fototazo: Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo

Showing posts with label Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo. Show all posts

3.24.2014

Interview: Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo, Part II

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© Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo, from "Can You Hear Us? / ¿Puedes oírme?" Intervention
to Doris Salcedo's "Shibboleth," Tate Modern, Londres

fototazo: Let’s move back now to some of your previous work, including Pueblo Fantasma that you mentioned previously. My sense is that COLOMBIA, tierra de luz is a departure for you from previous work. Can you talk about that change in working method, and perhaps use that as a way to talk about your previous projects in terms of their process, form and content?

Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo: Before I go on, I want to thank you for inviting me to reflect on my own work. I have found it's an important exercise that one should do more often.

When I finished my master's degree and I was planning my return, I knew I wanted to try to take the next step. I was so involved in seeing scale and meaning from a different point of view that I came up with the idea.

Pueblo Fantasma as you suggest, became the base for what was coming next. To pass from 1:72 scale to 1:1 was precisely what I was encouraged to develop. My parents had moved to a new apartment which had the Morro de Sancancio, a tutelar mountain, just in front. I made some drawings of tents - monolithic pyramids - located on the slope of the mountain which simulated an invasion of a displaced population. And I asked core questions: What could citizens assume by seeing this event?; Isn't it very particular to Manizales that it has never been involved in the Colombian conflict?; How can land art be an act to call attention?; How can photography be a mechanism to register an event?; Does lighting the tents up also point out that these people also suffer during the night?; Can friends, colleagues and regular citizens be allies to fulfill my tasks?

Those were some of the questions I put on the table. And I have to say, the results were very positive. Not only because they resonated with me but also because they became the foundations for developing COLOMBIA, tierra de luz.

After Manizales, Pueblo Fantasma moved to Armenia, Medellín and finally to Santa Marta's shore. I put the same tents floating on the sea close to the marina to symbolize a water-break which steals land from the sea, the historical land which has been snatched from peasants by violence and large landholders.

Some weeks before doing this intervention, I visited a real ghost town in Magdalena. Santa Rita had hundreds of abandoned houses in ruins with only their walls standing as skeletons, without doors, windows, roofs and furniture. Everyone had left, leaving the image of a very sad story. When I went back, I talked to the very few people staying there as new returnees. We decided to light up the abandoned houses - through a simple wick system - to simulate the idea that the village was alive once again. Thus the whole village was alight with hope. Each abandoned house contained heat and a home within its walls as a symbol of return. The entire population took part in the intervention.

After these interventions, it became clear how to go on with the bigger project.

f: And looking back at your earliest photographic work, can you see the origins of these types of interventions, your interest in using art for social activism and the themes you currently work with, including displacement and violence? Or is your earliest work quite far away from these ways of making work?

SEJ: If you see my first major project Citadels in Conflict and the next one INVIS!BLES, then you find political statements which reflect on conflict. Using miniature plastic soldiers was a strategy for symbolizing that citizens and single men who are enrolled in the army are like figurines which can be moved and changed as in a chess game. They are the mechanism of power which leaders and commanders use to fulfill their goals. Nevertheless, to build these models was the manifestation of the platonic desire to have conflict contained only in imagination, rather than in reality. That was the purpose of using bright acrylics and mirrors to reflect objects in both planes: the positive and the negative.

In the same sense, COLOMBIA, tierra de luz involves the construction of sculptures on a bigger scale. Here, the power is given to the victims - and the photographer – countering the idea that violence is the only entity that can make decisions and make an impact.

We can also say the intervention works towards an understanding of space. The spatial conditions are given not only to be seen, but to be experienced with other senses such as touch, smell, hearing and taste. The intervention also emphasizes the importance of valuing activities, relationships, memory and imagination. These aspects can be seen in this work and also in my largest body of work, my urban and street photography.

Of course, my interest in conflict is not seen specifically in my urban and street photography. In this work, I'm more focused on giving order to chaos by finding geometry and through aesthetics, and vice versa. The work is critical by making satirical comments about daily life and normal people. On the street, I apply a different method to relate to people based more on observation and invisibility, rather than being an omnipresent participant of the event.

f: You're part of a photography collective with Jorge Panchoaga and Federico Rios called Colectivo de Fotografía +1. What are the reasons that you decided to form a collective? What opportunities and advantages has being part of this collective brought you as a photographer? And are there things that you also have had to give up as an individual photographer to be part of the collective?

