Interview with Bob Nickas
vice.comI dont care much for VICE magazine, but this interview is really awesome. I recently read “Theft Is Vision” Which is a collection of writings and some Autobiographical work about his relationship with art and within the art world. He is one of the most Honest and interesting writers of art I have ever read. Check this out.
Wolfgang Tillmans' interview by Bob Nickas.
interviewmagazine.comNICKAS: What attracts you to a person? What happens when, walking in the street, you think, I have to photograph this person.
TILLMANS: I heard this wonderful quote the other day, “Only the brave show what they love.” It’s soembarrassing to approach somebody and say you want to look at them. But without that risktaking, nothing can happen, so I have to make myself vulnerable. What I think is the unifying aspect in people that I like is that they have a sense of their own vulnerability, and I respond to that.
NICKAS: There’s a recent documentary about Candy Darling, and at one point she says something remarkable: “You must always be yourself, no matter what the price. It is the highest form of morality.” This idea of being brave about showing oneself in the world is true for both the photographer and the person being photographed.
TILLMANS: Yes. How people are depicted and how life around me is depicted, and this whole idea of how value is attributed, what is beautiful and what is acceptable … these are all questions of style, and style means content.
NICKAS: You’ve spoken about how important it is for you that what’s considered to be beautiful is opened up somehow. Because magazines and movies have a common idea of what it is—a very dominant image that you want to counter in your own way.
TILLMANS: It’s really about representation, and who is represented, and these questions don’t stay the same. They constantly change. Because whatever pictures are put into the world, the balance needs to be readdressed, it needs to be observed. That’s why I am also really questioning what a lot of photography has done since I began. I am not saying because of me, but I mean, photographing some friends partying and publishing the pictures meant something else in ’92 than it does in 2011. And I find the younger generation is not questioning this at all today. Back then, there were almost no pictures available of normal people—how normal people dress and how normal people party …
Wolfgang Tillmans By Bob Nickas
interviewmagazine.comWolfgang Tillmans the German photographer doesn’t need to take pictures of young revelers up to no good to create provocative work. In fact, sometimes he doesn’t even need a subject—or a camera.
Wolfgang Tillmans' interview by Bob Nickas.
interviewmagazine.comNICKAS: What attracts you to a person? What happens when, walking in the street, you think, I have to photograph this person.
TILLMANS: I heard this wonderful quote the other day, “Only the brave show what they love.” It’s soembarrassing to approach somebody and say you want to look at them. But without that risktaking, nothing can happen, so I have to make myself vulnerable. What I think is the unifying aspect in people that I like is that they have a sense of their own vulnerability, and I respond to that.
NICKAS: There’s a recent documentary about Candy Darling, and at one point she says something remarkable: “You must always be yourself, no matter what the price. It is the highest form of morality.” This idea of being brave about showing oneself in the world is true for both the photographer and the person being photographed.
TILLMANS: Yes. How people are depicted and how life around me is depicted, and this whole idea of how value is attributed, what is beautiful and what is acceptable … these are all questions of style, and style means content.
NICKAS: You’ve spoken about how important it is for you that what’s considered to be beautiful is opened up somehow. Because magazines and movies have a common idea of what it is—a very dominant image that you want to counter in your own way.
TILLMANS: It’s really about representation, and who is represented, and these questions don’t stay the same. They constantly change. Because whatever pictures are put into the world, the balance needs to be readdressed, it needs to be observed. That’s why I am also really questioning what a lot of photography has done since I began. I am not saying because of me, but I mean, photographing some friends partying and publishing the pictures meant something else in ’92 than it does in 2011. And I find the younger generation is not questioning this at all today. Back then, there were almost no pictures available of normal people—how normal people dress and how normal people party …
