John Edwin Mason - Author, Gordon Parks American Photographer

(Mellow tinkling music) - Hello and welcome to
the i3 Lecture Series, hosted by the Masters in
Digital Photography Program at the School of Visual Arts. We are thrilled to have
Professor John Edwin Mason as tonight's guest speaker. John teaches African History
and the History of Photography at the University of Virginia. He has written extensively about photography in South
Africa, and the United States.

He is currently at work
on a new book entitled Gordon Parks, American Photographer, which was originally the
title for tonight's lecture, but since the events, the recent events, it's changed into Gordon Parks: American Nightmares, American Dreams. Which actually is something
that I should say about John, I've known him many years at this point, well not many, many, but several years, and he is a remarkable historian. But he is also a very
astute and engaged observer of the present moment, and I think that's gonna come
across in the talk tonight. John is also a photographer,
and his projects include One Love, Ghoema Beat: Inside
the Cape Town Carnival, and it's a book combining his photographs with text based on four
years of historical and ethnographic research.

Please help me welcome John Edwin Mason to our Lecture Series. (Audience clapping) - Thanks Jamie, thank you very much, and thank you Katrine
for inviting me here, thanks to the SVA for making
this opportunity available. I love giving talks like
this because it allows me to work out some ideas, and
as I'm gonna say in a moment, some of these ideas are very fresh, and I really am very much
about working them out. I always start these talks
also by saying thank you to the Gordon Parks Foundation, without the Foundation's
help I wouldn't have gotten nearly as far as I've
gotten on this project.

It's introduced me to people, it's made his photography
readily available. And Special Collections
at Wichita University, which has his papers, the Foundation has his
photographic material, Wichita State University has his papers, and Special Collections out there has them extraordinarily well-organized, it's an incredible place to work, and they've been super helpful. I'd also like to say
thank you to Laura Shaw, (chuckles) Laura Shore. Laura was one of my professors when I was an old undergraduate at the University of
Virginia back in the 1980s.

- [Woman In Audience] Cincinnati. - Sorry, University of Cincinnati, wow! University of Cincinnati. I spent my 20's not knowing
what I was gonna do. I thought I was gonna be a musician.

I thought I was gonna be a writer of cheap detective stories. But what I really was was a cook in restaurants,
and a cab driver. And I was taking a course in
Women's History with Laura, and she called me into her office, and I can't exactly know why. And she said, "What are you
gonna do with your life?" And I said, "I don't know." She said, "You're 28, you should know." And she was right, she was
absolutely right, you know, that was a real wake-up call.

She also was very encouraging in the kind of work I
was doing, and she said "You oughta think about grad school." And I said, "I don't have any money." And she said, "If you go to
grad school, they'll pay you." I said, "Really?" And it turns out, if you get into the right kind of graduate
program, at least at the time, and remember, those of
you who are in school now, this is ancient history
we're talking about, they actually did pay you to go to school. So Laura, I'm very, very grateful because, you know if you hadn't said "You're 28, you should know," I might not be here right now. As Jamie said, this is a new title, I was gonna talk about
something different. I was going to talk about how Gordon Parks' photo
essays for Life Magazine rank him among the great
American photographers, and that just like Walker
Evans in American Photographs, and just like Robert
Frank and The Americans, he told an American story, and he should be in that pantheon, and I'll say a little bit
about that because it's true.

But things have changed
since last Tuesday, I think we've entered
into uncharted territory, it's hard not to talk
about this without cliches, but we've entered into a really, I think, probably what's gonna be a very difficult period in our history. And it got me thinking about Gordon Parks, 'cause one of the things
that Black people do in times of trouble is we start looking back to the ancestors, and we look to the ancestors for guidance, and we look to the
ancestors for knowledge. We look to the ancestors for inspiration. We look to the ancestors
to try to figure out, how did they get through this? And that's what I've been thinking about, because Parks thought
about being an American all of his life.

He thought about it in his photography, he thought about it in his poetry, he thought about it in his movies, he thought about it in his
novels and his memoirs, he thought about it in his music. He had a tortured relationship
with being an American. And you know, he had a
tortured relationship, and I think most African Americans do have a difficult relationship
with being an American. It's very difficult
for us with our history to simply embrace being an American.

It's harder than that, and I
think the reasons are obvious. So, I got to thinking about Parks, and got to thinking about the
way that he worked through this tortured relationship with America. And I got to thinking
about this photograph here. This is Ella Watson.

I'll say quite a bit about
how Parks met Ella Watson, and the circumstances around
the making of this photograph, and also what came later, I'll say a lot about this
photograph in a few minutes. But this photograph is
probably Gordon Parks' most recognizable photograph. It's in every collection
of his photographs, it's in many museums, and even
people who don't recognize the name Gordon Parks, at
least recognize the photo. And most people see it in, I
think, fairly simple terms, because it seems to speak with one voice, it seems to be an indictment of America.

You don't know exactly what's going on, but you can tell that this
woman is a housekeeper. You can guess that she's not a housekeeper because this was her career goal when she was a little girl growing up. And you can guess that there's something about her being a Black person in America that has put her in this position. When Gordon Parks' boss
at the time, Roy Stryker, and if you've taken any
photo history classes, you know the name Roy Stryker.

He ran the famous Farm
Security Administration documentary project, I
wanna say he was the genius behind that project of starting
it and keeping it going. Stryker took a look at this and he said, well Parks tells the
story many different times in many different places, so
in one version of the story, Stryker looks at it and he says, "It's an indictment of America." And in another version
of the story he says, "You're gonna get us all fired." But in any case, both of
those versions of the story are that this is a condemnation of American hypocrisy and American racism. And that's partly true,
and I'm going to explain what else is going on in
the picture in just a bit, but I do wanna introduce Gordon Parks. I'm gonna be talking about a
particular aspect of his life, and I'm gonna be talking mostly
about a very early period in his career as a photographer.

He had started making photographs before he went to Washington, DC. To join the Farm Security Administration. But he always looked back at
the FSA period and he says, "This was my apprenticeship
as a photographer, "this is where I really learned how to do "what I needed to do." I'm also gonna be focusing on a particular set of
photographs that he made, a particular phase of
his photographic life. I'm gonna show you a lot of pictures of his Life Magazine work,
and the Life Magazine work that focused on issues
relating to race and poverty.

But he did so much else. He always said at Life Magazine that "There was no Black man's
corner for me at Life.' He did everything, and he
really did do everything. He did fashion, he did celebrities, you know he was an
assignment photographer. I think that his most important
work were those photo essays on race and poverty, but he did a lot else.

He was very proud of
his fashion photography, and it was very good. He wasn't somebody who
opened up new ground in fashion photography
like Richard Avedon... Saying Penn, right, Irving Penn, but he was very, very good at what he did. And he was also much
more than a photographer, he was a filmmaker, he
was a good filmmaker, a very good filmmaker.

He was a decent poet,
an accomplished writer, there was so much else to him. But I do wanna focus on the stories that I think are going to be his claim to fame. His reputation as one of the
great American photographers will rest on the stories that
he did for Life Magazine. And I wanna start with an issue in 1952, this is not his photograph on the cover, it's Yale Joel's photograph on the cover, but he's got three stories in this issue, this 1952 issue of Life Magazine.

He'd been at Life for about
three years at the time, and the first story
might not surprise you, it's a visualization of
Ralph Ellison's great novel, Invisible Man, and what
Parks is doing here is really quite extraordinary. That he's not simply trying
to reproduce the novel scene-for-scene, but he's
trying to imaginatively, and visually, interpret the novel. If you know the novel, you know
that what he's showing here doesn't actually happen. At the very end of the novel,
the unnamed protagonist is thinking about
reemerging into the world, but he hasn't quite done so, this scene never actually
happens in the novel.

Then on the next spread, he's visualized certain kinds of surrealistic, and hallucinatory scenes, including a scene that's the
famous opening of the novel where the unnamed protagonist
has hidden himself underground just outside of Harlem, where he consoles himself with sloe gin and Louis Armstrong records. But second story, this is fashion. This is Gordon Parks, boom, same issue, and he must of been working
on these two assignments at roughly the same time. So, he's intensely involved
with Ralph Ellison's novel, and I should say that he and Ralph Ellison were very close friends,
and there was a show at the Art Institute of Chicago recently that focused on that
collaboration between the two.

But he shot fashion, and he shot it well, it's one of the reasons
that Life hired him. You know, there are implausible things in Gordon Parks's life, and
one of the implausible things is to think that wow, this
is 1952 and this is America. And you have a Black man taking pictures of these very
attractive, young White women, sort of edging up towards
one of the greatest taboos in American society,
Black men, White women. And he did it, and I have to say, that he did this, like I said well, and before he joined
Life, I needed to mention that he had been freelancing for Vogue.

Now if you wrote this story as a novel, and you'd say that well
there was a Black man freelancing for Vogue in the
late 1940s, you would of said, "Nah, it couldn't
happen, it's impossible." But he did it. Third story, same issue, Alexander Calder. And it's really nice because one of the things
you have to do with Calder is try to work out how you're going to show his art in a magazine, and especially his mobiles, right? How you gonna do that in a magazine? And he worked it out, it's
a several-page spread, but I'm just showing you
a couple of the scenes. So, there you have it.

This is what Parks was up to in the 1950s, he was refusing to allow himself to be stereotyped in any way, and he did this in his art, every form of art that he created throughout his entire
life, he embraced it all, and didn't want to be
confined to a box that said, "Well, you only get to do Black things." And he said, "No, I can do anything." And he could. Okay but, get back to
the argument I was making about his claim to fame as one
of the great photographers, it's not gonna rest on his fashion, it's going to rest on this
kind of story in 1948, Harlem Gang Leader. It's typical of what
will become Parks' mode, which is to enter somebody's
life for a long period of time. He said many, many years later after Life Magazine had folded and was long out of business,
but somebody asked him "What was it like to work for Life?" And he said, "You know, we
had the luxury of time." The luxury of time, which is something that photographers
simply don't get anymore.

Are you nodding your head, Jamie? - [Jamie] Yeah, absolutely. - The luxury of time. This is Red Jackson the gang
leader, and I have to say, gangs then are not like
gangs that we know today. These guys were not
carrying around AK-47s, and they weren't doing drive-by shootings, they were getting into fights
with chains and knives.

Which is bad enough,
but it's not an AK-47. He found an introduction to Red Jackson, and Red said, "What the hell do you want?" And he said, "Look, I
wanna do a story on you." And Red Jackson said, "Hell no." And it took a while. He was working with Red
and the gang, hangin' out, without taking pictures
for a couple of weeks before he brought out his cameras. Okay, enough about Red Jackson.

Life said we need a story
on segregation in the South. Well, this also a typical Parks move, he finds a family, he
finds an extended family, he builds his story
around the extended family of this elderly couple here,
them and their children. And shows ways in which this family that should be a
model American family, they do everything right. They're hard working, they make sure their kids
get a good education, they're moral, they're
disciplined, they go to church.

And yet, being Black in Alabama in 1956 meant that they're upward horizon was not high, was low. Beautifully photographed in color. Freedom's Fearful Foe,
this is him in Brazil in the favela in Rio de Janeiro. Once again working with
a particular family, focusing his story around
a particular individual, Flavio, the boy in the family, we don't see him in this picture.

