Nguyễn Huy An: When I entered the studio, I did not expect it to be that small. I looked at the photos and had a feeling that it’d be spacious. The lights and things in the room were so beautiful; and I loved the vintage atmosphere and the dark corner of the studio. It’s like an old painting with surreal details, which suits me perfectly. On my way into the room, I wanted to be a character in the photo. I even wanted to have some more photos taken.
I wonder: before taking the photo, did he worry about people overacting, and about the photo being overly fashionable?
I don’t have many questions on this art series; I don’t know what to ask. At first, I had some doubts whether the settings factor and the slow speed of the photo affected the natural sense of the portraits; however, when I looked at them, I could still see it. Even though it is not something new, this is a complete and beautiful art work. The contrast between the character in the light, and Jamie as the main character silently in the dark is very lively. I wonder: before taking the photo, did he worry about people overacting, and about the photo being overly fashionable?
Jamie Maxtone-Graham: I think beauty in art can work in a number of different ways. Beauty can and perhaps has certainly become cliché and function in a way that undermines the work; ‘attractiveness’ replacing meaning or a clever eye substituted for depth or concept. I think because we are so assaulted by beauty in every possible way through commerce and advertising, it’s become a kind of shorthand language that we simply consume as thoughtlessly as a plastic bag. But I think Beauty is also a tool and can be a means to connect to an idea. I was interested in creating a certain kind of image with a certain quality of light and a palette of colors that was muted, soft and fully of deep shadow and I was interested in (hopeful for) the potential for Beauty to come from that combination of elements as a means to connect to an idea or ideas about history, art, photography and my relationship with these things. It is a way in, a door. I think getting someone to stop in front of an image because they find Beauty, getting them to linger and pause to find other things, this is not a bad device. Beauty is a language; it is both the word and the definition of the word. That’s a complicated thing and the definition is certainly different for everyone who looks at or listens to or feels something beautiful.
Many people in this series, including you and your performance group (Appendix), are artists or poets or creative in some way. You all have this relationship with B/beauty – struggle with it, massage it, ignore it, reject it. It is always a part of work either by inclusion or exclusion, by embrace or by assault. But somehow, in our own ways and with each work, we find some place to exist with, or next to, the beauty that is appropriate for that work.
The best thing for me in creating this believable fiction, is that the people in the images are accepting of or simply ignoring the condition they are in.
I wasn’t worried about people performing in the images at all. I have made enough work with other people now and I know what I am looking for in terms of facial expression. I mean, look, the images are not natural – there is, as you noted, a surreal element to them. So the best thing for me in creating this believable fiction, is that the people in the images are accepting of or simply ignoring the condition they are in. It is their/our environment we are seen in and are part of. Whether I am working in the streets making portraits or in this studio, the process of getting people to simply relax into themselves and their environment is the same exercise for me. The differences arise with each person and the approach I need to take towards getting to that state of performative non-perfomance, of being and not doing. I sat in on acting classes in Los Angeles for many years and I observed a lot of processes. I use them and I also just enjoy relating personally to people in these conditions towards finding that state of being I am looking to capture.
