All_Interior-04-17-2012 by Pablo Delkan

THE PHOTOGRAPHY MAGAZINE

ISSUE NUMBER ONE

Chema Madoz (born 1958) is a Spanish photographer. He is known for his black and white surrealist photographs. The work contains a sort of smiling poetry in which objects enter into relations that are not so much absurd as a unique encoding. He considers himself an object sculptor who works from a photographer’s viewpoint, yet he also insists that for him photography is little more than a record of memory which allows him to capture an idea. Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer. There was a kind of photography that was so plain and common, so free of personal handwriting, that it seemed almost the antithesis of art: the kind of photography that was seen in newspapers and newsreels, on picture postcards, and in the windows of real-estate dealers. Perhaps this blunt and simple vocabulary could be used with intelligence, precise intention, and coherence: with style. Evans’ wanted his work to be “literate, authoritative, transcendent.” The photographer must define his subject with an educated awareness of what it is and what it means; he must describe it with such simplicity and sureness that the result seems an unchallengeable fact, not merely the record of a photographer’s opinion; yet the picture itself should possess a taut athletic grace, an inherent structure . . . RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD (May 15, 1925 – May 7, 1972) was an American photographer, from Normal, Illinois. Meatyard suffered a fate common to artists who are very much of but also very far ahead of their time. Everything about his life and his art ran counter to the usual and expected patterns. He was an optician, happily married, a father of three, president of the Parent-Teacher Association, and coach of a boy’s baseball team. He lived in Lexington, Kentucky, far from the urban centers most associated with serious art. His images had nothing to do with the gritty “street photography” of the east coast or the romantic view camera realism of the west coast. His best known images were populated with dolls and masks, with . . .

CHEMA MADOZ

RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD

WALKER EVANS

FROM PAGE 4 TO PAGE 19

FROM PAGE 20 TO PAGE 33

FROM PAGE 34 TO PAGE 52

SOMETHING UNTOLD IN THE QUOTIDIAN

NO FOCUS

THE MESSAGE AND THE BUILDING

SELECTED WORKS 1990’S

SELECTED WORKS 1950’S

US $10 CAN $16 U.K. ₤7

CONTENTS:

PAGE 4 TO 19

CHEMA MADOZ

SOMETHING UNKNOWN IN THE QUOTIDIAN / SELECTED WORKS 1990’S

PAGE 20 TO 33

RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD

NO FOCUS / SELECTED WORKS 1950’S

PAGE 34 TO 52

WALKER EVANS

THE MESSAGE AND THE BUILDING

Prison

Bird

Satis fied

High

Heavy

Cook

Hit

Head

Fall

Scorn

Working

Tobacco

Water

Ring

Green

Book

Sleep

Sour

Baby

Needle

Zahn

Water

Unjust

Month

Earth

Moon

Dance

Window

Sing

Frog

Pretty

Trouble

Scissors

Bread

Frog

Death

Divorce

Woman

Soldier

Quiet

Lamp

Long

Hunger

Scold

Cabbage

Green

Tree

Flower

Ship

White

Table

Hard

Salt

Dark

Son

Count

Child

Dark

Eagle

Street

Mountain

Wild

Window

Attend

Music

Stomach

King

Heart

Warder

Friendly

Pencil

Sickness

Stem

Cheese

Hair

Tears

Table

Sad

Man

Lamp

Blossom

Bird

Fern

Question

Prune

Deep

Dream

Afraid

Salz

War

Village

Marry

Soft

Yellow

Wood

Dream

Oven

Cold

House

Eating

Bread

Hit

Paper

Faithful

Stem

Dear

Mountain

Justice

To idle

White

Once

Dance

Glass

House

Boy

delightful

Wood

Wonder

Sea

Dispute

Black

Light

Dream

Game

Bloody

Sick

Fur

Mutton

Health

Studies

Book

Must

Proud

Big

Comfort

Bible

Angry

Pencil

Rights

Cook

Turnip

Hand

Memory

Thirteen

Revenge

Ink

Paint

Short

MADOZ

I am not

Sheep

Dance

School

Hope

Evi l

Part

Fruit

Bath

Year

Sing

Lock

Needle

Old

Butterfly

Cottage

1904

Strange

Small

Swim

Flowers

Smooth

Swift

Copy-book

Gowl

Arm

Trip

Hit

Command

Blue

pen

Rude

Play

Blue

Box

Chair

1990Hungry to 2001

family

Coffee

Liberty

Lamp

Wild

Sweet

Priest

Paper

Fruit

Blue

Sin

Family

Whistle

Bread

Wash

Rich

CHEMA

Objetos Ocean

Line

Sacrifice

Wrong

Woman

madrid Head

Take care

False

Sorrow Stern

Cow

Cold

Stove

I should

Helm

Take care

Tree

Foreign

Slow

Long

Pencil

Wedding

Stroke

Stick

Happiness

Wish

Religion

Big

Misery

Nature

Sympathy

Lie

River

Whiskey

At last

Hay

Grand

Yellow

Decorum

White

Child

it will end

Asylum

Folk

Mountain

Beautiful

Bitter

School

Grandmother

Sweet

Die

Brother

Window

Hammer

Bench

Angry

Family

Salt

To fear

Rough

Thirsty

People

Raspberry

Murderer

New

Stork

Citizen

City

very worthy

Need

Friendly

Moral

Wrong

Foot

Square

Sing

Year

Everywhere

Pray

Anxiety

Spider

Butter

choir

Home

Hover

Money

Kiss

Needle

Doctor

Murderer

Threaten

Count

Stupid

Fiance(e)

Red

Loud

in C

Vinegar

Rank

Magazine

Pure

Sleep

Thief

Father

Trap

Skull

Despise

Door

Anger

Lion

Walk

Sour

Row

Finger

Choose

Carpet

Joy

Head

Throat

Warn

Expensive

Hay

Girl

Bed

Ink

Youth

Analyse

1996

El culto al huevo Estalla la Primavera, llega la Pascua y las aves, en pleno celo, ponen huevos sin parar. Se ponen cluecas y los incuban. Y los cestos rebosaban. Tortas y pasteles, mercados y ferias, regalos amistosos y tributos feudales se satisfacían en docenas de huevos. Hasta los años setenta, por estas fechas, se alegraba a los maestros de escuela con un presente ovario y todavía se paga la Salpassa del Miércoles Santo con pares o docenas de huevos.Protagonizan la gastronomía y la

liturgia. Serán comida ritual de los Pelegrins de les Useres, a finales de abril. Y eran colgados en las macetas de los maigs, formenteres o grills, las plantaciones de gramíneas, regadas a menudo y cultivadas por mujeres en la oscuridad para obtener brotes espesos, largos y blancos y ornar los monuments de las iglesias; las matronas griegas y romanas sembraban los mismos granos, en parecidos tiestos, a fin de engalanar las tumbas de Adonis, el dios joven que muere y resucita para procurar el

despertar primaveral de la natura. Esos huevos adquirirían extensas virtudes curativas y mágicas, las mismas que poseían los puestos por las gallinas desde el Jueves Santo al Domingo de Gloria, tenidos por eficaces talismanes contra todo mal y desventura; sintomáticamente, se creía que ayudaban a las doncellas a encontrar amante y, una vez encontrado, procuraban un parto en buena hora. DOMINGO, 15 de abril de 2001 / El País

crack!