It's at this moment that
he starts writing for Life. He'd had aspirations to
write for a long time, but the moment hadn't come. But his editors liked the
story so much they said, "Look Gordon, you're
keeping a diary, right?" And he says, "Yeah, I'm keeping a diary." He says, "Let's publish your diary." And he sent in the copy,
and he starts writing, and from this moment on, all
of his major photo essays are going to be accompanied with his text. And that's something that he
wanted, because you know how the magazine industry works,
or worked, at the time is that photographers sent in their film, and their captions, and
that was pretty much it.

They had nothing to do with how the story was going to
be told after that moment. Now, you could fight, and if
you were Alfred Eisenstaedt, you could sometimes fight and win. If you were Margaret Bourke-White you could sometimes fight and win. If you were W.

Eugene Smith, sometimes you fought and win, sometimes you lost, and you quit. He quit over editorial
control, not once, but twice. But Parks figured okay look, editorial control's
always gonna be a problem, but if I'm writing the text, I've got a little bit more control, right? Yeah sure, of course
they're gonna edit the text, but they have to edit me twice, not once. The story on the Black Muslims, and once again, he's
contributing text to that, and contributing it in
a really remarkable way.

Parks had his eyes set
on joining Life Magazine for many years before he was
actually hired to the staff. And there are two reasons for that, reason number one is that it
was the best job you could get as a photojournalist or
documentary photographer, I mean, it was the top of the heap, you couldn't go any further,
it was the most prestigious job out there in photography, in
ways we can't even imagine now. We can't imagine how
colossal Life Magazine was on the media landscape, because
our media is so fractured. We've got a zillion TV channels, and we've got social media,
and we've got magazines that serve every kind of niche and, there is almost nothing
that Americans share in terms of their media,
except for the Super Bowl, which is why the Super Bowl
is so valued by advertisers.

Advertisers pay a huge amount of money to advertise on the Super
Bowl because they know this is the time we get all Americans watching the same thing. Life Magazine was like that, it had a circulation in the millions, and that was important, you know, your circulation numbers are important. But the other thing about Life Magazine is that it got passed around,
so if you didn't subscribe you saw it your aunt's house, you saw it at your uncle's house, you saw it in the barber
shop, beauty parlor, you saw it at your
doctor's, dentist's office, I mean, Life just got out there. For Parks it was much
more than the big salary, and the prestige, and the
unlimited expense account, all of which are true, by the way.

But it was also to be able to reach these tens of millions of
White Americans weekly. To reach them, to try to reach
their hearts and their minds on stories that he thought
could change the way that America viewed poverty and race, and I have to say, the
evidence is out there, and it's not just in the letter
columns in Life Magazine. Two weeks after a story appeared, Life would publish letters to the editor. But of course, they're only
publishing three or four, and sometimes five if
it's a really big story.

If you take a trip to Wichita, Kansas, and you go to the Gordon Parks Archive at Wichita State University, you will find thousands of
letters to Gordon Parks, and to the editor, in his collection. You know, a story like
this on the Black Muslims, it generated at least 500
letters, this single photo essay. And they were all over the place! Some of them were condemning him for glorifying a prophet of hatred, which is the way many White
Americans saw Malcolm X. And other people were
pouring out their hearts, you touched me so much,
I didn't know this, we've treated African Americans so badly, and what can we do? You know when he thought
if I get to Life Magazine, I'll be able to make some changes, in some ways he did.

He at the very least
touched hearts and minds. And by the early '60s, he's become sort of Life Magazine's appointed interpretor of African American life, and you can see that just
in the headline here. Now, the headline is actually referring to excerpts from is first novel, The Learning Tree, which was later made into a movie that he directed. But at the time, the Learning
Tree was a best seller, it made a big splash
when it was published, it's a novelized version of his childhood in a small town in Kansas.

But the headline really gets it, and the sub-head always makes me laugh, "Gordon Parks, a talented
Negro, tells in fiction, "fact and photograph how
it feels to be Negro." That's followed in the same issue by this, The Long Search for Pride. You know, he's accepted the
role of explainer-in-chief, and this is a role that other
African Americans accepted, most notably James Baldwin
in exactly the same period. There were a number of Black
voices out there in the 1960s who were talking to White
America about Black America. James Baldwin was doing it on a very high literary level, absolutely.

Parks was a populist or a, pop-u-lar-izer, popularizer. And he was working on a different plane, but he was also reaching more people, he was also reaching far, far more people. These were challenging essays. This is one that he wrote after the assassination of Malcolm X.

He and Malcolm had become
very close friends, they did not see eye-to-eye,
he did not agree with Malcolm either religiously or politically, but as men they really touched each other, they were very close. Malcolm asked Gordon Parks to be the godfather of
one of his daughters, and Parks definitely accepted, and he was very proud of his relationship. And this is him after the
assassination of Malcolm X, thinking about what has
been lost at that moment. I mean it was an immense
tragedy for this nation that he was taken away from us.

Parks and Ali became close friends, and if the resolution
were a little bit better, you could see that Ali
wrote a poem for him, and it's published here in this essay. So you know, at this point, all the words, and all the
photographs are by Parks. Stokley Carmichael here, an essay on an impoverished Harlem family, which I'm gonna get back
to later in the talk here. I think it's notable
that we're in the 1960s and notice what Parks is doing here.

He's using I, you, overtly using I, you. Now, those of us of a certain age know that at this point in the
history of journalism, you never used I, you
used the editorial-we, it was always we. In fact I remember, when
I was in junior high we made fun of the editorial-we, because it's pretty pompous. But he's using it, he's
getting away with it.

That's because he really
is taking that role as Life Magazine's appointed interpretor. He's also saying "You." He's pointing the finger
directly at Life's White readers, he's saying "I, you,"
he's pointing it at you, and these are very very challenging words, and they get even more challenging after the assassination
of Martin Luther King. None of these photographs are his. The assassination, the coverage of the assassination
of Martin Luther King, as you would expect, took
up a large proportion of this issue of the magazine,
with many, many pictures, which were very powerful.

But Parks didn't go
there as a photographer, he did not go to Atlanta as photography, he went to Atlanta as a
writer, as an essayist. And the words that he wrote, which I'm also gonna get
back to a little bit later, really scorched the
page, I mean, they burn. You're surprised that the
magazine is not up in flames as you read them, and it is remarkable. Life was a conservative magazine, Life was mainstream and
a little to the right.

But, when it came to race at this period in life, they were two or three steps
ahead of most White Americans. Black Panthers, text by Gordon Parks, and this is the last story that he did. Okay, so that's an introduction
to him as a photographer, as I said, he was also a
writer, published many books. I just counted, he published 20 books
during his lifetime, 20.

Novels, memoirs, poetry,
he was a busy man, he was an incredibly busy man. Filmmaker. He made short documentaries in the '60s, in the early '60s, early mid-'60s, but he made his first
movie, the movie version of his autobiographical
novel, The Learning Tree, in 1968, when he was 56 years-old,
it's astonishing. He was the first African American to direct a Hollywood studio production, the very first African American to direct a Hollywood
studio production at 56, which is inspiring to me that you can do your first
thing at 56, and really succeed.

And the film that made
him famous was Shaft, which by the way is a good
movie, you should watch it, it holds up, it really does hold up. Okay, American Dreams: Some Definitions. Been thinking about that a lot because I'm about to tell you that Parks believed in the American dream. Sometimes against his better judgment, he really, he really, he really believed.

It's hard to define sometimes, and sometimes what is the American dream? I mean, sometimes we think
oh the American dream is a nice house and a big car, and you know, a family. Sometimes American dream
are more intangible things, personal fulfillment. John Truslow Adams was the first person actually to use the phrase American dream, I mean, American dream is so
much a part of our culture that we think it has a
really, really long history. It's not all that long.

Certainly it doesn't go back
to the Founding Fathers, but his idea of the American dream, "It's not a dream of motor
cars and high wages merely, "but it's a dream of a
social order in which "each man and woman
shall be able to attain "to the fullest stature..."
Dah-dah, dah-dah, dah-dah, "at which they are capable." Bill Clinton put it much more succinctly, and Bill was great, "The American dream "we are raised on is a
simple but powerful one: "work hard, play by the
rules, and you will go "as far as your God-given
ability allows you to." That's the American dream, hey? Yeah. Well. Of course there have always been skeptics, we know that it doesn't always
work this way for everybody. Margaret Bourke-white, one my favorite Life
Magazine photographers, and a really amazing woman, this is during the great
flood in Louisville, the great Ohio river flood of 1937, and she made this
picture, it's not subtle, but it gets the point across, doesn't it? It really does.

African Americans have thought
about this quite a bit, that on the one hand you have the promise of American
democracy, and on the other hand you have the reality of
White supremacy and racism. Frederick Douglass, one
of our great figures, born into slavery in Maryland, escaped slavery, educated himself, became probably the most
important abolitionist in the period before the Civil War. Edited newspapers, gave lectures, wrote his autobiography, which was a best-seller at the time, telling about slavery from
the slave's point of view, he had a huge impact on American society. He was also one of the first
theorists of photography.

It's really true. He gave a series of speeches in the 1860s where he began to lay out a theory of what photography does, how does photography speak? How does photography tell a story? How does photography move us both in our heart, and in our mind? Remarkable lectures, I'm gonna close with a quote from one of
his lectures, but here is, one of his most famous quotes,
this is a 4th of July speech. 4Th of July used to be a time for oratory, oratory in the 19th century
was a form of entertainment. You didn't have TV, you
didn't have a smartphone, what did you do? You went out and heard
somebody give a speech.

Maybe you agreed, maybe you didn't agree, but a good orator was
at least entertaining. He gave this 4th of July
speech in Rochester, New York, and it's right there, "This fourth of July is yours, not mine. "You may rejoice, I must mourn." 'Cause we are eight years
before the Civil War, and we're 12 years before
the destruction of slavery at the end of the war. Malcolm X, "It's not an American dream, "it's an American nightmare." Fannie Lou Hamer.

She should have a national
holiday, Fannie Lou Hamer should. She was one of the local leaders of the campaign for the vote
in Mississippi in the 1960s. African Americans could not vote in Mississippi in the 1960s, all sorts of legal obstacles
were put in their way to prevent African Americans from exercising their
Constitutional right. Fannie Lou Hamer, and other people, organized what they called
the Freedom Democratic Party, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

And that party stood in opposition to the all-White party
that denied them the vote. They organized their own primary. They nominated delegates to the Democratic Convention in 1964, and off they went to Atlantic City, and demanded to be seated because they were a
non-racial democratic party. Whites and Blacks participated fully in their democratic party, unlike the segregated democratic party.

So, there was a credentials hearing and, Fannie Lou Hamer testified, and some of her most moving words were "I question America." She talks about the harassment. Well as you know, it was
more than harassment, often there were killings in Mississippi, as African Americans fought for
their constitutional rights. "I question America." Martin Luther King, one of
my favorite portraits of him, by a Life Magazine
photographer, Grey Villet. In an interesting footnote,
he was a White South African, and often did stories
about race in America, it's really kind of interesting, he did them extraordinarily well.

