inspiration: mfw at the IW/todd hido

2027b

i've recently converted another smart cookie to maximum favorite writer's camp. my cousin, jenny, declared herself officially to me, to my deep delight. she likes tennis, but obviously she already understands you don't need to be tennis-obsessed to appreciate his work. she just likes his writing. she called it relatable.

for me there is always something (a few somethings) in his posts, a phrase or image that will linger. there is one in particular that i relate to (and love) from the notebook post this week, on the view from the skies:

I’ve always liked looking out the windows of a plane; somehow the long view relaxes me, and this trip offered mostly cloudless, unimpeded views of the United States. I’ll never get enough of the sight of the lights of small cities dotting the countryside at night. There’s something warming about them, about the way they stick outside in the darkness, against the darkness. Like snowflakes and Grateful Dead shows, no two are exactly the same. Looking at them pass by slowly, I think, What can possibly be going wrong there, in that safe spot where people have decided to gather?

i am afraid of heights and flying--i actually cried the first time i got on a plane by myself, and believe me i was "old enough--but while actually aloft, i do love the marks of the land by day and the twinkling at night. it can be hard to explain to those who are unafraid, and to those who are upended by flying. he describes it simply, clearly and beautifully.

***

his line: what can possibly be going wrong there, in that safe spot where people have decided to gather? reminded me of some of the work of a favorite photographer of mine, todd hido.

he explores that idea-- from street level and from an outsider's point of view--with a series called "homes at night." unlike the dreamy, warm view from the plane, his series can suggest something disquieting, or at least not entirely....easy.

i've only selected a few here.

the night glow here is lonely and haunting. i think they are stunning.

he uses film, which allows for long exposures...you cannot capture this light with digital (except in photoshop).

2690

1862

2523

all images by todd hido, which you can find at toddhido.com

check out the landscapes, please.

read a good poem: choose

landscape 5462, by todd hido

Choose

THE single clenched fist lifted and ready,

Or the open asking hand held out and waiting.

Choose:

For we meet by one or the other.
by Carl Sandburg via the poetry foundation

read a good poem: us together (and see fine pictures)

todd hido, landscape, 2653. via monthlyphoto.com and toddhido.com

nude, 1927, 61n, by edward weston. edward weston negative, cole weston print available at edward-weston.com

us together

i do not like anything the way i
like you in your underwear i like you
and in your party clothes o my in your
party clothes and with nothing on at all
you do not need to wear a thing at all
for me to like you and you may talk or
not talk I like you either way nothing
makes me feel so nearly at home on earth
as just to be with you and say nothing.

george johnston. from the essential george johnson, selected by robyn sarah. copyright the porcupine's quill, 2007.

via the writer's almanac.

***

i love the playfulness and simplicity of this, and the rhythm too.

last month was "poetry month" and there was hardly one that i read of the offerings by the poetry foundation, the ny review of books, or the writer's almanac that really grabbed me. i suppose it had something to do with my own frame of mind (distracted, impatient).

but what i am always open to, stopped and stilled in my tracks by, is a "love" poem. sweet or lusty. clever or plain. celebratory or crushing. truthful...

"us together" is the first george johnston poem i read. of johnston's work and the "essential" collection, the canadian book review annual said:

he is preoccupied with rhythms, with diction, with tones and nuances, and the creative challenge of complex metres and stanza forms. ...this verse celebrates ordinary life in tones that vary between the ironic and the sombre, and the tender and the stoic, but its technique is impeccable, and its chief pleasure lies in the display of an unostentatious but formidable artistry...'

anyway, it is a favorite. hope you like it, too.

