2002Been a little neglectful of the blog this summer, but other projects have been taking my time. For one, I'm install a new sound system for the TV -- new receiver and speakers -- and that requires a bunch of messing with the TV cabinet. And I decided to remake my old Statue of Liberty series of images into a book. When I first started shooting this series I had put together a ring binder of images, but it really needs to redone for several reasons: the printing on that first effort is really bad -- I had printed it with my old Epson 1200, and the images were not only fading, but were rapidly changing colors from the original slightly "pink" to an ugly, washed-out green. And I wanted to update the book with images that were made after the first booklet.
I first started shooting at Liberty Island in 2000 when my daughter, then a college student, said to me one day while visiting family in New York, she was too young on her first trip to remember our first trip there in the mid-80's. Off we went, just me and her. Even while on the ferry, I was struck by the number of cameras that were in use even before the Ms. Liberty came into view. As we drew abreast of the island, the ferry listed slightly to one side with the shift of people trying to either take a picture of The Lady or have their picture with her in the background. Later as Libbie and I walked around the island, it's what everyone is doing -- taking pictures of either the Statue of Liberty or themselves with the statue in the background. I was hooked, I wanted to make images of people taking pictures. Many visits later over the course of five years I came to realise that there are all kinds of reason to come to visit Lady Liberty from school field trips, to demonstrate, and to just be there. It is the societal norm that we document with the snapshot just about every venture we make.
I'm still working on the book -- the image selection, the sequencing, and trying to put my thoughts about all this to page. But one of the things I've come to realize is that one of the great things about living in a truly free country is being free to visit the most visible symbol of freedom in the world, and being free to express our relationship to this monument however we choose without fear of reprisal.
I first started shooting at Liberty Island in 2000 when my daughter, then a college student, said to me one day while visiting family in New York, she was too young on her first trip to remember our first trip there in the mid-80's. Off we went, just me and her. Even while on the ferry, I was struck by the number of cameras that were in use even before the Ms. Liberty came into view. As we drew abreast of the island, the ferry listed slightly to one side with the shift of people trying to either take a picture of The Lady or have their picture with her in the background. Later as Libbie and I walked around the island, it's what everyone is doing -- taking pictures of either the Statue of Liberty or themselves with the statue in the background. I was hooked, I wanted to make images of people taking pictures. Many visits later over the course of five years I came to realise that there are all kinds of reason to come to visit Lady Liberty from school field trips, to demonstrate, and to just be there. It is the societal norm that we document with the snapshot just about every venture we make.
I'm still working on the book -- the image selection, the sequencing, and trying to put my thoughts about all this to page. But one of the things I've come to realize is that one of the great things about living in a truly free country is being free to visit the most visible symbol of freedom in the world, and being free to express our relationship to this monument however we choose without fear of reprisal.
1 comment:
I just wanted to tell you that I really like this photo of this man. I thought it was very interesting, a tourist no doubt filming himself, what an interesting thing to capture. I liked it.
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