a visit to the MOMA

I am going to New York in a month. To say that I'm excited would be a bit of an understatement. The last time I was there, the 2010 Biennial was on display. Now I can see the 2012. Like any dedicated, nerdy art historian, I've made a exhaustive list of every museum I would like to go to. (This also includes operating hours and days they are closed...) Then, there are the sub-lists -- all of the current exhibitions, traveling and permanent collection, that I want to see. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get through most of the list. There is an exhibition at the Met  that struck me as interesting -- it's not my number one, but it got me thinking about a few things. Spies in the House of Art: photography, film, video is about art that uses/features art in museums in the final product. Images in a museum showing/reacting to images in a museum? I tossed this  into my brain and begin to turn it over a bit. It mixed with a couple of other things I've been mulling over --

TtV

 Yashica D imagery popping up in my current watercolors

other viewfinder designs

visiting museums in New York, VISITINGMUSEUMSINNEWYORK.

Then. Then, I got a nagging need to make these.

Visit to the MOMA, Irving Penn

Visit to the MOMA, Henri Rousseau

Visit to the MOMA, Pablo Picasso

This series was prompted by something I see frequently on museum visits -- the "trophy hunter."  This person takes digital pictures of the "greatest hits" as he travels through the museum. I've always been a little put off by photography in a museum setting -- mainly because it can be damaging to the work and disruptive to other patrons. With low levels of light designed to protect art and a "no flash photography" policy, it can be near impossible to snap a digital picture of good quality in galleries. Why bother even trying? I have to question if these people are actually looking at the art, or are just finding it, taking a picture, and crossing it off some sort of mental list.  I have created imagined viewfinders and placed them over images of notable pieces from the MOMA collection. This is what I suppose people see when they spend the majority of a museum visit with a camera separating their eyes from the actual work.

These images have been cut from an art history textbook published in the mid 1980s, and have been scanned into the computer to achieve the "off" colors that photographing in low light (and then attempting to retouch the images) can result in. Each image is roughly the same size, removing any important or remarkable differences in scale -- much in the same way digital images viewed on a computer screen would be.  See the rest of my Visit to the MOMA images here.

something new

Recently, I took a little trip. Getting there involved a stop at my parents' house. There, I picked up my dad's old twin lens reflex -- a Yashica D. It had been collecting dust for years in my room. I brought it in there when I was in high school. Probably because I thought it looked "cool." Shortly after I burst through the back door, I said "Dad! Did you know that you can use a digital camera to take pictures using the lenses and viewfinders of old cameras?" (This concept is nowhere near new, but I had just come across it online. The process is referred to as Through the Viewfinder, or TtV, for short.) Then I prattled on, "Hey let's try this real quick wait lemme get your camera now focus the old camera and take a picture of what comes out on the viewfinder it's not working let me try stand over there yes I know you are back lit this picture is too dark i'm hungry lets go eat at that place you've been talking about."

Initially I gave TtV about 2 minutes of thought, and gave into my hunger, but when I was collecting things out of my old room to head back to Knoxville, I asked Dad if he minded if I took the camera. I figured he wouldn't, since he hasn't used it in eons, but he gets funny about things that are of his youth. I  got most of his old cameras and lenses with no wheedling. However, my dad is really holding out on letting me take custody of his record player, but that's another story. He said sure, picked the camera up, and said "Christmas 1965. $48." The Yashica D is special. It was my dad's first camera. Dad, if you're reading this, I'm taking very good care of it. I am making extreme efforts to keep track of the lens cap.

Back in Knoxville, I screwed the camera to my tripod and aimed it at my apartment window. Things began to look up. 

Then I tried to take a picture of myself. Things began to look down. 

I completely missed my face. And it's blurry.

When I went to work, I tucked the Yashica in my bag. If this current crazy spring weather was going to behave, I planned on taking a walk downtown after work to figure out what the big fuss is about TtV. Thirty to forty pictures later when the sun gave out, I finally had something worthwhile. The next day, I went to a different neighborhood in Knoxville and shot another 70. Out of 100 or so images, I got 10-12 that I truly like. I haven't decided if these images can be discreet art pieces, or if they are just tools and stepping stones, helping me think differently.

Channeling my inner Berenice Abbott

Regardless, the entire process is exciting. To some degree in the I-have-a-new-toy-to-play-with realm of infatuation, but in other ways as well. I've wanted to play with this camera for a little bit now, but the cost of film and processing might bankrupt me. This is a very low-cost approach to twin-lens photography. This process is not quick at all. in my post on cameras and nervousness, I admitted to wanting to feel less self conscious about walking around in public with a giant camera. There is not other way to shoot TtV unless you want to shoot apartment still lives or friends posing for you. This is definitely not a process for stealing quick shots out of car windows. I spent two afternoons walking around with not one but two cameras in tow, and didn't feel weird about it at all. the lens is fixed on the camera, and with the method that works for me, the camera is fixed at my waist. I have to work harder to get certain shots I want. With this camera, I can't just put on a different lens to get a closeup, or a wide shot. I can't hold the camera with one hand over my head to get a shot either. The viewfinder reverses all images. Left is right and right is left. I forget this every time when I focus the camera. I probably look like an idiot swaying back and forth on the sidewalk trying to remember which direction to move my body to get the lens to show what I want...ALL WHILE SQUINTING INTO THIS WEIRD BLACK BOX. Who cares. I'm having fun.

This process is forcing me to see differently, and allows me to manipulate my images differently. I made this the other night, after looking at all of my new pictures.

A small watercolor.