***

as to the photos:

the directness and clarity of the verse made me think that a straight-up nude be too obvious. these seem dreamy, sensual, rightly suggestive.

think they work here? i'm still deciding. but i like them on their own.

read a good poem, and see a fine picture: todd hido, #6242

todd hido, #6242. via squarecylinder.com

today is "poem in your pocket" day--the academy of american poets is trying to spread the poetic love by offering a little template, with 25 selections that can be printed out for folks to either carry around for themselves, or share. of these, i like lost by sara teasdale...

there is a poem that i carry around, it was sent to me by my aunt several years ago. she knows too well my dreamy, broody side and during a particularly difficult period, i received in the mail a handwritten note from her, on hotel stationery:

be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.

do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them.

and the point is to live everything.

live the questions now. perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it live along some distant days into the answers.

she came across that passage in "a year by the sea" by joan anderson, which she'd been reading during her vacation. it was written by rainer maria rilke ('letters to a young poet").

i read it from time to time, encouraged by the words, still amazed by the timeliness and thoughtfulness of her sending it. but that is just how she is...

***
i've linked to todd hido's work before--he is a newly discovered favorite photographer of mine, and i really love the shots through a wet, dirty windshield in "a road divided."

here is david m. roth's brief review of his recent show at the stephen wirtz gallery and many more shots from "a road divided" here, via americansuburbx.com.

enjoy.

read a good poem: "tossing and turning"

untitled, #1447-a, 1996. by todd hido. via the rose gallery, santa monica, ca.

The spirit has infinite facets, but the body

confiningly few sides.

There is the left,

the right, the back, the belly, and tempting

in-betweens, northeasts and northwests,

that tip the heart and soon pinch circulation

in one or another arm.

Yet we turn each time

with fresh hope, believing that sleep

will visit us here, descending like an angel

down the angle our flesh's sextant sets,

tilted toward that unreachable star

hung in the night between our eyebrows, whence

dreams and good luck flow.

Uncross

your ankles. Unclench your philosophy.

This bed was invented by others; know we go

to sleep less to rest than to participate

in the twists of another world.

This churning is our journey.

It ends,

can only end, around a corner

we do not know

we are turning.

"tossing and turning" by john updike, from collected poems 1953-1993.
via the writer's almanac, feb 19, 2009.


i hadn't read any of john updike's work until this poem, today. i had made a plan to, though, after reading this recent tribute by my favorite writer...i'm getting excited all over again.

i love "unclench your philosophy" -- those few words stayed with me all morning.
my co-workers were like, "what's with you, smiley?"
i don't know--that line just woke this little mind up.

"uncross your ankles" is a pretty great line, too.

right after i read the poem, i did a quick search for a photo that might be suitable.
i happened upon todd hido's work--i love the moodiness.
if you're interested, here is a link to more of his photos on the rose gallery site and on the stephen wirtz gallery site.
i also found an interview from 2007, where he discusses his book, between the two. i enjoyed reading his thoughts on portraiture and the book editing process.
here's a taste:

re: his focus, and his portraits of women...

To me it is no mystery that we can only photograph effectively what we are truly interested in or -- maybe more importantly -- are grappling with. This is often an unconscious process. Otherwise the photographs are merely about an idea or a concept; that stuff eventually falls flat for me. There must be something more, some emotional hook for it to really work for me. I tend to photograph things I've had problems with or I have struggled with, stuff that used to keep me up at night. It's the same process with my photographs of houses -- they are about recognizing some mysterious element of my childhood.

I've read that sources of terror in childhood often become sources of attraction in adulthood. I've found that true. It's disturbing to me how many of the models remind me of past women that have been in my life -- not in terms of how they look but in terms of who they seem to be underneath their surfaces. There is a familiarity to them, something that resonates, something kind of troubled about them that is very recognizable to me. It is endlessly fascinating and utterly simple as to why we gravitate to what we do. Of course this is not stuff that I've worked out completely, which is precisely why it's engrossing to me. That is why I do it. That is the focus.

re: editing the book with chris pichler of nazraeli press...

The editing process is part of making the work. I gather up the images I am interested in and then start to lay them out using just a standard book dummy, weaving the images together over a long period of time. With Between the Two, it took about three years of constantly shuffling unpublished work in with new images that I was making on a weekly basis. There was real joy in leaving the darkroom and stopping by the copy shop to make Xeroxes in order to slide them into the dummy, seeing if they fit in someplace. Sometimes the images would work, and sometimes they don't. But almost every image I've made in the last few years was tried out. Some were perfect and added just what I needed and others I've saved for the next project, whatever that may be!

want more? here's a link to the full interview, between hido and darius himes ...