Sur l'herbe

The title for this series (Sur l'herbe) was meant as a rather obvious and not overly serious reference to Manet's "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe". Indeed, the early pictures in that group involved figures in a landscape, unclothed opposite clothed, thus might be viewed in part as a reworking of themes and iconography that have famously shown up in painting (Giorgione, Manet). More than in such art-historical references, however, I was interested in setting up a context in which certain dualities and oppositions might be played out: contrived mise-en-scène and autobiographical document, planned set-up and improvisation, chance and control, voyeurism and exhibitionism. Such concerns are quite specific to photographically based work. Many pieces tend to involve a tension between the private realm and the public, between intimate and open space — the main figures always being my (then-)wife and myself, never hired models. A dose of humor and irony, and also a variety of other references increasingly crept into this work. “Fantasy 1” – a sylvan fantasy of sorts – or “Subsylvania” could be viewed as mock mythology but also, perhaps, as expressions of personal desires. The preposterous setting of “Last Hurrah Home” ironically conjures some sort of contemporary catastrophic aftermath together with 19th century photographic portraits of stern American pioneers in homesteads of the western frontier. "Diaroma" is both an homage to and a send-up "inversion" of H. Sugimoto's celebrated series by that title. Generally, it is the setting (the landscape) that suggested or inspired the scene, the placing and role of the figures, not the reverse.