#forvivian

[forvivian]

An-My Lê anmyle.com

Born 1960 in Saigon, Vietnam. Lives and works in New York, NY. Has a wikipedia page. I added some, going to add more soon.

From her Art 21 interview: I think there’s always an element of something not quite understood in the sublime, something otherworldly, conflicting—something beautiful that’s not always beautiful, and something that’s not quite controllable and not within our reach. I don’t think that photography is made to capture and describe magic, but there are great magical moments in still photographs.

From her Wired interview: I guess you could call me fatalistic because I believe it was my destiny to be born in a country of war. I always try to look at the positive effects [of war] as well.

[forvivian]

Deborah Willis DebWillisPhoto.com Has a great wikipedia page! Born Philadelphia, PA 1948. Currently lives in NYC. I saw Hank Willis Thomas speak in Nashville last year. Besides speaking eloquently about his own work, he spoke a great deal about his mother, Deborah Willis. She was frustrated with photo history and the representation of black photographers and literally had to write the book on it- Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present. I am excited to see the documentary out this year. From her Art Voices article: Through the themes of community, women, and beauty, African American photographers will continue to explore the complexity of our lives through digital photography. More and more photograph collectives are meeting on Facebook and sharing their works as well as ideas about the images. Thus an expanded conversation about photography is encouraged through these groups. It is wonderful to watch online.  From her Huffington Post interview: So, I wanted to create a discussion about beauty. Since that time, I've seen a number of new books about beauty, and none really looked at black beauty. I also had cancer during this time, writing the book, and discovered that a lot of people had difficulty looking at me with a bald head. I realized that, even in illness, beauty is important.

[forvivian]

Lisa Kereszi Lisa Kereszi.com Born 1973 Pennsylvania. Currently lives in New Haven, CT. From her theArtBlog.org interview: My grandmother’s mother was an artist, as well as a nurse, an RN. They were Sunday painters, oil, watercolor, arts and crafts. My grandmother’s porcelain dolls were pretty exquisite reproductions. The kiln is still in the basement, so are the molds. Back in the 1980s, her dolls sold for maybe $400, which seems like a lot back then. I was so proud she had a show at the local public library, dolls in glass cases, and that the baby dolls my sister and I “painted” were included.

From her Urbanautica interview: I forced myself yesterday to make three appointments to shoot things I had been thinking about for months. If I am going to call myself a photographer, I ought to go take some pictures!

[forvivian]

Tara Wray TaraWray.net TaraWray.tumblr.com Born Manhattan, Kansas. Currently lives in Barnard, VT. From her Mull It Over Interview: The new book documents my return to Kansas after a long absence to visit my 86-year-old grandmother, who had been a key character in my film. The book explores themes of attachment and avoidance, as my grandmother, in the declining years of her life, and me, a new parent, confront the shared grief over our broken relationships with my mother, from whom we are both once again estranged. It reflects my ambivalence about the meaning of family, mothers and daughters, and autobiographical art. 

From her Darwin Magazine interview: I went to a Lynda Barry workshop once. She said there’s not much money in art, which I believe is true for the most part. I remember her saying – not in a discouraging way but in a realistic way – that an individual shouldn’t go into the arts unless you can’t not do your art. I like that.

[forvivian]

LaToya Ruby Frazier latoyarubyfrazier.com Born in Pittsburg, PA in 1982. Splits her time between Braddock, New York City, and New Jersey.  Working on her wikipedia. From her Huffington Post interview: I think that I've answered people with P.S.1. There will be more things to come that people won't expect. I'm not worried about boxes. There are so many different ways to talk about Braddock. If I'm talking about Braddock, I'm talking about American history, and if I'm doing that, I have global connections.

From her Art In America interview: There are four contemporary artists whose works speak to me and inspire my practice: Abigail DeVille, Coco Fusco, Alfredo Jaar and Walid Raad. All four of these artists poignantly confront blind spots in collective memory, they interrogate historical amnesia, they make visual and social representations of invisible realities and their work is heavily research-based.

[forvivian]

Hobbes Ginsberg HobbesGinsberg.com hhobbess.tumblr.com

Born ~1994 Lives in Los Angeles, CA. From her Alphabang interview: I think the photos kind of inform my identity as much as my identity informs the photos in the sense that I’m a very aesthetic-based person and so I’ll often try out something for myself in a picture before I wear it in everyday life. In the photos I try to go for something that’s very much kind of ridiculous and very bright and very much ‘there’ and using photography is the way I feel most comfortable confronting those identities- especially when there’s conflicting identities. From her txt blog: i think my photos feel more like paintings to me

i am scared that nothing i create is original / worthwhile

i am scared because when i consume media i think / talk in its voice for hours afterwards 

i was scared that reading tao lin would make me feel crazy like the time i read catcher in the rye in high school and i was positive i was going to end up in a mental hospital like holden but mostly i miss matthew donahoo

And buy one of Hobbess' zines- http://hhobbess.tumblr.com/post/91203079393/monthly-zine-issue-1-june-2014-24-pg-on !!! It is great.

[forvivian]

Natalie Krick NatalieKrick.com Born in Portland, OR. Currently lives in Fort Collins, CO.

From her Hunger TV Interview: I photograph to address my conflicting pleasure and discomfort in viewing the way women are portrayed in imagery and to question ideas of objectification and empowerment.  I photograph my mother and myself to emphasise the ways that identity is constructed and to complicate ubiquitous ways that women are imaged.  

From her Chicago Arts Archive Interview: I love the idea of covering your nail with something that looks exactly like your nail, but more perfect. It’s so much about that façade to me. And I think of portraiture as a natural deception. It’s easy to believe a picture of a person and [for the viewer] to place their own ideas about [the subject] on that picture just from what they’re wearing and how they’re posed. When people look at portraiture, so much about them comes out and how they feel about the picture.