UN HOME ESTERNUDA Un home esternuda. Passa un cotxe. Un botiguer tira la porta de ferro

a round reproductive body produced by the female of certain animals, like birds and some reptiles.

USE A

S POON !

HOW TO

BOIL A EGG:

1. Place the raw egg in a saucepan. 2. Run water into the sauce pan until the water is 1 inch above the egg. 3. Place the saucepan on stove and cook over medium heat until the water boils.Reduce the heat to low. 4. Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes for softboiled eggs or 10 to 15 minutes for hard boiled eggs. 5. Remove the egg with a spoon or ladle and let it cool slowly, or run cold water over it to cool it more quickly.

the EGGCUP is a small cup or bowl for serving a boiled egg.

PG. 6

avall. Passa una

Brossa , J oan

an egg is

dona amb

By analyzing the hazardous map of signals that things emit from the places they occupy in the world, Madoz individualizes, disrupts, confronts and manipulates until he is able to show a new order, the hidden face of sense, a new symbolic truth that by its impact highlights the disorder of logic. The things, the objects, transferred to a new location and stripped of the natural environment where they performed their functions, now emit different signals in front of the camera. Converted into signs, they are now literally talking. Or even better, they are images that are literarily talking. Because by basing himself on the aesthetics of similarity and the proximity of points of reference, Madoz displaces the natural sense of concepts to other forms of comprehension, fully exploiting their symbolic potential and resolving their discourse with figures and tropes closely related to language: visual analogies, metaphors, paradoxes or metonymies that invite viewers to a game of poetic perception and demand their active participation. Madoz’s work, therefore, has many literary neighbors. His compositions approach minimalist poetry and the contrast of poetic images that produces a metaphorical explosion with evocations ranging from the Mallarmé of “A throw of dice will never abolish chance,” to oriental haiku, which combine two different images that are finally related in the third verse. They may also recall the greguerías of Ramón Gómez de la Serna : “The giraffe is a carpeted animal,” or “Suicidal flowers grow amidst the railroad tracks,” or, what is perhaps my favorite: “Know yourself too well and you’ll refuse your own handshake.” Here is also a line connecting Madoz’s work with artists who express themselves using the irony of objects, such as Marcel Mariën or the Marcel Broodthaers of, for example, “Casserole et moules fermées”, which Broodthaers himself explains in a way very reminiscent of Madoz’s work: “The bursting out of the mussels from the casserole does not follow the laws of boiling, it follows the laws of artifice and results in the construction of an abstract form.” Madoz’s encounter with Joan Brossa is also well known. They worked together on a book (Fotopoemario) before Brossa’s death in 1998, and Madoz’s work has also been compared to the visual poems of this Catalan poet with whom he obviously shared a fine sense of humor and the ability to establish associations between objects to produce evidence, although Madoz, as Castro Flórez has pointed out, focuses his lens

C H E M A

beyond the mere presence of the object and its semiotic displacements to contribute the ultimately photographic dimension of his work. M y r e l a t ions h i p w i t h p h o t og r a p h y w a s a se r endi p i t y . P h o t og r a p h y w a s no t some t h i ng I w a s p l a nning t o do . I j u s t b o u g h t a c a me r a b y p u r e c h a n c e .

una garrafa plena d'aigua. Me'n vaig a dormir. Això és tot.

KINDS OF EGGS Chicken eggs from various chicken breeds emerge in different

Photography is inherently the capture of a fleeting instant. All of Chema Madoz’s work shares this clear relationship with the ephemeral. The conjunction achieved does not need to exist either before or after being photographed. The materiality of the idea is not the final goal of the work performed, but merely its frame, its portrait or, as in the traditional snapshot, its exact moment. His black-and-white format also lends a melancholy distance. The scale of grays turns things into shadows which, faded within an unreal world, express themselves as ghosts. They preserve their iconic identity but are absorbed into an abstract metalanguage. We recognize them although they no longer belong to this world. Madoz works with the shadows of things to obtain a plastic elegance that blends his entire work together, giving it formal coherence and enabling him to perform a technically accurate surgical exercise. Sense and precision are decisive elements in articulating an idea. Madoz collects ideas whose trail can be followed perfectly by observing the strange objects scattered around his studio, now unattached machines. His system of accumulation can recall the cabinets of curiosities held in such esteem by the surrealists: André Breton’s workshop or Gómez de la Serna’s El Torreón. As in Arman’s “Accumulations” or the objects trapped in Joseph Cornell’s boxes, Madoz has searched all over the world for meaningful material, but the objects he finds, orders and builds are not essential to his work; they are just the subsidiary elements he uses to photograph an idea. Chema Madoz works on the delicate border existing between the real and the imaginary. In his work he proposes to us a split between what exists and the long shadow of what is possible, a counterpoint between the essence of things and their latent meanings. The poet Pierre Reverdy, quoted by Eduardo Cirlot in his A Dictionary of Symbols, says: “An image is a pure creation of the spirit. It cannot be engendered by a comparison

M A D O Z

shades because of pigments which are deposited as the eggs move through the hen’s oviduct. The pigment depositions are determined by the chicken’s genetics, with some breeds producing rich dark brown eggs, for example, while others lay snow white eggs. The eggs inside are essentially identical; there are no major flavor differences between chicken eggs from different birds, as the flavor is determined by the chicken’s diet. There are three main colors for chicken eggs. Most eggs in the store come in white or shades of brown. It is also possible to find blue to green chicken eggs, which come from the Aracuana, a breed of chicken developed in Chile. Araucanas have also been crossed with other breeds to produce the Americauna, sometimes called the “Easter egg chicken” in a reference to its multicolored eggs. Originally, all chicken eggs were probably brown. Over time, people selectively bred chickens with progressively lighter eggs, ultimately producing white chicken eggs, which came to be the norm. Brown eggs were reintroduced to the market in the late 20th century, although people on farms were already quite familiar with the them. Some classic white egg laying breeds include Andalusians, Faverolles, Dorkings, Leghorns, and Lakenvelders. Barnevelders, Rhode Island Reds, Jersey Giants, Delawares, and Orpingtons are well known for their brown eggs, which vary in color from light cream to dark brown.