SEJ: During this entire journey I have been meeting great photographers. Some of them national and others from different countries, some experienced and younger ones too. However, I have been particularly attached to working alongside those from my generation. It's important to notice that these days, the photographic praxis is very different to the one happening two and three decades ago. Today we have a lot of access to information and more opportunities can be found to develop yourself as a photographer, and I find contemporary photographers more adaptive to these conditions.

That's one of the reasons that motivated me to form the Colectivo +1 with my pals Federico and Jorge. I profoundly respect their work. For instance, I see Federico's work as an extension of his life. Federico is very coherent about his work: how he feels and thinks, he photographs, and that's uncommon to find. He always researches his topics plus his advanced skill level with the camera helps him express himself as a serious documentary photographer who seeks longer-term stories, rather than hard news. He never puts aside his artistic sensibility to produce projects such as Comuna 13 - Medellín, Ocupas - São Paulo and La Firma de los Ríos among others. I am curious to see the edition of his latest project about reconciliation. He is also very generous and shares his knowledge which is a huge benefit for being around him.

Jorge is very talented as well. I truly admire his work as he takes time to analyze the world surrounding him, which combined with his good eye and vast knowledge creates powerful and beautiful projects. His latest work, La Casa Grande, is the best example you can get of this. Also, working along with him for Fujifilm as an X-Photographer for the past few months has been an opportunity for me to see his street photography series Casi Café and Guatever in shadows which I like a lot. As you can imagine, I feel very proud of being part of this cohesive, experienced and creative group.

Furthermore, we share similar interests. We think that knowledge and experience as teachers and photo-leaders has to be shared. When you give to others, you receive at the same time. Another aspect is the importance of working with communities. We have been doing that for the last ten years as individuals and it is inspiring. When we came together, we knew that this must be continued. One example of this is the huge project we developed in Quibdó, Chocó. We were invited to document Las Fiestas de San Pacho, the people's carnival. We convinced the authorities to extend an invitation to local photographers to participate in a free and open workshop. During the celebration we managed to walk around with the students while we photographed. It was a really cool experience, which helped us to create the first installment of the visual memory generator project - GEMEVI (generadores de memoria visual) - that will contribute to producing some future visual language of the city and their celebrations. The last and not least aspect, is the permanent activity we have as photographers. We are lucky to travel permanently around the country and abroad on different photography commissions which make us actively involved in the themes we are looking at. We are constantly refreshing our portfolio, methods, contacts and knowledge.

I don't feel it is an impediment to work with others. As a collective, we are still assured of having our own space to produce personal projects. Sometimes we collaborate as pairs or between the three of us. We give freedom to our personalities to express things sincerely. For sure it could be seen as problematic to negotiate our different points of view, though at the end we always work out a compromise. I strongly recommend to other Colombian photographers to do collaborations.

f: Any last things you'd like to add, Santiago?

SEJ: Sure! I just want to add that photography has to be moved by conviction, knowledge and practice. Success shouldn't be expected if you are looking for results. Photographers must give value to the process and recognize it as the milestone of our profession.

I also want to recognize the labor you and Alec Soth are doing to promote Colombian photography. Certainly, Colombia will have something to say about the topic in the upcoming future. And in my case, I don't want to miss it. I hope I can continue adding some photos to the album!

3.19.2014

Interview: Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo, Part I

Photographer and publisher Alec Soth and I have started a small project on our mutual sites that will take an extended look at contemporary photography in Colombia. Medellín-based photographer and educator Gabriel Mario Vélez will also be joining us on this project.

We're looking at trends and traditions; events, institutions and venues; as well as pursuing conversations with curators, academics, gallerists and photographers themselves. We plan to approach the project through a variety of types of posts including interviews, book reviews, published letters, portfolios of images and more.

Posts so far in the series include:
What is happening in contemporary Colombian photography?, LBM
Popsicle #40: Guadalupe Ruiz, LBM
Project Release: Juan Orrantia, "The afterlife of coca (and its) dreams" fototazo
Portfolio: Matt O'Brien, "No Dar Papaya" fototazo
Interview: Camilo Echavarría, fototazo
Jorge Panchoaga on Contemporary Photography in Colombia, fototazo
An Interview with Mateo Gómez Garcia, LBM
Carlos Villalon, Some frames I have made, fototazo
Q&A: Victoria Holguín of fotomeraki, fototazo

Today we continue with the first of a two part interview with Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo.

