Sunday, June 28, 2009

Combined Daily Self-Portraits

I finally got to hear Karl Baden's comments about these combined self-portraits -- that only one of the sets worked for him because it had some visual continuity between the images. I understand his reservation, but I'm not sure I want to do anything about it. 

For me, the issue of having images from such different eras in my photographic life, 1972,73 and now, 2008,09, make the work inherently more interesting. Times have changed radically. So have I. And so have the technical aspects. I like the disparity, though I understand why he thinks that the current images look like 'snapshots' and don't compliment the early work.


2 comments:

  1. I disagree with Karl Baden. Aging is not a series of coherent images or experiences.

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  2. Hi Mim,
    Karl was talking about aesthetics. Think of writing a poem that's quite formal in nature and then throwing in some slang.
    His concern was whether the two different styles of imagery reinforce each other, make sense together, look visually interesting. I think that his concern is well placed though I may not agree with it.
    It's just the same as if someone had questions about using two very distinct ways of dealing with language in a poem.
    I remember thinking something similar about one of David Ferry's translation -- was the phrase he chose too contemporary. But that was just one tiny instant of note that I consider jarring.
    I am opposing two very distinct visual styles that may or may compliment each other. Karl wasn't thinking about the difference in my age in the separate photographs.

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