Nostalgia - A New Look

"It operates through what Mikhail Bakhtin called an "historical inversion": the ideal that is not being lived now is projected into the past. It is "memorialized" as past, crystallized into precious moments selected by memory, but also by forgetting, and by desire's distortions and reorganizations. Simultaneously distancing and proximating, nostalgia exiles us from the present as it brings the imagined past near. The simple, pure, ordered, easy, beautiful, or harmonious past is constructed (and then experienced emotionally) in conjunction with the present--which, in turn, is constructed as complicated, contaminated, anarchic, difficult, ugly, and confrontational. Nostalgic distancing sanitizes as it selects, making the past feel complete, stable, coherent, safe from "the unexpected and the untoward, from accident or betrayal"--in other words, making it so very unlike the present. The aesthetics of nostalgia might, therefore, be less a matter of simple memory than of complex projection; the invocation of a partial, idealized history merges with a dissatisfaction with the present. And it can do so with great force."(1)

"The ironizing of nostalgia, in the very act of its invoking, may be one way the postmodern has of taking responsibility for such responses by creating a small part of the distance necessary for reflective thought about the present as well as the past. "(1)

Bibliography:

(1) Hutcheon, Linda. "Irony, Nostalgia, and the Postmodern." University of Toronto English Library. Web. 3 Dec. 2010. .

This new way of looking at nostalgia is a direct correlation with how I look and think about the houses that I photograph since I sometimes come up with what it was like living in the house it is a made up past.

Place-Making

Place-Making: "Anthropologist Keith Basso describes place-making as a work of "retrospective world-building" that enables a person or community to see a place in all its richness and complexity and hold that place in the imagination."(1)

'"places possess a marked capacity for triggering acts of self-reflection, inspiring thoughts about who one presently is, or memories of who one used to be, or musings on who one might become. And that is not all. Place-based thoughts about the self lead commonly to the thoughts of other things - other places, other people, other times, whole networks of associations that ramify unaccountably within the expanding spheres of awareness that they themselves engender."4 This is, I believe, a lucid description of how contemplative awareness, rooted in a sense of place, gradually comes into being. It is not unlike what the early Christian monks described as the work of rumination, that long, thoughtful chewing-over of experience aimed at helping to surface in the soul the deep significance of that experience.'(1)

"It seems important to note that even as Thomas Merton was learning to pay attention to the geographical and ecological particularity of Gethsemani, he was also feeling the impact of the work of place-making on his inner life, his imagination, and his memory. A noticeable wave of memories, dreams, and reflections from the late summer and autumn of 1961 reveals Merton to be poised on a knife's edge, looking back toward where he had come from and forward toward a still-unknown future. Place became the language for negotiating this complex transition."(1)

Bibliography:

(1) Burton-Christie, Douglas. "Place-Making as Contemplative Practice - Page 2 | Anglican Theological Review." Find Articles at BNET | News Articles, Magazine Back Issues & Reference Articles on All Topics. Web. 03 Dec. 2010. .

I chose the term: "place-making" because this is exactly what happens to me whenever I find a new house. I learned something new about myself and what attracts me to these abandoned houses. I always think about the past and the future when walking through the houses.

Photographer's Forum Entry

Lecture - Alexandre Singh

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find much of Singh's work online so I really couldn't get a feel for what his work was about before the lecture. There were parts of Singh's lecture that I found interesting but thought mostly that it was more of a lecture on psychology than anything. I had to force myself to stay awake at times. I understand where he needs to explain where he is coming from and how he thinks about things. I wonder though if there is a simpler way to explain. I think that I have come away more confused than I was when I couldn't find much of his work online. I think that I need to read his book and maybe then I will be able to understand him a little better.

VMFA Submission

Lecture - Zoe Beloff

Zoe Beloff's lecture was very entertaining to watch and listen to. Most of the lecture I was not sure if what she was showing was real or fiction, which made it more entertaining. I am wondering though if she might have multiple personality disorder. I found her work to be very educational even though it was all fiction and very playful at the same time. I like the way that she has turned some of her interests into a work of art by playing out what she believes about the subjects and what she imagines. There still has to be some truth in what she shows since she has researched the subjects so much she wouldn't be able to help but put some truth in her work. The trick is knowing what is true and what isn't.

Idea Blog - Past Times (?)