Escobar-Jaramillo, studied architecture at the National University of Colombia and an MA (merit) in Photography and Urban Cultures at Goldsmiths College, University of London. His projects have been exhibited in over 70 individual and collective exhibitions. Santiago has photographed for Villegas Editores, UNHCR, MFO-Egypt and ICIPE-Kenya. He runs workshops for National Geographic Student Expeditions - London, Zona Cinco - Bogotá, La Havana, New York and Don Bosco - Cambodia. His project COLOMBIA, tierra de luz (Land of Light) was exhibited at the DRCLAS@Harvard. He is a former X-Photographer for Fujifilm and he is co-founder of the Colectivo de Fotografía +1, member of La Hydra and the Association of Urban Photographers.

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fototazo: Let's start by talking about how you arrived to photography.

Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo: In 1999 I was sent to the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, as a Colombian peace soldier in the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO). There I was assigned the task of translator and photographer. It was the first time, at 19 years of age, that I held a camera and took photos.

Back in Colombia, I decided to study architecture at the Manizales campus of the National University of Colombia. During my studies, I continued with photography, taking part in nationwide competitions and young artists exhibitions.

In 2007, having obtained a scholarship from Colfuturo, I traveled to London to do a Master's in Photography and Urban Cultures at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

I have been working as a photographer and artist in various countries in Africa, Asia, South America, Europe and in the United States. In 2006 and 2008, I traveled to East Africa, employed by the ICIPE institute of entomology (African Insect Science for Food and Health) to redesign its image and to create photographic documentation of its projects in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Sudan.

I also have participated in several exhibitions and some photo festivals, such as the 42nd Salón Nacional de Artistas - Colombia (National Exhibition of Artists); International Image Festival in Manizales; as curator of Encounters in Photography and Design I, II and III; in Bogota's Photography Biennale-Fotomuseo 2012; in the Critics and Investigators in Photography Conference in Montevideo; the Books in Photography workshop in Oaxaca by Trasatlántica-PhotoEspaña; and the BBVA & Bank of the Republic New Names exhibition and in international art festivals with Christopher Paschall SXXI Gallery among others.

When I returned to settle in Colombia, I was hired by Benjamín Villegas from Villegas Editores to photograph aspects of idiosyncrasy, landscapes and urban life around Colombia which have been published in ten documentary and architectural photobooks.

While I was traveling around the country for Villegas, I could imagine and begin the social and artistic project COLOMBIA, tierra de luz, which was exhibited last year at Harvard and MIT Universities.

Since 2011, I have been leading photo workshops in La Havana, New York and Bogotá for Zona Cinco, in various cities for UNHCR-United Nations, in Cambodia for Don Bosco, in London for CUCR-Goldsmiths and National Geographic Student Expeditions and recently for Fujifilm Colombia as a former X-Photographer.

f: Most photographers I know in Colombia haven't lived or worked overseas. How have those experiences influenced your own practice?

SEJ: Indeed. I have always said that living abroad brought me most of the opportunities and ideas I have had in my career. To live, study and travel around other countries (35 at this point) gives you a privileged point of view about life, arts and of course, photography. You get another sense of reality; you experience new places and environments which help you to adapt to circumstances you never expected before.

I had the possibility to develop projects and have experiences in other countries that I was not expecting to find in Colombia. For example, to visit top museums and galleries; to relate with other cultures and idiosyncrasies; to live in places with seasons; to travel across different geographies, ruins and architectures; and to make VIP contacts.

Every time I travel to other places I have the purpose to develop short- or long-term projects. Sometimes I work mainly on urban photography, in other moments I document people and landscape, while in other cases I imagine photography as an artistic creation.

f: And how have these experiences allowed you to reflect on the contemporary landscape of photography in Colombia in a way that might not have been possible working and living only within Colombia your entire career? What does this "privileged point of view" allow you to see as you return to live and work in Colombia again?

