Hall of Champions
I took the shot above [bigger and nicer here] at the Downtown Marriott last Friday after seeing the incomparable Zoe Strauss speak at the Annual American Studies Conference. What she was doing there I have no idea. It seemed to be a random pairing, but hey, who am I to complain on seeing Zoe giving a talk about her work. I think portraits in this hallway would look cool.
I learned a little about her workflow, her most recent trip to the American southwest and upcoming projects [cool!]. It was very interesting to hear her talk about her approach to people on the street for her intimate portraits. A mix of people running up to her to have their photos taken, people shying away from the camera and Zoe herself walking up to people to ask if she could take a photo [or few]. Photographing people on the street is something I've always felt shy about. I don't think I've once walked up to someone and asked to take their photo. Most of my street portraits are "from the hip" while walking by people on the sidewalk or they're at larger street fairs or events where there are tons of cameras and everyone's taking photos of everyone. From what I've seen and read on various photoblogs, it's a matter of getting into the practice of doing so and it gets easier from there.
Zoe was asked about her more recent entry into mainstream showings. She's been at the 2006 Whitney Biennial, the Silverstein Gallery, the ICA, the Philadelpha Museum of Art to name a few. She said that to her surprise, she loves it. I'm happy that she is. She's got this uncanny ability to be able to talk the hoity-toity talk and to the hoi polloi at the same time. It's kinda nuts. It's a skill you gotta have to some extent to mingle with the high powered art buying crowd I guess.
She's got some more stuff coming down the line as well in the next month or so. I hope to make it to at least one of those events.
Zoe Strauss rocks my world and one of her prints hangs royally in our house.
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