meyerowitz began photographing in color in 1962 and was another early advocate of the use of color back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and when there was significant resistance to the idea of color photography as serious art. In the early 1970s he taught the first color course at Cooper Union in New York City where many of today's renowned color photographers studied with him. He's a baller and now bizarrely enough takes family portraits. Or used to. I think he has since stopped but at one point was taking them and had them up on his website - I saw a good friend from grade school and her family up there. I'm glad he has stopped. 

GREGORY CREWDSON

b. 1962

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Where to begin with Gregory Crewdson. Well first thing's first. If you are in the need of an interesting documentary watch Brief Encounters. It's about Gregory Crewdson and his process - which is perhaps an art form in and of itself. And if it's not art it's at the absolute very least just straight up insanity. It doesn't take much time to realize that all these photographs are elaborately staged with insane production design and lighting setups. They're incredibly cinematic, often focusing on suburbia and the home. But Crewdson uses these mundane landscapes as a canvas for creating surreal and often mysterious worlds of his own. If you like his work and are at all interested in how some people approach their artistic process then definitely watch the documentary. The level of detail and precision that goes into each of Crewdson's photographs is absolutely astounding. 

If you want more on the whole shebang read this article. 

ALEC SOTH

b. 1969

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Alec Soth is one of the younger of the bunch but still relevant. Relevant as another photographer who works in large format and in color and often focuses on current American landscapes - socially and physically. Soth often goes to places and tries to capture its essence. He did an amazing series on an area by the Mississippi river as well as a series titled "Niagara" which focuses on the surrounding area by Niagara Falls. 

You can check out more from those series and more of this work on his website found here. 

ROBERT DOISNEAU

b. 1912-1994

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Okay, okay, okay. If you know anything about photography or if you looked at the year Doisneau was born and you thought "huh?" Let me explain. Yes you are correct in being confused. Robert Doisneau is the OG mackdaddy of b&w street photography. Him and Henri Cartier-Bresson. So why am I including him here? Because in 1960 Fortune magazine invited Doisneau to visit Palm Springs, CA. And for the first time in Doisneau's life he felt compelled to use color and the resulting series is an amazing look at old hollywood glamor in the golden era of Palm Springs. It reminds me a bit of Martin Parr in absurdity of it all. 

It's a fantastic series and perhaps I'm a bit partial because Palm Springs has a special place in my heart but man oh man. What a place and time to be alive. If you've ever been to Palm Springs recently, you know that not much has changed and fucking bless it for that. The photos are a bit hard to find and solely live in a book that was released a few years ago. Above are just a few of many that were taken. 

GARRY WINOGRAND

b. 1924-1984

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I feel like I just opened a can of whoopass including Garry Winogrand. Opening the door on black & white photography means I still have a lot more people to cover and probably not enough of your attention to do it. There were a lot of greats that came before Winogrand and so omitting them just feels wrong. But fuck it, this is my time. I can do what I want. 

Meet Garry Winogrand. Winogrand is a street photographer known for depicting american life. Like Parr, he also has a sense of humor to his images that I've always truly and seriously appreciated. 

SAUL BASS

b. 1920-1996

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Oh shit. Continuing to spiral down the "Art According to Mik" wormhole. Now we've digressed to graphic design. But like I said above, whatever. This is just a glimpse into what I feel like has played a pivotal role in shaping how I see the world around me. So here we go. Graphic design. Meet the man, the myth, the legend Saul Bass. You probably have no idea that you're already incredibly familiar with Mr. Bass's work. Aside from an impressive portfolio of fantastic, hand made, movie posters and opening movie credits, Mr. Bass is also responsible for the following logos: 

AT&T

Bell

Warner Music Group

Dixie

Continental 

Quaker 

United 

Girl Scouts of America

Boys Club

Minolta 

General Foods

Kleenex

US Postal Service (1983: the logo with the full body of the bird)

Some have changed a bit since he originally created them but all bear some semblance. Drop the mic Mr. Bass. You've earned it. 

NIKKI S. LEE

b. 1970

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Nikki S. Lee is a hard lady to track down. She doesn't have a website and her gallery has limited photos of her work. But even so, Lee has remained a significant player for me. Lee's work is as much visual as it is sociological. Most of her series titled "The _______  project" involve inserting herself into different subsets of culture eventually taking a self-portrait as a "member". The resulting images are a crazy set of eye candy that leave you wishing you could grab a beer with Lee and ask her to tell you stories. Projects include:

The Hispanic Project

The Seniors Project 

The Hiphop Project

The Tourist Project

The Ohio Project

The Yuppies Project

The Schoolgirls Project 

The Skateboarders Project

The Swingers Project

The Punk Project

The Exotic Dancers Project 

Her work tows the line between docu-style and fiction and reminds me of a bizarre combination of Cindy Sherman and Danny Lyon. Both artists that should one hundred percent be on this list. Speaking of Danny Lyon, he has a retrospective at The Whitney until September 25th. You should check it out. 

FOR ANOTHER TIME:

in no particular order

Todd Hido 

Alex Prager

Diane Arbus

Cindy Sherman 

Danny Lyon

Robert Frank

Jeff Goldberg

Nan Goldin

Lee Friedlander

Berenice Abbott

Walker Evans

Weegee 

Carrie Mae Weems

Danielle Levitt 

Gordon Parks

Sally Mann

Jeff Wall

Adrienne Salinger

Richard Renaldi

James Vander Zee

Andreas Gursky

Man Ray

And the list goes on and on and on. 

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