viridiana

In his own way, this white-haired man standing a bit awkwardly at the podium and holding a stark wrinkled typed paragraph impersonates and then introduces her. Miranda walks out and the audience claps, and we clap too, then laugh because she can’t hear us. We, a crowd of a hundred fifty or so, are sitting in the “overflow” room, which is one wall separated from the newly minted Billy Wilder theater, which seats 295, which is where she’s standing, which is sold out.

Displays of affection abound. There’s a vibe of excitement stemming from the line that curves up from the stairs of the first floor to the second, leading to a small terribly lit corner at the Hammer bookstore (which sadly failed to stock up on enough books, “No One Belongs Here More Than You” was sold out before the signing started). There is July. She has an affable smile and seems a bit shy compared to the energy of the people in front of her. People take photographs, 600’s, 680’s, 690’s and big shot polaroids all make their debut. Two things I will likely remember: the moment her friends showed up in a flash mob to give her a group hug. And her hands. She has pianist hands that would be great to sketch in a life-drawing class (to see what I’m talking about, take a look at this Blonde Redhead video).

Unfortunately he just passed away, a little bit over a month ago, from cancer-related complications. He was only 78 years young and one of the people whose work I truly love.

I spent last Saturday at Photo L.A. and while there attended Alec’s lecture wherein learned that he is still known in some circles as “the sheep photographer” (in his early days he took a lot of portraits of sheep); sometimes uses impressive hand gestures to convince strangers to pose (well captured on video by an assistant) and doesn’t think of himself as a “deep photographer.” All in all an entertaining lecture about his work and where he is heading next.

Afterwards, I caught up with him at the Magnum photobooth to get a copy of “Niagara” autographed and chatted about polaroids (incidentally he’d just started to play with a Spectra and couldn’t get the flash to turn off), double exposures (I am not sure why I brought it up because it doesn’t appear in any of his work) and portraiture. In taking the photo above he asked if he could cover his eyes and I nodded. It is very hard not to like Soth, he is funny, insanely easy to talk to and approachable. Alec rocks! I wish him continued sucess in all of his work.

Thomas talked about his work and process at the Hammer Museum this past weekend. He stumbled upon photography in the sense that he was a sculptor first and became a photographer (by necessity, as a way to document his work) second. This eventually led to his current work—photographs derived from public photographs, recreated as life-sized paper sculptures/models, which once photographed are destroyed.

Above he is a bit serious (unlike smiley Mark Ryden) and signing a copy of “Phototrophy.”

Above is his memorial wall. Taken this past october twenty-first, three years from when he passed away.

Our first meeting couldn’t have made a better impression—a confection of meat (in the form of stamps), a life sized bunny (a very obliging friend considering the hot weather), Abe Lincoln (self-promoting as the Best Abe Lincoln ever, second only to the real Abe and important because Ryden was the first artist to paint the president) and polaroids! ;-)

All this at MOCA for Mark Ryden’s “Fushigi Circus” signing.

Massive quantities of poloroids… That’s super-swell!!! They’re all good, too.

She’s a rockstar and lucky for me, spent much of the concert (at the Henry Fonda Theater in L.A., March 23) in front of me, or maybe I was in front of her, whichever it is, my camera and I are impressed.

He likes to deconstruct things. “Cosmic Thing,” a nineteen seventy-six beetle, was acquired by MOCA on 2002 and just premiered at their “Recent Acquisitions” show.