But you know, King talked about the American dream all the
time, and for him it was, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: "that all men are endowed by their Creator "with certain inalienable rights." All men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness. And he said yeah, okay,
those are the words, but the reality has been
very, very different. So Parks, like so many other
people, was in this line of this conflicted relationship
with the American dream. On the one hand, Parks was an amazing individual.

Part of what I'm doing
in writing this book, is not just figuring out the
impact of his photo essays on American society in
the '40s, '50s and '60s, which I think was significant that he steered the conversation about race and poverty in important ways. But just trying to figure out the man, how does anybody in a
single lifetime do so much? I mean really, look at the
list of his accomplishments, and they are staggering. In any of his fields of endeavor, especially as a filmmaker
and as a photographer, if he'd only done that, he'd be a giant. But he did so much more.

So, I was trying to figure him out, and what makes somebody like Gordon Parks? I mean, I actually don't
know the answer to that. I think that part of it is
something that you are born with, you're born with that motor,
you're born with that drive, you're born with that incredible energy, you're born with that unwillingness
to do anything but work. He was not somebody who
kicked back on a Sunday and spend four hours
watching a football game, that was not Gordon Parks. He credited his mother, and he credited his
mother for so many things.

He credited his mother for instilling in him his moral compass. He credited his mother with
giving him self-confidence. He credited his mother
with filling him with love. He was a man who wrote not one, but four memoirs at
different times in his life.

He was always trying
to figure himself out, and I think it's because
he was just staggered by how far he had come
from where he started, a very poor boy in a small Kansas town that was deeply segregated,
deeply segregated. You know, his mother is a
very accomplished woman, but the only jobs
available for Sarah Parks in Fort Scott, Kansas,
during Gordon's lifetime were working as a housekeeper. That's what Black women did, and it's not just Fort Scott, Kansas, it's all over the country. Most employed women,
African American women, were taking care of somebody's baby, or doing somebody's laundry,
or cooking somebody's meal, there wasn't much else for them.

But she did fill his head
with these impossible notions that he could do anything he wanted to. And by the time he's in Washington, DC, making that portrait of Ella
Watson that I started with, he's been through so much,
and he's come so far. Their family was poor. He would say, "We were rich in love," but they were a poor family.

His mother died when he
was in his mid-teens, and he goes off to St. Paul, Minnesota to live with relatives. He and his brother-in-law don't get along, I imagine it was difficult
for his brother-in-law, who was himself, struggling financially, to have a 15 year-old move into the house. I mean, that's gonna be hard, and so his brother-in-law eventually throws him out of the house.

Parks is homeless for a while,
he has to support himself, a series of poorly-paid,
menial jobs that come and go. Things are so bad, he never
graduates from high school. And in his 20's, it's the Depression, so in his 20's long
periods of joblessness. Goes to New York, spends
some time in Harlem, completely runs out of
money, almost starves, finds his way back to Minnesota.

He's lucky enough to get
a job on the railroad, and he's working as a dining car waiter for a couple of years, and then he works as a
porter in the bar car, and he hates both jobs. The jobs are really hard,
long hours, few breaks, low pay, and they're pretty demeaning because you have to deal with customers, with White customers, who
just treat you like dirt. I mean, he hated the jobs,
but it's the Depression, they were steady, it was money,
he could support his family. And it's on the trains that he first starts
thinking about photography, 'cause people leave behind Life Magazine.

And he looks at Life Magazine,
he sees these pictures, some of the pictures he sees are these glamorous fashion models, and some of the pictures he sees are from the Farm Security Administration's
documentary project. That great documentary
project of the 1930s and '40s, that employed people like
Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, Russell Lee, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott, I
mean, an incredible array of photographers who were photographing for this governmental unit. Initially, the idea had been that they're gonna make
pictures that document the work of the Farm Security Administration, a branch of the Department of Agriculture. But Roy Stryker, the boss, the guy who put together
this photographic unit, he had much bigger plans, he wanted a visual record
of America at this moment.

He gave instructions to the photographers that he sent out into the field,
but they weren't limiting. And besides which, do
you think Dorothea Lange is gonna do everything that Roy Stryker, do you think Walker Evans
is gonna obey orders? You think Ben Shahn is gonna obey? No, of course they're not, they're gonna photograph
what they want to. They're gonna give the department, the Farm Security
Administration, what it needs, but when they're out there, they're gonna photograph
what they want to. And as you know, or you should know, the work that Dorothea
Lange, and Walker Evans, and Ben Shahn, and the rest of
them did, is just incredible, I mean, it is some of the richest body of photography that we have.

So Parks, like so many
other people, is inspired. He wants to do that, he sees that the Farm Security
Administration photographers are not simply documenting America, but they're telling stories
about struggle and poverty, and they are opening the eyes
of a middle class audience to the struggles of the very poor. He really wants to do it, he
buys a camera in a pawn shop. His first roll of film, takes it to a Kodak store in
St.

Paul, gets the film back, the guy behind the counter
said, "Who took these pictures?" And Parks is a little
taken aback, and he says, "Well, I took the pictures." And the guy behind the counter says, "You know, they're really good. "Keep it up and we'll give you a show." He kept it up, and they gave him a show. And it's a little thing, it's
a Kodak store in St. Paul, but he was off and running
with this incredible energy, and this incredible discipline, and this incredible
capacity for hard work, he teaches himself photography.

His railroad runs are taking
him to Chicago, Illinois, and he's got layovers in Chicago, so what does he start doing? He starts haunting the halls of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he's studying Monet, and Renoir, and all these other people,
and just giving him, giving himself a crash
course in art history. He also gets hooked up with the South Side Community Art Center, an art center in the Black
South side of Chicago, where a significant group of African American modernist painters, and lithographers, and
others kinds of artists, that was where they grouped. And he falls in with them, gets encouraged to move to Chicago, the South Side Community
Art Center says look, we'll give you studio space and a darkroom if you
take pictures for us, and it goes on from there. And Chicago...

He gets commissions from what was a sizable Black
middle class, for portraits, there are Black newspapers, he's shooting for the Black newspapers, and he's also doing documentary work. No, he's never studied documentary work, but he studied the pictures, and he's trying to do
that on the South Side. The Community Art Center says
look, we'll give you a show. They gave him a show.

People from what was called
the Rosenwald Fund were there. Now, the Rosenwald Fund
was a White foundation, White-run foundation. Julius Rosenwald made his money at Sears, Sears and Roebuck, so it's
Sears and Roebuck money. Rosenwald was really
interested in Black education, they had from the early 20th century built hundreds of schools for Black school children in the South, because of course southern states were not building schools for Black school children in the south.

But they also gave fellowships
to Black artists and writers, and the Rosenwald people said
look, apply for a fellowship, and he did, and he got it. And the fellowship would
give him a salary for a year, and allow him to do whatever
he wanted to with it, and he said, "Can you
get me in at the FSA? "I wanna go there, I
wanna be there with Lange, "and Walker Evans, and Russell Lee, "and Ben Shahn and all the rest." And the Rosenwald Fund was
a powerful organization, and they opened the door,
and off Gordon Parks goes. This is actually incredible,
and he felt it as incredible. He describes his feeling, he
arrives in Washington, DC, in January of 1942, and he
can scarcely believe it, I mean, three months earlier
he was on the railroad, working as a porter on the bar car, and now he's about to join Roy Stryker, Dorothea Lange, and company.

This incredible optimism that
he has, it was something that a lot of African Americans were feeling. So, here's Richard Wright,
the great novelist, and he's writing here in
a book that was called 10 Million Black Voices,
which was a kind of history, a popular history of Black America. It was aimed mostly at a white audience, but he's capturing a
feeling of the early 1940s where there was this sense of optimism. Cautious, but optimism
nevertheless, in Black America that things might be changing,
that the walls of segregation might be coming down, or
at least lowering a bit.

There's possibility people
were feeling in the early 1940s that they hadn't felt before. And I'm not saying everybody, there was still tremendous
poverty, especially in the South, segregation was a very, very heavy burden, but there were places where there was this sense of movement and motion, and Parks definitely felt
it, he absolutely felt it. Here it is, here's that
quote, he's talking about arriving in Washington,
DC in January 1942, thinking that even in my
most extravagant dreams, I never expected to be here. How could he? Yeah, so he gets to DC and
he's feelin' like this.

Should I be honest and tell
you this is a later photograph? This is from about 1947 or so, and so it's later in his life and he's leaving the Harlem YMCA, off on an assignment somewhere. But I love the photo so much that I think it probably captures the mood that he was feeling when
he stepped off the train in Washington, DC to join the FSA. So, he goes to the FSA
office for the first time, and Roy Stryker looks at him, and he knows this guy is
just incredibly naive, just incredibly naive, I mean,
naive about Washington, DC. You know, Parks has experienced
segregation and racism, he's had plenty of experience with that, but Parks himself talks
about being in Washington, the capitol of the world's
greatest democracy.

The place of the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument, this is a place of legend. Stryker looks at him and says, "Look, I want you to introduce
yourself to Washington, DC. "It's almost lunch time, so go
to a lunch counter downtown, "get yourself something to eat. "After lunch go see a movie, relax.

"And then I want you to go to
Garfinckel's Department Store "and buy an overcoat." Parks tells this story in his memoirs and in interviews many, many, many times. There are always slight variations, but this is how it went. He went to the lunch counter, and the guy looks at him and says, "Get the hell outta here, we
don't serve colored people." He goes to the movie theater, and they say "We can't sell you a ticket, "we don't have a balcony
for colored people." And he goes to Garfinckel's, and the salesmen at Garfinckel's
won't even wait on him. They don't throw him out of the store, they just won't wait on
him, they simply ignore him.

He goes back to Stryker's
office and he's furious, he's absolutely furious. He says, "Gimme my cameras." And Stryker says, "What are
you gonna do with them?" He says, "I'm gonna expose
racism in the nation's capitol." And Stryker says, "How you gonna do that?" He says, "I'm gonna take pictures "of these guys who humiliated me." And Stryker says, "You know what, "you know you take a picture of a bigot, "he looks like everybody else. "I mean, unless he's wearing Klan robes, "you can't tell he's a bigot. "What are you gonna do,
how are you gonna do this?" Parks didn't really have any good answers.

And so, what happens next is that he sends Parks
to the files of the FSA. He says, "Look, I want
you to figure this out, "but I want you to figure this out "looking through the files. "Start with Dorothea Lange, "and when you're finished with her, "go through the rest of 'em. "Look at the photographs." And Parks spent several
months looking at photographs, and not making pictures
while he's at the FSA.

The earliest photograph that I can find in his FSA file is from June. From June. Well, this photograph. In most of the telling of the story, most of the times Parks told
the story it's almost as if he took this photograph of Ella Watson right after the humiliation.

That that period of study,
that period of reflection, that period of trying
to figure things out, is usually left out of the
way that he tells the story. And so what you get is him encountering Ella Watson in the office building where
the FSA had its offices, encountering her after-hours one night. Getting into a conversation with her, finding out that she was
struggling to raise grandchildren, that her husband had died,
her daughter had died, and that's she's raising
three grandchildren. All of which is true, by the way, I found her in the census records.

