DETROIT: ruralized

Images by: Dave Jordano

Written By: Ryan Nemeth

Urban decay, also known as urban rot and urban blight is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude.  Unfortunately, this definition of blight satisfactorily defines the current condition of many properties found throughout the city of Detroit. In fact, a recent urban blight task force in Detroit concluded that the city should spend $850 million dollars to tear down 40,000 dilapidated buildings and to clean up tens of thousands more.  Furthermore, the study also noted that approximately 78,506 buildings, representing 30 percent of the buildings in the city across 139 square miles, are currently dilapidated or headed in that direction. The task force also found that 30 percent of the zoned lots in the city, 114,000 parcels, are vacant and that 90 percent of the city’s publicly held land is blighted. At its height, Detroit was a once booming town that housed more than 1.8 million residents, the 2010 census recorded that a mere 713,777 residents remain. This data also showed that Detroit’s population had decreased by 25 percent relative to the prior decade. To be more exact, the city lost approximately 237,500 residents. If you are wondering how a huge city like Detroit could go bankrupt and end up looking the way it does, the truth is in these numbers. So what the hell transpired in our beloved motor city anyways?

Let’s start with a confession. I have to admit that I was pretty much clueless to the state of Detroit’s economic and physical condition prior to 2008. In my ignorance, I just assumed that Detroit’s blight issue was similar to other iconic American industrial towns like Baltimore, or Pittsburgh. Thus, I pegged Detroit as being yet another American post-industrial town transitioning to a service economy and dealing with relevant growing pains. Enter the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and a much more complex story revealed itself.  By now, we all know that the sub-prime mortgage crisis crippled our economy. Furthermore, we know that the looming failure of the auto industry threatened our economy with a TKO punch. In response, the U.S. Federal government intervened by lending the U.S. auto industry approximately $49.5 billion dollars in funds. This bailout was important not only because it was the largest in U.S. history, but also because is was a signifier of Detroit’s condition and it gave the American public a vested interest in the city’s future. Simply, for many of us, this event opened our eyes to a complex and somewhat traumatic picture of Detroit. It also provided an opportunity to clear up a lot of confusion about the city’s decline. The fact is that the Detroit economy has been in free fall since the decentralization of the auto industry in late 1950s.  

Many smart people attribute Detroit’s demise to suburban sprawl. Thus, they cite racial divide, poor planning and politics as the reason for the city’s sprawl and its ensuing decline and insolvency. I say all components were and still are relevant factors, however, they are mere symptoms of a lagging economic engine. Thus, the current issue of suburban sprawl and its various facets are corollary problems and not causal. If you track economic decline and business changes in the auto industry you will find that the city suffered from a series of large economic blows over a along period of time. Between 1947 and 1963, Detroit lost 140,000 manufacturing jobs, however, statistics reveal that there was a lot more hemorrhaging along the way. Fast forward 50 years and the 2010 Census data reports that Michigan lost 48% of all its manufacturing jobs from 2000-2010, much of this was in the Detroit metro alone, Yikes! 

Depending on your viewpoint, either the city did not respond appropriately or their situation was unavoidable. Maybe the city’s decline is more complex and simply relates to a deep cultural identity? Could it be that taking on the title of automotive capital of the world has been a serious trapping for Detroit? Hell bent on making it work, the city seems to have remained loyal to an industry that has long since departed.  Irrelevant, my point is that the city you see today did not become this way overnight! Eighty thousand buildings do not simply become blighted and ruined in a mere decade. Thus, the collapse and decay that you see has largely transpired over the better part of a half-century. The story of Detroit is the proverbial story of the leaky bucket. I say that the events of the Great Recession spurred Americans to peer into the bucket. For most of us, it was the first time we noticed that Detroit’s bucket was empty. One question remains, how did it get that way?

Many versions of the Detroit story would sound something like this. The auto industry takes off in the early part of the 20th century and chooses Detroit as its home because of its proximity to raw materials. Furthermore, Detroit is accessible by rail, highway, and via the Erie canal. Thus, Detroit automakers can ship their cars both domestically and abroad. Between 1910 and the late 1950s, Detroit grows from a city of 400,000 to a peak population of 1.86 million people. As you might have guessed, increased vehicle demands related to the war, as well as the postwar boom, spurred a tremendous amount of economic growth in city.  Coincidentally, workers flocked to auto factories to join unions as they were assured solid wages and steady hours. Good factory jobs meant rising incomes and increased wages translated into new wealth and spending.

