The World on its Side mini-project grew out of a chat Alex and I were having about Los Angeles. Strange.rs is an international collective, so we knew we couldn’t tackle an LA theme literally. We needed to find another way in. The mood of a Bukowski or Fante novel seemed an interesting way to go.
To that end, we chose 10 strange.rs each and started pouring through their archives, looking for pictures that fit. Anything with obvious clues to location was generally axed, and they had to have that feeling that things were wrong, that they were tough, while at the same time maintaining a willingness to enjoy the good parts of life — fully. We chose 11 pictures from each photographer and stuck them in a folder, numbered them and went off to see the horses. A trip to Santa Anita later and after drawing name-and-race combinations from a hat at the Down & Out in downtown LA, we had an edit.
20 photographs, sequenced and chosen by horses and jockeys.
We didn’t lift another finger. We wanted a truly (mostly) random edit.
Overall, I’m pretty surprised. A few jarring transitions, sure. I would have certainly chosen quite a few different pictures if I had had control, but reading into it a bit, I can begin to discern a narrative for sure. Interesting result, anyway, when you look around the Web and see all the “curated” presentations out there, to realize that you can get a decent, 20-photograph edit out of thousands of images by relative strangers, by way of horses and barflies.
“Los Angeles is a volcano, spilling wreckage and desire in ever widening circles over a denuded countryside.” Mike Davis, City of Quartz
The strange.rs site has been live for a month and a half now. We’re all still getting the hang of working together, vetting ideas and concepts, and agreeing on ways to move forward. Most of us have never met each other, after all.
One recent decision that was made is that two different strange.rs will take the creative reins each month, to sort of guide the content that is featured.
Since Alex JD Smith and I volunteered for February, and we both live here, in the next few weeks there will be a few features published, all having something to do with Los Angeles. At least, sort of…
We opted to tackle one aspect of LA, and I’m not really sure that it really exists (or existed). The visceral Los Angeles of Charles Bukowski and John Fante, where everything just feels so much.
The interesting part of reading through all the Fante and Bukowski stuff again is that we realized that neither of them actually describe anything. It’s all dialogue and strength of character. By making the characters in their books so alive through sheer personality, you can almost see the way they would dress, the way they would decorate the house, etc…
Potographs generally do the exact opposite. They describe, in detail, and hopefully you can pick up a mood or a flash or personality by how we communicate visually. Basically opposite ends of the spectrum, so we thought it would be fun to play with that.
Photographs that describe, text that doesn’t (but does). That’s Part One.
Andy Newson had the idea for flickr members to donate a print through The Charity Print Auctions group in an effort to raise money to help the Haitian Earthquake victims. I’m in a bad spot financially at the moment, so on the chance that the auction could raise a few more bucks than I would be able to send myself, my offering is available for bid until the 17th. If the above image doesn’t strike your fancy, feel free to choose any image from my website or my portfolios on strange.rs (but please keep all bidding underneath the original image on flickr).
Thanks.
(Update: had 2 winning bidders at $50 each, $100 to the Red Cross. Thanks Cole and Rafa. The group itself has raised just over $10,000 at last count.)
The strange.rs site is now live. 2009 was a pretty rough year, this is one of the bright spots. A collaborative edit to commemorate the launch is now up on the site.