1994

tobacco chamber mortise bowl

ferrule

shank

T he 1 9 9 9 e l ect i o n s to the M ad r i d A s s em b ly w e r e the

L A V E U ES C R I TA

f i f th e l ect i o n s to the M ad r i d A s s em b ly, the u n i came r a l

Passen les hores, els dies, les

r e g i o n a l l e g i s l at u r e o f the a u to n omo u s comm u n i t y

setmanes.

o f M ad r i d , s i n ce the S pa n i s h t r a n s i t i o n to democ r ac y.

El mes passat ja

draft hole

és molt de temps. El rellotge toca contínuament l’hora.

Q1: YOUR WORK REQUIRES A SCULPTURE-LIKE PREPARATION OF AN OBJECT. WHY PHOTOGRAPH THEM AS OPPOSED TO JUST PRESENTING THEM PHYSICALLY? WHAT DOES PHOTOGRAPHY CONTRIBUTE?

IT GIVES IT DISTANCE, IT TAKES THE OBJECT TO A INTANGIBLE TERRITORY AS THE ONE WHERE IT COMES FROM, THE IMAGINATION.

Stem The part that connects the shank with the bit.

a pi pe is used for smoking

tobacco opium or

other substances

The National Museum Art Center Reina Sofía dedicates thesolo exhibit “Objects 1990 - 1999”. First retrospective that the museum dedicates to a spanish photographer.

tot ho adoba. (No estem amb un lleó que trepitja els ocells i té un lloro a l’orella.) Ara m’arrepenjo en una paret. He fet servir d’escombra

aquests poemes per netejar

but by the coming together of two distant realities. The more distant and accurate the relationships between the two realities brought together, the stronger the image and the more emotional power and poetic reality it will possess.” Curiously, Cirlot offers us this quotation to analyze the symbolic power of the Equivocal. What is equivocal intrinsically contains the possibility of error, with the consequences that implies. An error produces the instantaneous perception of what is correct. It calls for order or equilibrium to be restored. But in itself it is a road without return; its effects remain and create reality. According to Reverdy, creating equivocal images forces you to err only in the exact measure required. Chema Madoz plays in this field by using many tones; tones that vary from pop humor to a deep revelation of the hermetic language. This range, which Madoz expresses very naturally, must have something to do with the spirit of the things themselves which also have their own language. There are objects in Madoz’s work that demonstrate a unique metonymic ability for showing transformations. Thus he uses one stone for drawing (a track, an exclamation mark, a thought), for sculpting (a cactus, a tree) or for manipulating (a globe). In all cases, the stone contributes its weight and apparent insensitivity. The chessboard and its pieces also appear frequently in the artist’s images. He uses them to prepare a refined variety of games within the game or, by simply placing the board on the piano, he establishes a perfect analogy between geometry, complexity and music. The board is equal to the challenge. Water, matches, maps, clocks, books, spoons, musical notes and various tools also appear regularly and offer enigmatic senses filled with symbolic power. In some cases, it is a single object that has been slightly transformed: with a simple oblique movement, a small pair of scissors becomes a jet plane, or a somewhat deformed hairpin turns into a weeping eye. In other cases, the object is a patient subjected to a serious operation: a drain embedded in the planisphere offers a dizzying visualization of the universe. On occasion, however, Madoz offers us C H E M A

sculptures built on purpose to obtain a specific result: wire that becomes a transparent cactus or a barbed-wire cage. Sometimes objects are linked to other objects by forms and sometimes by concepts. Madoz constantly revisits certain concepts: Time with its measurements and fears; Feelings, which are strangely hardened in his work as shown by the playing card containing a five of hearts made with fish hooks or the violent couple TU (you) and YO (me), or his caustic allusions to Consumption, where he ironically uses the well-studied and forceful tools of advertising photography. Many of the moments photographed have been prepared to exist only for the instant the camera records them, particularly those obtained in nature (raindrops on sand or water, the cloud caught in the bird cage, the musical notes hanging from branches like fruit, the grass crosswalk...). Nature is alive; it is active. Anything built on nature becomes transformed. The ephemeral nature of these works recalls the earthworks of Andy Goldsworthy or Richard Long which once photographed are abandoned to the vagaries of the climate and gradually become blurred until all traces of them are erased. The works made with ice cubes also belong to this category and Madoz uses their short existence as a metaphor for success, good fortune or gifts. One very important part of his work comprises sculptures or installations that could perfectly well be shown in an exhibition space in their true physical condition. Madoz presents them to us as photographs. Many of the pieces composed of musical instruments or scores belong to this concept: the cymbals and hi-hat from a set of drums that have been resolved with vinyl records, the score installed on a church portico, the cello-oar... they all belong to a universe parallel to that of Christian Marclay, an artist who centers his work on music and sound and who, unlike Madoz, produces his work indiscriminately in photographs, installations, sculptures, video and even live actions. The sets that Madoz builds in which light is reflected on a plane also belong here: the delicate piece where Tanizaki’s M A D O Z

racons del pensament. Alguna vegada m’he pintat de negre, però les frases han sortit directes i s’han convertit en una eina de la tenacitat contra la pega. A partir d’un cert grau de poder el judici moral ja no és possible. Els interessos de les nacions veiem que pugen sobre els drets humans. Venen com fan les coses i no les coses que fan. La millor sort dels daus és no jugar-hi.

Brossa , J oan

PG. 8

*1999

El sol de març

Muntanya avall tothom entra a la dansa. No hi ha ningú que traci una muralla. Els catalans preguntem i els forasters no contesten. Per això sóc dels qui creuen que l’aigua és trista. Veig en els sorolls la prolongació de les paraules. Encara som lluny d’un cel sense núvols i a la terra els déus estan en males mans. La santa obediència al servei de qui no és sant poc sembla una virtut. Als llibres sagrats hi surten cucs que s’alimenten de lletra morta. Quan estic pensatiu m’agrada tenir obert. No puc afegir res més a la veritat que porto dintre.

Considered

a visual poet, he

develops

A pair of

shoes

Spanish films released in 1996:

T i e r r a — directed A c t r i u s — directed Ta x i — d i r e c t e d

U n A s u n t o P r i v a d o — directed

julio medem ,

ventura pons , carlos saura ,

El perro del hortelano — d i r e c t e d

E s p o s a d o s — directed

pilar miró ,

imanol arias ,

j . c . fresnadillo ,

L i b e r t a r i a s — directed T e s i s — directed

vicente aranda ,

alejandro amenábar ,

É x t a s i s — directed

mariano barroso

associations

from such common items

as a key, a stone or

a ladder

relationship with images is what makes me focus on objects, and this is a kind of way that allows me to speak about my own emotions, my own feelings, my ideas… But this is something I’ve gone

in images that

about discovering over the years.

overflow with a rush of

creativity.