However, wages and privileges were not equal during this growth phase in the city. Efforts to produce products for the war attracted nearly 400,000 migrants to the city, both Black and White. Many came from the South and they were competing for jobs and housing in an already crowded city. Tension boiled over for the first time in June of 1943 and led to a devastating riot and ensuing racial divide; this has remained a wound since. This is mentioned for the fact that the fallout yielded persistent and palpable racial tension that is often cited as rationale for leaving the city. In fact, many would argue this factor alone led to an exodus of people from the city to the suburbs. The problem; race, economics and education became impenetrable assimilation barriers to blacks seeking to follow opportunities in the burbs.  The city of Detroit once boasted the largest Black middle class in America. However, after the riots in 1943 and 1967 and school desegregation, the White population left in such large numbers that today the city of Detroit has the largest urban Black population (84%) in the nation. Not surprisingly, Detroit is also one of the most segregated of all large cities in the country. Over 80 percent of the population of Detroit is black, while 90 percent of the suburban metro population is White. It should be evident that this lack of diversity in the city proper has since created a tremendous amount of social, political, and economic problems for the municipality.

For union workers that left the city, atop the list of items to accrue were the family car and home. Thus, Detroit’s factory jobs began to support new home sales in suburbia outside of the city. Notably, increased ownership of automobiles suddenly made suburbia both easy and cheap to access. For both reasons, the newly mobile middle-class made their exodus.  Thus, the burbs in Detroit were largely the byproduct of racial tension, substantial factory wages, and mobility created by the car. Meanwhile, there were less jobs to go around. However, for a short while, life in the burbs had all the makings of the American dream.  But as automation and innovation replaced factory workers and carmakers moved closer to their customers and then finally abroad, things changed! Within a generation, suburban and urban families were slowly left without any substantial means for putting food on the table. Without the prospect of new jobs or increased wages, property values plummeted. Thus, many were left without the means to pay for their mortgage and their municipal taxes. The economic powerhouse that was once the American auto industry had simply changed and charted a new course and the small amount of city residents that were on union payrolls were left in an economic vacuum.  Not so suddenly, the business model that once worked was broken and a vibrant and loyal community died a thousand deaths with it.

"Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope." - Epictetus

Let us not forget. Detroit is the home of the American Automobile; Motown Records, with 180 No. 1 hits and counting, the label’s influence is still felt today from pop to hip-hop and beyond; William Edward Boeing the founder of Boeing Aircraft was born in Detroit; the modern Assembly Line is a product of the Ford factory; The 5 Day Work Week is a product of the Labor Movement, which was birthed from Detroit’s auto workers; The first regularly broadcast Radio Show, 8MK of Detroit, claims to be the first station to play regularly scheduled news. The first mile of Highway in the country was paved in Detroit; the Bellveille Three are attributed with starting Techno Music in the Motor City, etc. Hopefully you are getting the point by now as the list goes on and on, so lets just cut to the chase!

What you should realize is that Detroit and its people have used a lot of ingenuity to birth a ton of inventions and accomplishments for our nation. In fact, many of these inventions and accomplishments have had a tremendous amount of global impact and reach. Let there be no doubt that Detroit will reinvent itself, there is just too much history and ingenuity bubbling in the city. What is also apparent in learning more about Detroit and its residents is that there is a lot more than meets they eye. In the case of the motor city, do not judge a book by its cover. When I think of Detroit and its people, I see a city filled with grit, determination, endurance, inspiration, intellect, and passion. I feel that residents of Detroit are motivated to do something about the current state of their city. Furthermore, residents are channeling these emotions into collective community environments and constructive dialogues for change. You find evidence of this on the Internet and beyond and these are key ingredients needed to induce lasting social and economic change in the municipality. Furthermore, positive actions are being taken by both the federal government and the city’s officials to address the many issues that are weighing the city down. Thus, there is evidence of action! When I look at pictures of a blighted and abandoned city, I see something that is not too far from a blank canvas. Not too many towns in America have the chance to deconstruct much of what did not work for the past half-century and to reinvent it, Detroit does!

 References:

1. Cohen, S (2013). Detroit Decline Causes Include Auto Industry Collapse, Segregation And Politics. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/22/detroit-decline-cause-auto-industry-segregation-race_n_3635818.html
2. Daniels. S. (2015). You Probably Didn’t Know These 12 Awesome Inventions Came From Michigan. Retrieved from: http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/michigan/inventions-mi/.
3. Seelye, K. (2011). Detroit census confirms a desertion like none other. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23detroit.html?_r=0
4. Davey, M. (2014). Detroit urged to tear down 40,000 buildings. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/28/us/detroit-task-force-says-blight-cleanup-will-cost-850-million.html 
5. Matthews, R. (2013). Detroit Bankrupt: To See Detroit's Decline, Look at 40 Years Of Federal Policy. Retrieved from: http://mic.com/articles/45563/detroit-bankrupt-to-see-detroit-s-decline-look-at-40-years-of-federal-policy
6. Motown Museum (2015). Motown, the sound that changed America.  Retrieved form: https://www.motownmuseum.org/story/motown 
7. U.S. Department of Treasury (2015). Auto Industry. Retrieved from: http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/financial-stability/TARP-Programs/automotive-programs/Pages/default.aspx
8. Wikepedia (2015). Urban Decay. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_decay
9. Woods, A., Zaslow, A. (2014). 11 Remarkable Ways Detroit Changed The World For The Better. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/07/best-detroit-events_n_4887889.html
10. MDOT (2015). National firsts. Retrieved from:  http://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,4616,7-151-9620_11154-129682–,00.html
11. http://www.michiganhighways.org/indepth/early_I-94.html 
12. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/20/how-cities-are-starting-to-turn-back-decades-of-creeping-urban-blight/ 
13. http://blackdemographics.com/cities-2/detroit/

