“That subversive Laurel Ptak!”, or, “How did I get so old overnight…?”

(Note: This is not serious, kinda. So please, don’t anybody get all wound up about this. I’ve never met Laurel Ptak, even though she upsets me. I’m sure she’s a fine person, and pays her taxes, and is a model citizen. Yet, sometimes, a man can only take so much before he implodes. Try to stay with me on this one. -MT)

I have several other alternative headlines for this post:

1. “How do these people that she features pay their rent?”

2. “I had no idea there were so many Trust Funds in the world”.

3. “How come all these other blogs feature normal photography, and this Ptak person is turning over the apple kart?”

4. “Laurel Ptak just can’t be an American”.

5. “How come these young kids are so cool, and I don’t feel so cool; actually I feel kinda like an old guy sitting on a park bench in Brooklyn, babbling on about the old days, and Walker Evans, and Robert Frank, and Duane Michals?”.

6. “All these artists that Laurel Ptak features; I wonder if they get sick of eating Ramen Noodles?”

7. “Who buys this stuff? This is not Photography!”

8. “I like pictures with four straight, square borders. How come the stuff she features is all cut up? This gets me all stirred up”.

9. “Is this what I’ve got to shoot to be cool…?”

10. “I wonder what she looks like — I’ll bet she wears little 1950’s dresses, with different colored socks, and has big glasses, kinda like that Lisa Loeb “Stay” woman. I’ll bet she lives in a tiny apartment in Williamsburg, with a cat, and she reads Russian novels. And you just know that she went to Yale or Sarah Lawrence, or one of those schools where they overthink everything, and write those horrid Artist Statements, crammed full of multi-syllabic words that essentially mean nothing.”

—-

Ever since I’ve started following these Photo Blogs, there’s always been one that has stood out, and that’s been “I Heart Photograph”. But this is where I show my age — I’m being a man and admitting my cluelessness, but I simply don’t “get” a lot of this work, (even though I’m fascinated by much of it).

I was just raised in a way too “practical” household. Everything you did, you did it for a reason. And then once I became a commercial photographer, the end goal was to shoot a creative image, but also, equally important, was to get it approved and published. So I’m sitting here, looking at I Heart Photograph, and I just wonder, “Hmm, what job was this for?”, even though I guess most if not all is not for a job, but for a gallery wall, and then thus, to be sold, (hopefully).

You know that old saying about “everything that’s truly new will not be accepted in the beginning, because we have no previous context for it”, (or something like that). Well, that’s how I feel when I’m looking at her blog. In terms of the work, it’s like I’m wanting to speak English, but she’s always speaking Russian, and I can’t quite get my head around it. But many times, I see that work, and I smile, or I go, “Fuck, that is an amazing image. How did they ever concept that?”

So, when I look at her blog, it’s like going to the gym — you’ve gotta work muscles that you don’t ordinarily work, when you’re just walking down the street, looking at commercial imagery.

I advise everyone to go to her blog. But go there late at night, or really early in the morning, when your head is opened up, and somebody’s not yelling at you to do something. Just go there and let it rain on you. Try not to have any judgements. (Trust me, YOU WILL, but just let them be, and keep looking.)

I give her an A+ for pushing the envelope, and having remarkable posts on a consistent basis. I think she’s doing a great service in expanding people’s minds. It’s healthy food for the BRAIN. I don’t like all the work, but some of it just absolutely knocks me down.

And while you’re there, don’t miss this person’s work too.