PASSEIG

Brossa , J oan

Hi ha aspectes parcials de la realitat que deslligats del conjunt deformen el sentit dels fets.

the knot

theory In topology, knot theory is the study of mathematical knots. While inspired by knots which appear in daily life in shoelaces and rope, a mathematician’s knot differs in that the ends are joined

11 -12

-4 -10 3

7 6

together so that it cannot be undone. In precise mathematical language, a knot is an embedding of a circle in 3-dimensional Euclidean space, R3. Two mathematical knots are equivalent if one can be transformed into the other via a deformation of R3 upon itself (known as an ambient isotopy); these transformations correspond to manipulations of a knotted string that do not involve cutting the string or passing the string through itself.

PG. 9

*1996 In 1996 the Publisher Mestizo, A. C., from Murcia publishes one of Chema’s photography books. The book is titled “Mixtos – Chema Madoz”.

poem “In Praise of Shadows” appears illuminated by the light from a window, the moon reflected on the stage curtain or the strips of negatives that stop light from entering. These are mysterious images imbued with suspense and evocation. And the ladder leaning on the crutch. They are all photographed scenes, captive in their informative frame. It is usually true that our information about the current state of contemporary art is mainly photographic. We learn about it through photographs. Whatever the technical resources and format of the exhibition space, the documentation that we receive about all works and that ultimately becomes available to everyone is their photographic reproduction. Therefore, although occasionally we have been able to see for a few minutes Robert Gober’s pieces containing shoe-clad, cut-off legs spread along a wall with candles or tattoos adorning the thighs or his Madozian deformed playpens, the final result is the photograph of an object that expresses for subjective understanding this idea of misery, trauma or wounds. Photographed symbolic power. Many artists work as if they were at the ping-pong table, successively playing on both sides, confronting the poles between the icons of the prosaic and the high cultures. Today a good deal of art responds to the words of Georges Bataille: “It is clear that the world is pure parody. All we see in it is the parody of something else; it is even the same thing with an even more misleading form.” This is true of Vik Muñiz or Wim Delvoye among others who, like Madoz, insist in their constructions on the effect of appearance and its ironic visual result. Delvoy proposes, for example, a floor made apparently of old tiles decorated with complicated arabesques, whereas in reality it turns out to be a delicate drawing made out of bologna sausages and ham (Marble Floor). But next to Delvoye and his lovely baroque constructions, Madoz seems a contemplative monk. I have the same sensation when I try to consider his work within his generation in the international art scenario. There are many artists who work with images according to the objectives proposed by Pierre Reverdy and C H E M A

within Bataille’s perspective, but Madoz alone does so from a Stoic viewpoint. Madoz always performs a balanced exercise of self-control. He tries to appear as little as possible in his work and lets things and objects speak for him. That’s why he places them in a neutral space at the precise distance. To illustrate his way of working, Chema Madoz attempts a risky experience for the first time in this exhibition: he has installed a physical piece in the exhibition before photographing it. And this is risky because it is unusual for Madoz, accustomed as he is to the time and silence of both his studio and nature, to have to do his work under such close circumstances: while his exhibition is being mounted and in time to include a photograph on the cover of the catalogue. The ghosts of all his ideas and images, which for some reason or another never came to life, meet there. The piece is composed of 28 wooden ladders joined together at a 15º angle to form a large circle. It will remain installed throughout the exhibition and afterward, once its goal has been reached, only the photographic image will remain. The large circle of ladders is converted forever into something else: spider web, radiant sun or a metaphysical metaphor of life and death. The circle contains steps that all lead to the same point, which is the center and also the end. This collection of Chema Madoz’s photographs invites us to participate in a game of perception. The images speak to us; they suggest we take a stroll through understanding. But this is not a question of finding the solution to a hieroglyph. The enigma has been resolved existed in potential before the artist found its plastic resolution and revealed the unfathomable sense of the things that calmly and silently spend their time talking in the places we have assigned them. This collection of Chema Madoz’s photographs invites us to participate in a game of perception. The images speak to us; they suggest we take a stroll through understanding. But this is not a question of finding the solution to a hieroglyph. The enigma has been resolved M A D O Z

Shoeshiner Shoeshiner or boot polisher is a profession in which a person polishes shoes with shoe polish. They are often known as shoeshine boys because the job is traditionally that of a male child. While the role is deprecated in much of Western civilisation there are children that earn an important wage for their family in many countries throughout the world. Some shoeshiners offer extra services, such as shoe repairs and general tailoring. Many well-known and high profile people started their working life as shoeshiners, including singers and presidents.

Curiously, when people appeared in my photographs, there came a moment when it stopped being interesting to me. I was left with the feeling that I had to take hundreds of the same photo, and then it lost its mystery, it stopped appealing to me. In turn, working with objects continues to fascinate me. Photography allows me to work with these objects from very different angles. There’s the purely photographic angle, there are others in which it has a more graphic character, others that are almost sculptures, and others that are much closer to installations. It’s a terrain that allows me to work from many angles and different directions. By photographing such different expressions, I endow my work with a certain homogeneity that in this case comes from a formal approach to the same technique.

2001

1996

The history of the

COLOR

universe

TIME

began some

thirteen thousand

å Poesia Visual å LA FOTOGRAFIA ME HACE DISFRUTAR

I NTAN G I B L E

million

years ago with the

sta r t THE SCENES OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS: AT THE BEGGINING THE OBJECTS WOULD APPEAR IN A SETTING THAT WAS USUAL. IF IT WAS A BOOK, I WOULD DO IT IN A BOOKCASE, THE EXPECTED PLACE WHERE YOU WOULD FIND IT.

expansion that has

not

stopped accelerating

Sheet Music and Books

since then. In the

year 2004,

farthest

from the

Earth was located

thirteen thousand

million light years from

our planet. The drain of the

unknown is found in the depth of

appearances and the

cutting edge of the

In 1996 the Publisher Mestizo, A. C., from Murcia publishes one of Chema’s photography books.

�

Black and White / Color The mechanism of the body of work is to always work with the same rescources if possible. If we compare color with black and white we are ending up with the "reduced" option. Black and white takes the image somewhere else, it is much more obvious that what you are looking at is a representation of something else. Black and white is harder to establish in time. With color it's simpler to establish a determined time period. For example the color of each decade is different than the other. A photograph from the sixties or from the eighties is different to the ones now. We aren't conscious of the conditions that color has in a decade until you are able to look back. When time goes by the color changes and the idea that we had of color has changed. It's a kind of convention. By the passing of the years you can tell that the color is different. It only tells to situate the image in a specific period of time while a photograph in black and white could be from the start of the century or from many years later. It's much more ambiguous and thats something that interests me.

