View Gallery<\/a><\/h2>\nVictor Landweber Interviewed by Coreopsis<\/h2>\n
Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> Please introduce yourself<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> My name is Victor Landweber. I\u2019m a photographic artist.<\/p>\nCoreopsis Journal:<\/strong> How would you describe your art to people who haven\u2019t seen it before?<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> The pictures in this publication are from a project called \u201cThings That Look Like Art.\u201d I photograph found subjects that present themselves with the uncanny quality of authentic artworks. I intend these pictures to represent a certain purity of vision about having an art-like encounter when no acknowledged art is present.<\/p>\nCoreopsis Journal:<\/strong> What do you feel are the most important influences in your art?<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> First is the art I\u2019ve seen in museums, publications and galleries. Then certain photographers whose pictures seem related to my idea about things that look like art: Edward Weston\u2019s photographs of vegetables; Walker Evans\u2019 photographs of tools; Frederick Sommer\u2019s pictures of objects discovered on his walks; Aaron Siskind\u2019s abstractions; Irving Penn\u2019s photographs of street debris. Although these photographers didn\u2019t necessarily speak about their pictures as I do, their photographs of mundane subjects demonstrate how a photographer can apply a personal vision about the appearance of art to his photography.<\/p>\nCoreopsis Journal:<\/strong> What do you have to say to other photographers?<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> I\u2019d like to invite other photographers to do something similar\u2014 to make photographs that communicate a personal vision about art so as to begin a visual dialog. In fact this seems to be one of the natural pursuits of photography. I am fascinated by other photographers\u2019 pictures of seemingly art-like subjects, and when I show my work, people tell me about their photographs that look like art.<\/p>\nCoreopsis Journal:<\/strong> So what distinguishes your work?<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> First off, when I call this project \u201cThings That Look Like Art,\u201d in a sense, I\u2019m giving away the game. Anyone can do this and many have. The challenge is to make superb photographs that have the uncanny power of artworks in their own right.<\/p>\nCoreopsis Journal:<\/strong> Would you elaborate on what you mean by \u201cuncanny\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> I experience something as \u201cuncanny\u201d when it seems to have an existence beyond its natural presence and value. An uncanny subject is like a gift from a parallel universe. It is uncanny that ordinary subjects can be elevated by the process of observation and photography.<\/p>\nCoreopsis Journal:<\/strong> Your pictures are very painterly in a lot of ways.<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> Well, they\u2019re meant to look like art and in some cases like paintings. I want them not only to look like art but to have the insight, power and mystery of genuine artworks. I want them to lend themselves to deeper thought and to suggest ideas that are outside and beyond themselves.<\/p>\nCoreopsis Journal:<\/strong> <\/em>Coreopsis addresses questions of the spirit, and this particular issue is about myth making and mythopoetics. Often that\u2019s interpreted as encountering the fantastic in a transformative way. Would you like to talk about how your art addresses the theme of the issue?<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> My thinking about the idea of myth has to do with the power of a photograph to represent something that is unknowable but is nevertheless presented as something you can know. I selected these photographs because I feel them most aligned with that idea.<\/p>\nCoreopsis Journal:<\/strong> In past issues we\u2019ve asked questions about the relationship of art and craft. Would you speak about how craft figures in your photography?<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> As a photographer I\u2019m concerned with the fine print and presentation. I can spend days working on a single image, printing full-size tests, honing tonal values, making as fine a print as I can. It\u2019s paradoxical that the goal of the process is to make the craft invisible, to make it appear as if I had done nothing at all.<\/p>\nCoreopsis Journal:<\/strong> I want to ask you about your photographs. In this one a face has been carved into a tree stump. It reminds me of the Iroquois who carved masks into living trees. They\u2019d make them over a long period of time so you can see them in various states of completion. They\u2019d use them once and then give them back to the forest.<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> I have no idea who carved the stump or how it came to be. It\u2019s in a traffic pullout near my home in Berkeley. I looked at it again today and saw that it is in a state of advanced decay. I think of it as a primeval relic, as if it had been left by some ancient people who used to live here. Is it an artwork? I\u2019ve certainly photographed it as if it is.<\/p>\nSome other pictures in this portfolio: the one of the truck, photographed through a window, that seems infused with electricity\u2014I think of it as being about male desire for a coveted object. The one of the streak of light on the sidewalk is particularly magical. It\u2019s as if the light had fallen out of the sleeve of the mysterious passer-by and landed on the pavement where little sparkles have become stuck.<\/p>\n
Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> I think that more than many of the other arts, photography is very good at pointing out the beauty of the ordinary.<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> Well, we\u2019re all photographers these days. \u201cThings That Look Like Art\u201d is very much about pointing out the possibility of making something extraordinary out of ordinary experience. It indicates the potential of a certain way of thinking about the process of making photographs.<\/p>\nCoreopsis Journal:<\/strong> \u201cThe process of making photographs\u201d\u2014 we don\u2019t use darkrooms anymore. Tell me about your process.<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> It\u2019s digital. It\u2019s in color. The photographs are made with a small camera that I carry all the time, mostly used at the wide end of the zoom range. I\u2019m very particular about my subjects and can go weeks without photographing. I use Photoshop as I used to use a darkroom though with far greater flexibility and control. I make my prints using a large ink jet printer. I make a lot of trial prints before I\u2019m satisfied enough to print a small edition. Prints are 18\u2033x24\u2033, made with stable inks on glossy paper.<\/p>\nCoreopsis Journal:<\/strong> Do you have any final words that you would like to say to all of us out here in the world doing our art?<\/em><\/p>\nVL:<\/strong> No. I do not have final words. I\u2019m engaged in a process, and so there is no destination and no finality. It\u2019s about continuing to engage in the process.<\/p>\nCoreopsis Journal:<\/strong> Well that\u2019s something in and of itself.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nVictor Landweber\u2019s photography may be seen at the following gallery shows:<\/p>\n
A one-artist show of fifteen \u201cAmerican Cameras\u201d photographs, July 26, to August 30, 2014, opening reception July 26, at:\u00a0Joseph Bellows Gallery 7661 Girard Ave La Jolla, CA 92037<\/p>\n
A group show that includes nine \u201cAuduboniana\u201d photo-collages running from April to July, 2015, at: Norton Simon Museum of Art 411 W Colorado Blvd Pasadena, CA 91105<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/summer-2014-issue\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Nadereh-Baldessari-at-Legion-square-300x300.jpg\")
Since encountering the art of the late 1960s and early 70s at the old Pasadena Art Museum, I\u2019ve wanted to apply what I could learn from looking at and thinking about art to my personal photographic projects. In 1976 I completed graduate studies at UCLA where I worked with painters even though my medium was exclusively photography. I think of my studio photographs from the mid-70s to early 80s as a kind of later-day pictorialism. Like the turn-of-the-Twentieth Century Pictorialists, I modeled my photographs after paintings\u2014in their case sentimental Impressionism, in my case Post-painterly Abstraction, Minimalist and Pop art.
In the late 1970s and early 80s I carried a small camera and photographed in color in Los Angeles. Although I didn\u2019t speak of it this way at the time, I sought out subjects that I could photograph as if works of art. I now think of these color photographs as prologue to my current project, \u201cThings That Look Like Art.\u201d
After a hiatus, my enthusiasm for photography was restored by a combination of digital technology and wanting to photograph certain artworks. First was a digital collage project for which I placed Audubon\u2019s pre-photographic birds into my photographs of post-industrial architecture; then an art-historical treatise about the network of connections among artists as defined through my photographs of artworks in which one artist refers to another.
My current work furthers and clarifies this investigation: \u201cThings That Look Like Art\u201d is a collection of observations of found artifacts that present themselves with the uncanny quality of authentic artworks. I want to suggest a certain purity of vision about art when an art-like experience is had although no acknowledged art is present. While not necessarily referring to specific artists or artworks, they bring to bear my experience from past projects of looking at, thinking about, and photographing works of art.