In 1920 she was already
widowed, and in the 1940 census, her household is as Parks describes it. She was 57, by the way,
so she's not young. And so, part of this is kind of that this is an angry photograph, this is a condemnation
of American hypocrisy, that this is this woman, this decent, upright, hard-working woman, who by all rights may
be somebody's secretary, should be a typist,
should be a file clerk. Even White women had trouble
rising much further than that, but school teacher maybe, but the color of her
skin is holding her back.

Well that's definitely part
of it, and there's also the representational power of this photograph, is that she is sort of
an icon of oppression, put she is also quite dignified, and is looking into the camera
with that really solid gaze, almost a challenging gaze, right? She's not performing for the camera, she's not smiling for us, she's rock-solid looking into the camera. And Parks had to be aware of common representations of African Americans in popular culture, which I hope you are all aware of the kinds of representations
that were common, that were usual at the time. So, here we've got Lead Belly,
and I hope you can read that, "Bad Nigger Makes Good Minstrel." And you know, Lead
Belly, Huddie Ledbetter, he's one of the great blues artists that America has ever produced, but he's being passed off
as a sort of minstrel show. These kinds of images
of African Americans, this was typical that African Americans were entertainers and servants, and their job was to
make white folks happy, or to cook White folks food.

Or if you were a Pullman porter, we're getting towards the railroad here, was to make people's beds
and shine their shoes, and make sure you have a big grin so they know that you don't resent them in any way, shape or form,
you're happy to serve. And here, these are all
ads from Life, by the way, from Life Magazine, at about the time that Parks went to Washington, DC. Dining car waiter, yeah Parks
woulda been very used to that, that the idea of the
proper role of Black people in American society was
to serve White people, with a smile, and deference. So common, I don't think
most people know it, I don't think White people noticed.

I don't think they even noticed
the power of these images, they just seeped into their heads, and by osmosis taught them about what the role of
African Americans should be. But there's also this
that's worth thinking about. Parks had undoubtedly seen
this photograph, I mean, I can't find a letter where he says, "I was at the Art Institute
and I saw American Gothic," but American Gothic has been at the Art Institute since 1937. Parks spent a lot of time
at the Art Institute, it was usually on-view,
as it is right now, he had to of seen it.

But even if he hadn't seen
it at the Art Institute, this is already a famous painting at the time that he made
the picture of Ella Watson, so this was floating out
there in popular culture. And as you probably know, this painting has been
riffed on innumerable times, by painters, photographers,
and everybody else, and Parks is definitely riffing on it. And so, it's not just the American flag that makes Ella Watson symbolic of America, and is insisting on her American-ness, but it's also linking it so tightly to Grant Wood's famous painting. In fact in later years, much later, Parks started calling the
photograph of Ella Watson, now this is many years later, but he started calling the
photograph of Ella Watson American Gothic, his American Gothic.

So here's Parks, I wanna go backwards. Here's Parks, partly in anger, but as I'm about to show you,
it was also in reflection, that this isn't just anger,
but this is kind of heartbreak. Because remember that Parks
had come to Washington, DC, so full of optimism, and so sure that his future was assured, and so convinced that he was
gonna live the American dream, and that Americans were
gonna help him do it. That White Americans
were gonna help him do it in exactly the same way the Rosenwald Fund was helping him pursue his dream, and Roy Stryker taking him into the Farm Security Administration
was helping pursue his dream.

I mean, there were
reasons for that optimism, and then they're smashed, (claps) by that series of humiliations
in downtown Washington, DC, and so, it is anger but
it's also heartbreak. You know you're heart can't be broken, or your heart can only be
broken by something you love, or by somebody you love. People you don't like,
things you don't like, can't break your heart. But he had bought into the American dream, he really believed in it,
that tension was in here, and this picture isn't just
one side of the equation, it isn't just anger and rage,
but it's also that heartbreak at having been betrayed by America.

He never talked about this either. He never talked about
working up to the picture, to the famous picture. So this is Ella Watson,
this is in the files. If somebody'd wanted
to find these pictures, they coulda done it, these
are in the FSA files, they're not hidden away.

But here he is trying to figure out how am I going to visually represent the kinds of ideas I want to represent about the life of Ella
Watson, Government Charwoman? So, he tries this one
out, he's got the mirror, he liked mirrors at this time in his life. And then he tries this one out, you can see we're getting a little closer, at least we're in an office. And then he tries this one out. Hey, there we are, we've got the flag, we've got the office,
it's not quite right, but we've got the tools of her trade, we've got the broom, we've got the mop, and we've got the feather duster.

But she's surrounded by
other people's tools, right? Tools that she cannot use, tools that she's not allowed to use because of the color of her skin. So, he's got that workin'. And here's an interesting thing, I was just talking about this with Jamie, notice the dress. They're different dresses.

Those are different dresses, absolutely different dresses. Now, in every telling of the story, in all of his different
memoirs, like I said, there's slight variations here and there, but it always happens on a single night. Well, I'm not sure it
happens on a single night, also notice the lighting scheme. You guys are photographers, most of you, look at the lighting.

Count the number of lights. And especially in the
iconic one, it's very clear that he's working with
two lights, at least two. And the one in the bathroom,
he's working with one, so I don't know, I don't know. But the whole point is that he's getting towards
something, he's experimenting, he's trying to get there, I mean, of course we do this, right? This is how you shoot, right? You work the scene, you work the moment, sometimes you're working
in a day in an hour, sometimes you're working in
a month, or two months or, how long did it take you to do (mumbles)? - [Jamie] A year.
- A year to get there.

But that's what he's up to. And he's not just doing it
with Ella Watson, (chuckles), he's doing it with another
African American housekeeper, whose name I have not
been able to discover, and I really want to get her name so I can give you her name, but he does tell a story about her. We know that she is
qualified as a notary public, but she can't work as a notary public for the federal government, because the federal government won't hire her to do
that because she's Black. But what he's got her underneath is a notary public certificate.

So, she's not only posing
underneath the name of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
but she's posing underneath the qualification that she holds, but which cannot get her a job because of racial discrimination. And here we've got the same woman, and now it's much more clear, right? We've got the symbols of Americanism. Neither one of these photographs
though, work as well, and so, as far as I
can tell from the file, he gives up on this woman, and goes to Ella Watson. And I think that the reason
he goes with Ella Watson is that she's open to having him hang out, 'cause he doesn't stop
with the famous photograph, he doesn't stop with the famous portrait, he goes on, he does a series on her.

He's trying to learn how
to make a photo essay, he's never done this
before, at least not under the guidance of somebody like Roy Stryker, who was not a photographer,
but he was a great editor. He's learning how to make a photo essay, and he's learning how to work with people, and he's learning how to
move into people's lives. The thing I love about
this series of photographs is that in the famous photograph, the famous portrait, Ella
Watson is simply a charwoman. She is a symbol of racial
oppression, and a charwoman.

Here we're seeing her in
a much fuller life, right? She's the head of the
household, and she's somebody who manages to keep the household together despite her meager salary and
the long hours that she works. He takes us out of her house, so this is, we're looking
outside her apartment, right? So he takes us out into her community. There's a grocery store across the street, this is the owner of the
grocery store across the street, posing with a watermelon. Okay, make of that what
you will, but nevertheless, he's giving us a sense of her life.

This is Johnny Yu, who runs
the local Chinese laundry. Once again, we've got the
symbols of Americanism, right? Those of you who are familiar with the history of the United
States during World War II, are aware that we interned, we sent to concentration
camps Japanese-Americans because we feared they
would be the enemy within. That internment had already
started in August 1942, it had already started. So Johnny Yu, his last name suggests that he's Chinese, not Japanese, and the fact that it's a, I
have to wave my fingers here, quote, Chinese laundry, close quote, suggests that he was Chinese
and not Japanese and yet, we will read him as
Asian, and our awareness that the internments had already started gives this a kind of poignancy.

I don't know if Parks intended it, but there's a poignancy
to this photograph. And he takes her into the church! And you know the church, this is an unintentional
double exposure but, it kinda works as a double exposure. You know, the church
is so vitally important for African Americans because
the larger society says "No," and the church says, "Yes." The larger society says
"You're second class, "you're not as good as everybody else," the church says "Yes, you are." The larger society says, "You're hated," the church says that "You're loved." The church has been so important, and Parks, of course, understood that. That what has allowed the African American community to survive, have been family,
community, and the church.

Above everything else, it's been family, community and church. And we get it, he showed it to us, it's a stunning composite portrait of Ella Watson, this is a scene from her church. Both in the famous, well-known photograph, and in the photo essay
about Ella Watson's life, Parks is wrestling with this yin and yang of American racism, American democracy. He's wrestling with his anger
for his own experiences, and for the experiences of
other African Americans, and with the sense that the
promise can be realized, he did this all of his life.

I've been talking for a very long time, so I'm going to skip
over this and just say that in 1968 he was wrestling
with the same issues, and in a very direct
manner, with his audience. This was an essay on a
deeply-impoverished Harlem family, I'll just show you a few of the spreads. And a little bit of the text. That last line, "I too am American.

"America is me." He's virtually quoting Langston Hughes, the African American poet, he's virtually quoting
one of Langston Hughes's best and most well-known poems. He published a book in 1971 where he's basically looking back at his time at Life and, he's talking about what he tried to do, and he says, "I didn't presume
to speak for Black people," but actually he did. (Chuckles) "But to give Life's
readers a fleeting glimpse "of what it looks like
to be African American." And in the same passage he's talking about something that resonates with today, I mean, somebody could have
written this last night. And towards the end of
his life, he died in 2006, he was very elderly, so he
would have been just turning 80, just turning 80 when he wrote this.

And it's partly old age, and it's partly how America has changed, but he's identifying
himself with the struggle, "I don't know how effective
I've been, I did my best." But it's not just a struggle
for Black people, right? And I think that anybody
that I've mentioned so far, Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Fanny Lou Hamer, they've all said, "It's not just about us, "that if American democracy
isn't real for us, "it's not real for anybody." And I'm gonna end with
Frederick Douglass again, I love this quote, I was
saying that Frederick Douglass was one of our first photo theorists. And in one of the speeches
that he gave about photography, he was trying to explain what it is that photographers, picture-makers, that's what he was calling
photographers, what they do. But I think this is
actually a challenge for us, I think that this is a
challenge for us now, today. That by making the pictures we do, we're not just reflecting
the world in which we live, but we're envisioning a world to come.

And that I think is the great
contribution of Gordon Parks, but I also think, those of you young people
out there in the audience, that's a challenge for you today. Thank you. (Audience clapping) - [Jamie] We have a few
minutes for a Q and A, I'll pass around the mic, it
won't make your voice louder, please use it for the video. - [Questioner] Thank you for
coming and sharing with us, more of a personal question for you.

Do you remember the day when Gordon Parks actually entered your life
as a concept of study, and how did it change
you from that moment? You started off telling us
when you were in your 20's, you weren't sure where
you were going to be, and what you were going to do. So, after coming in contact
with the work of Gordon Parks, what was that change like for you? - There are two answers to that question, and thank you very much,
I really appreciate it. I first became aware of Gordon Parks before he started making movies. My family didn't get Life Magazine, but when I was in junior high school, CBS News did a documentary about him, it was called the Weapons of Gordon Parks, and it was an exploration of his life, and pretty nice for a half hour, and it opened not with Gordon
Parks making photographs, but with him typing.