With time the relation between the setting and the object started to become blurred. The sight started to focus on the object itself and the backgrounds started to play a different role. They became more neutral, more light, cleaner and helped the object take the lead in the image. These naked settings isolate the object in time, there is something intangible about that, it's a different kind of understanding, it becomes more grafic and it focuses on the little alteration. Some objects can still keep appearing in their physical location, but for the most part it's a process of elimanation, and there is times that I feel that it's getting harder to take things away and that the next step would be complete emptyness.



My first camera was a Olympus OM-1 Q 4 : W ITH THE PROLI F ERATION O F PHOTOGRAPHY , DO YOU THIN K IT I S BECOMING MORE DI F F ICULT TO S TAND OUT IN THE ART W ORLD ?

IT IS TRUE THAT THERE ARE MUCH MORE PEOPLE USING PHOTOGRAPHY BUT, FOR EXAMPLE EVERYONE HAS PAPER AND PENCIL AND THAT ISN'T MAKING THE SITUATION MORE COMPLICATED FOR WRITERS.

inconceivable amidst the

pages

I WORKED AT A BANK AND I HATED IT, THE ONLY THING I WAS ALSO DOING AT THAT TIME WAS TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS AND I DECIDED TO FOCUS ON THAT

With your

toy bucket you empty

t h e ocean.

Photograph

sense to

Titles, Titles

photograph

can be used in

completely

different ways.

escapes our

Magritte’s work comes

to mind as an artist

PHOTOGRAPHY USED TO HAVE A VERY DIRECT RELATION WITH "THE TRUTH", WITH BEING A WITNESS. BUT I WAS AMAZED WITH THE IDEA THAT I COULD PLAY AND FALSIFY REALITY.

fantastic

titles that ended up

adding

the invisible

or that which

perception,

except when the key

finally opens up an impassable

landscape. Disturbingly or

another element

humorously

to the image,

and preferably

and added

through

more disorder

visual poems

to the

rather than

disorder

ocular

already

effects and

produced by

by spiritual

the image

exercises

itself.

rather than

I found it hard to

enrich

a title.

attention

I saw that

on what is

with the

merging,

titles I was

which is often

considering

the senses of sight and

hearing as in his musical

pieces. He

devoted to doing

for that

something new in order

to see

to do away

something new,

Th e y s ay Faith i s believing wh at

with them

to creating

w e d o n ' t see . Poetry i s creating

the door

wh at w e w i l l n e v e r see . C H E M A

M A D O Z

gerardo diego

and leave

open.

IMPRESSION OF SURPRISE WITH YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS.

One has to do something new, in order to find something new.

WHAT DOES IT

TAKE TO

Lichtenberg

SURPRISE YOU? THE SAME THAT IT WOULD

SURPRISE

I recall an anecdote from my childhood... I arrived late on the first day of class. All the other children were already seated around a large table in the kitchen and there was no space for me. The teacher said, Don't worry, we'll prepare a place right away, and she opened the door of the oven so that I could use it as a desk. I sat down on my stool with my notebook lying on the open door and looked into the black interior of the oven.

Objects

Chema Madoz — My name is Chema Madoz and I take photographs. I started doing this around the early 1980s. It was quite a discovery for me to find the possibility of working with something that I truly enjoyed and that let me tell stories and that gave me the opportunity to create a different reality. It's been 30 years since I started and I'm not yet tired of it.

ANY OTHER PERSON, FINDING

SOMETHING UNKNOWN IN THE

EVERYDAY.

1991 19801987 20 201 0 1983 1 01918958061 0 2 20 2001 1985 01 89 1988 19291 1995 19 19 88 0 019 1980 1 92 1998

MADOZ In 1996 the Publisher Mestizo, A. C., from Murcia publishes one of Chema’s photography books. The book is titled “Mixtos – Chema Madoz”.

Q3: IN YOUR CASE, PHOTOGRAPHS ARE NOT JUST A SIMPLE CLICK AND IT’S ALREADY CLOSE TO BECOMING ART, HOW DO YOU COMFRONT THE FEARED “BLANK PIECE OF PAPER”? HOW DO YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS HAPPEN?

FROM THE SAME PERSPECTIVE AS ANY OTHER CREATOR, WITH THE LOSS OF BALANCE THAT EMPTYNESS PROVOKES. THE IMAGES DON’T HAPPEN FROM A SPECIFIC PROCESS. SOME OF THEM ARE PURELY INTUITIONS THAT I TRY TO MATERIALIZE THROUGH OBJECTS, THERE ARE ALSO OCCASIONS WHEN THERE IS ALREADY A CONCEPT AND WHAT YOU NEED TO FIND IS THE OBJECTS THAT IN SOME FORM ALREADY HAVE AN ESSENCE OF THE IDEA THAT YOU WANT TO REFERENCE. IN SOME OCCASIONS THE IMAGE CAN COME FROM CONTEMPLATING THE OBJECT.

is solely

interpretation

image.

THE OBJECTS ONCE USED PILE UP IN THE STUDIO LIKE STUDIO MATERIAL THAT CAN BE REUSED IN OTHER COMPOSITIONS.

distracted by

focuses his

a line of

the hidden face of the things the hidden face of the things the hidden face of the things the hidden face of the things

TO CAUSE A

Madoz is never

when I added

a clue,

Q5: YOU TEND

tricks,

confusion but

giving

Q2: WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE OBJECTS AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN PHOTOGRAPHED? HAVE YOU EVER EXHIBITED THEM?

optical

the image

ended up

A DV E RT I S I N G

of the gaze

So I decided

of the

kno w n .

It only makes

who had

of an

the galaxy

CHEMA

The Absence of

in order to believe in

what we will never see.

photometer

Chema Madoz looks at things

the way the chess knight moves he focuses his eyes straight ahead and they go two squares forward and one sideways

Reality , t h a t labyrinth w i t h no escape f o r reason, i s a fabric woven o f enigmas , specters a n d mirages that mutually oppose , superimpose a n d interpose themselves. As we learn to see , we learn to think about what we see. O r t h e opposite . Th e identity o f t h e globe i s reversible. " Nature moderates this world-kingdom which you see by changing ." C H E M A

M A D O Z

Seneca

P H O T O M E T E R

hand tricks! Clapping with one hand: First, Make your fingers very firm. And then quickly loosen and whip your middle and thumb fingers together. The result should be a whipped sound, but will sound enough like a clap.

Pulling your thumb off: First, put your left hand out so all your fingers are touching and straight and your thumb is tucked so if you looked at your knuckles, you would only see half of your thumb. Second, bend your right thumb so it’s at a right angle and put it so it looks like the other side of your thumb. Cover the crack that shows that you are putting your thumbs together with your pointer finger. And then, move your pointer finger with your right thumb, without showing that you are using two thumbs.

romança

Brossa , J oan

És un petit detall, perÒ no anteposeu el senyor al meu cognom quan em dirigiu la paraula. Gràcies!

