sábado, 15 de agosto de 2009
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lunes, 23 de febrero de 2009
From El Zocalo, Saltillo, Mexico daily paper
John Sevigny: El arte y su sentido social
27/11/2008 - 04:00 AM
Saltillo, Coah.- El rechazo ante la situación de violencia e impunidad que se vive actualmente en el país ha ocupado espacios de todo tipo, incluso el arte.
John Sevigny, fotógrafo y coordinador de la exposición “Mujeres”, que se exhibe en el Teatro del IMSS, invitó a los artistas locales a utilizar al arte como un arma de autodefensa e intentar crear conciencia en la
sociedad.
“La idea básica es que en estos tiempo difíciles el arte es un arma, por eso creamos para expresar un rechazo duro en contra de los que matan y dañan a mujeres, no somos un grupo de artistas con temas comunes, queremos dejar una conciencia.
El artista expuso que los creadores de la época tienen el compromiso de reflejar la situación social en la que viven, para así transmitirla a todo tipo de público, pues la mayoría comparte la visión de la injusticia.
“No podemos seguir haciendo arte bonito y lindo para los comedores y las salas, mientras la gente muere y tiene hambre, tal vez es tiempo de modificar un poco el concepto del arte”, apuntó.
En EU, dijo, “ya se opta por este tipo de exposiciones, donde el tema rector es la inconformidad, el daño que se hace contra un grupo determinado, mientras todos nos quedamos observando sin hacer nada”.
El fotógrafo mencionó que en México, el arte social sería la manera más sencilla de protestar contra el maltrato y la pobreza.
“Aquí ustedes pueden hacerlo, a los mexicanos y a todos les gusta ir a una exposición y observar, se pueden hacer retratos excelentes, hablando de técnica (…), pero que finalmente dejan un mensaje de una realidad”.
Se trata de que a través de la pintura, fotografía, escultura y demás expresiones artística, sostuvo Sevigny, la gente pueda aprender y reflexionar sobre lo que se puede hacer para no contribuir a la difícil situación de ine-quidad social.
John Sevigny, fotógrafo y coordinador de la exposición “Mujeres”, que se exhibe en el Teatro del IMSS, invitó a los artistas locales a utilizar al arte como un arma de autodefensa e intentar crear conciencia en la
sociedad.
“La idea básica es que en estos tiempo difíciles el arte es un arma, por eso creamos para expresar un rechazo duro en contra de los que matan y dañan a mujeres, no somos un grupo de artistas con temas comunes, queremos dejar una conciencia.
El artista expuso que los creadores de la época tienen el compromiso de reflejar la situación social en la que viven, para así transmitirla a todo tipo de público, pues la mayoría comparte la visión de la injusticia.
“No podemos seguir haciendo arte bonito y lindo para los comedores y las salas, mientras la gente muere y tiene hambre, tal vez es tiempo de modificar un poco el concepto del arte”, apuntó.
En EU, dijo, “ya se opta por este tipo de exposiciones, donde el tema rector es la inconformidad, el daño que se hace contra un grupo determinado, mientras todos nos quedamos observando sin hacer nada”.
El fotógrafo mencionó que en México, el arte social sería la manera más sencilla de protestar contra el maltrato y la pobreza.
“Aquí ustedes pueden hacerlo, a los mexicanos y a todos les gusta ir a una exposición y observar, se pueden hacer retratos excelentes, hablando de técnica (…), pero que finalmente dejan un mensaje de una realidad”.
Se trata de que a través de la pintura, fotografía, escultura y demás expresiones artística, sostuvo Sevigny, la gente pueda aprender y reflexionar sobre lo que se puede hacer para no contribuir a la difícil situación de ine-quidad social.
martes, 13 de enero de 2009
John Sevigny talks about Ladies' Bar Redux
Interview by Sidney J. Walker, January 2009
Why did you decide to re-publish Ladies' Bar online?