He's smoking a pipe and he's
pecking away at a typewriter, he's writing. And then he picks up the camera, and then he goes to the
piano and starts playing. And the music that he's playing, it's not jazz, it's not the blues, Gordon Parks' own personal music sounded a little bit like Rachmaninoff, a little bit like Debussy, it was very much in the
European classical tradition. And then he says at some point soon after, he says to the interviewer, "My wife always wakes me up the same way, "the way I like it, "by putting on classical
music in the morning." I said, "Wow." I was a Black kid that
liked classical music, there weren't many of us, and I really felt like an odd duck, you know? And this was in the late 1960s, the height of the Black Power movement, I was in junior high at
a very vulnerable age.

And so you think this was a time where you just had to be Black, and if you did anything White, there was something wrong with you, and the lines were pretty starkly drawn. You know, you could like
funk, you could like jazz, but you couldn't like classical music, I liked classical music. It was the first time a Black person had validated my love for classical music. I saw that, that documentary, they actually
showed it in our school, so it must of been 1969,
1970 or something like that, I've never forgotten it.

There's a copy at the Schomburg, it used to be on 16 millimeter, but they've digitized
it, you can watch it. I remembered it almost scene
from scene, scene for scene, it had made that big,
strong an impact on me. And so, Parks was never
out of my consciousness, but I'll be honest that I knew him mostly from his books and his movies. When Shaft comes out, we all loved Shaft, everybody loved Shaft.

I mean, this was one of the first movies where the Black man wins, where the Black man kicks
White ass, you know? The second answer to that is the opportunity to bring an exhibition of Gordon Parks' photography to the University of Virginia fell into my lap about four years ago. And to bring an exhibition, there are two things you have to do. You have to raise a lot of money, and you also have to do a lot of research, because you need to be able to speak, and to write intelligently about the artist that you're bringing. So, I started doing research on Parks, and one of the things I discovered is there's not very much writing about him, he is really understudied.

When you think about other
photographers of his stature, lots of books, articles, monographs, this, that and the other are out there. Not on Parks. Now there's some good stuff, there's some good catalog essays, some very good catalog essays, some really excellent,
killer, catalog essays! But there isn't a single book, there isn't a study of his photography. Now, he did so many different
kinds of photography, I don't wanna do it all, and I certainly don't
wanna write a biography.

I wanna write about those photo essays, as I mentioned earlier,
about race and social justice which had such a huge
impact on American society. But that book wasn't out there, and I decided to write it. That fair? - [Questioner] Yes.
- Thanks, all right. Oh please, somebody else ask a question, I love answering questions.

(Chuckles) I think we have to wait for the mic. - [Questioner] This is
not a question, actually. I am absolutely wonderful,
I am absolutely glad that I came for your presentation-- - Oh, thank you very much. - Because that story, that history about the Black community, it's so much happening now.

And you know, the thing what
it really get to me then, I think it was Frederick
Douglass said that about the 4th of July, that this 4th of July
is not my 4th of July, and it really reminds
me of today's happening. Most of the people are
really protesting saying "He's not my president." - There's absolutely some resonance there, there really is.
- [Questioner] So it was just wonderful, I am so glad that I came to your presentation because that really spoke to today's... - I mean, that feeling of betrayal is because we love the country so much, and we can't imagine
what may happen to it. - [Questioner] I'm curious about just the trajectory of his
artistic interests and, how much photography was a passion, a lifelong passion, or was
it eclipsed by filmmaking, or writing, or painting,
and all the kind of numerous ways of expressing himself that he had? - He loved photography,
there's no question about that, and I think he knew that this was his probably most profound talent.

But he also said in various
interviews that photography was his ticket out of poverty. And the thing about photography is, is that you could teach
yourself how to do it in a way that it's hard to
teach yourself how to sculpt, it's hard to teach yourself
how to paint in oils, right? And in photography... You know, competent
photography is not hard, great photography is
exceedingly difficult, but competent photography's not hard. And I think he...

I know that very quickly he
became a competent photographer, and started freelancing for newspapers, started doing portraits of
local people in the community, earning a few dollars here,
or a few dollars there. The thing that he most wanted to do was to end that series
of menial, low-paying, humiliating jobs that he had held, and photography was his
ticket to stop doing that. But it was also a means
of self-expression, and he had done other things, he was a good piano player, and he had played in bands,
and he had played in clubs. Couldn't make a living
at it, but he tried, and he composed, selling music is hard, earning your living as a composer is hard, it seemed like photography was
going to be the way to do it.

But by the early 1960s, he signs on as a Life staff photographer, the first African American
on Life's photographic staff, in fact, the first African American on Life's professional staff in 1949. In the early 1960s, he
goes on contract with Life, so that he's not on staff anymore, he's not doing the routine assignments, he's only doing plum jobs, and that's to give him freedom to write. So, he does start envisioning
himself as a novelist, as a memoirist, as a writer. And then the opportunity
comes along in the late 1960s to do the movie version
of his first novel, The Learning Tree.

And from there, he makes
11 movies in his lifetime, and after The Learning Tree there are eight more to go. Remember, he's starting at age 56, so he was a filmmaker,
that was his primary, primary identity after that. But he occasionally did a
photographic assignment, and he always photographed for himself. He was doing a lot of
abstract, color photography simply to please himself.

- [Questioner] Besides the memoirs, are there stories or insights
from talking to people who knew him that you could share? - There's a guy called
(mumbles), let me start over, there's a guy called Charles McAfee. Charles McAfee is an extraordinarily
accomplished architect. Multiple award-winner, he's
had big contracts to do, important buildings all over the country, one of the leading African
American architects ever. Close friends with
Gordon Parks over tennis! It turns out that Parks
was a really good athlete, and Parks took up tennis in his 30's, became one of the best amateur tennis players
in the United States.

Played in pro-am tournaments
with Arthur Ashe, with Stan Smith, Rod
Laver, I mean you know, this is high-level tennis. So I asked McAfee, I said, "Charles, "is there anything that he
did, that he didn't do well?" And Charles says, "No,
everything he did he did well." Some of you probably know Adger Cowans, Adger Cowans is a really wonderful photographer and artist,
and I've interviewed Adger. Adger went to Ohio
University in the mid '50s when Ohio University
had one of the very few photographic programs
in the United States. He used to come to New York
to hear music, he loved jazz.

On one of those occasions
he met Gordon Parks, Parks said, "What do you do?" And he's says, "Well, I'm in college, "and I'm studying photography." Parks said, "Look, when you
graduate come to New York, "I'll make you my assistant." So, Adger graduates from
college, comes to New York, calls up Gordon Parks says,
"Mr. Parks, I'm here!" Parks says, "Where are you stayin'?" He says, "I'm stayin at the Y." Parks says, "Oh, that won't
do, come up to Westchester," Parks was living in White Plains. So, he goes up on the train, moves into the Parks' house,
they have a basketball court, one of those basketball
hoops over the garage, right? Adger has just graduated from college, so he's like 21, 22, right? He's the same age as Gordon
Parks, Junior, 21, 22. Yeah you know, they both think they're pretty good at
what they do, right? Parks by now is well into his 40's.

Adger said, "He kicked our ass "every time he picked up the basketball." So yeah, everything he did, he did well. You want something about art? I don't have any stories
about art. (Laughs) - [Jamie] Well, that was a
great story to end up on, and thank you everybody
so much, John Edwin Mason. - Thank you.

(Audience clapping).

Finding My Voice Greg Beams Photography Graduate

[Gregory Beams] My name is Gregory Beams, and I'm a graduate student
at the Academy of Art University in their photography program. My father had been a commercial photographer, so I grew up around cameras,
but I never really took pictures. And then slowly, over time,
I started picking up a camera. I started expressing myself through it, and I really didn't know
exactly what I was trying to say.

For me, pursuing a graduate degree
really became about finding my voice. I wanted to better understand what it is
that makes a picture beautiful, because some pictures I would take, I thought they looked great, and other people
thought they were awful, and vice versa. I started researching, "Okay, where might I go?" The Academy of Art University
consistently came up as one of the top programs. It became the obvious choice at the end.

When I first started doing this work, I felt like I was beating the viewer
over the head with the message. And I wasn't trying to say technology is bad. I was just trying to raise awareness
of our use of technology. We're engaged with it pretty much
on a daily  if not hourly  basis.

Oftentimes we're using technology
to try to connect with people, but the reality is, when we use technology, we're actually isolating ourselves
from those same people. This work is really designed
to raise people's awareness about the isolation that happens
when we use technology. I had a series of epiphanies, if you will. In each one of them,
I felt like I learned something new, both about photography and about myself.

None of my photographs would be
what they are today if it wasn't for the instructors at the Academy. It changes the way that you think. It changed the way I see the world.
I see it much more artistically than I used to. I use the left side of my brain a lot more,
and that to me has probably been one of the best things
about the university experience.

The university has been
this launching point of  now I get to go do photography
in the way that I want to, and now I know what I'm doing..

Documentary Photography with Paccarik Orue

[ BONGO DRUMS BEATING
RHYTHMICALLY ] Orue: THERE IS SOMETHING
ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE COLOR. THAT THE NEGATIVE
IS ABLE TO RECORD. THAT I LIKE VERY MUCH
HOW IT TRANSLATES, ESPECIALLY WITH
THIS GOLDEN BAY AREA LIGHT. IT HIGHLIGHTS
THE ASPECTS OF POSITIVITY.

THAT I'M INTERESTED IN. HI. I'M PACCARIK ORUE,
AND I AM FROM LIMA, PERU. I'M A PHOTOGRAPHER
BASED IN SAN FRANCISCO, AND WE ARE HERE
AT RAYKO PHOTO CENTER, WHERE I AM PARTICIPATING.

IN THEIR ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCY
PROGRAM FOR 6 MONTHS. [ MUSIC CONTINUES ] I AM A DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER,
AND I WORK INDEPENDENTLY. I AM INTERESTED IN CREATING WORK
THAT I CAN IDENTIFY WITH. BECAUSE OF MY OWN
IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE, I MAY SEEK COMMUNITIES
THAT MAY BE STRUGGLING.

AND EXPERIENCING THINGS
THAT I CAN RELATE TO. BECAUSE OF MY OWN BACKGROUND. [ CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS ]
AWESOME. THANK YOU, GUYS.

COOL. HAVE FUN. ENJOY THE REST OF YOUR DAY. -Boy: BYE.
-Orue: SCORE A LOT OF GOALS.

BETWEEN THE YEARS OF 2009
AND 2011, I DID A PROJECT ENTITLED. "THERE IS NOTHING BEAUTIFUL
AROUND HERE" ABOUT THE CITY OF RICHMOND
IN SAN FRANCISCO'S BAY AREA. [ MUSIC CONTINUES ] "THERE IS NOTHING BEAUTIFUL
AROUND HERE" TAKES PLACE. SPECIFICALLY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
OF THE IRON TRIANGLE, WHICH IS KNOWN ALSO AS
CENTRAL RICHMOND.

