Hello to all of my photography enthusiasts! LOOK3 in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend was fantastic as always. Mary Ellen Mark gave a really wonderful interview with Alex Chadwick of NPR. I wish you ALL could have heard her speak. She is truly a remarkable woman and unbelievable photographer. She stills shoots with film, and said that she has bought up the last of Polaroid's discontinued 20x24" film that she uses for her super large format land camera. Read more about her work, and her current show that I saw in Charlottesville.
I also saw part of Joel Peter Witkin's interview with Alex Chadwick, and was very disappointed by his commentary. I was really hoping he would say something extraordinary, but he was very simple and unapologetic about his work. When his slideshow began, there was a technical glitch, and he could see the images on the laptop, but for a moment the audience saw nothing on the big theater screen. "Oh this must be the Ray Charles version!" he said. Sort of a bad joke to start an interview with, in my opinion. I would not recommend going to see his work on the big screen, at such a magnified angle, people were getting up and walking out of his talk, and I think probably some people got sick in the bathroom downstairs. I truly appreciate that his work goes uncensored and I hope that we will continue to have such freedoms in our country, but man his work is vile. I had hoped that his commentary would somehow redeem the cold disregard for human remains he displays in his work, but I left, feeling completely unimpressed, after the showing of "The Kiss" which some of you may remember mentioned during story time with Craig Stevens in B&W Craft.
Anywho - it was great to return to the festival for the second year. Nick Nichols, the creator of the festival was a few seats behind us. He is such a rockstar. Sally Mann came back again this year, and she sat two rows behind us. She is such a mystery, I love catching a glimpse of her. I grabbed Mary Ellen Mark and made her pose for a photo with me to send to Jaclyn Cori Norman. Jaclyn used to tell the story about when she met Mary Ellen and how this one thing that Mary Ellen said to her left a huge impression on her life and her work. Voila!
I hope that you all are having a fantastic summer! Keep up the posts! I love to read what everyone is up too. Please check out my current website www.lizzieharris.com it's actually wrong on the link listed here on the blog. I don't use lizzieharrismfa anymore. Take care!
- Lizzie |