SEJ: When I became interested in photography, I didn't see it as a main objective itself, but as a medium to produce my artwork (i.e. Citadels in Conflict). I remember following Colombian artists: Óscar Muñoz, Miguel Ángel Rojas, Rosario López, Juan Fernando Herrán, José Alejandro Restrepo, Fernando Arias, Jaime Ávila and Doris Salcedo who were using photography to create amazing pieces. In art competitions, for example, photographs were always obtaining prizes and there was a sense that it would stay well-positioned for a long time which was something that had been happening for decades in developed countries.

I also have to admit, that at that time, I wasn't very interested in documentary photography and photojournalism. I knew few examples in Colombia or from around the world. Of course, this changed when I went to London to study and learned about [Henri] Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Sebastião Salgado, Nan Goldin and Joel Meyerowitz plus many other photographers I managed to see first hand in exhibitions, lectures and books. I got new influences there to be applied later.

That's why, when I headed back [to Colombia], I was paying a lot of attention to great national photographers such as Carlos Pineda, Fernell Franco, Jorge Mario Múnera, Libia Posada, Erika Diettes, Cristobal von Rothkirch, Jesús Abad Colorado and Santiago Harker, who had a sense of space, aesthetics and meanings and who stood out from the crowd.

During the last five years, I have gotten a better idea about what's happening with photography in Colombia. I feel that photographers, museums, schools, publishers and critics are on the correct path mainly because international photographers are coming to lecture and develop projects here (last year I assisted Bruce Gilden from Magnum in his Bogota project); new festivals are being held (Fotomuseo, Festival Internacional de la Imagen, ArtBo, etc); students can apply for scholarships (Colfuturo and Estímulos Ministerio de Cultura); cameras and accessories are imported quickly (Fujifilm Colombia just launched their new X-T1 simultaneously here and in Tokyo); and Internet has brought immediate access to knowledge, editing programs and other references (webpages such as the Lens Blog of The New York Times, Fundación Pedro Meyer, MoMa, Tate Modern, etc).

These facts sound positive, however the overall art scene is doing much better in comparison and photography is still relegated to looking for sponsors and receiving benefits from public political entities.

And it is around this fact that we should have the debate: "Should photography in Colombia be more open to art, new technologies and authorship?" I think so.

I feel that photographers must make an effort to see photography less rigidly and more freely: to create new narratives which are not merely linear; to defend authorship; to have more dialogue and dynamism in the scene; to include others (the photographed) in the make-up of their images; to use mobile phones as allies to develop new projects; and to combine other skills, tools, thoughts, formats and references from other disciplines rather than being harnessed to a classical photography based mostly in the technical, obviousness and rationality.

The challenge is big, but there are many talented photographers such as Jorge Panchoaga and Federico Ríos from Colectivo +1, Federico Pardo, Daniel Santiago Salguero, Álvaro Cardona, Emilio Aparicio, Ana Adarve, Guillermo Santos, Max Steve Grossman, Manuel Vázquez, Angélica Teuta, Karim Estefan, Camilo Rozo, William Fernando Martínez, Juan Diego Cano and César David Martínez - to name some - who are combining photography with others disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, politics, biology, journalism, architecture, literature and arts, which will increase the level of photography we are used to seeing in the country.

These guys are also seeing photography as a multi-tasking tool for education, research, exhibitions, publications, field work and commercial use.

f: How do you feel that your own work, especially COLOMBIA, tierra de luz, fits into that landscape? Do you feel it is a project that fits into the type of increased openness to new modes of photography you're talking about here?

SEJ: I am confident that COLOMBIA, tierra de Luz, is a project which enriches our photography landscape. I feel that I have been taking risks by leaving my comfort zone to propose something different.

It occurs by combining photography, art, architecture and sociology to produce a series of symbolic acts of support for victims of violence and those who are displaced in different parts of Colombia.

As is well known, violence and forced displacement in Colombia have been two of the most worrying and most direct effects of the armed conflict for over five decades.

The selection of locations for the intervention reflects Colombia's rich variety of multicultural groups, regions, landscapes, climates, historical contexts, traditions and celebrations, geopolitics, as well as social problems and the different armed groups inside the country.

During the interventions (artistic actions, poetry workshops, music performances, celebrations and testimonials), villagers and indigenous people express their thoughts and emotions through words, gestures and singing while they help to construct and light up the sculptural objects and settings using electric light, lanterns, mobile devices, candles and bonfires.