RICHMOND HAS A REPUTATION
OF BEING. ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACES
IN THE BAY AREA. AND HIGH FORECLOSURE RATES, SO I WANTED TO SEE
WHAT THAT WAS LIKE AND EXPLORE. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I ENJOY
THE MOST ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.

IS SHOOTING WITH A FILM CAMERA, A MEDIUM FORMAT CAMERA
WITH A SQUARE NEGATIVE. AND THE REASON WHY
I LIKE WORKING THAT WAY. IS BECAUSE IT SLOWS ME DOWN. THESE CAMERAS.

ARE A LITTLE BIT CLUNKY
AND VERY SLOW, SO IT MAKES ME --
IT FORCES ME TO THINK. AND REFLECT
UPON WHAT I'M SEEING. Woman:
I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY. I AM ORIGINALLY
FROM RICHMOND, CALIFORNIA.

[ CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS ] Orue: WHEN I MAKE A PHOTOGRAPH
OF A PERSON, A PORTRAIT, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR ME
TO ASK FOR PERMISSION. I DON'T LIKE FEELING. THAT I MAY BE STEALING
A MOMENT IN A PERSON'S LIFE. WITHOUT THEM BEING AWARE.

DON'T GET ME WRONG,
I DO IT SOMETIMES. BUT I LIKE ASKING
FOR PERMISSION, GET TO KNOW THE PERSON,
AND GETTING CLOSE. [ CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS ] ALL RIGHT. JUST LOOK
AT THE CAMERA RIGHT HERE.

YEAH. UH-HUH. YEAH. JUST SERIOUS.
JUST SERIOUS.

JUST LIKE THAT. YEAH. UH-HUH. THERE YOU GO.

[ CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS ] EXCELLENT, GENTLEMEN.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH. IT'S A PLEASURE. I BEGIN MY OWN PROJECTS
IN DIFFERENT WAYS. WITH MY NEW PROJECT IN PERU, I'M LOOKING
AT THE CITY OF CERRO DE PASCO, WHICH IS ONE OF THE HIGHEST
CITIES IN THE WORLD.

AT 4,400 METERS ABOVE SEA LEVEL. [ PERCUSSION BEATING
RHYTHMICALLY ] CERRO DE PASCO HAS. A 1.5-KILOMETER-WIDE
OPEN-PIT MINE. IT IS A COPPER MINE.

AND SINCE THE MINE
IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY, THE OPEN PIT, THIS HOLE
IN THE GROUND, IS EATING THE CITY
LITTLE BY LITTLE. AND WHAT I'M LOOKING AT THERE. IS THE JUXTAPOSITION
OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS. DUE TO THE MINING ACTIVITY.

AND THE FOLKLORIC
AND CULTURAL ELEMENTS. AND HOW THOSE TWO COEXIST
IN CERRO DE PASCO. [ MUSIC CONTINUES ] WHEN I GO BACK TO PERU, SINCE I'VE BEEN AWAY
FOR SO LONG, PEOPLE PICK UP RIGHT AWAY. THAT I'VE BEEN AWAY
FOR A LONG TIME.

SO, IN A WAY,
I FEEL LIKE I'M AN OUTSIDER. BECAUSE YOU ARE FROM
ANOTHER PLACE, THEY ARE WILLING TO SHARE
THEIR CULTURE AND INVITE YOU. AND EXPERIENCE THINGS. THAT PERHAPS YOU MAY NOT
BE ABLE TO COME ACROSS.

AND I LIKE TO THINK
OF THE CAMERA. AS THE CONNECTING POINT
THAT TAKES ME THERE. TO LIVE THOSE EXPERIENCES
AND CREATE THE IMAGES I DO. [ FUNKY PERCUSSION MUSIC
PLAYING ] [ WHISTLE BLOWS ].

Bon Duke - Fashion Photographer

- Hello and welcome to the
i3 lecture series hosted by the Masters in Digital
Photography program here at the School of Visual Arts. We are thrilled to welcome
film director and photographer Bon Duke as tonight's guest speaker. Bon is a native New Yorker
and a two time graduate of SVA with a BFA in photography, and a masters in fashion photography. He works as a director and is known for his bold photographic
style, sense of humor, and a keen eye for fashion.

His wide array of creative projects includes creative direction
and strategy development in design, fashion, film, and photography. He is a co-founder of the New
York Fashion Film Festival, partner at Anti/Anti Studio and
is also here faculty at SVA. Bon has shot campaigns
and directed films for Adidas, Frebal, Guhring, Zac
Posen, Chloe, Three Point One, Phillip Lim, AllSaints, Sax. This is a long list.

Carpazio, Jordan, and Public School. His editorial clients include
W Magazine, Paper Magazine, and the New York Times Magazine. So please help me in welcoming
Bon with a warm welcome. (Applause) - How's it going? Can you hear me? Good? So the way I'm gonna do this today is, I'm gonna start from
you know how I started and as we go just go through my work and kind of where I am now currently.

So as Katrin mentioned,
born in raised in New York, and you know entering photography actually I was a painter initially. Doing color theory really you know tedious you know painting. And I discovered photography cause it's much faster more satisfying. And you know I was
like, I should try this, took a few courses and I was
like I really want to do this.

I applied to a few
schools, actually only two. One was FIT, the other
was School of Visual Arts. FIT rejected me, which
is a good thing actually. And you know entering SVA
kind of, it let me into this new world of what I could do.

So my first slide is actually
one thing that was given to me from the chair of the
undergrads Steven Fairly, which is John Cage's
ten rules of art school. And you know initially I
read it and I was like, kind of shrugged it off
but I kept, I kinda use it almost as my guide
throughout almost my entire life even so today in the sense of working in the professional field to just
how I made my work in school. And all I could do was
you know in my head, I am in the safety net, I'm
gonna do as much as I can so. Figure out what I want to
do in photography you know.

And in school I actually,
no one told me I could do one internship, I was just like I'm gonna do five internships,
photo editing, magazine, like whatever it was I wanted to like know the ins and outs of photography. Just to like you know put
my hands in everything. See what I loved and what I didn't love. And through that I kind of,
I learned, I failed a lot.

Like that's the one thing
I'm gonna say over and over is making mistakes and
failing over and over, I was so scared of it, so scared of it, but in the end if you do fail your gonna learn how to take the next
step to make it better or actually make it successful. So as I continued, whether
it be photo editing to whatever, whatever it
was I really starting honing in on my voice in my, my work, which you'll see throughout
this, this whole presentation. And what I did throughout my school year was I started assisting. Now that was one thing that
was a big influence on me because of the fact that I
worked with photographers I hated, and photographers I loved.

Seeing how they work, their work ethic. And I always told myself
either I'm gonna take it or leave it, I'm gonna do
this when I start working. And it was crazy cause
there was things like I would do laundry sometimes and just like what am I doing like
they're, they're like. Assisting jobs you're like
fifth assistant you have to do the, just the worst
things but, you know I was like, I'm never gonna make anyone
do this if there on my team.

You know so years of
assisting I was assisting a musician photographer,
he was doing album covers. And I was like oh I want to do music. I want to album covers,
oh that's like my dream that's what I want to do, portraiture. And as I started assisting
more and more into doing that, I started hating it more and
it was more for the fact of, I think it was just the
music industry itself is such a machine that
it was like it drained me and I had to take a step away.

So in that sense I kind of, in school, I you know I figured out
what do I actually love? Well I love portraiture, I
love people, I love characters that are either, you
know whether they be real or whatever I imagine it to be you know. And I was perceiving them through my eyes when I was taking their portrait. And your probably wondering, oh how did he end up in fashion? Well actually I continued
to do my portraiture I was actually doing still life
in all my personal projects until my senior year at
SVA, and I had a show. Something really, like a
whole installation video to sculpture with like my
photos, my portraiture.

And I actually got a call from the CFDA, which is the Council Fashion something, it's like some fashion
association it's like huge. Designer, yeah you got me thank you. And they were like, we want you to shoot for Proenza Schouler which is
a very high end fashion line, and my response was do you have money? Cause I was just, I graduated
when the crash happened. And even at my commencement speech, the speaker whoever it was
was just like, hey good luck.

So, at that point I was just like oh well I need to make
money, I need to like really you know, you know survive so, at that point I said yes I'll do it. And this is where fashion
was really introduced to me. I was, did this job, I saw how fun it was. It became my vehicle in
a sense of for my voice.

I could use fashion to really
tell what I wanted to tell. And on top of that get paid, I was just like well this is great and, that's how I kinda kept going
things starting coming in with work fashion related and I didn't, at that time I was still approaching it still with my portraiture
kind of perspective. You know seeing the clothes
as almost secondary you know. And at that time doing
music went out the window.

I was just like forget this,
music labels don't have money, whatever it's not, it's not as enjoyable because music labels
make it hard you know. You do meet great characters
but I took a step away from it. So entering fashion you
know it forced me to kind of go into an audience
that was very different from what I was used to,
whether it be you know I was doing assisting photographers in celebrity portraiture through music. Fashion it was a collaborative process something that was totally amazing for me.

And that's one thing actually at SVA. In my senior year again that
I learned was collaboration. I realized that I'm just
there's different departments. There's the graphic design department.

There's the film department. Why am I not going over
there and reaching out? In my senior year actually, this is where I actually met Katrin, I decided to do yearbook,
and I was just like why not? I had like some time
I might as well do it. But I met I think about
20 graphic designers, which are still all my friends today. I cannot stress how much collaboration is so it's like important to,
to me and it should be to you because all my friends
that were art directors or you know the designers at school are now creative directors art directors at add agencies, magazines,
and we still work together.

And fashion also introduced
that to me as well because you know there's
a team that you have to create an image designs,
hair, make up, whatever it is it's a whole effort together
from B, point A to B. So I had to learn that
collaboration process where I was so involved in just, I wanna take my portrait
be done with it, you know. Tell my story but now there's a new force of energy when everyone had
a kind of influence on it, and that was really important to me. And I, I cannot stress
enough how important that is.

You know getting feedback from
your friends, bad or good. And you know I continued on. And I made again so many
mistakes and failures. It's nothing to be embarrassed about.

You know I, you keep
moving on and you learn. So. You know as we continued with you know, when I say we I always
reference my team or whoever I'm collaboration with cause
it's just not me you know. I started getting more editorial.

I started getting jobs through fashion. Meeting amazing characters
whether the models or you know people that I
like we, we did a fashion, they call it fashion
portraiture which is like a portrait but you still style it. So it was kind of coming back full circle where it was my portraiture
in a fashion sense. So, here's one thing for work, and this is why I say
collaboration is so important is, I have not done a promo in nine years.

I haven't seen an Email out,
I haven't sent a mailer out. And you know that's
because it was almost like I was planting seeds with
everyone I've collaborated with. And if you make great work
and you believe in it, people will always come
back to you you know. Do what am I saying not
send promos out, no.

I'm, it just the
collaboration really kinda, kinda flourishes some things may not grow, some things will grow, but you never know. It doesn't hurt to just try
it and collaborate it may not work but it, it sometimes
it becomes something great. I still work with one of my
make up artists from like seven years ago and it's like she's,
she's like one of the best. Another thing is I, I've
learned was not to be so shy.