While reading Svetlana Boym's The Future of Nostalgia I came to the realization of what really draws me to the abandoned houses that I photograph. Lauren asked me to include the fact that these houses have to be rural houses but I couldn't figure out why they had to be rural. After I had moved to Richmond to attend VCU my parents separated. Once they separated they sold the house that I grew up in. The house is a country farm house. This is the reason behind the houses that I photograph having to be rural.

"Like the scientists of the eighteenth century who proposed that posets and philosophers might be better equipped to analyze nostalgia, so some psychologists of the early twentieth century, including Freud, suggested that artists and writers have a better insight into the dream and dread of home. Reading the fantastic tales of E.T.A. Hoffman to understand the mysteries of the familiar, Freud examined multiple meanings of the word homey (heimlich) from "familiar", "friendly" and "intimate" to "secretive" and "allegorical." The word develops greater ambivalence until homey (heimlich) finally coincides with its opposite, the uncanny (unheimlich). We desire what we fear most, and the familiar often comes to us in disguise. Hence the gothic imagery of haunted houses and familiar Hollywood tales of the spooky suburbia, the ghostly other side of the American dream. At first glance, it appears that nostalgic, the lost home and the home abroad often appear haunted. Restorative nostalgics don't acknowledge the uncanny and terrifying aspects of what was once homey. Reflective nostalgics see everywhere the imperfect mirror images of home, and try to cohabit with doubles and ghosts."

(Boym, Svetlana. "On Diasporic Intimacy." The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic, 2001. 251. Print.)

Bibliography:

Boym, Svetlana. The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic, 2001. Print.

Idea Blog - Collection

Collection:

1. the act or process of collecting

2. something collected

"The collection's space must move between the public and the private, between display and hiding. Thus the miniature is suitable as an item of collection because it is sized for individual consumption at the same time its surplus of detail connotes infinity and distance. While we can "see" the entire collection, we cannot possibly "see" each of its elements. We thereby also find at work here the play between identity and difference which characterizes the collection organized in accordance with qualities of the objects themselves. To group objects in a series because they are "the same" is to simultaneously signify their difference. In the collection, the more the objects are similar, the more imperative it is that we make gestures to distinguish them."

(Stewart, Susan. "Objects of Desire, Inside and Outside." On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1984. 155. Print.)

The reason that I have chosen the word "collection" is because my series is like a collection. I have photographed similar things that I have found in the houses and tend to group them together. Also the series itself being a collection of collections. The things that I find in the houses that I go into are collections of the things that are left behind. The objects found tell a story about the people that once lived there. But like Stewart said we cannot see each of the elements. Therefore, we will never know that whole story. Since we will never know the whole story of the people and their objects the collection that I am making of the photographs of the collections people will never know my whole story of the journey.

Bibliography:

Stewart, Susan. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1984. Print.

Artist Blog - John Divola

Website:

http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~divola/

Interview(s)

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2010/08/interview-john-divola-on-vandalism.html

Gallery:

http://www.artnet.com/gallery/684/gallery-luisotti.html

Biography:

John Divola (b. 1949, Los Angeles) BA, 1971 California State University, Northridge; MA 1973: MFA 1974, University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1975 he has taught photography and art at numerous institutions including California Institute of the Arts (1978-1988), and since 1988 he has been a Professor of Art at the University of California, Riverside.

Since 1975, Divola's work has been featured in more than sixty solo exhibitions in the United States, Japan, Europe, Mexico, and Australi

("John Divola." Faculty Support Site. Web. 18 Nov. 2010. )

Even though Divola's work goes in another direction than my own I still think that aesthetically there is a connection. The color photographs from his series "Isolated Houses" may be lived in (unknown) however there is a feeling of abandonment to them. Also the bright colors are something that I have started looking for since it became conscious to me that that was what I was drawn to.

The photographs of the lone paintings on the wall from his series "Abandoned Paintings" again show abandonment and the bright colors but also this is another thing that I have been exploring when I photograph abandoned houses. Divola put those paintings up himself but I have always found it odd and disturbing that such things would be so important to hang yet very easily left behind.

The black and white photographs from his series "Vandalism" show a great amount of destruction. The houses that I photograph show destruction from the elements and materials breaking down while Divola's images show human destruction.