PHOTOBOOKS: The Golden Age

Images by: Dillon Marsh-Evander Goldfield

 

Written by: Ryan Nemeth

I recently read an article by an International publisher that proclaimed, “The Golden Age of photo books is dead.”  For me, nothing could be further from the truth. The article’s title should have been, “Traditional publishers are not adapting to changes in photo book markets.” It would be tough to make an argument for the “ Golden Age” of photo books without first acknowledging the elephant in the room. BREAKING NEWS: Elephant speaks and says, e-commerce and the Internet have been highly disruptive to the publishing industry. Sorry, not too much shock value here, but I tried! However, here is my assessment of the situation.  

Computers have bestowed the power of printing and publishing to the masses and therein lies a huge problem; unnatural competition to publishers from photographers willing and able to self-publish. As a result, traditional publishers openly acknowledge that their supply chains and distribution networks do not function as they did a decade ago. So logically, you are probably wondering, why? The popular assessment is that the Internet has bestowed us with a direct to consumer business model.  Thus, irrelevant of one’s industry, the ability to sell direct to consumers squeezes middlemen out of the mix.  So when publishers complain that their markets are off, or that this is not the “Golden Age” of photo books, are they just acknowledging that current market forces are cutting them out of business deals? For me, this would be a more accurate assessment of the current state of the photo book market.  I happen to think that it is a tremendous time to self-publish photo books and that we are indeed moving through a renaissance in photo book publishing, here is why!

To date, the traditional photo book publishing market has mainly been predicated on scale and volume as a model for profitability. For producers, the volume proposition is simply the more you print, the cheaper the books get. For example, a run of 10,000 books yields production costs that are much lower than runs of say 1,000 or 500 books.  Most importantly, printing in volume and selling these large batches of books ensured that there was enough money for the photographer, publisher, distributor, and the resale person in the supply chain.  When you hear about an industry standard rate of 3 to 5 times mark up, this is exactly where it comes from.  Thus, publishers or those outlaying the cash for publishing deals are looking to cover the markup of the book and subsequent cost adding steps through each phase of the supply and distribution chain. Obviously, covering costs is a necessary component of turning a profit. As we know, profitability equals continued investment in new photo book projects.

Let’s explore this concept in more detail, say a publisher could hypothetically produce 10,000 case bound photo books for $10 a book. In order to cover $20,000 of photographer royalties, the publisher has to mark each book up $2 dollars. To cover marketing, promotion, and advertising costs, they must add another $3 dollars per unit for production overhead. Thus, out of the gate, a $10 dollar book increases to $15 per unit breakeven. At volume, the distributor would typically expect 30-50 percent returns. Thus, the book’s breakeven price would become $22.50. Add in a 100 percent return to the publisher and 50-100 percent margins for the bookseller and you are looking at a photo book that costs $50-60 retail. This traditional model and various iterations of it worked for a long time. However, the reason I point out all of this boring business detail is because this scenario demonstrates that the ability to publish commercially was and has been largely predicated on scale.  Thus, the story was that if you could not produce books and distribute them in volume, you would have a tremendously difficult time selling books profitably to the larger book market!

Let me remind you that we are not too far beyond a time when purchasing a book in a retail environment was essentially the only access point to that book. Thus, photographers needed access to bookstores to sell their books. The only way to go to market without incurring tremendous amounts of distribution expense was in fact to work through publishers. Because of this distribution burden and the relevant market access issue, a majority of photographers would turn to publishers to take on their financial risks and to assume their production overhead.  I should point out that under this model, not too many photographers, if any, had the necessary cash on hand to produce and self-publish large enough runs of books that were affordable to the mass markets through retail outlets.  Photographers were therefore dependent on publishers and their supply and distribution networks as the primary means for access to the broader book market. In many ways, this model helped keep the photo book market contained and predictable. Thus, publishers and their established distribution networks essentially gated access to the larger book market. The end result is that publishers could capture and retain steady amounts of market share. This system worked for many decades and it translated into solid returns on book projects for many publishers and their renewed investment in book projects.

Enter the computer. Little did we know while drinking Tab Clear and playing Myst on our Macintosh Color Classic in 1993 that it would all end up like this. However, let there be no doubt that the evolution of our beloved machines and the capacity to network has changed the scale proposition for photo book producers the world over. In doing so, artists and photographers now have direct access to consumer and collector markets via the Internet. Furthermore, it should also be noted that advances in digital printing are stimulating industry change. Thus, reductions in press set-up time and efficiency gains generated through digital printing processes have been passed on as costs savings to producers and consumers. This factor has had a tremendous effect on opening up the book market to self-publishing efforts.