Crossing Fingers To cross one's fingers, is an apotropaic hand gesture, used to superstitiously wish for good luck or to nullify a promise. The gesture is referred to by the common expression "fingers crossed", meaning "let's hope for a good outcome".

The 1787 Provincial Glossary of popular superstitions by Francis Grose records the recommendation to keep one's fingers crossed until one sees a dog to avert the bad luck attracted by walking under a ladder.

All methods are valid ones. I don’t have a concrete system to arrive at a conclusion, if we understand the photograph to be a conclusion. The procedure can be very different, arising from the relationship to an object or from contemplating something. Other times I have a specific feeling and look for the object that defines it, which

Guante s Luque C / d e E s p oz Y M i n a , 3, 28 0 1 2 M a d r i d, Spa i n + 3 4 9 1 5 22 32 87

demonstrates the feeling I’ve had.

On other occasions, there’s the case of images I stumble across, nothing else. These images I find are close to a discovery and can be absurd or make sense. I do an exercise to reflect on them and see if they really make sense, what are the possibilities of reading this image, etc… and that’s what pushes me to either leave it aside or take it up.

*1996 In 1996 the Publisher Mestizo, A. C., from Murcia publishes one of Chema’s photography books. The book is titled “Mixtos – Chema Madoz”.

individual exhibitions in 1996 - Palacio de los

PG. 16

Condes de Gabia, Granada - Galería P.P.O.W.,

on a book (Fotopoemario) before Brossa’s death in 1998, and Madoz’s work has also been compared to the visual poems of this Catalan poet with whom he obviously shared a fine sense of humor and the ability to establish associations between objects to produce evidence, although Madoz, as Castro Flórez has pointed out, focuses his lens beyond the mere presence of the object and its semiotic displacements to contribute the ultimately photographic dimension of his work. Photography is inherently the capture of a fleeting instant. All of Chema Madoz’s work shares this clear relationship with the ephemeral. The conjunction achieved does not need to exist either before or after being photographed. The materiality of the idea is not the final goal of the work performed, but merely its frame, its portrait or, as in the traditional snapshot, its exact moment. His black-and-white format also lends a melancholy distance. The scale of grays turns things into shadows which, faded within an unreal world, express themselves as ghosts. They preserve their iconic identity but are absorbed into an abstract metalanguage. We recognize them although they no longer belong to this world. Madoz works with the shadows of things to obtain a plastic elegance that blends his entire work together, giving it formal coherence and enabling him to perform a technically accurate surgical exercise. Sense and precision are decisive elements in articulating an idea. Madoz collects ideas whose trail can be followed perfectly by observing the strange objects scattered around his studio, now unattached machines. His system of accumulation can recall the cabinets of curiosities held in such esteem by the surrealists: André Breton’s workshop or Gómez de la Serna’s El Torreón. As in Arman’s “Accumulations” or the objects trapped in Joseph Cornell’s boxes, Madoz has searched all over the world for meaningful material, but the objects he finds, orders and builds are not essential to his work; they are just the subsidiary elements he uses to photograph an idea. Chema Madoz works on the delicate border existing between the real and M A D O Z

Nueva York, USA. - Galería OMR, Méjico D.F., Méjico. - X Encuentros de la Imagen, Braga, Portugal. - Galería Dieciseis, San Sebastián. - Galería Berini, Barcelona. - Galería Siboney, Santander. (catálogo)

Hidden among daily things arises new worlds. New dimensions

led by metaphor alters the perception of an immediate

reality. The absurd, the paradox, the humor are to be found at the photographers

studio.

#1 thum b Pollex

#2 inde x Digitus Secundus Manus

#3 midd l e Digitus Me’dius

#4 ring Digitus Annula’ris

#5 pin k y Digitus Mi’nimus Ma’nus

HÀLIT Trec el regtle, la caixa de

It’s harder for me to work with nuances when I express myself verbally, whereas I have other abilities when working with visual language. I can be more blunt or subtler… I have the sense I control different planes and different possibilities of reading better than if I only reflect on the verbal aspect. For me, photography has always been a kind of support. On the other hand, I’m aware that a viewer is going to see these photographs, and when constructing the images, I try to see how it’s going to be seen through different eyes other than my own. My images are very elemental, very simple, but there’s somewhat of a clock mechanism in them, something in which the image is endowed with a kind of gear that starts up when you’re in front of it.

The photographs are not only the reflex of what was there but also related to conscious of disapearing. That their photographic metaphorisations inframe things of singular symmetry or make us focus in simple items, in points of view modifying real.

compassos, i començo a traçar i dibuixar. Passa un ocell i acaba el poema.

dog walking advertising: Use phrases that grab people and make it feel like it is addressing them. For example‘Jobs, kids, responsibilities, or just want some time to yourself? Try (insert name or ‘company’ name here), a new dog walking service that will cater to you! For a low price, we will (enter services here) and allow you to take a break whilst being assured your dog is in safe hands!’ Then contact details, and add some pictures for effect, either Clipart ones or photographs you’ve taken of dogs etc. The key thing to make it stick out is nice colour, not clashing and not over the top, but eye-catching, and ditto with photographs. Then for the words, don’t use too many, but make sure you appeal to them- use words like ‘you’, and refer to busy lifestyles/jobs etc. Good luck!

Woof

I don’t end up explaining myself very well when communicating with others on a day-to-day basis. In some way, it’s harder for me to work with nuances when I express myself verbally, whereas I have other abilities when working with visual language. PG. 18

*1996 1996 Collective Exhibitions Colección Ordóñez-Falcón, IVAM, Valencia. Mirages, Chateau d’eau, Toulusse, Francia. Espaces construits... Espaces critiques. Caen, Francia. ARCO 96. Galería Moriarty. Galería Angel Romero.

Dalmatian puppies are born with plain white coats, and their first spots usually appear within a week after birth. After about a month, they have most of their spots, although they continue to develop throughout life at a much slower rate. Spots usually range in size from 30 to 60 mm, and are most commonly black or brown (liver) on a white background. Other more rare colors include blue (a blue-grayish color), brindle, mosaic, tricolored (with tan spotting on the eyebrows, cheeks, legs, and chest), and orange or lemon (dark to pale yellow). Patches of color appear anywhere on the body, mostly on the head or ears, and usually consist of a solid color. A liver-spotted Dalmatian The Dalmatian coat is usually short, fine, and dense. although smoothcoated Dalmatians occasionally produce long-coated offspring which shed less often. They shed considerably yearround. The short, stiff hairs often weave into clothing, upholstery and nearly any other kind of fabric and can be difficult to remove. Weekly grooming with a hound mitt or curry can lessen the amount of hair Dalmatians shed, although nothing can completely prevent shedding. Due to the minimal amount of oil in their coats, Dalmatians lack a “dog” smell and stay fairly clean.