The project was kindly published online by Alan Griffiths at Luminous Lint more than a year ago. Sadly, Luminous Lint has been inactive for some time now, I'm not sure why. Frank Ward, a documentary photographer and teacher, approached me with the idea of posting something on SocialDocumentary.net, a new site he and a number of other people were starting. I was reluctant to put up work that was almost two years old but Frank convinced me that doing so would give a new audience a chance to see it. There were also a number of photographs that I didn't include at Luminous Lint, or at the exhibitions, because at the time, they didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the photographs. Looking back, I realize I should have included them. So there are five or six "new-old" photographs included in the new version.
Can you give us some background on the project?
Between 2006 and 2007, I spent almost a year taking pictures at really rough dive cantinas near La Calzada Independencia in Guadalajara. At first, I was just trying to capture the atmosphere of these places, full of hookers, drug dealers, and the rest. Over time, I realized what really interested me were the women who worked in those bars. There might be five women and they could keep 50 or 60 rowdy drunks more or less under control. The posessive apostrophe in the title Ladies' Bar comes from an error I saw on a sign outside a cantina in Guadalajara. But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. The bars are for men, but the ladies who work there are definitely in charge.
How has it been received?
You know, famous photographers like Steve McCurry have thousands and thousands of people who know about what they do and are sort of cooly, distantly interested in their work. I'm fortunate to have a much smaller number of people who are intensely loyal and intensely interested in what I do. In that sense it's been received very well, and I've made many good friends through exhibitions, both online and at exhibitions. On the other hand, there have been some disappointments. I was in talks with Charta, a big, Italian company, to publish it as a book. But like any mafia, they wanted a ton of money up front, and to burden me with an absolutely crooked contract. I don't know about other publishing companies, but Charta is a vanity press. If you pay up, they loan you their "good name" and you make all kinds of contacts and get all kinds of shows in Europe and everywhere else. But neither my principles, nor my salary as a teacher would allow me to mail a big corporation tens of thousands of euros with no real possibility of making a profit, so that fell through. Another small tragedy for me is that Ladies' Bar gets treated like a wandering, pus-covered leper in Mexico, where I live. Nobody will show it. The government arts people have said, "We like you, we want to work with you, but not with these pictures."
There's no nudity or anything profane in the photographs. What seems to be the issue?
I'm not sure. I try to make work that is accessible and I think Ladies' Bar is successful in that sense. It's full of emotions that anyone can understand, joy, sadness, desperation, jubilation, despair. But there's something underneath the surface of all my work that makes some people uncomfortable. I've never been able to put my finger on it. Documentary people don't like it because I'm not taking a stand, saying "oh these poor women, look at their plight, let's start an NGO." And fine arts people are confused by it because it's so raw and you could never sell it at a sidewalk sale. I also think there is something not so obvious, that makes my work a little difficult for some people. It's too real, not in the sense that war photography is too real, but in the sense that it's just honest, right in front of you. There is no decorative objective, no attempt to glamorize, and as you mentioned, no nudity. Maybe if I'd just gone all out with the nudity it would have been easier for certain people to understand. In any case, it doesn't matter. I can take pictures and share them with whoever I want. I don't necessarily need publishers or the Mexican government. That's the wonderful thing about photography. It's completely democratic.
One final question: what were some of your best and worst moments in 2008?
Some obviously wonderful ones. Seeing Manny Pacquiao beat Oscar de la Hoya. Watching the Bush era come to an end. Meeting Aristeo Jimenez, a relatively unknown but fantastic photographer from Monterrey, Mexico. Sitting on somebody's balcony during a Christmas party at a house way up in the hills in Saltillo and watching shooting stars whiz across the sky.
More difficult moments? A fight I had with a drug addict on the street in Monterrey. Losing my cell phone in Veracruz. But those are small things. As the song says, it was a very good year.
Why did you decide to re-publish Ladies' Bar online?