The real game changer that is looming over the entire industry and starting to come online is the capacity to print on demand (POD). As you are probably aware, this technology changes the entire scale factor of book production. Thus, books are produced as they are ordered, and as you may have guessed, you only outlay cash and produce books when consumers buy them! For me, this is a powerful tool in book project risk mitigation. Obviously, there is no longer a need to sit on thousands of books of inventory. Going back to the article I read; the two book publishers interviewed spoke about the financial risks associated with their current projects. One publisher mentioned book volumes of 4,000 units and the tremendous financial outlay required to produce these books. I say this perspective and the ensuing argument is hardly relevant in an age when you can print high-quality photo books on demand? However, this argument is predicated on the industry shifting their business model from an old paradigm as described above, to one that has adopted current production and sales methodologies. For those publishers still trying to operate under their old large volume production and distribution models, I wish you luck!

THE GOOD NEWS.

You must be thinking that print on demand (POD) technology sounds like something of the future that is not accessible to both you and I.  However, let me assure you that access to POD printing has been granted to all. I have personally located several commercial printers that currently offer POD technology for both perfect bound and case bound photo books; both formats are totally customizable. This means silkscreened covers, choices of linen wraps, color options, foil stamping, custom binding, selections in paper, and choices in printing methods. Furthermore, the better printers offer shopping cart and inventory management integration with their services. Thus, photographer’s websites like yours and mine can link directly to a production facility’s order management system. For example, this means that when someone orders a book on my site, the manufacturer automatically produces and fulfills the order from the transaction on my site.  So what happens to the traditional publisher when lots of photographers go about self-publishing and selling their books via this method online? Yep, you guessed it, they lose market share and face becoming obsolete!  From a traditional publisher’s perspective, this drastic change in the way of doing business satisfactorily explains why market share has become “fractured”.  Thus, the “fractured” book market as described in the article, exists because publishers are increasingly losing market share to self-publishers and small independent operations that can turn profits at a very small scale. Essentially, you and I have become the industry’s competitor!

In no way am I advocating for a scenario where publishers face financial ruin or the inability to gain traction in a transformed market. Quite the contrary, I should point out that there are many amazing publishing houses in the market and their expertise, knowledge, and continued approach to book making brings a lot to the table. However, what I do advocate for in the photo book market and beyond is market access. Furthermore, I believe that marketplace competition through expanded access breeds both innovation and increased quality in photo book offerings.  It is evident that publishers are now operating in a heightened competitive environment.  This competitive factor induces market pressure to increase the quality of books being offered, while simultaneously placing downward pressure on production costs. To this I say, may the best books win in this new era of production and consumption!

At a bare minimum it would be impossible not to conclude that established publishers face declining market shares. You really do not have to look too far! The shear volume of websites and the amount of Internet activity surrounding indie publishing efforts is staggering. On a regular basis, I find small publishers that are cranking out really interesting books. Thus, evidence supports the idea that technology is enabling new market growth that is increasingly being captured by independent self-publishers. Additionally, when I look at photo books, I am seeing the use of innovative book materials and non-standard book formats.  Furthermore, I frequently stumble across inspired and collaborative discussions about photo books in online communities and groups.  Some online groups of photographers go as far as sharing information about best practices and production methods used in creating their books.  Most importantly, I see communities of photographers that are dedicated to pushing boundaries and participating in an industry on their terms. From a photographer’s standpoint, this industry feels both engaging and inspired. This is not what you would expect from a dying photo book market? Quite the contrary!

It is one thing to consider and cite changing business models and technology as the culprit for massive shifts in the photo book industry. However, I believe that if this assessment is in fact true, one should also see lots of market evidence to back this assertion up.  Thus, when I objectively scan the market, I do in fact see tons of evidence acknowledging sustained and increased market growth. More specifically, I am seeing many small publishers coming online that are now able to support their overhead and gain broader exposure for their projects. In many cases, these are artist and photographer driven publishing businesses. Thus, the creation of market access through technology is enabling contemporary indie publishers to enter a market that did not exist a decade ago. However, I must admit, the current reality of most small scale publishing endeavors is that these book projects are low margin and low return projects. Thus, the scale factor necessary for profitability never entirely goes away. Whereas the breakeven point for a book project a couple decades ago may have been 2,000 books, it could now hypothetically be something like 100 books or less; this is impressive!  I say that these micro runs of books are in fact creating broader market exposure and career opportunities for many gifted photographers that may have continued their existence as unknown photographers a mere decade ago.

I feel totally empowered by the state of the current photo book market as an independent photographer interested in self-publishing and selling books online. If a photographer’s aim is expanded market exposure through self-publishing efforts and online sales, I say the world is your oyster. There should be no doubt that the “Golden Age” of photo books is here.  Our capacity for small-scale production and direct to consumer distribution is unprecedented. To this I say, get after it! 

