I was photographing at 57th Street
between 5th and 6th Avenue a policeman
came up to me and said you're a
photographer I'm stay like an
eight-by-ten and he said I'm a
photographer too should I use a four by
five so we started talking and we were
talking for a while and yes my name they
told me said I have one of your books
and I show it to my family and they
think your pictures are boring and I
tell them they don't understand and so
that sums up the reaction to to my work
for years as some people think it's
boring and other people say oh you don't
understand
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the summer before my ninth birthday I
got a 35-millimeter camera very early on
I felt like I was a photographer I mean
it was my past was was very clear to me
reduce your picture yes love you 12 or
13 this helps a good fiction I know I
know it was a very good picture I look
at the picture a lot because it is a
very good picture the point of the
picture is in a way is the
self-awareness as a photographer
what I did instead of going to college
was go to the factory and Andy would he
would often give me advice like parental
advice about oh you shouldn't you
shouldn't say that kind of thing if I if
I made some crack in a social situation
that he thought was inappropriate
she would tell me the factory was a real
turning point for me because I started
thinking aesthetically in a way I hadn't
before
what happens if you go through life pain
heightened attention as you go through
your day I felt more awake when I didn't
turn my mind off when I was in a taxi or
having dinner but was actually paying
attention to what I was doing at all
kinds of moments during the day I was
interested in snapshots I was interested
in their immediacy that some while
snapshots could have their own
conventions often one comes across
snapshots that feel like kind of raw
experience without any pretense of art
American surface citizen huh was a
pretty the reaction was fairly negative
and got a terrible review in the Village
Voice a scathing room
I mean I've tried meditating and I find
that if I cut myself off follow my
thoughts all fine and then the phone
rings and it's my mother it's all lost
so what happens if I try to maintain
that kind of awareness in the midst of
life there's so much to be experienced
just in average moments
today people look at the pictures I read
some people writing about they like it
because they're nostalgic well what my
motel room looked like in 1974 looks
nostalgic today but in 1974 it didn't
look nostalgic at all and people some
people would kind of wonder
this just looks like what things look
like then I'd say yes that's the idea
there are things that are on my mind now
that were not on my mind 30 years ago
and things that I were I was paying
attention to them that I've resolved for
myself now understand that this is just
the way things work and that you have
different things on your mind and they
can't stay on your mind the whole time
or else you're not moving forward I find
I have an affection for what I did in
the past even though those are my
concerns now
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