There are five types of bones in the human body: long, short, flat, irregular, and sesamoid.

R alph Eugene Meatyard’s death in 1972 , a week away from his 47 th birthday, came at the height of the “photo boom,” a period of growth and

ited with such wellknown and diverse photogr aphers as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Minor White, Aaron Siskind, Harry Callahan, Robert

ambition, not reflection, a time for writing resumés, not thoughtful and inclusive histories; in the contest of reputation, dying in 1972

last decade, however, thanks in part to European critics (who since at least the time of De Tocqueville have forged early insights into

through with the publication of The Family Album of Lucybelle Cr ater ( 1974 ) which he had laid out and sequenced before his death. While

understood and appreciated. In a sense Meatyard suffered a fate common to artists who are very much of but also very far ahead of their

ferment in photogr aphy in the United States which par alleled the political and social upheavals of the 1960 s and 1970 s. It was a time of meant leaving the r ace early. 1 It was left to friends and colleagues to complete an Aperture monogr aph on Meatyard2 and carry

he lived Meatyard’s work was shown and collected by major museums, published in important art magazines, and regarded by his peers as among the most original and disturbing imagery ever created with a camer a. He exhibited with such wellknown and diverse photogr aphers as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Minor White, Aaron Siskind, Harry Callahan, Robert Fr ank, and Eikoh Hosoe. But by the late 1970 s, his photogr aphs seemed consigned to appear mainly in exhibitions of “southern” art. In the last decade, however, thanks in part to European critics (who since at least the time of De Tocqueville have forged early insights into American culture), Meatyard’s work has reemerged, and the depth of its genius and its contributions to photogr aphy have begun to be understood and appreciated. In a sense Meatyard suffered a fate common to artists who are very much of but also very far ahead of their time. Everything about his life and his art r an counter to the usual and expected patterns. He was an optician, happily married, a father of three, president of the PTA, and coach of a boy’s baseball team. He lived in Lexington, Kentucky, far from the urban centers most associated with serious art. His images had nothing to do with the gritty “street photogr aphy” of the east coast or the romantic view camer a realism of the west coast. His best known images were populated with dolls and masks, with family, friends and neighbors pictured in abandoned buildings or in ordinary suburban backyards. At the same time he often turned from this vernacular focus and, like such photogr aphers as Henry Holmes Smith, Harry Callahan and others, produced highly experimental work. These images include multiple exposures and photogr aphs where, through deliber ate camer a movement, Meatyard took Fox Talbot’s “pencil of nature” and drew calligr aphic images with the sun’s reflection on a black void of water. However, where others used these experiments to expand the possibilities of form in photogr aphs, Meatyard consistently applied breakthroughs in formal design to the explor ation of ideas and emotions. Finally—and of great importance in the development of his aesthetic— Meatyard created a mode of “No-Focus” imagery that was distinctly his own. “No-Focus” images r an entirely counter to any association of camer a art with objective realism and opened a new sense of creative freedom in his art. In short, Meatyard’s work challenged most of the cultur al and aesthetic conventions of his time and did not fit in with the dominant notions of the kind of art photogr aphy could and should be. His work spr ang from the beauty of ideas r ather than ideas of the beautiful. Wide reading in liter ature (especially poetry) and philosophy (especially Zen) stimulated his imagination. While others roamed the streets searching for America and truth, Meatyard haunted the world of inner experience, continually posing unsettling questions about our emotional realities through his pictures. Once again, however, he inhabited this world quite differently from other photogr aphers exploring inner experience at the time. Meatyard’s “mirror” (as John Szarkowski used the term 3) was not narcissistic. It looked back reflectively on the dreams and terrors of metaphysical questions, not private arguments of faith or doubt. Meatyard’s early life offered no hint of the artist he was to become. It was his ucator, who showed artistic talent. Where Jerry was quiet, Gene was outgoing, the center of a social set, a boy who enjoyed music, dancing and good times. During World War II at age eighteen, he enrolled at Williams College as part of the Navy’s V-12 pre-dentistry progr am, but he so enjoyed working on stage plays and other extr a-curricular activities that he let his gr ades slip and was

Fr ank, and Eikoh Hosoe. But by the late 1970 s, his photogr aphs seemed consigned to appear mainly in exhibitions of “southern” art. In the American culture), Meatyard’s work has reemerged, and the depth of its genius and its contributions to photogr aphy have begun to be time. Everything about his life and his art r an counter to the usual and expected patterns. He was an optician, happily married, a father of three, president of the PTA, and coach of a boy’s baseball team. He lived in Lexington, Kentucky, far from the urban centers most associated with serious art. His images had nothing to do with the gritty “street photogr aphy” of the east coast or the romantic view camer a realism of the west coast. His best known images were populated with dolls and masks, with family, friends and neighbors pictured in abandoned buildings or in ordinary suburban backyards. At the same time he often turned from this vernacular focus and, like such photogr aphers as Henry Holmes Smith, Harry Callahan and others, produced highly experimental work. These images include multiple exposures and photogr aphs where, through deliber ate camer a movement, Meatyard took Fox Talbot’s “pencil of nature” and drew calligr aphic images with the sun’s reflection on a black void of water. However, where others used these experiments to expand the possibilities of form in photogr aphs, Meatyard consistently applied breakthroughs in formal design to the explor ation of ideas and emotions. Finally—and of great importance in the development of his aesthetic— Meatyard created a mode of “No-Focus” imagery that was distinctly his own. “No-Focus” images r an entirely counter to any association of camer a art with objective realism and opened a new sense of creative freedom in his art. In short, Meatyard’s work challenged most of the cultur al and aesthetic conventions of his time and did not fit in with the dominant notions of the kind of art photogr aphy could and should be. His work spr ang from the beauty of ideas r ather than ideas of the beautiful. Wide reading in liter ature (especially poetry) and philosophy (especially Zen) stimulated his imagination. While others roamed the streets searching for America and truth, Meatyard haunted the world of inner experience, continually posing unsettling questions about our emotional realities through his pictures. Once again, however, he inhabited this world quite differently from other photogr aphers exploring inner experience at the time. Meatyard’s “mirror” (as John Szarkowski used the term 3) was not narcissistic. It looked back reflectively on the dreams and terrors of metaphysical questions, not private arguments of faith or doubt. Meatyard’s early life offered no hint of the artist he was to become. It was his ucator, who showed artistic talent. Where Jerry was quiet, Gene was outgoing, the center of a social set, a boy who enjoyed music, dancing and good times. During World War II at age eighteen, he enrolled at Williams College as part of the Navy’s V-12 pre-dentistry progr am, but he so enjoyed working on stage plays and other extr acurricular activities that he let his gr ades slip and was dropped from the progr am. However, as he revealed in an or al history interview in 1970 his conflicts at Williams had as much to do with his stubbornly independent intellect as with his youthful energies. 4 Essentially Meatyard’s Williams experience defined him as an autodidact, and for the rest of his life he educated himself through his diverse and vor acious reading. Perhaps, given the powerful interest he showed in dr amatics during these years, it is not coincidental that masks, props and other tools of the theater would later become vital elements in his photogr aphy. After the war, Meatyard returned to Bloomington, Illinois near his birthplace, a town called Normal. He was twenty-one and, like many returning servicemen, eager to get on with his life. He soon met and married Madelyn McKinney, a strikingly beautiful blonde destined to become the hag, “Lucybelle Cr ater,”

