Gestures

This week I have been trying something a little different in an attempt to let any sort of exploration lead to new ideas or different approaches. I created the images first and then sought after artists who worked similarly after the fact. I remembered the work of Aaron Siskind in particular.

Siskind’s Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation, 1954-1961 recontextualized images of divers jumping into water. Taken out of context, the divers seem more form and emotion than action of purpose. He states, “ The results didn’t particularly interest me until I looked at one that struck me. This guy was a diver, but he wasn’t a diver. He was levitating as if in a dream state, and then I knew what I was after.”

Whilst photographing my students in their basketball game, I began to notice their expressions and body language often lacked the control that adolescents so often hold essential. In putting their energy into the game, they let go of themselves in other ways. While I am worried the result borders Cindy Sherman’s Film Stills in a way that might start to create a whole fictional narrative, I find the emotion in their bodies interesting and something worth exploring further.

"Starting in the early 1950s I asked every famous or important person I photographed to jump for me. I was motivated by a genuine curiosity. After all, life has taught us to control and disguise our facial expressions, but it has not taught us to control our jumps. I wanted to see famous people reveal in a jump their ambition or their lack of it, their self-importance or their insecurity, and many other traits." –P.H.