RE: authentic space

I think we all need to stop reading theory altogether. but i just can't
help it, it's so interesting.

anyway, i just responded to someone's previous email, but i figure i will
reiterate. and i hope you all don't think that i'm copping out by making
this statement, but in my thought progression with this idea, i've decided
to define authentic space by my photographs only. i originally thought to
myself 'diners, industry, etc. these things are authentic'. but then i
started noticing things that i felt were authentic, but didn't fit into my
strict definition. so i've decided to just shoot and print what makes me
feel what i feel, and in the end, we will have a more introspective
reflection of authentic space.

i do feel like a lot of this has to do with class conciousness. class
conciousness is something that i've thought about for years. i'm only 19,
but since i can remember it's been on my mind. i grew up in an upper middle
class environment. relatively privileged. certainly not suffering. not
ultra rich. but we were definitely comfortable. when i was about 14 i
started noticing the world around me and how most of the people in it
certainly lack the privileges which i had so long taken for granted. it
made me feel really guitly. that guilt is something i still deal with.

what happened was i got into punk rock, which was originally a very working
class thing, and i certainly rebelled against my upbringing. when i was 16
i dropped out of school and moved across the country to california in order
to abandoned the privilege that i had. i know all of this is so dramatic
and blah blah, but i'm going to relate it to authentic space so be patient.

so i tried to connect myself to the working class. i tried to connect
myself to poverty. i tried to understand what the rest of the world was
going through, by living on the streets, basically. since then i have
certainly calmed down regarding my ideas and such. i think these things
will be hugely reflected when i'm finished with this authentic space thing.
because now that i'm letting myself shoot without definition, it will be a
study on me, and how i am from the upper middle class, white privileged
upbringing, and how i feel that these certain things are authentic. and the
more i think about it, the more i think that the reason these things are
authentic to me, is because they are something i never really was able to
connect with, but i wanted to so desperately.

i hope this email wasn't too wishy washy or far fetched. we'll see how
things turn out.

steve

> [Original Message]
> From: Tom Harvey <harveyt@aracnet.com>
> To: <pinhole-discussion@pinhole.com>
> Date: 10/28/2002 4:09:41 PM
> Subject: RE: [pinhole-discussion] authentic space
>
> Steve Bell wrote:
> >Hmm, well let's see.
> >
> >i originally began with the idea of places where people go to reclaim the
> >past. for example, diners. i go to diners all the time, and a friend of
> >mine started talking to me about the idea of authentic space. like, in
the
> >50's diners were kind of this ideal for the future. all stream lined and
> >chrome and neon. now diners are this ideal of the past. this space where
> >people feel like they are part of something authentic. we also talked
about
> >how yuppie artist types get apartments in more urban areas, and nouveau
> >bourgoise people buy industrial type buildings and turn them into living
> >spaces so they can feel more conntected to the working class that they've
> >left behind. this is all architectural theory that she had been reading.
>
> Well, she should probably quit reading architectural theory! But an
> interesting line of thinking nonetheless.
>
> I am not clear if diners are authentic (storefront restaurants might be
> more so);
> if converted warehouses are like -- or not like -- diners (old, scarcity,
> nostalgia);
> if old barns, quarries, cars with carburetors . . spaces left over where
> real work has moved to more modern methods
> are any more real than what replaces them.
>
> But they are more photogenic.
>
> I am reminded of Brooks Jensen's photographs (not pinhole) of traditional
> machine shops and the people who work there.
> http://www.lenswork.com/mos.htm
> That's authentic! At least the subject matter is.
>
> But are we all, when exploring authentic space or activity, just yuppie
> artists trying to be connected to the working class? Pinhole photography
> doesn't seem too proletariat to me.
>
> To be clear -- I do not mean to sound critical. It really is an
> interesting line of thought as I contemplate why I (and others) take
> pictures at all, what we take pictures of, who we expect to be interested
> in our pictures (perhaps to the point of purchasing them), and whether
> critical theory is of any use at all beyond employing college professors
--
> and prompting discussions like this!
>
> (Disclosure: working class upbringing, now a college professor, too old
to
> be a yuppie, too underpaid to qualify as a typical "urban professional"
--
> and an urban warehouse district condominium resident. And, no, I did not
> move here to feel connected to the working class I left behind).
>
> Tom
>
>
> >it got me very interested. so i've been shooting authentic space. i
started
> >off just doing diners and thrift stores, but i've now started relying
more
> >on my instincts, shooting whatever feels like authentic space, rather
than
> >defining it by these specific criteria.
> >
> >so there you have it. more sociological than truth in pinhole relations
of
> >time and space.
> >
> >cheers,
> >
> >steve
>
>
>
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--- Steve Bell
--- Veracity000@earthlink.net
--- http://www.unbeknownst.org/~insurrective /
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/insurrection
--- In fact, rock, rather than being an example of how freedom can be
achieved within the capitalist structure, is
     an example of how capitalism can, almost without a conscious effort,
deceive those whom it oppresses...So
     effective has the rock industry been in encouraging the spirit of
optimistic youth take-over that rock's truly
     hard political edge, it's constant exploration of the varieties of
youthful frustration, has been ignored
     and softened. --Michael Lydon
Received on Thu Oct 31 09:05:35 2002