Debra Bloomfield: small room

lower case crossings fill the bay of photography as, and in, the service of art. SFAI was an early beneficiary of the photography boom of the 70s. Student populations swelled as the boomers reached the age of enlightenment, as well as the draft.

San Francisco called. SFAI provided respite. Teachers took root.

Four Corners. “In 1989 photographer Debra Bloomfield got into her car and headed east from California. “

Lost O in Translation — how captioning gets the names wrong:

“I dwell in the house of the arts… you can talk to me about lucy Lipard and Imagine Cuninghm and Ansel Adams or anybody in the arts…”

a very small sampling of the house of her dwelling. Those were people from 40 years prior. I would have thought her years teaching at SFAI would have kept her more current. Perhaps her self involvement kept her confined to a small room in that house.

DB is speaking in 2014… her house is getting a bit dusty… seems behind on her house-wprk.

Knowledge comes from awareness that is used.

First, Get Good Advice

Ask a guide who knows how to get where you are going. Easy enough. How do you know where you want to go? Compare and contrast destinations. These are two people providing answers to the same question. One person, Martin Parr is an established photographer known primarily to street photographers. The other, Marina Abromavitch was a major founder of a manner and means of expression. She is a creative with influence.

Parr at SCAD

Martin Parr is talking to students at SCAD, a Georgia art-school founded in 1978.


Marina Abromavitch: advice to the young

Marina will make a piece of work; give you an exercise. It make make you uncomfortable. If it doesn’t, did it work?

Both of these people are talking to the young artist, not that person who gave up before getting thru their teens. Art has a way of being confused, as well as confusing.

Art is more difficult than knowing how to do something. It is not limited to doing something well, or important, or grand. It is a worldmaker, not a describer.

Learn enough in your twenties so you have enough time to have more than a career.