Projecting pictures, Garry Winogrand, bigger is better, Playtime, storm chasers
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High Thought is an intimate infusion of (high) thoughts that are a mixture of frivolous and (sometimes) profound if I’m lucky. Written with consideration for those interested in the creative process or personal peek behind the curtain into a particularly chaotic brain room.
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🌸 Good morning/afternoon/evening, depending on where you are in the world. : )
Getting a projector
I’ve always wanted a projector. In my varied NYC apartments, I’ve either not had the space or the white wall. I recently created my dream setup in my apartment, which involves a blank white wall…and a projector. I ordered a mount for the ceiling but the box arrived with all of the accoutrements needed to fasten the mount to the ceiling but the entire arm was missing. Because it is still in the mail, I have created this setup, which I have to say I will miss when the mount arrives. This setup is beautiful to me:
Anyway, I’ve always wanted a projector because I think it’s in my nature as a photographer to romanticize the projected image. It’s so beautiful to me. It reminds me of putting a negative in an enlarger and printing in the darkroom, before the print exists. Light shining through an image is more photography than the print itself. The illuminated image is so beautiful. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m a print purist and believe photos need to be printed and not just looked at on screens. Screens do not fall within this photograph-as-light-itself category!)
One of the most memorable shows I’ve ever been to was a diCorcia show at David Zwirner in 2013 where his Hustlers series (in my top 5 favorite bodies of work and definitely my favorite book) was projected walls as a slideshow next to snippets of vintage porn films, changing at different times and forcing you to move your attention from one wall to another as they clicked by.
I also loved the Garry Winogrand: Color show (2019) at the Brooklyn Museum, which did the same thing in a long dark room.
That was the first time the world really got to see Winogrand’s color work en masse and the largeness and luminance of the projected image was really powerful to me! Sometimes photographs should happen TO us, don’t you think? Rather than us leaning in close and looking around the frame, having to approach it physically? I want them to tower over me and feel crushed by them. (I also *love* to sit in a museum.)
I pulled a book off the shelf the other day that was part of my Photo History II curriculum at Pratt. Andy Grundberg’s essays: Crisis of the Real. (My friend Bobby and I used to joke that we were having a crisis of the real any time we were facing slight annoyance.)
There’s an essay in it about Winogrand that, I think, underscores why at times why we have to see these pictures large, like a projection on a wall:
“ But because the pictures seldom have just one center of interest, or even a clearly defined hierarchy of visual encounters, conventional ideas of “subjet matter” seem inadequate. One is forced to consider the background as well as the foreground, the edges as well as the center of the frame.”
Sorry but if I’m gonna take it all in, sometimes bigger is better!
This is why I always wanted projector. I love TV and movies and I just want to feel completely encompassed in the experience…even when I’m watching The Real Housewives of Potomac. : )
I had some friends over the other night and was describing a project I’ve been wanting to shoot since before the pandemic. Instead of pulling up photos on my phone or my computer, I threw them up on the wall. We all talked about it as we looked at things large. It felt close to a school critique. I want to do this more.
It’s also impossible for me to not constantly take pictures of these pictures on the wall.
I watched Jacques Tati’s Playtime (1967) twice this past week while I did work at home because it was so beautiful to look at.
A couple of nights later I had some more friends over and we watched The Real Housewives of Beverley Hills (great this season) and storm chaser videos. I loved every second of it.
Kid Art
You guys I wasn’t playing. If you are a parent with a child, I’m looking for some kid art to put on my walls. Paying $5-10/piece for original works. : ) Marker on notebook paper, finger paint, etc. All viable mediums.
Have a good Holiday, freaks! 😈
Cait 🌸
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“Playtime” is such a wonderful work to be paired with that Winogrand quote. The first time I saw it, it felt so dazzling because of the seeming importance of everything in-frame throughout the entire film.