e n d o f t h e u n i v e r s e .

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a fascinating and profound project by artist jon rafman, that looks into the artistic possibility of google street view.

my interest was piqued by this essay/work because i’d had ideas for a similar project last fall in my photography class. the concept of intersecting google (and more specifically google images, google maps, google earth and google street view) with art and presenting it as a kind of cultural/geographical survey of the global 21st century, to me, presents itself as a goldmine of creative endeavours.  the idea of the democratization/open-sourcing of information, and a renewed definition of “data” seems to be something resonating among a lot of people in the world at this moment. 

i’d also had a concept for a similar project with flickr, and picasa, curating user-contributed images in different ways and playing with the idea of appropriation, “found” art, topographical information and the concept of a photographic “survey.”

i’m interested in what rafman says in the essay about his project, because of its resonance with my own perception of photography and the photographic image as i understand it, but also for what he states that i hadn’t had a vernacular for:

“A street view image can give us a sense of what it feels like to have everything recorded, but no particular significance accorded to anything. The detached gaze of the automated camera can lead to a sense that we are observed simultaneously by everyone and by no one.”

sometimes vice is clever. the best photographer from my class last year just posted this spread on facebook. the cliches featured are spot on, but they needed one about “reviving the ophelia archetype in the postmodern brooklyn urban jungle.”

Doing a degree in photography is a gigantic, expensive, pointless scam. There is no camera on Earth that takes more than a day to learn how to use. You will spend three years learning how to “read” photos while unqualified, failed photographers attempt to give you career advice. However, if you do insist on going, here are some photographic styles that 99 percent of your contemporaries will inevitably end up claiming as their own, but which you should never ever attempt on pain of death, so help you God.

Read the rest at Vice Magazine: I’M A CLICHÉ - Vice Magazine 

posted to portland and new york craigslist today. please share with your friends!!

I am an advanced photography student (and native Portlander) at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and am working on a project called “The Collected.” I am currently seeking individuals of all ages with collections of literally any kind (memorabilia, antiques, kitsch, ephemera, cabinets of curiousities, etc.) to be photographed with their collections. I am between New York and Portland frequently and am always looking for potential leads in my hometown for this project. 

I have had a lifelong interest in antiques, garage sales, estate sales, and collector culture, and in pursuing this body of work, I’d like to explore the poetics of the object and of material possessions, and how, as collectors, we perceive our own hobby. 

If you are interested in finding out more, or would like to participate in this work in progress, please contact me. Serious responses only, please. 

Please feel free to pass this on to any other collectors you may know!