miranda - uts photography @13201189 - Tumblr Blog

Walker Evans, Labor Anonymous (1946)

John Harding’s colour film street photographs taken in San Francisco. Analog Days

https://johnhardingphoto.net/analog-days

I felt really inspired by Sean Mcfarland’s practice in that he made work intuitively and then pieced it together and made his works after the fact. I trust that I am instinctively collecting images and making photographs that will create a coherent series - trusting my gut and shooting HEAPS. I have shot a lot of car interiors and I don’t know why but I feel like there is something there to work with. The potential disasters or fantastic surprises that could result from shooting film is exciting and wills me to shoot soooo much so I am fully prepared for whatever happens in my photographs and I have an abundance of material to work with.

I am thinking a lot about my family - on my mum’s side, migrated from the USA to Australia - the illusion of Los Angeles being a weird, fever dream-y, expanse with no central hub, unlike any other city I have been to. Alex Prager’s entranced characters and Mike Slack explaining how there are parts of the city he has still never seen -- LA is a labyrinth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBV58kJ_sEE

mike slack’s workshop

Patrice and I drove past many idyllic suburban homes on the way to the mountains. Reminiscent of Tim Burton’s sets and the illusion of The American Dream and subsequent disillusionment. Reminded me of my grandmother’s home in Sans Souci, Sydney. “Sans Souci” meaning carefree in French. Her apartment building was called Monaco and the neighbouring building called San Remo. I find it funny - naming things after quaint European holiday destinations to build this illusion of luxury and success - when in reality it is a red brick building on a highway across from a fish shop. The parallel of The Australian Dream and The American Dream (mid century architecture, the people)

Photos from Google Maps (Monaco and the fish shop) Sans Souci, Sydney, NSW.

alex prager

Working different jobs and treating that like performance art to explore different identities.

Felt really emotional looking at the “ordinary” in William Eggleston photos.

Ben said “hidden theatre” seen in Eggleston’s work also seen in Prager’s photos.

“Being around the movie world... seeing crazy shit... there’s so much guerilla stuff you can do. I used to take advantage of being a student. People want to help you out. Take advantage of being a student.”

Special effects prop artists not having jobs (Laid off because of CGI) - Prager employs them

“Not feeling as connected to movies now. Practical effects are becoming digital not tactile and physical. We as humans respond more to tactile things”

Made the work first impulsively, Looked at it after and then realised what it’s about.

La Grande Sortie was about her stage fright and she realised that after the fact.

LA had changed so much, once she was single and now she’s a family woman, she thinks about her nostalgia - mimi plumb, Janet Delaney also discussed this balance of womanhood, family life and work.

In collaboration with the Paris Opera Ballet WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Alex Prager STARRING Émilie Cozette WITH Karl Paquette, Laurent Novis, Christine…