Hank Willis Thomas

What artwork/proposals did you present?
The work that i presented to Hank Willis Thomas was a combination of new and old work. By putting these two works together, there is a much more cohesive and stronger body of work, my series on the extreme landscape. Photographs of sites of extreme sports, void of humans, but the terrestrial descriptions of the manipulated land that envelopes the environment it inhabits.


What topics did you discuss? What was the nature of this discussion?
Some of the things that we discussed were the possibility of including non extreme sports like golf, baseball, basketball, etc. and see if i can pull a man made space and created space into cohesion. Portraits? Maybe, but focus on landscapes primarily. We talked a lot about the space as a social product in short.


What were the critical reactions/ suggestions to your ideas/artwork?
He felt that a good amount of the images were working and conveying what I wanted to say. He felt that there should be other landscapes represented as in other type of extreme sports. But, he felt that the basis of the project and the concept is definitely one that should be pursued and hasn't been represented much in the art/photography world other than magazine. But they tend to focus on the athlete rather than the landscape that they're in. He wants me to look into motocross and explore the idea of panoramic cameras. He also commented on the idea of portraits, that being that he didn't feel that they were necessary because they would lack complexity, if i could find a way to bring more depth to a portrait of people in their gear then do it, but don't rely on it when the landscapes are working the best.


What was a suggested plan of action?
Keep traveling and photographing the environments. pursue different sports, and possibly don't limit the photography to the extreme landscape, possibly looking into the landscape of sports in this country and their manipulation of land and space. Look into the idea of space being socially produced and how it's a social product.


What insights / new questions / ideas did you take from the meeting?
some new questions i have from this meeting were if i wanted to break into other sports and their manipulation of the landscape or just keep it under extreme sport landscapes? Look into the idea of landscapes being manipulated for our own amusements. Military Training Facilities a possibility? How do you produce backstory to a landscape?


How did this meeting affect how you will proceed with your project / proposal?
It will definitely give me new avenues to pursue towards or ponder upon. Looking into Loretta Lynn's Ranch in Tennessee about motocross and the landscape. I may look into skate parks are look at that as a manipulation of space and analyze the architectural and design elements of man made rather than man made in nature. PANORAMIC ARE A MUST!!!! Read "The Production of Space".