dropped from the progr am. However, as he revealed in an or al history interview in 1970 his conflicts at Williams had as much to do with

taking her place in photo history alongside Stieglitz’s Georgia O’Keeffe, Callahan’s Eleanor, and Emmet Gowin’s Edith (who appears as one

dact, and for the rest of his life he educated himself through his diverse and vor acious reading. Perhaps, given the powerful interest he

Meatyard (who’d played the accordion in high school) began a jazz collection that grew to over 1, 500 phonogr aph records. Indeed, for

his stubbornly independent intellect as with his youthful energies. 4 Essentially Meatyard’s Williams experience defined him as an autodishowed in dr amatics during these years, it is not coincidental that masks, props and other tools of the theater would later become vital elements in his photogr aphy. After the war, Meatyard returned to Bloomington, Illinois near his birthplace, a town called Normal. He was twenty-one and, like many returning servicemen, eager to get on with his life. He soon met and married Madelyn McKinney, a strikingly beautiful blonde destined to become the hag, “Lucybelle Cr ater,” taking her place in photo history alongside Stieglitz’s Georgia O’Keeffe, Callahan’s Eleanor, and Emmet Gowin’s Edith (who appears as one of Lucybelle’s friends). The newly weds moved to Chicago where Meatyard took apprenticeship tr aining as an optician. During that time, Meatyard (who’d played the accordion in high school) began a

of Lucybelle’s friends). The newly weds moved to Chicago where Meatyard took apprenticeship tr aining as an optician. During that time, Meatyard photogr aphic pr actice became an art closer to music and poetry than to any of the other arts, 5 Many of his most memor able images lend themselves to being read as poems are read, and a silent music animates many others, especially the “Light on Water” series and the multiple exposures he called “Motion-Sound.” In 1950, Meatyard took a job with a large optical firm in Lexington where he worked until he opened his own shop, Eyeglasses of Kentucky, in 1967. While hardly a major urban center, Lexington was home to the University of Kentucky and attr acted an unusual collection of writers and intellectuals to the area especially during the 1960 s. In time, Meatyard

joined their circle and counted the poets, critics, and scholars Wendell Berry, Guy Davenport, James Baker Hall, and Jonathan Williams

jazz collection that grew to over 1, 500 phonogr aph records. Indeed, for Meatyard photogr aphic pr actice became an art closer to music

among his friends. He became close friends as well with the Tr appist monk, poet and critic Thomas Merton, who shared Meatyard’s strong

silent music animates many others, especially the “Light on Water” series and the multiple exposures he called “Motion-Sound.” In 1950,

Friendships with that company developed some years after Meatyard discovered his native artistic genius. That discovery came in his

and poetry than to any of the other arts, 5 Many of his most memor able images lend themselves to being read as poems are read, and a

interest in Zen. So, although he lived and worked in a quiet college town, Meatyard tr aveled in very creative and well-read company.

Meatyard took a job with a large optical firm in Lexington where he worked until he opened his own shop, Eyeglasses of Kentucky, in 1967.

encounter with another unusual feature of Lexington—the Lexington Camer a Club. Though camer a clubs spr ang up all over the United

While hardly a major urban center, Lexington was home to the University of Kentucky and attr acted an unusual collection of writers and intellectuals to the area especially during the 1960 s. In time, Meatyard joined their circle and counted the poets, critics, and scholars Wendell Berry, Guy Davenport, James Baker Hall, and Jonathan Williams among his friends. He became close friends as well with the Tr appist monk, poet and critic Thomas Merton, who shared Meatyard’s strong interest in Zen. So, although he lived and worked in a quiet college town, Meatyard tr aveled in very creative and well-read company. Friendships with that company developed some years after Meatyard discovered his native artistic genius. That discovery came in his encounter with another unusual feature of Lexington—the Lexington Camer a Club. Though camer a clubs R alph Eugene Meatyard’s death in 1972 , a week away from his 47 th birthday, came at the height of the “photo boom,” a period of growth and ferment in photogr aphy in the United States which par alleled the political and

States after the Photo-Secession, most focused on the gadgetry and technical aspects of photogr aphy. From its founding in 1936 , the

Lexington Camer a Club had followed a different course, one defined by artistic concerns., 6 When Meatyard joined in 1950, Van Deren Coke was the club’s dominant member. Coke, who was soon to go on and become a noted art historian, photogr apher and cur ator, had already worked with Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. Thus he was already well versed in photogr aphy and visual aesthetics. He quickly saw indications of Meatyard’s genius and began to encour age its development. As Coke recalls, his relationship with Meatyard soon became one of peers r ather than teacher and student as they went out photogr aphing together on Sunday afternoons.7 By 1954 Meatyard had

begun to study photogr aphy seriously, and in 1956 he and Coke attended an unprecedented photogr aphic workshop at Indiana University organized by Henry Holmes Smith. Together with the private tutelage he’d had from Coke, that three-week-long workshop opened the

social upheavals of the 1960 s and 1970 s. It was a time of ambition, not reflection, a time for writing resumés, not thoughtful and inclusive

floodgates of Meatyard’s creativity. Though more technical matters like the Zone System were discussed, the workshop’s emphasis fell

Aperture monogr aph on Meatyard2 and carry through with the publication of The Family Album of Lucybelle Cr ater ( 1974 ) which he had

educator, had gotten his start at Moholy-Nagy’s “New Bauhaus,” (later renamed the Institute of Design) in Chicago. 8 Shaped by Moholy-

histories; in the contest of reputation, dying in 1972 meant leaving the r ace early. 1 It was left to friends and colleagues to complete an

on analytic, historical, and personally expressive aspects of the medium, instead of its cr aft. Smith, an influential theorist and photo

laid out and sequenced before his death. While he lived Meatyard’s work was shown and collected by major museums, published in impor-

Nagy’s influence, he had long approached photogr aphy as a means of knowing. At the time of the 1956 workshop, Smith drew particular

tant art magazines, and regarded by his peers as among the most original and disturbing imagery ever created with a camer a. He exhib-

intellectual inspir ation and direction from I.A. Richards’ Pr actical Criticism and tr anslated Richards’ ideas about reading liter ature