images top to bottom:
Headland Fog on the South-Eastern Coast (Labrador), 2010, framed inkjet prints, 27 3/4 x 23 inches; Flower of the Tectonic, Cardboard, ceiling tile, birch, willow, bamboo 79 x 39 x 2 1/2 inches; installation view of Accumulations of Matter, Klaus Von Nichssagend, 2010; Concrete Operations, 2009, Lighting Gels, 8 x 6 ft
all images are from the series entitled Vol. 167.
images top to bottom: no.86, no.61, no.68, and no.98
sonya makes portraits of strangers wearing masks fashioned from photographs she cuts out from national geographic magazine.
see more of sonya's work here.
Rio Grande River Bank (Virtual Fence 1) from Jason Reed on Vimeo.
Flag 2 from Jason Reed on Vimeo.
Crossing on Raft (Virtual Fence 2) from Jason Reed on Vimeo.
Found circa 1920's(?) vintage prints by San Antonio, Texas photographer, Harvey Patterson.
Top to Bottom: No.6 Bean Patch George Papajohn, 1601 Main St., Ft. Worth, Texas: Medina Project and Untitled
First, a big thanks to everyone for reading along this week!
Some quick info about me to give the posts some perspective:
Since graduating with a BFA in 2008, I have worked two-full time jobs in NYC. One was at a historical experimental arts non-profit and the other at a small for-profit company. I've also been freelancing doing everything from commercial photography to teaching computers to an art therapist. I've learned a lot of different and unique things from these jobs. However, I have ultimately been unable to find quite the right balance between my artistic and work lives.
To help figure out how to do this, I'm returning to school this fall in Oslo to pursue my MFA. While there my goals are to gain a better understanding of both the history and the future of the art academy / figure out how to live a modest yet full artistic life. More and more I have been thinking this is possible completely outside of the realm of the traditional "art world".
The posts this week are also sort of a test-run for a larger project of interviews, videos, and an extensive public database of opportunities for artists. I am very grateful to everyone who wrote something this week and if anyone else is interested in helping with the long-term project, please get in touch!
Some links to further readings and research:
1. Raqs Media Collective : How To Be An Artist At Night *
2. ...which is from this book
3. Day Job at The Drawing Center (recently closed, catalog available) + artnet review
4. A place to bid on art + a place to buy objects to help Japan
5. Two great Japan-centric Australian blogs: ii-ne-kore + Hello Sandwich
6. A very inspiring story from Japan + an interesting article (and comments) about donating money
Over and out,
JW
Image: Jessica Williams
* Thanks to DZ for the PDF link!
Do you have a day job? What is it?
Yes! I work full time for BAGGU. I'm in charge of our wholesale department and work with almost all of our international distributors. I also give aesthetic input and just designed a pattern for a bag that will come out this summer. BAGGU usually feels less like a day job, actually, and more like something I've helped to grow over the past few years.
Do the people you work with know you are a photographer?
The people I work with are all creative themselves and know that I'm an artist. Since I don't use a camera for my main photo work anymore and really just make contact prints, I don't usually call myself a photographer. I just say that I make photographs, among other things. Anyway, I think a lot of people who have only seen my images online can't tell that they are photographs made in the darkroom.
Does the work you do during the day affect your personal work?
Sometimes; I do appreciate working for a company that cares so much about color and simplicity. Mainly, though, I feel like I've learned so many valuable lessons about how a small creative business works. My mind has really been opened up to the possibilities for art and design crossover lately.
If you could rearrange your time, what would be the ideal balance between your personal and professional work?
Ultimately I'd love for personal and professional to become one and the same. But for now, I fantasize about working full time in 4 days and having 3 left over to make my own things. Sometimes I find it hard to switch back and forth, to slip away from analytical thinking and into visual reverie.
Images: Pia Howell
Top to bottom: After Max Bill (2009), Framed Trio (2010), Silver Marlboros (2009)
Do you have a day job? What is it?