The project was kindly published online by Alan Griffiths at Luminous Lint more than a year ago. Sadly, Luminous Lint has been inactive for some time now, I'm not sure why. Frank Ward, a documentary photographer and teacher, approached me with the idea of posting something on SocialDocumentary.net, a new site he and a number of other people were starting. I was reluctant to put up work that was almost two years old but Frank convinced me that doing so would give a new audience a chance to see it. There were also a number of photographs that I didn't include at Luminous Lint, or at the exhibitions, because at the time, they didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the photographs. Looking back, I realize I should have included them. So there are five or six "new-old" photographs included in the new version.
Can you give us some background on the project?
Between 2006 and 2007, I spent almost a year taking pictures at really rough dive cantinas near La Calzada Independencia in Guadalajara. At first, I was just trying to capture the atmosphere of these places, full of hookers, drug dealers, and the rest. Over time, I realized what really interested me were the women who worked in those bars. There might be five women and they could keep 50 or 60 rowdy drunks more or less under control. The posessive apostrophe in the title Ladies' Bar comes from an error I saw on a sign outside a cantina in Guadalajara. But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. The bars are for men, but the ladies who work there are definitely in charge.
How has it been received?
You know, famous photographers like Steve McCurry have thousands and thousands of people who know about what they do and are sort of cooly, distantly interested in their work. I'm fortunate to have a much smaller number of people who are intensely loyal and intensely interested in what I do. In that sense it's been received very well, and I've made many good friends through exhibitions, both online and at exhibitions. On the other hand, there have been some disappointments. I was in talks with Charta, a big, Italian company, to publish it as a book. But like any mafia, they wanted a ton of money up front, and to burden me with an absolutely crooked contract. I don't know about other publishing companies, but Charta is a vanity press. If you pay up, they loan you their "good name" and you make all kinds of contacts and get all kinds of shows in Europe and everywhere else. But neither my principles, nor my salary as a teacher would allow me to mail a big corporation tens of thousands of euros with no real possibility of making a profit, so that fell through. Another small tragedy for me is that Ladies' Bar gets treated like a wandering, pus-covered leper in Mexico, where I live. Nobody will show it. The government arts people have said, "We like you, we want to work with you, but not with these pictures."
There's no nudity or anything profane in the photographs. What seems to be the issue?
I'm not sure. I try to make work that is accessible and I think Ladies' Bar is successful in that sense. It's full of emotions that anyone can understand, joy, sadness, desperation, jubilation, despair. But there's something underneath the surface of all my work that makes some people uncomfortable. I've never been able to put my finger on it. Documentary people don't like it because I'm not taking a stand, saying "oh these poor women, look at their plight, let's start an NGO." And fine arts people are confused by it because it's so raw and you could never sell it at a sidewalk sale. I also think there is something not so obvious, that makes my work a little difficult for some people. It's too real, not in the sense that war photography is too real, but in the sense that it's just honest, right in front of you. There is no decorative objective, no attempt to glamorize, and as you mentioned, no nudity. Maybe if I'd just gone all out with the nudity it would have been easier for certain people to understand. In any case, it doesn't matter. I can take pictures and share them with whoever I want. I don't necessarily need publishers or the Mexican government. That's the wonderful thing about photography. It's completely democratic.
One final question: what were some of your best and worst moments in 2008?
Some obviously wonderful ones. Seeing Manny Pacquiao beat Oscar de la Hoya. Watching the Bush era come to an end. Meeting Aristeo Jimenez, a relatively unknown but fantastic photographer from Monterrey, Mexico. Sitting on somebody's balcony during a Christmas party at a house way up in the hills in Saltillo and watching shooting stars whiz across the sky.