In this sense, the documentary and interpretative photographs made of the interventions are indispensable as vehicles for memory and imagination for the children, teenagers and adults who participate in the actions. Thus the photographs made of light - through the process of capturing light by the camera - are considered as memorials when copies of them are given to each family to be hung in their houses.

f: How does the way you are using photography in COLOMBIA, tierra de luz relate to how you've used it in the past? What have you discovered about the medium and its potential through this project in relation to your other work?

SEJ: Before beginning the project I was seeing scale as a relevant topic in my work. I felt I had had enough of my miniature figures (1:72 scale) [used in previous projects] and wanted to work on one-to-one models (urban and landscape interventions). This is why I designed, constructed and photographed Pueblo Fantasma (Ghost Town), consisting of thirty-six tents lit inside on the slope of a mountain in the city of Manizales.

After this successful intervention, I challenged myself to create COLOMBIA, tierra de luz. I wanted to structure it from an artistic point of view as well as a social one. I needed to make it clear that it was a real social action aiming to help people.

I knew I was taking risks.

First, because politicians, social workers and rural farm workers doesn't take artistic practices very seriously. Second, photographers, artists and critics usually think that arts shouldn't have a function, nor have a didactic result. I struggled to combine both artistic and social activist perspectives in a symbiotic and creative way.

I pushed hard to get images both successful aesthetically and charged with significance. I found in the effect of using light - tungsten, LED, torches, iPads, etc - to produce chiaroscuro a powerful symbol to get the desired sensuality to my images. This sensuality prompts memories, calls for reflection and captures the imagination. Photography depends on light to become matter. It is also light that lets architecture and spaces show themselves, show their textures and forms, with its heat. Through this, it is light that symbolically lifts us from gloom and lights our desires and therefore it is photography that captures a moment in these illuminated places, making the photographs [that document the event] a healing memorial. I also gave sincere respect to the victims of violence and forced displacement. Thus, I never created false expectations or went further in my requests.

f: We'll go back to Pueblo Fantasma in a moment, but your response gives me one more question about COLOMBIA, tierra de luz. You talk about the project as being a social act and also about a general belief held by many that art isn't a vehicle for inducing social change or creating social action. What would you point to in terms of social effects produced by COLOMBIA, tierra de luz to someone who would argue art is a poor vehicle for social change or action?

SEJ: Partially, I agree with the doubt of the question. I do think that to give complete support to victims of violence, it is necessary to accompany the symbolical (artistic) act with other elements such as taking political action by issuing laws and decrees; making economic support visible through investment in infrastructure and livelihood; constructing housing projects; and promoting demonstrations of social responsibility by charities and NGOs.

Artistic and cultural expression - be it photography or other contemporary practice - can make a difference. Art and aesthetics have the capacity to generate transformations in emotions by activating conscience, building protests, bearing witness to moments, producing corporal sensations and perceiving changes which human action generates in individuals, territories and the landscape.

Photography, for instance, bears testimony to the present which we are living and is witness to problems of violence, inequality and damage to our environment. Photography is also a tool for proposing solutions, expressing opinions and imagining new realities. It is the reflection of the individual photographer, who seeks to become the collective conscience.

Finally, I want to share a personal experience I had when I was a child. My uncle was murdered by corrupt policemen close to his farm when he discovered drug trafficking in the region. I was having nightmares afterwards and couldn't sleep properly. I remember being shot constantly by these guys in my dreams. After many months of this, I came up with a solution: I imagined myself protected from the bullets under a glass or ice helmet, and I could sleep properly after all. From that moment on, I trusted creativity as a powerful tool to change attitudes and stir emotions.

Basically, that was the main question which motivated me to develop COLOMBIA, tierra de luz: if this helped me, why not apply this idea to others?

f: A number of other Colombian artists including Diettes as well as foreigners working in Colombia, such as Stephen Ferry, have worked with witnessing violence as a theme as well. They have used quite different approaches from yours.

What projects beyond your own navigating the issue of Colombian violence have had an impact on you that you would recommend to readers? Is there an overlap between your work and the work of Diettes, Ferry or others in the treatment of the theme?

