Oranbeg Inquires: Nelson Chan
Where are you from/where are you currently residing?
I was born in New Jersey and raised between the Garden State and Hong Kong my entire life. I've been residing in New York City full time since 2007.
What is the work you are currently focusing on?
The majority of my work revolves around themes that are associated with an immigrant experience. This is rooted in my own life's identity and experience as the son of two economic migrants trying to create and maintain their own version of "The American Dream".
Besides my own photographic work, I teach quite a bit and take it very seriously. I see this as a large part of my studio practice. It keeps me engaged with the medium when I'm not actively making new photographs. I teach photography like it's a love affair and try to convince my students every week that it's the best thing on earth. In turn, this helps me to continually re-evaluate my relationship with the medium and it keeps me from becoming too jaded.
What is your opinion on the current state of photography, particularly on the photobook?
I've been an avid collector of photography books since my freshman year of college (2001). The Scalo edition of The American's was one of the first photobooks I had ever purchased, but it wasn't until a couple of years later when I transferred to the Rhode Island School of Design, that I realized the book was more than just a collection of photographs. It was here where I began to notice the nuances of images working together in sequenced form. I finally had teachers that talked to me about the book being a container of ideas and concepts and that each page added to cumulative understanding. I vividly remember paging through a beat up copy of my professor's, Beyond Caring, by Paul Graham, in class and this was instrumental to my education. I now bring my own books into class for my students to thumb through on a regular basis. It was a gift of an experience for me and I am happy to continue that in my own curriculum.
Back in 2004, I had seen Alec Soth's first solo NYC show at the Yossi Milo Gallery and bought a 1st ed. copy of Sleeping by the Mississippi. At the time, I knew I was responding to his work viscerally, but just couldn't explain its impact quite yet. Then during my junior year at RISD, at the cusp of his stardom, Alec was invited to be a visiting artist and his lecture was pretty influential. I was able to see passed the curtain into his own process. The book form was so intrinsic to how he saw his work and this changed a lot of things for me. Fortunately, Alec became one of my teachers at the Hartford Art School, where I got my MFA. It's important for me to be laying this out there because I think my graduate program is at the forefront of this photobook movement (if you can call it that) and it's insane/amazing/exciting to think that there's a graduate program in photography focusing so purely on this form as final execution.
Photography has always been a medium to ride in the wake of technological advancements and the digital age has made production, distribution, and PR so much easier and cost effective for small publishers, artists, and business owners today. Because of the wider exposure, I love that a younger generation of students and photographers are becoming more aware of the book as a form, but it's a double-edged sword. I won't dwell on what's problematic, but I'll just say that it's easier to have photobook fatigue now more than ever. Each year the annual "best of" book lists get more and more obscure. There are so many imprints and artists self-publishing that it can be overwhelming, but ultimately, it's a really really good thing. I could be wrong, but I don't think Oranbeg Press (John O'Toole), TBW Books (Paul Schiek), A-Jump Books (Ron Jude/Danielle Mericle), or a bunch of other indie publishers would have existed 30 years ago. There's a vitality that these men/women are adding to the conversation and the photography world is better for it. 30 years ago, you wanted to have a big publisher make 15,000 copies of your book so that it could reach a wider audience. That was the whole point of ink on paper and the invention of the halftone dot, but it's totally changed in today's world. We now use digital technology and social networking to promote our limited edition 200 copy book. It's about casting a very wide net to hopefully grab the buying interest of a small percentage of enthusiasts, and personally, I don't see this as a problem. I prefer smaller editions with possible re-releases if they sell out. The only downside to this is that smaller runs usually equates to higher production/retail costs.
But it's not just the current state of the photobook that we should be talking about. It's also the current state of publishing. Just a few decades ago, vanity publishing was always looked down upon. It was seen as wealthy people with the financial means to produce a fancy book, but thankfully, things have become more affordable and now the stigma is gone. However, self-publishing aside, the above publishers previously mentioned as well as J&L Books (Jason Fulford), Little Brown Mushroom (Alec Soth), Spaces Corners (Ed Panar/Melissa Cantanese), Orchard Journals (Raymond Meeks) and Nobody Books (Stephen Gill) were all started by practicing artists. 40 years ago, Lee Friedlander was the only person really self-publishing, but this was purely a business decision for him to maintain copyright over his books. Publishing today has become a part of the creative process. Now, you can go to the NY Art Book Fair and bank on talking to Ron Jude or Alec Soth while they charge your credit card. It's just another way for artists to interject themselves into the conversation and it's wondrous.
