the last step is a doozy...

Lindsey Putnam
Studio Art Major
Advisor: Akihiko Miyoshi
Anticipated Graduation: May 2010
What Do You Have To Show: Why Diaristic Photography is Worthwhile

Project Description:
In my thesis I plan on exploring the genre of diaristic photography, often termed “intimate” or “subcultural” documentary photography, a genre in which the artist approaches photographic documentation based on subjectivity as opposed to objectivity. In these works lies an emphasis within the images on the photographer and the importance of their presence to the moment being recorded. The use of a style that mimics amateur and domestic snapshot photography is used intentionally to stress the intimacy of the moment to the viewer. My thesis will grapple with the issues of how one approaches the documentation of one’s personal life, most often including the most banal moments, and what makes this subject of interest to the greater public. To do this it will address the works of photographers such as Nan Goldin, Ryan McGinley, Sally Mann, and Wolfgang Tillmans (to name a few) in relation to the traditions of documentary photography, exploring the new directions they take to document reality in its most candid, unguarded states and analyzing the formal devices they employ to create intimate portrayals of their daily lives. My work will also put into question the authenticity these artists have attached to their works by investigating whether these are actual documents of valid experience or staged constructions of a mythical lifestyle.
What is complicated about this style of photography is the ever present question of “who cares?”. How does one go about documenting the banal moments of one’s personal life and moving it from the private into the public in a way that reaches the viewer. What makes it worthwhile? Many of the photographers most closely linked with photography of this type such as Nan Goldin, Larry Clark, and Ryan McGinley live a life of the taboo. The voyeuristic nature of their work is even more compelling because of its depicture of the forbidden and those on the margins of social acceptability. Goldin’s photographs of prostitutes and gay culture, Clark’s of sexuality and elicit drug use, and McGinley’s blatant nudity seem to suggest that their appeal lies in their shock value element and not in their photographic prowess or conceptualization of ideas. But then what of work such as Yang Yong or Uta Barth which seems to depend on the depicture of the mundane to document their lives? Where does the element that legitimizes these works as authentic artistic objects lie; a question especially difficult when often the methods to create them depend on an intentional “de-skilling” of their work to produce a certain amateur look.
Most of my photographic work in the past years has been extremely self-referential. By incorporating a human element into the majority of my images and photographing primarily my friends I have documented myself through the intimate pieces of my life. Much of the tension within my work lies in the discussion with myself as to how I may or may not represent myself and the ease or unease with which I am able, a tension that is illustrated by my subjects. Although my work often depends on more constructed scenes and there is a definite attempt to create a work which illustrates my skills as a photographer, whether intentional or not, there is always an element of my emotional state illustrated in my subjects. This comes from my constant desire to make my artwork a direct representation of my life and the intimacy I share with my subjects. My interest in the works of artists of this diaristic genre lies in their ability to extend a moment of private, yet intense intimacy into the public realm, not for shock value and exploitation, but to engage, encourage, and connect.
In my current and new work I plan to investigate the methods used by photographers of this genre with my goal being to find my place as a photographer that captures these intimate moments of daily life. The most blatant obstacle being, what do I have to show? While many of the first photographers of this genre were able to capture the extreme on a daily basis, thus making their work worthwhile because of it’s documentation of that which many have never seen, how do I take my relatively average life and show my viewers that it is worth their attention? To do this I will explore my life in relation to artist’s works that fit this difficult-to-define genre of personal diary photography to discover what it is about their art that draws the viewer in and fulfills their desires to present themselves through their most intimate moments.