\u2014V.L., 2013 www.victorlandweber.com<\/p>\n
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VL:<\/strong> My name is Victor Landweber. I\u2019m a photographic artist.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> How would you describe your art to people who haven\u2019t seen it before?<\/em><\/p>\n VL:<\/strong> The pictures in this publication are from a project called \u201cThings That Look Like Art.\u201d I photograph found subjects that present themselves with the uncanny quality of authentic artworks. I intend these pictures to represent a certain purity of vision about having an art-like encounter when no acknowledged art is present.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> What do you feel are the most important influences in your art?<\/em><\/p>\n VL:<\/strong> First is the art I\u2019ve seen in museums, publications and galleries. Then certain photographers whose pictures seem related to my idea about things that look like art: Edward Weston\u2019s photographs of vegetables; Walker Evans\u2019 photographs of tools; Frederick Sommer\u2019s pictures of objects discovered on his walks; Aaron Siskind\u2019s abstractions; Irving Penn\u2019s photographs of street debris. Although these photographers didn\u2019t necessarily speak about their pictures as I do, their photographs of mundane subjects demonstrate how a photographer can apply a personal vision about the appearance of art to his photography.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> What do you have to say to other photographers?<\/em><\/p>\n VL:<\/strong> I\u2019d like to invite other photographers to do something similar\u2014 to make photographs that communicate a personal vision about art so as to begin a visual dialog. In fact this seems to be one of the natural pursuits of photography. I am fascinated by other photographers\u2019 pictures of seemingly art-like subjects, and when I show my work, people tell me about their photographs that look like art.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> So what distinguishes your work?<\/em><\/p>\n VL:<\/strong> First off, when I call this project \u201cThings That Look Like Art,\u201d in a sense, I\u2019m giving away the game. Anyone can do this and many have. The challenge is to make superb photographs that have the uncanny power of artworks in their own right.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> Would you elaborate on what you mean by \u201cuncanny\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n VL:<\/strong> I experience something as \u201cuncanny\u201d when it seems to have an existence beyond its natural presence and value. An uncanny subject is like a gift from a parallel universe. It is uncanny that ordinary subjects can be elevated by the process of observation and photography.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> Your pictures are very painterly in a lot of ways.<\/em><\/p>\n VL:<\/strong> Well, they\u2019re meant to look like art and in some cases like paintings. I want them not only to look like art but to have the insight, power and mystery of genuine artworks. I want them to lend themselves to deeper thought and to suggest ideas that are outside and beyond themselves.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> <\/em>Coreopsis addresses questions of the spirit, and this particular issue is about myth making and mythopoetics. Often that\u2019s interpreted as encountering the fantastic in a transformative way. Would you like to talk about how your art addresses the theme of the issue?<\/em><\/p>\n VL:<\/strong> My thinking about the idea of myth has to do with the power of a photograph to represent something that is unknowable but is nevertheless presented as something you can know. I selected these photographs because I feel them most aligned with that idea.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> In past issues we\u2019ve asked questions about the relationship of art and craft. Would you speak about how craft figures in your photography?<\/em><\/p>\n VL:<\/strong> As a photographer I\u2019m concerned with the fine print and presentation. I can spend days working on a single image, printing full-size tests, honing tonal values, making as fine a print as I can. It\u2019s paradoxical that the goal of the process is to make the craft invisible, to make it appear as if I had done nothing at all.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> I want to ask you about your photographs. In this one a face has been carved into a tree stump. It reminds me of the Iroquois who carved masks into living trees. They\u2019d make them over a long period of time so you can see them in various states of completion. They\u2019d use them once and then give them back to the forest.<\/em><\/p>\n VL:<\/strong> I have no idea who carved the stump or how it came to be. It\u2019s in a traffic pullout near my home in Berkeley. I looked at it again today and saw that it is in a state of advanced decay. I think of it as a primeval relic, as if it had been left by some ancient people who used to live here. Is it an artwork? I\u2019ve certainly photographed it as if it is.<\/p>\n Some other pictures in this portfolio: the one of the truck, photographed through a window, that seems infused with electricity\u2014I think of it as being about male desire for a coveted object. The one of the streak of light on the sidewalk is particularly magical. It\u2019s as if the light had fallen out of the sleeve of the mysterious passer-by and landed on the pavement where little sparkles have become stuck.