I was always so shy to talk, and I didn't know how to communicate. And that's one thing that I, almost like not practiced but like, the more confident you are
it shows through your work. The more confident you are in your work, it's easier to communicate
with others what you want and also even how you present yourself. And that's something today I
still kind of struggle with but like it's when your really confident it helps you communicate
and almost know your value.

This leads me to value cause
again as a photographer it could be, could be
very hard for you as what, what's my value, how do I make money? There is a point where
once you know, you know. And you can start saying no to these jobs that are just not for you, you know. And that's one thing I
learned it took me a while to understand my own value
and integrity you know. Before I was just saying
yes to everything, and I was just like wait a minute.

What, does it actually say
what I want to say or does, do I want to actually be
represented by this work. Let's see. I actually, so in school I went
for the MPS fashion program. At this point I was working and I was like why am I going back to
school I'm working already? But the reason for me
going back to school was there was a transition
in terms of my work.

I was getting bored of it,
that's like my biggest fear. Kind of just getting bored of fashion, and you get to kind of
find what I loved again. So in this course I kind
of did whatever I wanted. I actually missed a lot of classes, which got me in a lot of trouble.

I missed 27 classes, I mean
this is a different program. - [Katrin] You can try
a different program. - But out of it all I, I
really kind of discovered what I love again which
was, which will lead to the video work that I have created at the end of this presentation. But I also kind of with
finding what I loved about my portfolio I finally, I, sorry they're friends.

I finally my portfolio
was all over the place, and I was just like I need to edit down and to figure out who I am so, I'm gonna kind of go into detail with some of my work that I, that I have here. So, there's one thing
that I loved which was shape and form which
fashion allowed me to do. And also portraiture I
really loved portraiture. But on top of that the
new discovery through it was motion groups, I loved
working with dancers.

So I kind of wanted to combine everything, shape, form, portraiture
and like movement. Colors, like colors are
super important to me. And through it I kind of
started building up my work and I still am building
up my work right now. I haven't had a website in five years, and that's because I, I
can't edit my own work.

It's been, it's been a, a hassle. But, through it all the work I was making only 10% of it I actually really loved. And I would say 90% failed
for me, but that exercise of continually shooting
was super important. It helped me kind of again rediscover what I want to do from fashion.

Also a lot of the
struggle was transitioning from film to digital as
a lot of at that time you know digital becoming huge and I didn't know how to do
digital correctly in a sense. Cause I'm talking about
like SLR, from shooting from medium format to SLR
it was, it was kinda hard. But, this was a time where I would go from trying to figure that
out, and it was struggle. Because it was almost two
different languages for me.

So throughout my work, it's
predominantly digital now. And that's the one thing
that I think I'm really happy about is actually learning the precedence of color darkening, understanding basic color theory you know, I
think that's lost sometimes in this digital world in
a sense, which is fine. But you know that's, it's,
I could never always get the colors that I want in
digital until I finally, you know learned over time. So this was a series for Paper Mag, and it was a story
based on kind of ravers, that was the theme of it.

This is also for Paper Mag,
this is a collaboration with milk make up, which
actually isn't out yet. This is also for Paper
for Nar, this is kind of, is a story about real women
nude with nothing, nothing retouched, well it is
retouched but they wanted real women that weren't
models for this feature. So whenever I shoot
portraiture it's always super important for me to know the person, you know talk to them, find this characteristic about
them that I want to capture. You know I just don't
randomly want to shoot them.

They really have to you
know be someone that I really want to capture. And that's something from my early work that I've always done,
finding these people. And I kind of try to trans, like transform that onto models as well you know but, for me I always kind of look
for that one portraiture even in a fashion story. This is for W.

This is unfortunately a live, this came out last week. This is in Vigmenta. It's digital, and I found one of my old contact sheets, and shocked it in. But it's funny how film is almost kind of very trendy right now you know when it's actually, kind of, ode to been great.

As I go through this I want to talk about a new thing that happened to me which was the invention of the
digital SLR and video. This was important to
me because of the fact that it added another dimension. It added another way of telling the story. I could actually afford to do this video through digital SLR it was approachable.

Everyone could do it. And at that time I was just like whoa, I need to learn how to do some video here, if I have it in my hands. High quality video too. And from that point I
realized it was another way for me to kind of tell a story.

Which we'll get to my
first film that I ever did, which no one has ever seen I don't think, which is gonna be interesting. This was, the story was, story for VFILES, and very youthful group
basically we had like 40 people in the studio and it was just
basically a party all day. There's something about
groups that I love. Almost like a, a tribe
or a gang that kind of, I kind of characterize onto my story.

I was using a mixture of friends, models. But I never wanna actually
say models are friends. I almost wanna just have
them as a character. That's the most important for me.

This is for New York Times. This is a story that came out last month, and it was a, a story on septum rings. Very subtle but you'll see them. So we found about six people, real people that had septums and kinda
did a whole story on that.

Coming around back to
my portraiture again. Like I always will have, I
will always do portraiture. If someone asks me
portraiture or fashion story, I think I would choose to go
with portraiture you know. In the end it's not any,
they're not different but for me the portraiture
tells, says a lot more for me.

We have, I have a few portraiture
commissions coming up. This is Kendall Jenner she's actually extremely sweet to work with. This is for W. Little Yachty, he's a, he's
a very young rap artist that's like really blowing up right now.

And this is where, gonna
bring me into my next stage which is about social media, and how that's now changing
a lot of things for me as a photographer and it's a new platform that you know you can really
push your work out on. And it's relevant, kind of important to do and kind of look at what's happening. So like the Chung Four or TIMEOUT. Sorry if I'm going too fast I'm trying to get to the video which
is what I'm doing currently.

This was an ad for Aritzia,
which we did stills and video. There's one thing that is
super, super important now is actually being able to do stills and video at the same time. Now the challenge here is
budget, time, you know. That's one thing that everyone's
facing with right now.

This client or whoever it
is wants a video and photos on the same day, how
do you, how, you know. It's hard but it's always doable you know. I think there is, it's what people want
clients, clients want. It's another asset that
you know everyone will want for social media, for online, for print.

You know they all kind of relate, and that's one thing that
I have been constantly struggling with where a
client wants video and stills. So we will see the
video after I get to it. So this is the concept
was we had New York City Ballet dancers come in,
lot of shape and form. Kind of showing textures and
kind of this new collection that they made which is active wear as using the New York City Ballet dancers.

This is for W. This is a personal project I did based on, just masks and the idea of how you know masks are used as a form of intimidation. And it's interesting how sports use masks to kind of cover their face for protection but also intimidation
depending on what it is. So what we did with, me
and the make up artist we conceptualized and bought
actually different sorts of head protection and we
kind of glamorized them in a sense to really use them
as a piece for, for the shoot.

It was a beauty shoot but
wanted to really emphasize on this, this idea of
the mask and protection. The beauty work. This is for Paper. This was based on beauty
treatments around the world.

This was for New York Times
like if you notice I love, again back to dancers I will
always work with dancers cause they understand
their bodies so well. New York City Ballet again. This is Twyla Tharp
legendary choreographer and this was the most perfect
thing I could ever ask for for a job which was one of
my favorite choreographers in her company, in her
element, taking a portrait with movement of her company around her. I think, when I look at this image it's, it's very it's, this represents
me very well you know.

And to just to, to be
able to work with her. She was phenomenal. This was for AllSaints, this
was a musicians portrait here that we did in New York,
local New York City musician. Alright we're getting to the video.

Okay. So. Get the DSLR and I'm like
I need to make some video. This video is my first video I ever did, but it means a lot because
it triggered something in my head and I was like
I need to keep trying, working on this, I need to
actually get an internship again and learn about video production.

Cause I'm the kind of
person that wants to know and really get my hands on into things. So, this is a still life video that I did.  You know that it would be untrue  You know that I would be a liar  If I was to say to you  Girl we couldn't get much higher  Come on baby light my fire  Come on baby light my fire  Try to set the night on fire  The times you had to  Super simple but the idea
of having something move and just the burning of the cigarette pack for me said a lot I was like oh my God, I can say so much like
with this moving motion. And another thing was
the importance of music.

You know it's like so literal
with you know that song but I just like, I
realized that that element also pushed this kind of
drive in motion you know. I started realizing, wow
I love Tarantino films, I love Guy Ritchie films,
and the thing I love about them is the music
when there's like a scene that you're listening to and it's like the music just drives it home. So that was my first video, and now I'm gonna show you my reel of just my work in general and. You know whenever I do a
piece I always want to have this energy that kind of is
emitted when you watch it, get's you excited and also want, I want where you want to be involved in a sense.

So this is my reel, should
be a minute and a half.  Roof is falling let me
love me falling I just know  Roof is falling let me
love me falling I just know  Roof is falling let me
love me falling I just know  Roof is falling let me love me  Gold up in my gold up in my teeth  Gold up gold up in my teeth  Don't care what you say to
me I'ma bite your feelings out  Gold up in my teeth  I missed you in the basement  Gold up in my teeth  But your brother was a
good substitute for you  And if you love me love
me but you never let me go  When the roof was on
fire you never let me know  Say you're sorry honey
but you never really show  And I could leave the party
without ever letting you know  Without ever letting you know  Walk past her oh slow walk faster  Without ever letting you know  Walk past her oh too slow walk faster  Without ever letting you know  Walk past her oh too slow walk faster  Without ever letting you know  Walk past her oh too slow  Without ever letting you know  Gold up in my teeth  Okay so, that's some like
work that I've done recently. Sort of outdated there's
more that I need to add. But from that first video
I instantly was like I need to do this, I
need to jump into this.

I started researching, I
was looking at websites like Showstudio, I was like whoa
fashion film what this is, amazing this is, it blew my mind. The problem is I went to photo school and I was like wow, shit I need to, I need to learn basically everything. And the minute I graduated
it was such a gamble. I was like working random
jobs assisting still, but I took on an internship.

I took on an internship that paid nothing. It was a film production
company that did fashion films. It was the best choice I ever made. Production and film for me was, it's totally different from photo.

But the creative processing
was so beautiful. And again collaboration,
the collaboration on film was a thousand times more
important than photo. Because every piece matters. And that's when I started
learning about file production and getting my hands into
like everything film.

And I finally then wrote
one of my first films. It was one, a written film that I did which was based off of Teddy Boys. And I was like I have this SLR, I'm gonna try and get a team together. Done this video with my team
that was super important to me.

- [Voiceover] So the foreign mockling is kind of a Teddy Boy. He wears sick fashion, speedy socks, skin tight drawing pants, and stiff shirt collars. Well he wears a waist coat, but he don't wear the
double breasted coat. He wears the one button
coat finger-tipped right.

And he has one handkerchief
in the top of his coat. And he has a duffle coat,
it took kind of a bit slashed so that doesn't matter. (Upbeat music)  Bow out  Let's punk  Bow out  I dare  Bow out  Lets punk  Bow out  I dare  Bow out  Lets punk  Bow out  I dare  Bow out  Lets punk  Bow out  I dare  Oh  And he's got, kind of cut
his hair cat black hair. And he looks like the
Einstein in the front and Dare at the back.

