A Conversation with Vanessa Winship
September 14, 2009 8:04 AM   Subscribe

A Conversation with photographer Vanessa Winship.

Her portraits of Anatolian school girls, mentioned in the article, was the first time I encountered her work.
posted by chunking express (13 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Boring photos, to my eyes. And a waffley interview that would shame Edgar Martins..

And Turkey, not Estonia.
posted by the cuban at 9:18 AM on September 14, 2009


The photos are barely more than people standing around looking at the camera. "Don't smile, just be yourself." That's fine, it's a style, and a consistent, well executed one. But that doesn't mean the set is great, it just means it is professional. Shrug.

What I find much more difficult to accept is the title of the series: Sweet Nothings. Is she serious? Sweet Nothings? It's just ... so dismissive, and insulting. Are they sweet because they are girls? Are they nothings because they're farm kids? That's the only logic I find in the name, and it really sucks.

I still have a bad taste from the title of this an hour later. Bleah.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:25 AM on September 14, 2009


Estonia??

And I agree with seanmpuckett about "Sweet Nothings." Feh.
posted by languagehat at 9:29 AM on September 14, 2009


People standing around looking at the camera can be interesting. Unlike the ones in this post.
posted by theroadahead at 9:40 AM on September 14, 2009


What I find remarkable in the images in the Sweet Nothings series is the consistency. The poses, the lighting, and the dress are iterations through a quite small range of parameters, accentuating the small differences between the portraits. Somehow to me it is the view of a stranger, someone who does not understand the local nuances of body language or dress (this could obviously be projection on my part).
posted by idiopath at 9:40 AM on September 14, 2009


Damn it: I don't know why I had Estonia in my mind. Maybe the mods can fix that.
posted by chunking express at 10:24 AM on September 14, 2009


Go Mods!

Also, I think there is more to the photos than people standing around looking at a camera. It's a bit dismissive, no? I really liked the last photo in that set, where the girl is covering her smile. Anyway, if her portraits aren't your thing, her photos of the Balkans are probably worth a look. Or maybe not.
posted by chunking express at 11:09 AM on September 14, 2009 [1 favorite]


Love the pictures, there is a weirdness to them...
posted by afu at 11:20 AM on September 14, 2009


It's a bit dismissive, no?

Indeed.

I like these very much - there's a simplicity to them that makes every detail important.
posted by god hates math at 12:05 PM on September 14, 2009


The people in the pictures look so bored, they must be looking at these pictures.
posted by autodidact at 12:43 PM on September 14, 2009 [1 favorite]


Damn, I want an FPP based around theroadahead's pictures of people standing around doing nothing. That first one is gonna give me nightmares.
posted by afx237vi at 3:08 PM on September 14, 2009


afx237vi: "I want an FPP based around theroadahead's pictures of people standing around doing nothing."

An Arbus FPP, sadly with some apparent broken links, but the first (broken) link, is about that first photo, I believe.
posted by idiopath at 3:47 PM on September 14, 2009


I had to scroll back a few times to make sure that she hadn't repeated a few of the photos. Not a good sign.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:36 PM on September 14, 2009


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