Chu Hà Thanh: The 15 second ritual, slowly the objects, the bodies and the light get sucked and processed in the camera. The body, skin and nakedness are intimate and beautiful, revealing and richly textured, not shocking at all. There is something unclear between light and dark in this silent still. It is a very subtle and playful image. I stare at it and I think it is so erotic, even perverse and disturbing.
So, do you feel perverse, do you feel immoral?
The two young girls in high school uniforms and their shirts opened loosely like the way guys have theirs open, and the very subtle image of the naked middle-aged man in the shadow, almost invisible to eyes impatiently flipping through the image. It’s like, a really uneasy twisted wet dream.
So, do you feel perverse, do you feel immoral?
Jamie Maxtone-Graham: I suppose if I was unaware of the loaded nature of two school girls in uniforms sitting together with their shirts open, I might be rightly accused of some sort of perversion or immorality; or maybe just plain ignorance. I will wholly acknowledge the fertile sexual nature of the image and my interest in creating something that directly participates in that space without it being seen as perverse or immoral. I think as adults we can and should feel like a healthy dialog about sex, sexual issues, age, maleness, femaleness is appropriate and I think as creative people that it can and should enter the public discourse. I have looked at a lot of work by Balthus (who made many, many provocative images of young girls) and of the photographs of Japanese photographer Hisaji Hara (who made work after Balthus), and I was interested in exploring some of that ethos in my own work and this series seemed to present that opportunity.
For better or worse, I have to admit to the attraction of making sexually charged images, though not for that very express purpose.
For better or worse, I have to admit to the attraction of making sexually charged images, though not for that very express purpose. It’s a very difficult balance – to get into the essence of the idea of the image – to generate the charge, participate in it while remaining true to the intention, to the meaning of the work without being consumed by the moment – to take that charge and inject it into the image. That takes a kind of restraint while it also requires a healthy lust for what is real and what is human. But I think it requires a distance too, an objectivity. I don’t think I could step comfortably into the kind of work (Chinese photographer) Ren Hang or Sandy Kim make, for example, but I admire what they do. But their seeming boundary-less aesthetic also has some built in limits (for me). I suppose I wanted this work to feel more personal than work I’ve made to date and if the nature of who I am as a sexual being comes through, that’s fine.
