Thursday, February 16, 2012
A Conversation With…. Scott Sternberg, Band of Outsiders
Tell me about the images that influenced you the most when designing your Fall collection…
Images from Richard Prince, such as the Cowboy ‘rephotograph’ (above), as well as images from artist Gabriel Orozco. I’m always referencing film stills– most recently from The Last Movie, El Topo, Holy Mountain, Solaris, and Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy.
Last August I went on a trip to Casa Barragan and ever since have been looking to the images I captured on the streets of Mexico City for inspiration.
Which cultures or sub-cultures do you find yourself referencing the most?
I’m always trying to look at the masculine ideal as it might be expressed in cinema or otherwise in culture during different eras– the idea of the cowboy as one of those masculine ideals really intrigued me this past season. It was less about a specific sub-culture of cowboys but more about exploring an antiquated image of men and masculinity that is at once totally irrelevant to our daily lives, yet still a constant reference in media and fashion.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
On Photography…. Alec Soth
The images in your current show, Broken Manual, convey a sense of extreme distance between you and your subjects – much more so than your previous work. Will you tell us about this shift?
A portrait doesn’t necessarily reveal the soul of the sitter– the final picture is as much about the photographer (and the viewer) as it is about the subject. I’ve often said that when I make a portrait what I’m really photographing is the space between the sitter and myself.
In the case of Broken Manual, I really wanted to extend that space. The work is about distance and the longing for separation.
How do you make the decision to remove a subject or object from the context?
Every photograph of mine removes a subject or object from context– I’m not a big believer in documentary truth.
Everything happening outside of the frame is also lost: sound, smell, and most importantly time. If anything, photography is the art of stripping the world of its context. But of course, one does this to various degrees. With Broken Manual, I wanted to make something fragmentary and, well, broken. So I varied my approach from picture to picture.
How does removing these elements help to create the image that you see, regardless of the context surrounding it?
The idea of escape is a beautiful fantasy, but in reality it isn’t functional. We need other people, but it is still fun to fantasize. Last weekend my five-year-old son made a cardboard house– he was lone pirate in that house, but a few hours later he needed Mommy. Most of us aren’t much different.
Do you feel exposed when having a big opening of your work?
I’ve never been more nervous for a show than this one, and I’ve been trying to figure out why. I don’t think it is about my relationship with the subjects, it has to do with something more personal. I joke that Broken Manual is my midlife crisis project…but it isn’t such a joke.