And every night he wears a chief cat, and he looks marvelous. Well he's the boy of my dreams, and if only I could marry him, well I'll be the luckiest
girl in the world. - So realized how much more
I could tell in the story when I wrote it and I just kept going. And going, and going.

So. I started running with videos and how I could use it
with fashion clients, and it was becoming so big at this time. And it was actually a
door for me to kind of really break in where top
fashion photographers were. They, they had the market in stills, but the film I kind of, it
was like well here's my chance to kind of really carve my own path.

The film you're watching
right now is a ballet piece that I did for NOWNESS, and it's with a collaboration with Chloe. And from that point on I
got so much work from people were reaching out for fashion films. But the problem at the time
was they didn't understand the budget that we
require for fashion films. And I just kept going with it.

And you know dancers were,
they were easy to work with. They really show the clothing in such a beautiful way, with emotion. And from that point on I
kept working with dancers live and still you'll see, as my work, as we go through you'll see
I always go back to dancers. Anyway it's the struggle between shooting stills and videos, which
is more complicated.

But things are changing
and budgets are actually properly getting going to, toward video. I cannot stress enough
how important video is to just do as a photographer,
it's such an important asset. Almost expected you know with our devices so easily used for recording. People want it, clients want it.

It's, it's unavoidable to kind
of you know, it doesn't hurt to try really and have small
assets that are motion. Which leads me to social media. I shrugged off Instagram, I
was like I don't need this. I don't care about it,
it doesn't matter to me.

Who, who cares about followers? Who cares about whatever it is? I was, this is where I was
like common sense, I was 26. And I was just like, ahhh,
I feel like I'm complaining about new technological
social wave of things. Am I getting older? I was but, the thing is you
have to really, not adapt, but you have to kind of
evolve just a little. Don't lose yourself in it
but still evolve with it, and Instagram at the time
I was just doing like stupid posting social whatever it was.

And I wasn't curating
it, but I realize today that it's such an
important thing to curate. It's almost like my
portfolio it's almost as if I'm at a gallery what
image is going to be next? What, what is my layout, what is you know it's almost the same thing
as when I was working with art directors and
we were laying magazines, almost the same thing
but in a digital forum. Everyone is using it. And at the same time video
on Instagram was being put up and I was just like hang on
this is what I'm about to do and now I can put it up? That's where things
started shifting for me and really paying
attention to social media.

So, these upcoming things that I've shot were based online as an asset, but it gets more views
on social media itself. Because it's just easier
to kind of put up there and people will watch it. So whenever I go in, I shoot
this film, I do a whole video. But then from that point
on the video I break down into social media assets, content.

Clients love it, just
say assets and content. They like love it to them
it's like morbid reality you're just rewording everything and you get more, more money really. So this is the New York Times,
you saw this film earlier. Which I broke down stills and then from that prospect we did a, a take of the choreograph,
choreography we did on video.

We're going to the next piece which I'm actually gonna try to start again. I got this job because I knew
the client from social media. Like we followed each other we, we followed each others
work which is crazy. Cause I'm just like wait a minute.

I didn't send my portfolio, I
didn't send anything to you. We're just friends on,
on Instagram and we, we like each others work
and I got this job for it. So this is for Public
School and Oliver Peoples.  Oh la la la  Oh la la la  Oh la la la  I  Won't  Compromise  I  Won't  Live a life  On my knees  You  Think  I am nothing  I am nothing  You've  Got  Something coming  Something coming  Because  Oh la la la  I hear God's whisper  Oh la la la  Calling my name  Oh la la la  It's in the wind  Oh la la la  I am the savior  Oh la la la  Sing it again  Savior  Savior  Oh la la la  So from that point on I
actually still work with them, and actually got another job which you'll see after this video.

Actually I'm gonna, I'm
gonna continue actually. I feel like. So, this is the next
video I did with them. And this is one of my latest pieces, which is with Jordan at Public School, the same client for all of the pieces.

(Dribbling) This is inspired by the Nike commercial with dribbling from the 90's
which you guys remember. (Dribbling) (hip hop music) So, social media is really powerful. Secondly, another thing is, is I'm gonna go back to collaboration
I said that over and over. It's like I have one of the
best producers in house, she's here she's like
without like if you have anyone that you collaborate with, like you know you'll know if
they're gonna you're gonna like really work well with them.

And without her it be
really impossible to really put all this film stuff together. And also my cinematographer,
a cinematographer is super important to do video. If you be able to kind of
direct, your cinematographer is your right hand
person to kind of really you know project what you want to show. Without them it'd be
impossible to do any of this.

I'm gonna skip cause
I feel like, like yep. This is for Caapezio, full
circle again with Dan. This is with Maddie Ziegler. This came out two months ago.

(Orchestral music) (rock beat with deep base) So that was my recent work. I'm gonna wrap it up in terms
of the latest thing that is has opened a new door for
me, which I think everyone should really just look
into and consider which is. This is me in virtual reality,
I'm experimenting with it. It's another layer, it's
like a fifth dimension now.

It's like six, it's like insane. It's now changing how I tell a story. Social media, virtual
reality, it's a new platform a new place where your work,
my work, whatever it is. It's really you know it's
become so big these past few months that it's gonna
shift how we tell stories.

That being said, you know one thing I heard at a conference by, anyway the idea was you know you know medium is a message about a commercial. Right now it's user as a message for me, and he said that and it
made so much sense because it is based on these users or people sharing work with each
other or making work, collaboration or whatever it is, and that's something to be
said with this digital age, with social media and virtual reality. So hopefully you'll see some
of my work in virtual reality. I don't know it might suck but, it's something to pay attention to.

And just to play around with if you can. (Applause) - [Voiceover] So all of
your like, your photos and your videos they all
seem like so thoughtful and they all have a story. When you're working with
clients do they usually have a story that you have to tell? Or do you come with them,
or do you come to them with a story or like what
kind of collaboration is that? - So it really depends. So the client, okay here's the thing, sometimes when the
client has so much money, and they are like we want
this you're like okay.

I will do it you know. But majority of the times there
is a base, there is a base guideline that they will give you. Or a theme or like idea, they're like oh we want to do something with suits and movement, run with it. So a lot of it I actually put together and make a treatment for.

And I really you know bring things into fruition
and detail when I, whenever I work with these clients. So they may have a general
idea of what they want. But then I build out more in detail with when I work with them, whether
it be stills or, or video. It's always good to have,
I guess whenever you pitch the client always make it really concise and clear in your mood work or
whatever you present to them.

If that makes sense. - [Voiceover] So you said
with your still photography and your still work portraiture was the biggest thing even with fashion. Do you find that still
when you do video or has it moved closer to movement
when you've moved to video? Or is there something more
important than those two? - That's, that's a good question. I think when I think of
my portraiture translating into video it's almost me
writing up a character.

You know that's my
portrait of them you know. Movement helps, it's like a,
movement is more of the visual energy that I want to push that
this character that I wrote is kind of you know having
you know the movement's more like, it's a feeling
where the character is the portrait of them
that I write it for. Does that make sense? - [Voiceover] Hello, when
you're contracted to do a a video project do you do the
post production work yourself or do you contract that
out to a post house? Or what's the process like
for a video based project. - It depends, I'm usually like again like I love me knowing everything.

I even like taught myself
how to do video editing. And I can do it to a certain extent. And if I do it in house
I do keep that money. Why not? But if it's a really big
job I will source it out and a video editor you
just don't want to give it to any video editor you
want to like really find the person that understands your story.

You know that they, you sit down with them and you explain even before you shoot you explain your treatment
your, your story to them so they're in that mindset. It's almost like finding a good retoucher that understands how you want
it to be retouched you know. So whenever, if you ever do source it out, find someone that kind of can
help you polish it off in, in a way that you want cause
some editors they just, they see things differently you know, so. - [Voiceover] Yeah, in fact
I have one more question.

I mean what is the time frame usually for let's say for the last
video that you showed, it's like the pre-production,
the production, and the post. What's the time frame in
terms of I guess the whole, the whole project the completion of a project from beginning to end? - Sometimes, okay so the
last video that was just seven months, seven months
of like pre-production to concepting to shooting
and post production. That was because of the bigger client. Sometimes I've done videos in two days.

She knows, this one,
Roxanne, she's my producer. There's one video I didn't show you which was this Adidas, this Adidas one. We produced in, she
produced it in two days. And sometimes you know that's
when you have great team.

Here's the thing there's,
there's a saying which is you can only choose two
fast, cheap, or good. You can only choose two, so
I would always choose time. If I could get more time the better. Gives you more preparation, so.

Does that make sense? - [Voiceover] Yes, thank you. - [Voiceover] Your lighting
is really beautiful, I'm thinking it's all
really beautiful but, the still photography
it seems like you have a large bag of tricks could you talk about your lighting a bit. - Sure, so I assisted,
which I learned a lot of lighting from you know assisting like, I'm actually a very simple
person in terms of lighting. I like to light, on second
thought, I like to light big.

In a sense where almost
recreating a big source whether it be through
like a 12 by 12 shooting you know strobe through
it and like softening it, and then I cut down, I never add light unless I really need to
but I make a big source. And then I almost carve
out the light after. So I try to keep it really simple. Sometimes I have one light, maybe two.

So bigger then cut it down. - [Voiceover] Hi you,
your Public Schools piece with the basketball and
this piece Carpezio, the choreography was really important but the music was actually more important. Did you use the, when you,
when you shot the video in each one were you
shooting without sound, one? And two did you use the
music, the soundtrack that you were, that's in the piece to help you direct a, the choreographer? - So, so he's asking about
during the choreography he, he states the choreography is
less important than the music is that correct, is that what you said? - [Voiceover] Did replaying
the music help you a lot through the shooting of the film? - Ah, so, okay. We actually I always try to
come with the music beforehand no matter what, it sets the tone.

You know it's movement you
can really feel it when you, when you have the music already made. A lot of the music is composed. So what I do is I actually try to find similar tracks that I would really want composed like to really kind of emit this energy when the people preform. So on set we, the music is very important, very very important cause it
kind of cause the driving force I can't you know on
this, this Carpezio job we didn't play anything classical at all.

We played something very
similar and very heavy, to really get the girls
to feel it you know. And it also, it also helps
the set edit too you know cause that edit will dictate that, the flow of the piece you know. - [Voiceover] Looking at your progression from stills through
video now into 3D world, where do you think you're
gonna find yourself in 10? Are you gonna further
to dramatic directing? Are you gonna stay in the world
of virtual reality and 3D? Or you gonna do a mixture? - I think we can do a
mixture but I'm actually now considering, considering
writing my first feature film. I really want to try.

I think there's a labor of
love when I, when I write it. I might take time to finish it but, this is all great and all
but like I wanna really, I think I wanna try
feature films you know. That's my next step. Virtual reality is like
an experiment you know.

I just like different tools
for like telling story telling. - [Katrin] Well on that
note on I hope when you have the world premier you'll have it here at SVA at the theater. I want to thank you,
it's been fascinating. - Thank you so much
- [Katrin] And appreciate it a great deal, thank you.

(Applause).