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> I think that more than many of the other arts, photography is very good at pointing out the beauty of the ordinary.<\/em><\/p>\n VL:<\/strong> Well, we\u2019re all photographers these days. \u201cThings That Look Like Art\u201d is very much about pointing out the possibility of making something extraordinary out of ordinary experience. It indicates the potential of a certain way of thinking about the process of making photographs.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> \u201cThe process of making photographs\u201d\u2014 we don\u2019t use darkrooms anymore. Tell me about your process.<\/em><\/p>\n VL:<\/strong> It\u2019s digital. It\u2019s in color. The photographs are made with a small camera that I carry all the time, mostly used at the wide end of the zoom range. I\u2019m very particular about my subjects and can go weeks without photographing. I use Photoshop as I used to use a darkroom though with far greater flexibility and control. I make my prints using a large ink jet printer. I make a lot of trial prints before I\u2019m satisfied enough to print a small edition. Prints are 18\u2033x24\u2033, made with stable inks on glossy paper.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> Do you have any final words that you would like to say to all of us out here in the world doing our art?<\/em><\/p>\n VL:<\/strong> No. I do not have final words. I\u2019m engaged in a process, and so there is no destination and no finality. It\u2019s about continuing to engage in the process.<\/p>\n Coreopsis Journal:<\/strong> Well that\u2019s something in and of itself.<\/em><\/p>\n Victor Landweber\u2019s photography may be seen at the following gallery shows:<\/p>\n A one-artist show of fifteen \u201cAmerican Cameras\u201d photographs, July 26, to August 30, 2014, opening reception July 26, at:\u00a0Joseph Bellows Gallery 7661 Girard Ave La Jolla, CA 92037<\/p>\n A group show that includes nine \u201cAuduboniana\u201d photo-collages running from April to July, 2015, at: Norton Simon Museum of Art 411 W Colorado Blvd Pasadena, CA 91105<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ _i=”1″ _address=”3.0.1″][et_pb_social_media_follow _builder_version=”3.29.3″ _i=”0″ _address=”3.0.1.0″][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”facebook” url=”https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/coreopsisjournal\/” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ background_color=”#3b5998″ follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on” _i=”0″ _address=”3.0.1.0.0″]facebook[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”twitter” url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/MythAndTheatre” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ background_color=”#00aced” follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on” _i=”1″ _address=”3.0.1.0.1″]twitter[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][\/et_pb_social_media_follow][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_module=”15″ saved_tabs=”all” _i=”0″ _address=”2.0.1.0″]<\/p>\n
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\nSince encountering the art of the late 1960s and early 70s at the old Pasadena Art Museum, I\u2019ve wanted to apply what I could learn from looking at and thinking about art to my personal photographic projects. In 1976 I completed graduate studies at UCLA where I worked with painters even though my medium was exclusively photography. I think of my studio photographs from the mid-70s to early 80s as a kind of later-day pictorialism. Like the turn-of-the-Twentieth Century Pictorialists, I modeled my photographs after paintings\u2014in their case sentimental Impressionism, in my case Post-painterly Abstraction, Minimalist and Pop art.
In the late 1970s and early 80s I carried a small camera and photographed in color in Los Angeles. Although I didn\u2019t speak of it this way at the time, I sought out subjects that I could photograph as if works of art. I now think of these color photographs as prologue to my current project, \u201cThings That Look Like Art.\u201d
After a hiatus, my enthusiasm for photography was restored by a combination of digital technology and wanting to photograph certain artworks. First was a digital collage project for which I placed Audubon\u2019s pre-photographic birds into my photographs of post-industrial architecture; then an art-historical treatise about the network of connections among artists as defined through my photographs of artworks in which one artist refers to another.
My current work furthers and clarifies this investigation: \u201cThings That Look Like Art\u201d is a collection of observations of found artifacts that present themselves with the uncanny quality of authentic artworks. I want to suggest a certain purity of vision about art when an art-like experience is had although no acknowledged art is present. While not necessarily referring to specific artists or artworks, they bring to bear my experience from past projects of looking at, thinking about, and photographing works of art.
\u2014V.L., 2013 www.victorlandweber.com<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nNavigation<\/h3>\n
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