SENSE OF PLACE: Tanya Traboulsi

Images by: Tanya Traboulsi

Written By: Ryan Nemeth

Tanya, thanks for taking the time to interview with Terratory Journal! I wanted to talk with you about your series of work, Lost Strange Things: On Not Finding Home. I am interested in exploring this body of work as the images reveal something interesting about an important component of place, which is culture. Although it is not glaringly apparent, our sense of place is in fact largely shaped by the culture that surrounds us. This means objects, people, food, architecture, music, and language are all cultural elements in our environment that help to shape our associative and emotive meanings of place. Thus, the cultural nuances found in the food we eat and grow, the buildings we erect, the objects we employ and covet, the people we are surrounded by, and our infrastructure and architecture all help to define unique cognitive and behavioral patterns that give context and meaning to personal and collective geographies. The world over, cultural geographers note that unique cultural and geographic identifiers impart distinct sensory perceptions of location and place. These cultural and social considerations along with other geographic information help to shape our identity by imparting sensory perceptions that create relevant memories and experiences of place.

"It is place, permanent position in both the social and topographical sense, that gives us our identity." - J.B. Jackson

R: Tanya, you have a really unique world-view as you have lived in both Europe and the Middle East. Austria and Lebanon are distinct geographies and have probably shaped your views of place in really different ways? You are currently living in Lebanon, tell me more about the country, how big is Lebanon?

T: The country is a small, about 4.5 million people. Recently, our country has taken in about 1.2 million Syrian refugees, so we have grown exponentially almost overnight. I am sure you have been tracking this in the news?

R: Yes, the situation in Syria is very concerning. It is hard not to notice the relevant displacement issues in Hungary, Germany, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and beyond. I am very compassionate about this situation as it is a challenging problem on all sides. Clearly this is a multi-national issue and a tough one to navigate as the refugees are victims of conflict.

T:  Yes, and I bring this up as I have been thinking a lot about place, movement, and belonging as related to Syrian refugee groups.  It is interesting to ponder how forced migration affects identity and our sense of place.

R: I would assume that most refugees have a hard time coping with the shock of their newfound realities. I can only assume that this situation turns many lives upside down! Tell me more about your family history and upbringing in Austria and Lebanon. How did you end up in both countries?

T: My mother is Austrian and my father is Lebanese. My mother is actually a sports teacher and she landed a job in Lebanon as a ski instructor. She left Austria for Lebanon and in doing so met my father. My mom stayed in Lebanon until 1975 when the civil war broke out and then she split time between Lebanon and Austria. I was born in Austria in 1976 and shortly after my birth my mother and father returned to live in Lebanon. They stayed in Lebanon until 1983, when the country became very unlivable.  

In 1983, at the age of 7, I returned to Austria with my family, where I completed all of my schooling. Thus, my youth and teenage years were spent in Austria and my early formative years were in Lebanon. I should mention that leaving Lebanon at an early age was very difficult for me. I was torn by this move and I longed to return home to Lebanon. However, returning was an impossible thing to do at the time because of the war. This life experience created a deep sense of displacement and with it ushered in many questions of identity and belonging.

R: So this series of work is an exploration of the effect of displacement on your sense of place and identity? 

T: Exactly, this series is a search for places and things that represented home to me, at least for a moment or a period of time. The places, people, and objects you see in the series are all places that are familiar to me and they evoke feelings of comfort and home.

R: You are describing this series ofwork as a documentation of the places, people, and objects that surround you. These animate and inanimate things demonstrate emotional bonds or favorable attachments and links to personal memory. Thus, you are suggesting these cultural touch points and people have largely defined your sense of place. How do you feel that culture plays out in this series?

T: Well, there is a huge cultural gap between Europe and the Middle East in terms of mentality, society, and culture. In many ways, this divide or chasm has challenged my own sense of place.  At times, I find that it is very difficult to get a steady stream of thoughts around my own identity. Am I European or Middle Eastern or both and how do I fit in?

In reflecting on this, I have come to a couple of conclusions. I am not sure if belonging is acceptance through a specific place or if belonging and identity are simply defined by fleeting moments in time that persist through memory? Thus, maybe memories and time are crucial and key elements in the place equation and have as much to do with defining our sense of belonging and identity as does location?

R: Yes, I think you are onto something! It is interesting that you bring up the concept of time. I also believe that temporal concerns most definitely shape our concepts of place. For me, there is also something interesting going on between time and perception. Recalling childhood memories of place seems to be a good way to explore this concept. For instance, revisiting larger than life places from my youth often yields something totally different than what I perceived. Is the difference in my memory and what I experience related to changes in my sense of time, my perception, or both?  It appears that you explored this concept of time in your series by including still life photos and family memorabilia in your work?

