Until now that is, and as both hard disks chug away backing-up the Backup, I’m rather reluctant to ask my poor pathetic computer to do anything too strenuous, in case it dies of exhaustion. So far, it seems happy enough running Safari which is allowing me to send out this metaphorical message in a bottle to warn of submerged digital rocks that could leave precious files stranded.

So far, I haven’t lost too much stuff, in terms of actual digital folders. All my music seems to be corrupted, but I’ve got that on my actual computer, and since I am quite passionate about the music album as an art form, all my CDs are safe and sound in a real, physical sense. Oh, and a small folder marked “BA work”…

Yes, I’m pretty sure everything digitized from my BA has been corrupted. These were on CDs/DVDs which I chucked after I put everything cleanly on my Backup drive, but in a stupid space-saving exercise not dissimilar (but on a far less significant scale) to the BBC burning master tapes of Doctor Who episodes to free up shelves in their archive. Thankfully, the majority of my projects throughout my BA were shot on film, and, unlike some later digital images, they actually existed from the moment the film was exposed and processed, and those negatives are safe and sound. I had a few essays on there too, but again, unlike at a lot of colleges today, these were actually printed out and read on paper rather than assessed on a screen, so I have these too. Thankfully the same is true of my projects. These were made, printed and mounted, or bound in a book, and these can’t be corrupted, not at least by any malfunctioning piece of kit or algorithm.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel pretty foolish for not keeping on top of my file management, and I haven’t yet checked through every single folder to see what else I might have lost. As a professional, I have a duty to properly look after the material that I have created for other people, which I have neglected to do properly. But if I’ve only lost material that does actually exist (albeit not in quite such an infinitive, reproducible, digital format) no damage has really been done. In fact, it feels almost liberating: The work has been made; it’s served its function. If it can’t be re-printed, re-edited, re-contextualized, so what? Isn’t it a little presumptuous to preserve everything we type or photograph, generating our own archive? Who is really going to ever want to see all of it? Are we like pharaohs hoarding all of our virtual belongings in our digital pyramids? Will it follow us to the afterlife, when we too will no longer exist in a physical state? As I said, I need to see what else I’ve lost before going to over the top!

Seriously though, take it from me – get your disks in order. It’ll save a lot of worry! If you do decide to chuck it, you can just hit “delete”. It’s cheaper than a box matches.

The documentary was made over a period of about three years, beginning when Visschedyk was thirteen, and showered a hail of flashes at Grenier at a red carpet event one night in Hollywood. We see footage of Grenier running after Visschedyk, not because he’s angry, but rather because he’s intrigued by this pint-sized-pap, who has successfully hustled his way amidst the dozens of other image hungry photographers.

Grenier describes his curiosity to why members of the public are interested in him and other celebrities, pointing out the irony of how he is famous for his performance as a celebrity in HBO’s Entourage series. (There is a very handy graphic illustrating how sometimes it’s like boundaries between the fiction and reality of his life are hard to distinguish. Thanks for that.)

The film documents Visschedyk at work and with his family, particularly his mother who is unusually supportive of him staying out on school nights (which is every night, as he’s home schooled) until 3am, following celebrities and waiting for them outside clubs and restaurants. There is also plenty of content on the subject more generally, featuring interviews with actors, including Matt Damon, Eva Longoria and Paris Hilton, as well as other industry figures and academics.

Whilst this, in itself, is interesting, where this project really excels is in the story it documents, or rather creates. That isn’t a cynical comment about documentary ethics, but rather, during the course of the project, the attention Visschedyk receives from Grenier brings in wider interest, and Visschedyk’s notoriety goes global, beyond his native LA. What we first see as a thoroughly enterprising, energetic and articulate kid begins to turn a little sour, as he himself becomes… a celebrity. A network even wants to shoot a pilot for a reality show about him. He talks less of his ambition to be a photographer and more about being a celebrity. Feeling somewhat responsible for the beast he has created, Genier realizes the only way to fix him is to show him the documentary thus far, which helps put Visschedyk’s feet back on the ground and certainly opens his mothers eyes a little wider to her son’s exploits and the risks he’s exposed to.

It takes seeing this unfinished film for Visschedyk to grasp a deeper comprehension of the ethical questions and complexities of the negative aspects of what paparazzi actually do. Until that point, when people asked him “what are you doing?” as Visschedyk desperately darts around, shooting as many frames-per-second as his motor drive will allow, (actually it’s usually intoned more like “what are you doing, Austin?”, as in perhaps “why aren’t you at home or hanging out with your buddies?” rather than a philosophical question), Visschedyk replies “I’m just doing my job!”.

As far as I’m aware, “I’m just doing my job” seems to be the answer given by most paparazzi and the more invasive journalists, as well as traffic wardens, for that matter. It says a lot when an early or mid profession pap can’t come up with a better justification than a teenager. Yes, they may be doing a job, but there are plenty of other ways to make a living that don’t routinely involve pissing people off. If there is one thing teenagers are really excellent at doing, it’s pissing people off without really caring, so perhaps they make much better paparazzi?

Now 16 and driving a BMW rather than riding a skateboard, a calmer, wiser Visschedyk comments upon the brat that he saw he was in the documentary. I think that’s a little unfair on himself: who isn’t selfish and egotistical as a teenager? And given that he had (and I’m sure still has) girls literally falling all over him, and was being greeted by Paris Hilton with “hey, Sexy!”, I think we can cut him some slack. But I supposed I should have expected such a happy ending from a film made in Hollywood, by a Hollywood star, and about Hollywood. (Please don’t get any ideas, Mr. Spielberg.)