Artist Blog - Brian Vanden Brink

Website:

http://www.brianvandenbrink.com/index.html

Gallery:

http://www.junefitzpatrickgallery.com/

Interview:

http://www.brianvandenbrink.com/int_bngmet_april07.html

Quotes:

"Yes. I try not to light things. I think what people consistently respond to is the sense of light in my pictures. I think I learned that in Nebraska. I love the idea that I’m working with God lighting my projects. And if I’d been able to afford strobes early in my career, I would have lost out on all of this. What I thought was a failing, a loss, was a great gift."

"I hadn’t thought about that, but you’re probably right. When I see someone else’s images of a project I’ve shot, I am struck by their choices, the angles, what they even saw as interesting. It is a different story they tell."

(Jakimides., By Annaliese. "| Brian Vanden Brink | Interview from Bangor Metro, April 2007." | Brian Vanden Brink | Architectural Photographer |. Web. 01 Nov. 2010. )

One of the reasons that I am drawn to Brink's photographs is that they are rural. Another reason is that he chooses to take photographs that show a lot of color and the outsides of the houses. I tried taking photographs of just the outsides of the houses that I came across but was unsuccessful in that pursuit. Another thing that I like about his work is that he uses all natural light even in his architectural work which is the way that I want to keep working. There is just something about the way that natural light comes into the houses that you could never get from artificial lighting.

Artist Blog - Rob Dobi

Interview:

http://blog.bluetideproductions.com/2009/11/03/rob-dobi-photographer-interview/

http://thefamiliarstrangers.com/rob-dobi-interview/

http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=90487

Website:

http://robdobi.4ormat.com/5698-information-home

http://www.dobi.nu/

Quotes:

"I have just always found them fascinating, It isn’t about the haunting or creepy aspect at all. It is the thrill and sheer overwhelming feeling when you walk into a wide open factory that used to employ thousands, or a theater that could seat just as many, and now they just sit there with dust covering everything completely frozen in time. No signs of life in decades, no sound whatsoever, just you and your footprints. It has a post apocalyptic feel at times, like you are the only one left on earth. To me I almost feel at home in this situation, I am a fairly introverted person so just me and the click of my camera is a calming feeling."

(Reed, Zach. "Blue Tide Productions Blog » Rob Dobi Photographer Interview." Blue Tide Productions Blog. 3 Nov. 2009. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. .)

"Usually just everyday mundane subject matter, but shot in a style that shows how empty / decayed things have become. I think it is the stuff people are most familiar with that resonates the most, there is a sense of understanding when it is something people can associate with."

(Reed, Zach. "Blue Tide Productions Blog » Rob Dobi Photographer Interview." Blue Tide Productions Blog. 3 Nov. 2009. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. .)

Biography:

Rob Dobi is a 2003 graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. His photographic work has been featured in Preservation Magazine, the Connecticut Post, Mcgraw-Hill textbooks.

(Dobi, Rob. "New England Ruins - About." New England Ruins - Home. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. .)

The reason I chose Rob Dobi as my artist this week is because he is not a "photographer" per se. Dobi is an illustrator by trade and got into photographing abandoned buildings when he and his friends in college went driving around. Even though most of the buildings that Dobi photographs are industrial buildings they have the same feel as the houses that I photograph.

Artist Blog - Dalia Khamissy

Interview:

http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/extended/archives/a_conversation_with_dalia_khamissy/

Website:

http://www.lightstalkers.org/dalia_khamissy

Gallery:

http://www.al-liquindoi.com/gallery-dalia2.html

Biography:

Dalia Khamissy was born in Beirut. She graduated with a degree in Photography from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Saint-Esprit de Kaslik, Lebanon. Since the beginning she has shown interest in the social and socio-political issues in the Middle East. Her first story in 1998 shows a single mother living in the Lebanese society. In 2002, she traveled to Iraq as a photographer for a humanitarian mission. She returned to the region in 2004 and lived on the border of Jordan-Iraq where she documented the Palestinian and Iranian Kurd refugees stranded in two camps after fleeing the war in Iraq. She has also photographed refugees in Lebanon, mostly Sudanese and Iraqis. In June 2005, Dalia took a job as photo editor for Associated Press in Beirut. After editing the summer 2006 war and its aftermath, she left AP and started working on her own photography focusing on the aftermath of the war and the Lebanese society. Dalia’s work has been exhibited and published internationally.