T: Yes, exactly! In my book that is compiled from the images in this series, I have included family pictures, letters, archives, and objects that help to convey meaning and associations of time. Although I was not around for many of these memories, I still have a history that was intertwined with the lives that shaped and gave life to these family objects. It is important to note that this family memorabilia holds many memories of the past and I believe that much of this history continues to shape the present. Thus, we are never really apart from our past.

I should mention that I organized this series to explore identity through landscapes/cityscapes, objects, and portraits.  For me, these objects and components of the series are very important because each carries energy from the past and my childhood. For example, I am showing a powder box in this work. This object holds a lot of meaning and associated memories for me. In talking about the past, I am reminded of the expression stating, “We should seek to live in the present.” I agree, however, we must remember that our history and the past can have a lot of bearing on our future. Thus, our history affects who we are, where we come from, what we become, where we go, and therefore largely how we identify and view the world.

R: When you mention where we go and where we come from, I get the sense that many of the figures in your series seem to be searching or seeking something? Many of these figures are looking out to the horizon, which conveys a sense of longing. What was your intent in composing the figures the way you did in this series, and how does this relate to place?

T: So the figures are kind of stiff or rigid. My aim was to show the figures more like foreign objects in their environments.  Thus, I wanted the figures to feel somewhat separate from their surroundings. I think this concept comes about from my own experiences of moving and feeling out of place or foreign to place, this describes much of the alienation I felt as a young person. I also wanted to bring in some bizarreness and to paint somewhat of a surreal scene. This surreal quality captures the bulk of the feeling that I am after in regard to conveying a confused or conflicted reality.

R: So who are the people in your images, how were the selected?

T: The figures are all friends and family, they are people that have been a big part of my life or that I have some connection to. As this series is about identity, I have naturally included my mom and my sister in several images.

R: Tell me about the locations that you selected for your landscapes, these appear to be public spaces that might have meaning to you? For example, there is an image of a park with a tower included, is this Lebanon?

T: This is actually Austria, what you are seeing in this image is a flak tower that was used during the Second World War. Here is the past again and the concept of time as this object holds a collective memory for many Austrians. There is sense of heaviness that many Austrians carry around with them regarding this history. Similar to this is the Lebanese collective memory, which is the Civil War. In both cases, these memories of the past continue to define a present day collective identity. Thus, the collective sense of place and sentiment in both countries is still involved with history of conflict and the memories that persist. 

R: Your personal history reveals that your life has unfolded in communities that have been deeply affected by conflict. I too find it fascinating how conflict impacts concepts of place and identity. Inevitably, the very nature of these abrasive events creates sides. In doing so, our relevant human needs for security and stability often create a response that urges us to erect walls and create barriers. Thus, conflict generates scenarios where in groups and out groups are defined and coinciding cultural identities are challenged.

The terrible reality and traumatic part of conflict is that war goes as far as challenging human existence. In doing so, conflict strips away complex personal and collective memories that help to shape and define our sense of place, identity, and belonging. I really admire your courage to explore and examine the effects of this process in your own life as you have helped me to understand some of the cultural and social considerations of place. Tanya, thanks for taking the time to elaborate, this conversation has been very enlightening!

Find more of Tanya’s work here:  http://www.tanyatraboulsi.com

References:

Retrieved from: http://www.artofgeography.com/info/the-sense-of-place

IMAGE AESTHETICS: Trash or transcendental?

Images by: David G Hines

 

Written by: Morgain Bailey

Edited by: Ryan Nemeth

A few years ago, I took a trip from the Pacific Northwest to visit The Lightning Field by Walter De Maria in New Mexico. The trip yielded lots of lightning, but not where I expected it! Instead, the lightning I experienced was directed at Mount Taylor, which I witnessed while camping at Bluewater Lake State Park. On multiple occasions, the lightning lit up the evening sky. Serendipitously, I encountered more of it while driving down towards Taylor from the North. There, I decided to drive straight into the storm to experience its energy and more lightening first hand. This I did, and I must admit that it was quite a thrill! After a few days of this dramatic landscape and light show, I stuck to my plan and continued South 100 miles to Quemado, where the office for the Lightning Field inhabits a small adobe building.

I arrived early to an unlocked door and discovered a dusty room with a set of wooden chairs, a table with a check-in log, and a bathroom. Curious to see if I’d recognize any of the names on the guest list, I read through a few pages of the logbook.  My curiosity didn’t yield much, so I spent some time wandering around town with my camera. While I was out, I picked up some gas, stopped by the post office and then had lunch under a shade of a tree in front of an abandoned house. Making my way back to the Lighting Field, I remember feeling sunburnt, grungy and lonely when suddenly three people showed up and mistook me for the guide. They were well dressed, freshly ironed and somewhat preppy looking. We quickly sorted out that we were all guests and soon to be housemates for the night and that the real guide hadn’t showed up yet. I felt out of place with this crew, somewhere between the hired help and an unwanted intruder in their bubble of pleasantness.

