A gift especially for you

An artist statement which appears to be written by a live, warm, human being. We knew it was possible!

I took this picture at the childhood home of Hank Williams, Sr. This was his boyhood bed, though the curtains were posthumously donated to the home (it's now a little museum/shrine). The curtains were handmade and show the lyrics and music to the song "Your Cheatin' Heart." There's a really wonderful lady who tends to the home and the souvenirs and things. Also, once a year out back, they have a concert of people singing like Hank Sr.

Here's the picture.

Suzanne Mooney [via Conscientious, as a Google Reader shared item with comment]

"Make Love to the Camera (2004 – Ongoing) is an expanding collection of diagrammatic drawings found in photographic manuals and glamour/fetish photo books depicting how to photograph the female nude. Each image depicts a diagram of a naked or semi-naked woman in a studio set-ups surrounded by lights, cameras and props. Instead of following the instructions of the diagram, I photograph the diagram itself. The work denies the erotic charge that the photographic images may have, and becomes a humorous but disturbing comment on glamour photography." - Suzanne Mooney (found via The Sonic Blog)

Factory-generated artist statement #2345

I generally look to 20x200 for highly bloggable artist statements, but please let me know if you know of another good source. I'm open to fresh, life-affirming artist statements, not just ones like these which make me shudder:

This image is from the series Paradise, an exploration of areas where the contrast between nature and development is at an extreme. I am specifically interested in revealing the inconsistencies between modern occupation of a rural landscape and the suburban infrastructure that comes along with this habitation. By utilizing aesthetic techniques that have roots in mid–19th century painting, namely the Hudson River School movement, it is my intention to confront the contemporary landscape with an unencumbered eye.

Translation: "I like to take pictures of the places where man made stuff and nature stuff meet." You know, that's totally cool! The image is pretty nice! But the writing is so ponderous that the image can't possibly support it. This cannot be the way forward, can it?

I, I, I

In a culture that is permeated by consumerism and easily lured by status-enhancing symbols, I find beauty in derelict cars and unkempt buildings. As the urban industrial landscape around me continues to evolve, artifacts like these are often overlooked.

In this particular series, I commemorate commercial vehicles inundated with graffiti and rust. Removing them from their everyday context, I place them on a solid color field giving them portrait-like importance. With devoted attention, I paint every imperfection and sign of age. Isolating these objects allows me a chance to document a time and place, and to make still a part of the ever-changing urban environment.

See the resulting work here. I can only read the words "I commemorate" in a breathy, faux-hippie voice.

Honest

Finally! An artist statement on 20x200 that's written well.

Laugarás, Iceland by Bob O'Connor

The rural landscape of Iceland is full of horses that are allowed to run wild for most of the year. Unfortunately, this also means that the horses aren't that interested in seeing people with cameras. Everytime I got out of the car to attempt a photograph the horses would turn and run away. On the last day of the trip, after two weeks of trying, I found some horses that were cooperative and let me photograph them. It took a bribe, in the form of some green apples and grass, but I think we all won out in the end. I got my photograph and they got a tasty snack.

I walked by the Jen Bekman gallery last week in New York (she runs 20x200) but it was closed, and I left early the next day. Too bad. Why did I not realize it was there earlier?

Good photographers writing badly; plus another person's picture

In Marco Bohr's Observatories series I've found something that's a little bit similar to what I'd like to do with the project I mentioned yesterday. It's not exactly the same in concept - he photographs people looking at stuff, not necessarily being looked at - but the results are close to what I'd like to get myself. Also, all the photos are taken in Japan, so I'm definitely a fan.

© Marco Bohr

if i'm not pretentious enough to blog this image, just let me know man

The series is well worth a look, and yeah I wish that I took some of these pictures myself. I'm not really sure how much I can support some of the prose in his artist statement, though:

The undefined scenery and washed out highlights are as much an invitation to imagine the view of a landscape, as it is an invitation to define our self.

This is so nauseating. Where are the anti-humanist photographers? Who are the photographers destroying photography? Is it unrealistic to ask for someone to give at least a nod to the absurdity inherent in the active financial subsidy of this type of image? I'm sure these photographers must exist, can someone enlighten me? Shouldn't Marco Bohr be laughing just a little harder?

I'll put myself on the chopping block now. Here's a picture I took over the summer, also in Japan, which would be part of the Other people's photos project. A professional-looking black border probably isn't going to save this one. Feel free to chastise me in the comments for posting this.

I'm keeping a set on Flickr of photos that might work for the project, but I won't even make any bones about it, I have a long ways to go.