I think I have finally finished the flipbook I have been working on with R. It was inspired by her many changes of outfits in the hours we hang out together and could not have been done with out her collaboration and patience with my silliness. I will probably keep adding to it and maybe editing out some over time, but its in pretty good shape now: http://christykarpinski.com/book/index.html Below are a few of my favorite combinations.

This Ted talk with Alison Gopnik is great. I particularly love her description of being a baby as like being in love in Paris for the first time after drinking 3 double espressos!

I also find it interesting to think about the idea (based on research she mentions) that the longer the “childhood” the smarter the animal, and how that might relate to the trend toward “childhood” expanding into the twenties. It fits with the idea Ive talked about before that nowadays “adult” is a state where one is continuing to “develop” instead of being completed as it was thought of in the past.

Gopnik also talks about childhood being a time when your job is to learn and have ideas and adulthood being when you put what you learned into practice, Research and development vs production and marketing … its a great analogy.

At the end she proposes that if we want to be more like this, open minded, open creativity, then perhaps adults should think more like children. Another connection of children or “child-like” and being creative. It’s interesting to think about.

image: Patricia Lay-Dorsey

Patricia Lay-Dorsey is another photographer I met at Filter Photo Festival that I found connections with. We talked mostly about her project “Falling Into Place”. Looking through the work, what came to mind immediately is how much it shows the point of view of the subject. It is done in such a way that I think it invites the viewer to see from her perspective and enter into the scene in an experiential way not as much as an outside observer.

As I looked through the images I began to notice something familiar about the point of view; it reminded me of the vantage point I am often photographing from. I found a connection between the actual physical point of view of Patricia in her photographs and my experience of a “child’s point of view” or rather my point of view while relating to very young children. I also realized there is a similar interest in embodying the subject through the photographs, getting away from an object to be viewed from the outside and moving toward inviting you in to connect with this person and their experience…. something I love to explore in my own work.

I think my picture making has been linked to my interest in connecting with people, finding a similar view point as a place to relate, empathy as a way of understanding, and relating to how they are experiencing the world as a way to communicate. I feel like Patricia Lay-Dorsey may be doing something curiously similar in her work.

www.patricialaydorsey.com

"Watch Me Grow" Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman

Two weeks ago was the 2011 Filter Photo Festival here in Chicago.  I was invited to be a reviewer as editor of F-Stop Magazine.  I met with seventeen photographers and saw a lot of interesting work. In talking with a few of the photographers I found interesting connections between their work and my own interests and photography.  Here are the first two photographers.

Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman are two photographers who collaborate on projects exploring “narratives of femininity”.  It was cool to find out they were interested in meeting with me because of connections between their work and mine, and there truly are… many interesting ones.

The work they showed me was “Ponder Food as Love” and “Watch Me Grow”.  “Ponder Food as Love” is a series of beautiful images with layers of meaning that are still rolling around in my thoughts for now …

The series “Watch Me Grow” shows the “storefront” sort of view of urban daycare centers and the images and language used on their exteriors.  I think what connects for me in this project is the taking of a sort of traditional style of photographing – the storefront image – and applying it to a not typical at all subject. It strikes me as humorous and adds a curious layer of meaning to the project.

I find this relates to my interest in the connections between art making and children…  it often seems children are not yet “adults” so their creative output or experience or subjecthood is not given the same consideration… And so something funny is brought about when you juxtapose or insert children the idea of children into an “art” context. I began to talk  about it a little bit here in talking about project plans for a “dérive as a walk with a toddler” and mapping the movements of a baby’s daily activity.

Here is a link to their site:

http://www.ciurejlochmanphoto.com/

I have this image “Untitled (iris)” included in LENSCRATCH’s Summer Exhibition. Check it out there are many great summer images included: http://lenscratch.blogspot.com/2011/07/lenscratch-summer-exhibition.html