The guide was a surly woman in a very large four-wheel drive SUV, she eventually showed up and hauled us down an endless series of very long dirt roads. By the time we arrived to the guesthouse, none of us had a clue where we were. We could have all been blindfolded and it wouldn’t have made any difference to our bearings. It figures that I’d left my GPS unit in the rental car, so I (the one who usually knows where I am) was of no help. During the drive out, I became acquainted with my housemates.  One was a retired art history professor, who was more interested in Buddhist philosophy than anything else. Fittingly, her husband (both with East Coast accents) was a philosophy professor. The third guest was a woman who worked as a sales rep at a photography gallery in Santa Fe. So there we were, the four of us, complete strangers in the middle of nowhere. I can say that I liked the spontaneity of the experience, however, the 24 hours we spent awaiting a lightning storm yielded no light show.

The guesthouse is a restored homesteader’s off-grid cabin located on the edge of the Lightning Field. It is set up to evade ambient light from nearby houses and towns. Thus, the only visible light in the night’s sky is produced from the cabin itself. We seemed to migrate to the back of the guesthouse where there is a porch with a bench and chairs. This was our base for activity, it is where we sat and talked and ate before venturing out to explore the neighboring land. The conversations seemed to meander around, I recall one in particular about the art installation (Lightning Field) itself. In discussion, we shared what we each thought of the site and other relevant ideas.  Right before the end of our stay, I had an unforgettable conversation with the art history professor. She asked me about my photography and my favorite photographers. I told her that Robert Adams tends to inhabit the top of the list and then she went off on a tangent about the aesthetics of landscape photography.  The art historian then made a comment that has never ceased to haunt me and has long been the source of ongoing debate. She stated that contemporary landscape photography is becoming overly aestheticized and seemed to think that this derailed the process of accessing the content of a photograph.

Her assertion stopped me in my tracks, as if I had endured a sudden punch to the gut. So naturally, I have been wrestling with this concept and it has led to many internal and external dialogues and questions. In an effort to find some closure, these questions have seemingly been on repeat. Can a photographer spend too much time studying and learning the aesthetic nuances of photography? Should a person that values visual experience seek out a less comprehensive version of their experience? Can a photograph be made too beautiful? My answer to all is, I don’t think so! Contrary to this art historian’s assertion, I believe that our brains are wired to respond to the beauty found in aesthetic experiences. Thus, positive aesthetic experiences are stimulating, engaging, and visceral by nature. Can one have too much of that? I doubt it. Why else would we consume photography so voraciously? It seems that humans are insatiably looking for images and visual information to stimulate the mind? It should also be evident that our appetite for this experience mirrors the exponential growth of photography.

In pondering the art historian’s comment, I must say that I think there is a place for images of all types and aesthetical persuasions. Thus, the aesthetically saturated or discordant image is no different than music or sound that is intentionally cacophonous or disharmonious. Perhaps the intentional creation of visual disharmony is the wrench in the machine, the punk rock anarchist section of the photography library? Maybe the art historian was simply trying to convey her distaste for contrived images or aesthetic discord? If the photograph is off-putting, challenging to view and or the content painful to think about, could we assume that only the most masochistic, illiterate, or tough viewer would endure being an audience to it? The truth is that we view photographs for so many reasons and we should not deny ourselves the opportunity to experience a spectrum of emotions and thoughts via this vehicle. Bad, good, or indifferent, images evoke and communicate messages, some better than others, but like all art this is their inherent utility and function. 

Personally, aesthetic beauty is what entrances me and captures my attention long enough to contemplate the content of the photograph. I need the poetry and a moment of transcendental experience that lasts just long enough to capture my attention. This aesthetic appeal allows me to focus past the picture plane and increases a willingness to continue exploring the content in the image. A documentary photograph that is solely about objective and impartial content is fine for illustrating a concept or situation, however, it usually fails to become art. It is the aesthetic experience that enhances the viewing of the photograph that seemingly elevates it to something worth savoring.

Recently, I have pursued information through a number of sources to expand my knowledge on the role of aesthetics in photography. I have compared my own experiences to that of my photographer friends. Furthermore, I have also read other photographer’s writings on aesthetics in landscape photography. In doing so, I have come to a conclusion! The more visually literate the photographer, the more refined their sense of aesthetics become.  Ultimately, it is this aesthetic literacy that leads to new ways of image making. Therefore, I believe that our inherent desire to enhance and challenge the concept of image aesthetic is what pushes the boundaries of photography. This process leads to innovation and new ways of visual communication. Contrary to the art historian’s comments, I believe that image aesthetics and aesthetic details are both integral and necessary components of photography as they create heightened and new experiences for viewers and image-makers alike. Creativity lives in novel and new aesthetic approaches to photography, it is through this process that images communicate and engage the sensory in new ways. Isn’t this the goal of image making, to make an experiential object that has the capacity to become transcendental? I think so.

