James Welling wants his photos to be a puzzle or something to decode -- which is what viewers said they found themselves trying to do at "Open Space."
Welling tries to make photos that are more "complicated" or "dense," he told about 75 faculty, students and community members that came to the opening day of "Open Space," a new exhibit of Welling's photography and paintings at the Fine Arts Center Musuem of Contemporary Art. Most photographs are "uninformative," with the role of the person holding the camera being quite small, he said.
Welling created most of the work shown in his homestate of Connecticut in the 1970's.
The New England native is visiting from California, where he is a photography professor at UCLA. He himself didn't major in photography, he said. He got into it at the suggestion of a friend who told Welling when he was 25 that he should get a camera and take photos like Ansel Adams.
Welling tries to make photos that are more "complicated" or "dense," he told about 75 faculty, students and community members that came to the opening day of "Open Space," a new exhibit of Welling's photography and paintings at the Fine Arts Center Musuem of Contemporary Art. Most photographs are "uninformative," with the role of the person holding the camera being quite small, he said.
Welling created most of the work shown in his homestate of Connecticut in the 1970's.
The New England native is visiting from California, where he is a photography professor at UCLA. He himself didn't major in photography, he said. He got into it at the suggestion of a friend who told Welling when he was 25 that he should get a camera and take photos like Ansel Adams.
Welling thought the suggestion was absurd at first but ending up buying a camera -- he said at one point that he always buys used equipment -- and "apprenticed himself to the camera" while also researching the history of photography. At first, his photographs looked liked everybody else's photos, Welling said, but there was a moment when he "remade the medium for himself."
Welling is often said to be a member of the "Pictures Generation," whose most famous member is probably Cindy Sherman, who photographs herself in costumes and disguises. Welling said members of the "Picture Generation" were looking for ways out of an "imaginary confinement"; they wanted to create photography that was different than what Welling referred to as 1960's photography. "It's kind of like Sonic Youth says: 'Kill your idols,'" Welling said.
Welling's work is hard to characterize, according to speaker Lorne Falk, a visiting professor at Hampshire College. Falk said he finds some of Welling's work to be romantic, with elements of the "tragic.
Speaking with students before the talk, Eva Fierst, education curator for the museum, described the "Open Space" exhibit as reflecting Welling's strong connection to Connecticut, nature and abstraction.
Asked what he thinks students think of photography today, Welling said there are two types of seeing: 1) "Normal seeing" and 2) "More aware seeing." Welling doesn't think it makes much of a difference whether the medium is digital or film photography.
Welling is influenced by poetry, especially that of Wallace Stevens, which Welling described as being "seasonal," "about place" and "extremely vivid. Other influences he mentioned include Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton and Emily Dickinson.
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