only great minds can afford a simple style
April 25, 2012
Pleasure is often spoiled by describing it.
Beauty is the promise of happiness.
A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.
The pleasures of love are always in proportion to our fears.
Power, after love, is the first source of happiness.
Photographs by Roberto Badin
Quotes by Stendhal
Damn Good Advice
April 20, 2012
Creation is one thing. Communication is another. The two are often conflated, mistaken as one in the same, when discussing art. It seems as though as the audience, we have forgotten our role. We are not the reason for the art, though we would like to think it so.
Creation is a personal endeavor, coming from an array of needs, be it spiritual or financial, aesthetic or emotional, physical or intellectual, or any other reason. The artist has a purpose, and that purpose is their own. Ideally, I imagine they would like this purpose to translate into our experience, but that can never really be so. At best, there is an affinity between purposes—for each member of the audience has their own needs, and seeks out greater understanding through communion with the art.
Thus it is really communion, and not communication, that happens when the audience observes the art. There is a shared space, something that only exists between the art work and the observer. And it is this space that the audience then tries to communicate, to understand what they experienced when looking at someone else’s Idea….
All Power to the People
March 20, 2012
The Art of Revolution: Emory Douglas
Huey P Newton holds a Bob Dylan album at home after he was released from jail. Photograph © Stephen Shames
Photographer Stephen Shames on The Black Panthers
Seize the Time: My Interview with Bobby Seale