CARDINAL DIRECTIONS

Written by: Ryan Nemeth

In case you are wondering, cardinal directions have no history or affiliation with either the Catholic Church or the red breasted songbird. The word cardinal is synonymous with pivotal, main, and essential. Thus, the cardinal directions remain essential elements of modern navigation. Cardinal directions are also referred to as cardinal points and they are defined as the universal directions of north, south, east and west.  As you are aware, these commonly accepted directions serve as the basis for map orientation, the compass, and other key navigational aids the world over. If you are like me, you probably have a lot of questions that surround their etymology (the study of the origin of these words). Primarily, I cannot help but wonder how cardinal directions developed as universal terms for direction the world over?

History documents that during the migration period, the Germanic language names for cardinal directions entered the Romance languages, where they replaced the Latin names for their precedents. Borealis (or septentrionalis) was replaced with north, australis (or meridionalis) with south, occidentalis with west and orientalis with east.  However, what about the Pre-European cultural use of directions? One would think that ancient cultures assigned words to cardinal points as a common means for navigation.  However, the linguist Cecil H. Brown would say, bad assumption! Brown and others have studied many ancient languages such as Indo-European, Polynesian, Mayan, Uto-Aztecan, and Finno-Ugric languages and their studies tell a different story about the evolution of the universal words for cardinal directions.

Brown compiled data from 127 globally distributed languages to look for evidence of cross-language references and uniformities in the lexical encoding and naming of the four directions. In doing so, he concluded that there was little evidence to support the idea that our commonly used cardinal directions and their lexical derivatives were used in these ancient languages.  Furthermore, Brown explained that distributions of genetically similar cultures and languages revealed that the use of cardinal directions are believed to be quite new relative to the dates assigned to these cultures.  Additionally, Brown mentioned that is was not particularly surprising to conclude that ancient languages of the remote past lacked terms for cardinal points.  He noted that cardinal points are particularly useful for cultures that are highly mobile and need finely tuned information to navigate complex spaces and geographies.  Brown and others believe that ancient small-scale societies (nomads excluded) were not particularly mobile. Thus, he concluded that universal directions were less necessary for survival in these ancient cultures. He added that when directions were required, they were most likely handled through the use of referents, such as landmarks and other geographic land features.  Brown’s study also revealed that other descriptive words such as up, down, left, right, front, and behind were often used as descriptors in conjunction with landmark referents. For example, expressions such as toward the mountain or on the other side of the lagoon, might have been common ways to communicating direction in these cultures.

Not surprisingly, as cardinal points began to show up in world languages, the cardinal points of east and west were almost exclusively references to movements associated with the rising and setting sun. Brown concluded this, because many of the newer languages studied contained independent words for the cardinal directions of east and west that were synonymous with sun references. However, the linguistic research was much less conclusive for the cardinal directions of north and south. The sun, wind, atmospheric features, and celestial bodies were all attributed as top influencers for the cardinal directions of north and south. For example, in the northern hemisphere the sun always travels from east to west in the southern half of the sky. For this reason, the sun shows up as a reference to the cardinal point south in some northern hemisphere cultures. For example, the Turkish, Hungarian, Polish, and Latvian languages all contain lexical derivatives that associate the sun with south in their language.

Words derived from the actions and orientations of celestial bodies and atmospheric events were also associated with the development of directional terms for north and south.  For example, warmer weather arrives from the south and colder weather from the north in the northern hemisphere. Furthermore, it is evident that the north winds blow from the north and the south winds from the south. For this reason, Brown noted that it was not uncommon to find words that described wind as referents to the cardinal directions of north and south. It should be noted that celestial bodies and stars such as the north-star also worked as similar navigational aids to orientation in many of these cultures. Thus, celestial markers also show up as the language derivatives to north and south in many cultures. One could easily deduce that local geography must have also played a huge part in determining language referents for north and south. For example, the north-star was probably not visible to cultures that existed in climates with lots of cloud cover. In this case, celestial bodies would probably not have been directional referents in these cultures.  So if anyone ever asks you how the cardinal directions came about, you can tell them this:

1)    The cardinal directions of east and west evolved from our universal orientation to the rising and setting sun.

2)    The cardinal directions of north and south are less definitive in their evolution. However, linguistic research reveals that their etymology most likely evolved from descriptive language that explained actions of the sun, the weather, and or the stars. Some of this variance can be attributed to differences in geography. Furthermore, and most notably, there is an absence of a universally orienting daytime south and north directional references on the order of the sun. This point alone helps resolve some of the variation revealed in the etymology of north/south cardinal directions.

References:

1. Brown, C. (1983). Where Do Cardinal Direction Terms Come From? Anthropological Linguistics, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Summer, 1983), pp. 121-161. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30027665
2. No author, World Atlas (2015) cardinal Directions and the compass rose. 
3. Weibull, Lauritz. De gamle nordbornas väderstrecksbegrepp. Scandia 1/1928;
4. Ekblom, R. Alfred the Great as Geographer. Studia Neophilologica 14/1941-2;
5. Ekblom, R. Den forntida nordiska orientering och Wulfstans resa till Truso. Förnvännen. 33/1938