24 June 2007

the old guard & the avant-garde

The shift from multitasking to singlemindedness feels like real relaxation… or maybe it’s just the mountain air. Still, as busy as I will be teaching here at the Penland School of Crafts, it’s a delight to focus my mind on Photography. Not only do I get a chance to Preach and Praise, but I get time to sit on this hill and think about the Big Important Things.

There are a few separate streams flowing into this River of thought, some of which I’ve mentioned already. I’m reading over the notes for a new edition of Christopher James’ Book of Alternative Processes. I have just finished designing a book (well, okay, three books) of my own work, spanning 15 years of my life. And I’m riding the wave of ideas for my show this fall – though, I must admit, I’m in a trough. Needless to say, I’m feeling, um, Retrospective.

I’ve been coming to Penland for 15 years now, and it continues to grow and change in great ways, much to the chagrin of many of the old guard. This place is really a lot like Camp – Art Camp for Grown-Ups. Since I never did Camp as a kid, it took me a while to understand the intensity of emotion it brings. (For a better insight, see the recent episode of This American Life, Notes on Camp.) Almost instantly, one feels deeply and importantly Connected – forever! – to this place. It happened to me when I first arrived in 1992 as a hippie-hating, city-loving punk. In two days I was wearing tie-dye in the drum circle! (Okay, yes, I’m joking, but I did enjoy the vegetarian food!)

One big issue here is how the Photography studio will change as things improve. Should it become more Digital, as all photography is? Or should it just accept that now all of its studios – Photography as well as, say, Iron – teach old and obsolete processes? I have an awful lot to say about this actually, but I’ll save it for later. Meanwhile, I’m teaching a class called Re-Inventing Photography... ha!

Like at Camp, great emotions grow quickly from this ground. I look forward (with only occasional dread) to witnessing the friendships, battles, loves and rivalries all set to occur in these next coupla weeks. Class begins this evening…