More difficult moments? A fight I had with a drug addict on the street in Monterrey. Losing my cell phone in Veracruz. But those are small things. As the song says, it was a very good year.
lunes, 26 de noviembre de 2007
Interview with John Sevigny by Felicite Fallon, FSView
Oglesby Gallery opens Ladies' Bar
Photo exhibition of prostitutes in Guadalajara makes U.S. debut at FSU
Photo exhibition of prostitutes in Guadalajara makes U.S. debut at FSU
Felicite Fallon
FSView-Florida Flambeau
Issue date: 11/26/07
A woman with garish makeup and severe eyebrows sits thoughtfully in a lawnchair in front of a cracked, peeling wall. A woman clad in a leopard-print halter licks her lips, a plastic cup in her hand. A young girl twirls her hair, a half-smile on her face.
Photographer John Sevigny spent 10 months in Mexico capturing these and hundreds of other images in the cantinas of Guadalajara. His photo exhibition, Ladies' Bar, will be making its U.S. debut at Florida State University beginning Nov. 30 in the Oglesby Gallery in the Student Union with a reception at 7 p.m.
The exhibition contains 25 black-and-white images of prostitutes and paid drinking companions of those who frequent the cantinas or small bars which fascinated Sevigny.
"They don't have swinging doors like cowboy bars, like you would imagine," Sevigny said. "They have big garage-type doors, and a wall behind it, so nobody can see what's happening inside. That always drew my curiosity. It's really an interesting world and an interesting subculture."
Sevigny, a native of Miami, worked as a mainstream journalist for nearly 10 years before branching off to do independent work. His photographs have been displayed in Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, New York and several cities throughout Mexico, including Monterrey and Zacatecas.
According to Sevigny, his approach to photography enabled him to develop a more personal relationship with those he was photographing."I am pretty good at getting people to open up to me," Sevigny said.
"Photography is really sensitive. I think one of the things that made it work and got past that delicacy in this particular project is that I allowed the women or even pushed them to have the photographs taken on their terms. I very much was offering to take their pictures, rather than saying, 'I'm going to take your picture, please do this.'"
Despite the socially-conscious nature of the project, Sevigny said he does not consider himself a documentary photographer. The exhibition consists primarily of posed photographs - their poses chosen either by the women or by Sevigny. Posing the photographs, Sevigny said, helped him capture "the full range of expressions" of the women, both the powerful and the powerless, bringing home the humanity of the women.
"Nobody says 'I want to be a prostitute when I grow up,'" he said. "Almost all of the women are single mothers. It's something they're doing because of economic and social reality. For a woman over 35 who has high school education or less, it's very hard to find work (in Mexico). It's really a question of survival. Nobody's holding a gun to their heads, but at the same time, when there are no other options, someone might as well be holding a gun to your head. It's a kind of economic slavery."
Sevigny said that the bleak circumstances in which he immersed himself took an emotional toll on him.
"One of the difficult things about this was dealing with the depression," he said. "I'd go home and just be dead. There was this one girl who told me she was going to sleep in the cantina. The cantina closes at 3 a.m. and she sleeps there on a cot in the back. I said, 'That's dangerous, why don't you go home?' And she said, 'I'd rather be sleeping here and risk getting raped, then go home and know I'm going to get raped by my uncle.'"
Although Sevigny did not embark on his project with the intent of bringing about social change, he hopes his work can help people get a larger picture of what is out in the world."
I don't have a lot of faith in the idea of photos changing the world," he said. "I see myself as putting a mirror in society's face, which I think is something that needs to be done from time to time, so that society can see itself and say, 'Do we like who we are? What are we doing?' My parents come from the '60s generation. They were going to change the world. I never really thought that the pictures I take could bring an end to the problem. I just hope that they can offer people a glimpse of the humanity that exists in even the ugliest of places."
Sevigny also said he has a larger motivation in expanding people's horizons through his photography.
"I want people to understand a little bit about what immigrants who come to the United States are running away from," he said. "Mexico's a beautiful country and people here wear shirts and ties, and there are very rich people and a lot more very poor people, but people who come to the States are running away from something."
The exhibition will run until Dec. 14. For more information, visit gonecity.blogspot.com or union.fsu.edu/gallery/.
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