John Petrenko, essay on My Thoughts of JH Engstrom

How is his work, CDG/JHE about as he says, "...loneliness, mine and the others."?

His work CDG/JHE, which means Charles DeGaulle / JH Engstrom I don't really think communicates the idea of loneliness of himself, but i guess it could mean of others though. He talks about how he shoots from a surveillance viewpoint, of Charles DeGaulle airport, and shoots how chairs are empty and how two people are standing around in the lobbies. But, I don't get how it means loneliness for himself, for others, I can get an understanding, but for himself since he's shooting it, I don't see that. He talks about how the airport has changed so much since, 9-11, that an airport used to represent freedom and dreams and no boundaries. But now, an airport is where fear takes over and a sense of paranoia. I can understand that people will feel lonely as they travel, hell, i'm going to be traveling alone to Chicago on Friday and I am lonely without my girlfriend. From that aspect I get it, but I don't see how he tries to put his loneliness into the photography, it's possible that i would need to view the monologue of this to get a greater understanding, but from the description in the article, i don't follow. I'm not saying I don't like his work or can't relate to it, I actually can pretty well, and that's why I chose this article, because much of his other work is about loneliness and displacement, something that I wish to tackle in my own work.

He says that, "Sexual desires come across as an expression of fundamental human loneliness." How is that true?

Well, in short, I disagree. Sexual desires are just a normal part of human relationships and human bachelorism (I think i just made up a word). I disagree because sexual desires are just feelings that one gets when they are with a person that they love, they desire the love of their "partner" and wish for intimacy, it isn't about being lonely. It could be though, I mean, he doesn't specify the person's emotions at the time. People get sexual desires all the time, it doesn't mean they're lonely, it means that they're horny. They could be horny due to the fact that they are lonely, but hell, a person could just be horny because they thought of something that their "partner" said, or does, or they had a memory flashback to a very sensual moment in their lives that their brain creates this sense of desire. Loneliness has nothing to do with sexual desire, to an extent. Sexual desires are spurred by something, they become triggered by an emotion or thought, not just because a person is lonely. To sum this all up, I'd have to say that his quote is only about one quarter true. Yes a person can have sexual desires because they are lonely, BUT, one can also have sexual desires if in their relationship, their "partner" isn't "putting out" thus creating sexual desires and fantasies in their mind, not because they're lonely.