how I used to live - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Strange Famous · 05-18-2011, 11:26 AM

well, these are photography to be certain

Strange Famous · 05-18-2011, 11:27 AM

I'm not sure how comfortable I am sharing these things.

Strange Famous · 05-18-2011, 11:28 AM

You could never go from living normally to living like this... but it happens a small piece at a time, and you somehow learn to ignore it and be ashamed of it at the same time

Strange Famous · 05-18-2011, 11:30 AM

I dont know if you could call it artistic photography

Perhaps I might call it war photography, in a metaphorical sense... a testament to the wars I have waged if not against then at least within myself...

Strange Famous · 05-18-2011, 11:32 AM

Anyway, here it is.

Its a Mike Tyson quote, but I think I really have lived places that many people would not be able to even defecate in.

It took me to get to 32 years old before I realised this was not a fact that one ought take any kind of pride in, even of the perverse kind.

ring · 05-18-2011, 03:56 PM

Your 'war photography,' is....
I'm struggling for words here because,
I'm very impressed and deeply moved by your honest sharings,

& I'm a quite bit scared of facing or admitting to my own 'conditions.'

Being 'down in the dumps' can happen while living in the fairest of castles, too.

For now I will just say, "Thanks for sharing." & I will be thinking carefully about what to say next time, keeping it real,
hopefully after other TFP peoples respond to this thread.

PZ.

Manic_Skafe · 05-18-2011, 06:11 PM

Having had everything I've owned quite literally taken from me and subsequently forced to live in some pretty shitty places for a good long while during my formative years, I can totally empathize with having no choice but to make due with what you've got and turn a blind eye to everything that's broken/missing.

Thanks for being brave enough to share these, I've been there. If this is how you used to live then where are the pictures of your present?

roachboy · 05-18-2011, 07:09 PM

first thanks for sharing this. i can read off from what you wrote about the images something of the complexity that attends showing them. as images, they've got a documentary value that i think you underplay a little by pushing them into the underlying conflicts that you've been through. which is inevitable i suppose---i mention it mostly to say that sometimes it's easier to be open about yourself in work (in most any medium) if you assume (or create. or claim for yourself) some distance between the representation and what is represented. i've found anyway. you can say and show the same sort of things and not feel quite so exposed personally.

at the same time it's the exposure that makes this brave.
but there's many ways to get to the same thing.

second, i've been in this place too. so it resonates. what i see in it is something of the narrow focus. i can almost see your attention moving in tiny slices through the space, not really seeing it, only seeing it to the extent that it's part of a specific interaction a specific sightline. i associate it with a kind of depression that i fight with sometimes.

for me anyway, the point at which it's dissipated is the point at which i start to see the space in bigger frames. the writing indicates you're there.

but i dont associate this particularly with an economic situation. i've been in a lot of different ones and this space has turned up in a fair number. but maybe i project. hard to know.

Baraka_Guru · 05-18-2011, 07:23 PM

I too noticed the documentary quality of the images. However, I truly admired the sparse comments that accompany them, as though it were turned into a bit of a photo essay.

It becomes a kind of narrative with a distinct setting that leaves much for the viewer to fill in.

I too can relate to these, but in a different way. On the surface, I know what it's like to float on a sea of "stuff," kinda adrift and not knowing where you are or how you got there.

05-18-2011, 06:11 PM	#7 (permalink)
Manic_Skafe More Than You Expect Location: Queens	Having had everything I've owned quite literally taken from me and subsequently forced to live in some pretty shitty places for a good long while during my formative years, I can totally empathize with having no choice but to make due with what you've got and turn a blind eye to everything that's broken/missing. Thanks for being brave enough to share these, I've been there. If this is how you used to live then where are the pictures of your present? __________________ "Porn is a zoo of exotic animals that becomes boring upon ownership." -Nersesian

05-18-2011, 07:09 PM	#8 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	first thanks for sharing this. i can read off from what you wrote about the images something of the complexity that attends showing them. as images, they've got a documentary value that i think you underplay a little by pushing them into the underlying conflicts that you've been through. which is inevitable i suppose---i mention it mostly to say that sometimes it's easier to be open about yourself in work (in most any medium) if you assume (or create. or claim for yourself) some distance between the representation and what is represented. i've found anyway. you can say and show the same sort of things and not feel quite so exposed personally. at the same time it's the exposure that makes this brave. but there's many ways to get to the same thing. second, i've been in this place too. so it resonates. what i see in it is something of the narrow focus. i can almost see your attention moving in tiny slices through the space, not really seeing it, only seeing it to the extent that it's part of a specific interaction a specific sightline. i associate it with a kind of depression that i fight with sometimes. for me anyway, the point at which it's dissipated is the point at which i start to see the space in bigger frames. the writing indicates you're there. but i dont associate this particularly with an economic situation. i've been in a lot of different ones and this space has turned up in a fair number. but maybe i project. hard to know. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite

05-18-2011, 07:23 PM	#9 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	I too noticed the documentary quality of the images. However, I truly admired the sparse comments that accompany them, as though it were turned into a bit of a photo essay. It becomes a kind of narrative with a distinct setting that leaves much for the viewer to fill in. I too can relate to these, but in a different way. On the surface, I know what it's like to float on a sea of "stuff," kinda adrift and not knowing where you are or how you got there. __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

05-18-2011, 03:56 PM	#6 (permalink)
ring ░ Location: ❤	Your 'war photography,' is.... I'm struggling for words here because, I'm very impressed and deeply moved by your honest sharings, & I'm a quite bit scared of facing or admitting to my own 'conditions.' Being 'down in the dumps' can happen while living in the fairest of castles, too. For now I will just say, "Thanks for sharing." & I will be thinking carefully about what to say next time, keeping it real, hopefully after other TFP peoples respond to this thread. PZ.