Despite the relatively brief brat period, it’s difficult to have anything but sheer respect for Visschedyk: Managing to earn the respect of fellow paparazzi and sell his pictures at such a young age is an impressive feat. Whilst he has obviously had some financial help to invest in the necessary equipment for his profession, he’s managed to sustain the business and be successful at it, which, for that matter is no mean feat for any area of photography. As his mother and Whoopi Goldberg point out, he now has to prove himself as a great image-maker, and not just able to rely on his youth and his charm to stand out amidst the competition.

I don’t mean for this post to be a rant about the paparazzi. Although they don’t do themselves any favours by clinging to the secrecy they deny their subjects, or rather their ‘quarry’ (‘subject’ implies connection and collaboration), I think they get enough negative feedback. A capitalist society means that there will always be someone providing a service for which there is a demand, so my beef is with the people who consume this vacuous trash (gossip magazines, reality TV shows etc etc): they are creating the demand and paparazzi help fulfill it. Teenage Paparazzo is a really interesting piece of work, one which I hope may be used to educate young people about the emptiness of celebrity and hopefully will to inspire them to achieve greater things. Be forewarned though – despite it’s ‘Exempt’ classification,  the film does contain some colourful language!

See the movie’s website: http://www.teenagepaparazzo.com/

and Teenage Paparazzo on iMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1232206/

buy the dvd on Amazon.co.uk 

I received a write up from Gareth Dent on the OCA bulletin about a study visit to the Mitch Epstein show, American Power (or extract of) that was recently on show at Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, which has prompted me to think again about this body of work. Since I got a copy of the monograph, Epstein’s images have stayed on my mind, and it is a book that I have – unusually – found myself returning to again and again over the past year or so.

Epstein’s narrative drifts around the complex issues of energy, economy, security and neo-conservatism in the United States. I don’t think “drift” is a bad word to describe the sequencing of the images, and I don’t mean this in a negative sense, or to imply it lacks conviction in any way. But photographs lurch from, to pick a fairly random example, an image taken in a motor sales room selling gas-guzzling Dodge Rams in front of a garish mural depicting pioneers ‘heading out West’, to a baptism taking place in a lake with a nuclear power plant’s cooling towers in the background. This is a complex mix of images from an infinitely complex country, to which many have, and certainly had during the Bush Jnr. era, very mixed feeling.

There is an unusual mix of genre in the project. The majority of images are (industrial) landscapes, but there are plenty of portraits and other images to provide detail to the massive scale of most the infrastructure depicted, and the subject more generally, for that matter. The project is certainly not without humour, albeit ironic and at times living the viewer feel awkward. (See, if you can, for instance, the “Terror Free Oil ” pump in Omaha, Nebrasks [plt. 8])

[Sorry about the really crappy reproduction. On the pump is printed a flow chart of the possible commercial routes of the petrol/money, which lead to either "Islamic Terrorists" or the "War on Terror" itself. There is also a choice of either "Terror-Free Bio Diesel", "Terror-Free Super" or plain old "Terror-Free Unleaded".]

“Research” is a word I don’t often feel entirely comfortable with, in terms of describing what might be taking place when we turn our cameras – albeit with rigour, commitment and professionalism – upon a particular subject. Sometimes I feel it’s just too easy to photograph something and believe that you are connecting and scrutinising a subject. But within American Power, there is a real sense that the photographer has, literally, gone to the edges of his subject to take samples and gained a genuine  insight to it as a result. Not to mention how well his work is communicated in the images themselves…

American Power was one of the first shows at Open Eye Gallery’s new space at the Mann Island development in Liverpool, which was certainly a great way to kick start the gallery’s exhibition programme. A few images from the series are currently part of the New Documentary Forms exhibit at Tate Modern until March 31st.

See American Power on Mitch Epstein’s website

New Documentary Forms at the Tate

Susan & Mitch’s site: What is American Power?

Something I’ve been mulling over for some while, but never really had the impetus to really give it a go. So what’s changed? Writing style for one. My gosh, this feels quite a lot freer than doing proper writing, for an editor, or (heaven forbid) a student to read, be cross, re-read, analyse, feel a bit less cross (I hope), then let me know exactly how they feel about what I’ve written about their work. Seriously, it’s time to embrace technology a little more and see what useful tools are out there and how I might make the most of them. So this is just a start, I hope.

So, how will this blog be different to the thousands of other photography blogs out there? Well, for starters, I’m not having any delusions of grandeur. Not yet anyway. Plenty of other photographers/writers have been blogging for a long time, and I know I’ve got a lot to learn if I’m going to do this properly.

I may use it, from time to time, use this as a space to vent my frustrations with the medium. Like friends and family, when you spend a lot of time with something or someone, you can develop a fiery relationship. It’s not going to be all “wow, look at this… check out this awesome whatever…” But I’ll use it to share work I think is interesting for one reason or another, and try to explain why I think worth taking a look at.

For those of you who are unfortunate enough to know me, you will appreciate that there is a diversity to what I do, including, commercial photography, writing and teaching, as well as working on my own projects. Music, cooking and gardening are also pretty key to keeping me sane as well. So, this might be a place for me to conflate some of these aspects. (Not the music and cooking though. That’s just for me. But if you are into gardening, check out my Old Man’s blog: http://www.veggingoutwithadam.com he’s been on the interweb for years and I think it says a lot when your dad is this much further ahead of the game than you are.)

So I’ll be using it to keep track of what I’m up to and that sort of thing. If I don’t post for a while, it might be that I’m far too busy and I’m doing something really exciting on the other side of the world. I probably won’t, but I’ll do my best to think of something.

Thanks for tuning in…