Project
During the previous week, I was photographing architecture and buildings and during this week I was focusing on photographing people (street photography). I developed the film and from now on I will scan the film roll and not develop all of the photos because it takes a lot of time. From each week I will choose one photo that I will develop.
The thing that I don’t really like about scans from a film is the fact that they don’t look the best, the quality is worst than photos that are developed on paper but unfortunately it would take too much time to develop all of the photos. Here are the scanned photos from the previous week.
The photos that I’m taking aren’t supposed to be spectacular they are photos registering my day-to-day life, I’m not looking for inspiration I’m just going around town and I’m letting the inspiration find me. During my everyday routine like going to university, work or shopping and when I find something interesting and something that relates to my theme of the week, I will photograph it. That’s the essence of these photos, that they are random and simple but that is what makes them describe the topic of every day perfectly. The fact that they are so simple.
Not all of the photos are meant to be masterpieces and that’s where this project is taking me. From a series of photos, there is something special in some of them. Something that makes daily life more interesting. I’m trying to find something beautiful in simple things. And I think in most art projects I’m trying to make something grand and spectacular (there isn’t anything wrong with that) but with this project, I’m trying to find beauty in simple things that are surrounding me in daily life. Which is something that I’m enjoying, I’m feeling less pressure and I’m letting this project lead me.
But within that, there is another level in this work that I would like to have. I would like to make it not only about photography but also about curating/deciding/editing. What makes a photo special? What made me choose this photo from so many others? Why I haven’t chosen a different one?
On curating
This part of the project got me to start thinking about curating. The first thing that comes to mind is a job of a curator that is carefully choosing pieces and organises exhibitions. Of course, curators have expert knowledge in different categories of art which makes the job very admirable.
The definition of the word curate is; select, organise and present. Which is also something that I feel every artist has a part in. The process of selecting organising and presenting the artwork is natural to us. At one point we don’t even realise that we are curators of our work. So within this project, I want to expect my knowledge in this area.
I started to read a book that Miranda landed to me “On curating- interviews with ten international curators” by Carolee Thea. Thea’s interviewees are Joseph Backstein, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Okwui Enwezor, Charles Esche, Massimiliano Gioni, RoseLee Goldberg, Mary Jane Jacob, Pi Li, Virginia Perez-Ratton and Rirkrit Tiravanija. These interviews explore the personal visions that lay the fundaments for each of the curators. It makes me understand how much knowledge and vision they have but within that, they are facing so many aesthetic and theoretical issues. It is also very interesting how the relationship between an artist and a curator works. This book made me realise that being a curator is so much work and knowledge. The curators from this book are one of the best ones around the world and it shows. It’s amazing how they create so many amazing exhibitions and a lot of them are so different from a regular museum. They think outside a box and try to make art more accessible, social and provocative. And with that, they talk about important topics like globalism, capitalism and the future of cultural tourism.
This book made me think more about curating and what it’s really about.
But that’s not the kind of curating that I will be doing in this project.
I’m not curating an event or exhibition. I’m curating my own work. So it’s very different that what they are doing. But it did expand my knowledge in this area and gave me some new perspectives.
Workshop
In this week’s workshops, we were cooking. Which at the begging doesn’t really seem like something very artistic but it is. After all, there is an art of cooking. I was a little surprised by this workshop but after all, I think it was really nice and fun and also beautiful. Everybody was responsible for something else but at the same time, everybody was helping each other. We were like one machine working together to get the desired income. I think it was a very social and engaging workshop. The colours of vegetables, the cutting, the cooking the decorating it was all part of art. It was like a big performance that we didn’t know at the begging that we were in. At the end of the day, it made me realise that everything and nothing can be art, as long as it has a right meaning.
Here are some photos from this workshop.
great documentation of the workshop, showing the freshness of the vegetables and an intimacy with the process. The photos are so ordinary, seemingly un -framed, un -composed, they look like the rejected photos, the neglected photos from someones camera reel, this gives them an interesting status, I ask myself – Who took these? why didn’t they frame the composition, why are they all slightly off, wrong? How interesting then to set out to curate a set of ‘wrong’ photos, misplaced photos, bad photos! it directly takes me to the person taking the photo rather than the photo itself, it is not about the photo it is about the cameraperson – you and the curator – you, you are being revealed here not the subject of the photo.