As a tangent though, I will say this - even though a younger generation of photographers are becoming more familiar with the book as an art form, when it comes to constructing singular images, I think that photography specifically made for the internet can and is contributing to a dumbing down of photographic literacy. At the beginning of each semester, I see a lot of my students coming into my classes making photographs that are tailored to the speed of a mouse click and the desire of a "like". I have to spend a lot of time exposing them to the brilliant edge-to-edge organized chaos of a Winogrand frame, the importance of photographic description in a Walker Evans', or the genius behind the uncomfortable nature of Diane Arbus.
Favorite Photo Blog?
I don't spend a lot of time looking through photography blogs anymore, but the ones I do pay attention to are the blogs that are teaching me something. I like The Great Leap Sideways quite a bit. American Suburb X is wonderful and I love what Sean O'Hagan does at The Guardian.
And even though I went on a tangent about the current state of photographic literacy due to internet photography I will say this - I like Tumblr, but absolutely LOVE Instagram. I often compare my love of photography to my love of food. Mark Steinmetz's, South Central, is my ramen - it's deceptively simple, deeply complex, and feeds my soul. Christian Patterson's, Redheaded Peckerwood, is kind of like molecular gastronomy - it's a cool, distant, deconstructed, fragmented re-interpretation of narrative storytelling, and very contemporary. Instagram is my Cool Ranch Doritos. Not all of it, but most of it is just junk food. It's really enjoyable, but there is usually no substance that is nourishing. It's also become a really great way to keep in touch with a lot of my former students and that's become one of my favorite things about it.
Favorite Photobook?
One of my best friends and I loved the film, High Fidelity, with John Cusack, and we always play the top 5 records game, ranking our favorite punk bands. So in honor of him, I'll give you my top 5 books (only somewhat in order). But as an aside, it's a part of the game's nature for the list to constantly change as we, as well as the landscape of contemporary art, changes. So if you ask me a year from now, it will probably be somewhat different.
Robert Frank's, The Americans, will always be my all-time favorite photography book. After over 50 years, it's still the benchmark for what I strive for in its approach and form. The book's cultural, social, political, artistic, and personal impact (on Frank as well as myself) is something that continually inspires me. There are still mysteries about the book that keep me humble and that's very exciting. I can only hope to make something that will keep people questioning after 5+ decades.
Alec Soth's, Sleeping by the Mississippi, because it came to me at a crucial time in my academic life. I was frustrated with photography because I was image-taking and not image-making. It was all 35mm, quantity over quality, and Sleeping... really made me slow down and think about what I was pointing my camera at. I know Alec hates talking about tech, but his move to large format photography inspired me to shoot with a view camera and it was a game changer. I no longer shoot film, but am so much more confident in what I am looking for when I'm making pictures.
Larry Sultan's, Pictures from Home, because I've spent the past 8 years photographing my family and this book has been one of my bibles. Sultan's writing is so damn good and it's a perfect example of a book that weaves writing, archival materials, and photographs so well by the artist/author.
Paul Graham's, A Shimmer of Possibility, for its contemporary voice. Paul isn't the first person to sequence images that show the passage of time, but it's definitely the work that influenced me the most when using this vocabulary. The book is insanely intelligent and shows an artist who is constantly trying to re-evaluate his relationship to the medium of photography while still making work that is connected to his roots of sharp British social commentary.
Leonie Hampton's, In the Shadow of Things. I think this is one of the best books I've gotten in the past few years. I'm just ridiculously jealous of these magical moments she was able to capture of her family. It's photography about life lived in and not about a life looked at.
I feel bad because there are soooooooo many other books that I haven't mentioned, but based on principle, I can't leave out Mark Steinmetz's, South Central, or three of my best friends from grad school are gonna be mad at me. So there...
Oranbeg Inquires is a series of informal interviews with the artists that have participated in Oranbeg’s Interleaves, Books and the NET exhibitions. Nelson has an interleaf.
**You still have time to submit to NET 6: Art as Theory deadline is June 5!
**And send in a submission for Beta!