For the past few years I've worked as a clerk and bibliographer at a small used bookstore called Riverby Books. It's a bright and busy store in my hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia. The shop is owned by a lovely family, and I'm one of a few employees. We stock the shelves (and the stairs) with good books, reading copies of interesting and classic titles. We're interested in rare and unusual books as well, examples of fine printing and binding. Paul, the owner of the shop, is a bookbinder and keeps busy with making and repairing books for our customers, and putting things together for projects of his own. It's been a very good place to be and a great place to work.
In the growing months of 2010 I worked on a produce farm in Westmoreland County, Virginia called Blenheim, the ancestral home of the Latane family, who farm there today. Blenheim is part of a series of farms on Potomac River once owned by the Washington family. Their place was first the home of William Augustine Washington, the nephew of President George Washington. The farm is very near to Wakefield, President Washington's birthplace.
Blenheim is about four hundred acres, with something like a dozen acres in produce. Much of the farm is woods, and a wonderful place for bird hunting. There's a lot of delicious stuff growing out there, strawberries, asparagus, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbages, elephant garlic, apples, peppers and a lot more. This summer we wrapped up work on a big hoop house and the Latanes grew lettuces and tomatoes during the winter. The family sells at a few markets here in Virginia, and offers weekly shares of produce for about ninety families close by.
Work at the farm slowed as the growing season wound down. This winter I've had a handful of small jobs: sorting cattle for a livestock auction, working some odds and ends for a friend of mine who is a builder, and I'm doing some studio modeling for a life drawing class at the University of Mary Washington.
Do the people you work with know you are a photographer?
Yes, I'm lucky to be close to a lot of the people I work with. My friends at Riverby, at Blenheim, and my friend Jason the builder have known me for a long time! The students at UMW know that I photograph, too.
Does the work you do during the day affect your personal work?
Working at Riverby has put me in contact with a lot of great photography books. And tracking books down for customers has made it easier for me to find the work of photographers I'm interested in. Most of what I've learned about photography has come through books, by studying the work of other photographers.
My recent work has been made on farms in Orange, Franklin and Westmoreland Counties here in Virginia. Working with the Latanes at Blenheim I've had the occasion to make a lot of photographs of their farm and of the family at work.
If you could rearrange your time, what would be the ideal balance between your personal and professional work?
I'm looking forward to the coming of Spring and to working again at Blenheim. Being with people who make a living from caring for their place has been a pleasure, and the work itself has yielded some good photographs.
Images: Eric Marth
See also: New Twine
Do you have a day job? What is it?
Yes, I help run a small book shop in East LA and typically work other small jobs, waiter, cashier, census enumerator.
Do the people you work with know you are a photographer?
I don't think anyone has ever known aside from the book store.
Does the work you do during the day affect your personal work?
Yes, though I wouldn't know how.
If you could rearrange your time, what would be the ideal balance between your personal and professional work?
I'm not sure there is an ideal balance, it might be interesting if they were the same. If I could rearrange my time I would try to do more work of any kind.
Images: Adam Bernales
Top to bottom: goodnight.htm (2008), Untitled (2007), (708) 387-9677 (2007-2009)
Do you have a day job? What is it?
I started working as a Spanish teacher four months ago, but right now I don't have any students and I'm very sad. And tomorrow I start an internship in a small translation company.
Do the people you work with know you are a photographer?
It's a very big school and I haven't been there for long and only a few know about it. But I think I haven't told anyone.
Does the work you do during the day affect your personal work?
Actually, I have an ongoing series called Spanish class. I take a picture of each of my students and I ask them for a handwritten paper where they can tell me anything they want - their names, where they're from, what they like and dislike, what is their motivation to study Spanish. It's hard meeting so many interesting people and knowing that you're never going to see them again, so I guess this is a nice way of never forgetting them and also of merging my work as a teacher and as a photographer.
If you could rearrange your time, what would be the ideal balance between your personal and professional work?
I would work two days in my personal work, two days in my professional work. And then three days in my personal work, three days in my professional work. It's a very nice system I had when I used to work in a pizza place in Reykjavík. I really enjoyed that new whole concept of time.
Images: Elo Vázquez, from Spanish class (2008)
