Portrait

I take more notes at contemporary art exhibits than at fine art exhibits, so I decided that since my sketchbook is full of notes, I'd just relay the stream of consciousness as it appears on the page.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
Feature Photography
Alec Soth
Jocelyn Lee

-Untitled (man praying)
for some reason the man reminded me of [Husband]. He looks like him in the eyes. He looks like he's at a rest home. It made me wonder what will come of us. It seems retrospective, contemplative. Like I'm looking forward at him and he backward at me. Who will die first? What will the other one do? Where are we to go? The photo looks like the man is reflecting on his life, the one that we have entirely in front of us.

Martin Schoeller

-Angelina Jolie
the artists takes intense macro shots of these movie stars. The description is that he reveals their intense beauty, but when I look at them, I am struck by how ordinary they seem. We're so used to glorifying these figures, but it seems that once portrayed (just their face at an extremely close proximity) in a straightforward manner, they become so pedestrian. Maybe that's the point. Maybe it's along the lines of the dove beauty campaign; that everyone truly is beautiful, fame and trappings aside.
- influenced by Annie Leibovitz
- " . . . leveling them in an inherently democratic fashion" juxtaposing Piraha tribes people and presidential candidates
Barak Obama
- photo taken for the 2004 cover of Gentleman's Quarterly (GQ) at Democratic Convention. Obama said then, "The reason you do this stuff is not to . . . get your face in a magazine . . . You do this stuff because you care about the epic struggle to make America what it can be" reminds me of the New Deal show.

Katy Grannan "look at her . . . look at that . . . wow . . . amazing . . ." the lady in front of me won't stop saying things like that. loudly.

Billy Joel
- looks like a bouncer. The talkative lady in front of me keeps talking about his browline, his eyes, photoshop, etc. She asks so many questions and keeps gasping. Here's a taste of what she says,

"Oh my gosh. (Gasp!) Audry Wilber (reads the description of the work). Wow. Oh my gosh. (Sigh). "Cover of the magazine . . ." huh. The cover of the New York Times. (Gasp). Ah man. This is unbelievable. Unbelieveable. Perisian. The wallaper in my bedroom is similiar to that. . . by my wallpaper has less open space. My mother chose it. It was beautiful . . . (Gasp!) Look at her expression. It's natural . . . no, that's amazing. Look at the tear! Look at the pillows! No cases. It's dirty. Man (pause) you know what happens when people lose their health insurace? They lose their teeth. (She mumbles something about her son to the man with her who isn't her husband) I don't know. I don't know. But that's talent! Don't you think that's talent David? Oh my gosh. Adult prison. (Gasp!) Oh that's pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. . . (pause) You know what we could do David? We could go get our coffee and come back to look at the rest . . .

she makes me tired.

Ryan McGinley

* Morrissey (look up on itunes later)

Steve Pyke

* Casa da Musica in Porto Portugal by Rem Koolhaus (look up later, write [Sistaray])
"The way we live our lives is etched into the landscape of our faces. We create the face with which we live"
* John Ashbery --> look up poetry
Chinua Achebe "Things Fall Apart"
Henry Kissinger **one of my favorite portraits of the day. glasses in background are so cool.