all photos ~ (embiggenable)
MY BEST FRIEND-SINCE GRAMMAR SCHOOL-AND I GO OUT-mid-week, every week-for lunch. At each of the 3 restaurants in our rota-2 upscale, 1 mid-scale-we sit at the bar in part so I can kinda, sorta flirt with the bartendress at each restaurant- it’s kinda a hobby of mine.
Against that background and knowing that the restaurant in Lake Placid would not be busy cuz a) it’s mud season, and, b) the 150,000 visitors for the eclipse had left the scene, this past Thursday I brought along my most recent photo book, fragmentation & contingency; a book of 15 photographs* with no apparent unified theme. It represents an attempt to see if my discursive promiscuity approach to making pictures can, nevertheless, hold together as a cogent body of work. To that end, by showing the book around to people with whom I am only tangentially familiar, I hope to incite some holistic (an approach of looking at something as a whole, rather than focusing on its parts) feedback / reaction to the book.
That written, I gave the book to the woman behind the bar who prepares and serves drinks. She stepped back under better light and gave it a pretty leisurely look after which she stepped back to me and said, “Nice. I like it very much.” A very positive reaction that I found rather surprising. My response was to ask her why she liked it whereupon she hesitated for 10-15 seconds before saying that she couldn’t find the words to describe why she liked it other than to say it left her with a strong but undefined feeling.
We did not have the time to delve into her feeling. Whatever it was, it was more than enough for her to ask, 20 minutes later, if she could look at the book again under better light. She took the book and moved to better light at the end of the bar where she spent about 20 minutes working her way slowly through the book, even calling a co-worker over to take a look.
I mention this encounter cuz, in all my years of exhibiting and sharing my photos I have heard many, many times people express that they really liked my work but this is the first time someone has expressed having a feeling instigated by the viewing of my work. Her reaction has had a rather profound impact upon me. And, akin to her inability to describe her reaction to my book, I am at a loss to describe my reaction to her reaction.
Gonna have to ponder on it for a while.
*the photos in this entry are not in the book.