(Murray, Jörg, and G. Höhr. "Al-liquindoi: Lebanon Gallery - Dalia Khamissy." Al-liquindoi Photography Workshops. Web. 18 Oct. 2010.)

Quotes:

"I studied Photography at a Fine Arts faculty, so the aesthetic was very important in our work. We spent our years studying the work of masters of photography and those surely became “masters” because their photographs were aesthetically different than others… We studied also history of art, drawing etc. So one’s eye gets used to seeing in a different way I guess. "

(Colberg, Jörg M. "Conscientious Extended | A Conversation with Dalia Khamissy." Jörg M Colberg. 18 May 2010. Web. 18 Oct. 2010.)

"In this series I was struck by the peaceful and sad spaces I found when I entered the houses and mosques; the furniture left behind witnessed of the stories of people who once lived there… I felt I knew those people; I knew their taste in furniture, colours, fabric, clothes that covered the ground etc. You imagine stories of how they lived, how they used to gather at night all together, how they laughed, argued etc… How they hid from the bombs and how they fled the war, if they ever managed to flee the war… Their spaces and lives were completely violated and I related to that, I wanted to document that. The war had turned their private spaces into public in few seconds and it was very disturbing. In a way I put myself in their shoes and I was furious."

(Colberg, Jörg M. "Conscientious Extended | A Conversation with Dalia Khamissy." Jörg M Colberg. 18 May 2010. Web. 18 Oct. 2010.)

Here recently the photographers that I have chosen to show on my blog are becoming redundant. Most of the photographers that I have been looking at recently have photographed homes of destruction, whether it be from a natural disaster or war. I find it interesting though that Khamissy has decided to concentrate more on the furniture. She said that by doing so she felt that she somehow knows the people who lived there by looking at their belongings. I also have felt somewhat like this when I am photographing abandoned houses. I don't necessarily feel like I know that people that once lived there but questions are raised about them personally. I like what Khamissy said about how "one's eye gets used to seeing in a different way". This quote has really reaffirmed that my photographs are different from others who have photographed similar places.

Idea Blog - Souvenir

"The antique as souvenir always bears the burden of nostalgia for experience impossibly distant in time: the experience of the family, the village, the firsthand community. One can better understand the antique's stake in the creation of an intimate distance if the antique is contrasted to the physical relic, the souvenir of the dead which is the mere material remains of what had possessed human significance. Because they are souvenirs of death, the relic, the hunting trophy, and the scalp are at the same time the most intensely potential souvenirs and the most potent antisouvenirs. They mark the horrible transformation of meaning into materially more than they mark, as other souvenirs do, the transformation of materiality into meaning. If the function of the souvenir proper is to create a continuous and personal function of the souvenir proper is to create a continuous and personal narrative of the past, the function of such souvenirs of death is to disrupt and disclaim that continuity. Souvenirs of the mortal body are not so much a nostalgic celebration of the past as they are an erasure of the significance of history. Consider the function of such souvenirs in the contagious and malevolent magic of voodoo. Or consider the enormous display of hunting trophies staged as "The International Competitive Show" by Hermann Goring in 1937 as a premonition of the death camps and their attempted negation of meaning. In contrast to the restoration offered by such gestures as the return of saints' relics, these souvenirs mark the end of sacred narrative and the interjection of the curse. Ironically, such phenomena themselves can later be reframed in an ensuing metonymic displacement such as the punk and kitsch appropriations of fascist material culture."

Stewart, Susan. "Chapter 5, Part 1." On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1984. 140. Print.

I have only posted one quotation because it is such a long one and says so much. The only issue I have with this quote is that I am not sure what the last sentence is saying exactly. I am going to start with the "souvenir of the dead". The reason that I am starting with the dead souvenir is because I have come across a lot of carcasses in the houses that I am photographing. These carcasses are mostly of birds of which I assume had found their way into the houses but could not get back out and for lack of food died in the house. I have also seen deer, cat, and dog remnants. One thing that Stewart has said about these souvenirs if that they are here to stop the story of the past. In a way the houses themselves could be looked at as dead and also the items that are decaying inside. This really hit home for me since all I really wanted to do was find the history of the houses and the people that lived there. Maybe this is a way of something telling me that that past has been interrupted and have "erased the significance of history". This in another way could be my opportunity to bring back the "significance of the history" of these houses.

Bibliography:

Stewart, Susan. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1984. Print.