SEJ: I learned about Diettes' and Ferry's work when COLOMBIA, tierra de luz was already advanced. I find their work very touching. Erika's Sudarios is sensorial and spatial as she hangs portraits of women in pain inside churches [editor's note: see our review of Diettes' Sudarios here]. I see Ferry's Violentology much more about showing a historical reading of Colombia's violence by having photojournalists collaborate and by using news articles written by others.

However, before starting the project I was studying Libia Posada, Doris Salcedo, Beatriz González, Óscar Muñoz and Juan Manuel Echavarría's works – those I mentioned earlier. And I agree with writer and photographer Jose Falconi when he says: "this proliferation of memorials within the Colombian visual arts to the point of transforming itself into a tradition is a topic which, as far as I have seen, has not been dealt directly [sic] in academic writing, and which certainly constitutes an area for future exploration." [ed: an essay by Falconi on Escobar-Jaramillo's work can be found here]

During the last few years, there have been an increasing number of projects working on memory, symbolical acts of support and people's resistance. The [Colombian] Government peace talks with Las FARC occurring right now at La Havana are influencing institutions, universities and communities to develop new strategies for the post-conflict era.

A powerful project to follow is Jorge Panchoaga's La Casa Grande which is going one-step further in documenting and reflecting on Cauca's communities. He beautifully combines camera obscura techniques with an insight on families' struggle to keep their traditions, land and health under violent harassment. Libia Posada's Signos Cardinales, which has been presented widely, is a striking dialogue between artist and victim, body and drawing, memory and meaning. Or you can see Doris Salcedo's Plegaria Muda which confronts the audience with silence and loneliness, wood and grass. Also, the Centro de Memoria Histórica is collecting important information and documenting projects which use art to make things easier for victims of violence.

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Part II will be published shortly.

2.13.2014

Reading Shortlist 2.13.14

The Reading Shortlist is an occasional post with an eclectic listing of recommended sites, readings and links. A recommendation does not necessarily suggest an agreement with the contents of the post. For previous shortlists, please visit the site links page.

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Colors Magazine, All Official Portraiture of North Korea's Reigning Kim Family Is Made by Mansudae Art Studio. A little about how to become an official North Korean painter of Kim Jung-un images, North Korean symbology and Mansudae's (generally disastrous) excursions into African public sculpture projects.

Marc Feustel, Amercian Suburb X, Takashi Homma: Adrift in the City of Superflat. Feustel is one of my favorite online writers. He's obviously very well-informed about East Asian photography and he combines clean text with pinpointing ideas and issues. Here he talks about Homma as one of the photographers in the post-Provoke era who searched for a different photography vocabulary to explore the explosion of suburbs and modernization projects in Tokyo after the 1980s economic boom.

John Foster, The Design Observer Group, The Renewed Art of Embroidered Photographs. Here Foster presents both historic embroidered postcards as well as the work of two contemporary photographers who have revived the practice, Maurizio Anzeri and Hinke Schreuders, whose work is below.

Fotografía Magazine. “Photography is wandering in the universe by yourself” – From a letter by Sergio Larrain. Larrain gives advice to his nephew, who wants to become a photographer, about where to start.

Interview with Judith Joy Ross. Ross speaking about her beginnings in photography, her experience under the dark cloth, meeting John Szarkowski, her relationship with her subjects and her personal reasons for developing her various projects. The interview was done in connection with her exhibition at Foundation A Stichting.

Video still from Interview with Judith Joy Ross

Pasaporte al Arte. ¿Qué está sucediendo con la fotografía en Colombia? Colombian photographers Jorge Panchoaga, Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo and Federico Rios organized a talk at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Medellín on the contemporary photography landscape in Colombia as a response to the series Alec Soth and I have been running on the question. In Spanish. Better audio quality coming next week.

Louisiana Channel, Dayanita Singh, Stealing in the night. Interview with Singh about her project based on a burglary in which the burglars stole her exposed rolls of film from under her bed.

Issei Suda at Charles A. Hartman Fine Art in Portland, Oregon. Hat tip to Kevin Thrasher - I'm enjoying getting to know Suda's work.

TateShots: Lewis Baltz. Can you tell I'm watching lots of photo videos these days? One more video interview, this time with Baltz about his start in photography and his reasons for photographing, the role of the viewer in art, photography as the only "deductive art" and the world as divided between those who like Matisse and those who like Duchamp.