Oh, Illinois

Main Street, Chadwick, Illinois 2006 © Dave Jordano

When I checked my email today, I was greeted with my subscription from Culturehall. The current feature, Inside Out, curated by Tema Stauffer includes Juliana Beasley, Wayne Liu, Heather Musto, and Dave Jordano. While I have seen his photos before, I was struck by Jordano’s work this morning. I am pretty sure it has to do with the fact that I am originally from Chicago and his project, Prarieland, focuses on rural Illinois. While I lived in the city itself, I have traveled the roads and highways of rural Illinois quite a bit – as a child with my parents, road trips with friends, and photographing as an adult. Not that upstate New York can’t provide me with nature and give me a break from the always hectic city - Jordano’s images made me a bit homesick. Rural America often tends to have a similar feel, but there is just something about the Midwest that cannot be replicated, for me at least.

This also sparked a lot of thought about photography and things I have been reading over the past couple of weeks. Recently there has been a lot of discussion (on blogs and in person) on similar photographs/projects, etc. A good read on this topic is over on Conscientious, Jorg Colberg’s blog. I actually have no problem what-so-ever with similar work (within reason). There is obviously a line that should not be crossed, which to me is common sense – but I don’t really want to talk about copyright infringement and people copying other people’s work and so on. Instead, I have been thinking about various artists doing projects on similar, if not the same places, in similar styles, etc. I have heard people say, “Does the world really need another Stephen Shore?” or so and so place has already been covered by so and so photographer. But does this really matter? In my opinion, a different artist usually brings something new to the work and it is not the same as Shore’s or Sternfeld’s or whoever, because it is shot today, not in 1970 - whatever. Heck, I have been shooting Queens since I moved to New York a number of years ago only to find out a year and a half into shooting, that Queens College commissioned photography greats, Joel Sternfeld and Frank Gohlke to shoot the borough. Does this bother me? No. Did I ever think I would be the only one to shoot Queens? No. However, I feel the work is different enough, because I am seeing the landscape in a totally different way, as a newcomer, resident – culture shock from moving here from Chicago, etc. etc. At any rate, I think that it is somewhat selfish to limit the things/places we photograph (not that people do... and again, within reason) because there is a greater audience out there other than the photo/art world (that sees things completely differently and has way more exposure to different artists and work than the average person). What is overkill to one person is loved by another. But we already knew this.

Anyway, I don't usually write this much and I am rambling at this point, so I will stop. I hope all that makes sense. Until next time...