I had just come off the publication of two gorgeously produced books and then I created from THE ATTIC, lost photos. I was presenting what I believed to be a focused and clearly selected group of depictions that was different and in some ways startling.
Recently, I considered other personal works. The film THE FABELMANS is based on the memories Steven Spielberg has of his parents. It is his intimate story. It is not singularly interesting because it is the insightful work of a famous artist who is allowing us to peek into his past. It is engaging because it speaks to great themes and is excellently crafted. THE SILENT TWINS is a brilliant film based on a true story and PRODIGAL SONS is the amazing story of the grandson of Orson Welles. Even the small particular real life sagas of unknowns can be equally fascinating such as PHYLLIS AND HAROLD and 51 BIRCH STREET. While I was happy that readers would relate to my book and be inspired to dust off their own family albums, I believed my book was broader than just a presentation of my own relatives' portraits. I thought it would have interest on another specific level. And it was that other track that developed problems.
I loved my third book. Even though my old pictures lacked crisp clarity, I could get around that within a newly defined "blurry aesthetic." I did not want them anyway to be evaluated in terms of how clear the images are, but rather to be viewed as hazy photos in the way time itself fades away and becomes dim. But in my thoughts, I kept returning to what I thought was the most amazing part of the book but which also presented as a huge roadblock in my ability to promote the book. I was thwarted within all moves because of the DMCA.
My book is a careful selection of my personal pictures and many of the images have a curious uncanny resemblance to famous photos of well known photographers and the art of a famous painter. I believed that was what made my book unique. It is not simply a scrapbook or family album. The photos have an eery visual parallel to prominent pictures and for that I felt my book deserved to be noticed and is what I believe makes it visually interesting.
The sad part is I was unable to display the comparisons due to copyright laws. I could not “piggyback” off the work of others to specifically promote my book in any way so to clarify my purpose here in this blog entry: this piece is not an ad created to market my book or mounted for any agenda to further monetary gain. I publish this under an umbrella of scholarship and criticism for the purpose of presenting a series of strange flukes that I think will interest observers of the bizarre. I feel these coincidences should be noted and seen. The difficult part is to present the similarities without copyright infringement. Any author can feel his writing is similar to the style of a more notable author. Critics compare authors all the time. In art, transformative work is permitted under "fair use." I am allowed to believe the conclusion that the snapshots I own are similar to the photos of famous photographers. I just cannot display the images to support my opinion. And that is a huge caveat that definitely can impact any interest level in the actual book.
This is a piece created so the viewer can ponder the coincidences within an educational point of view. In some cases, the pictures were startlingly taken years before the famous photos. In order that there be no copyright infringement here, I left out the precise works of the notable artists in a visual comparison and just named the photographers whose works in a strange way appear visually similar to the images in my book. The readers at this blog can do their own research and investigations to find the resemblances.
There is a photo below that shows a "joker" who saw remains in 1939 on the side of the road and created an almost offensive and shocking photo around the object because that was who she was. I included my authentic pictures because I wanted to go with truth...
And that is what makes the curated collection of photos in this blog entry and in my book unique and I hope remarkable. Sometimes, a certain ride needs just the right specific closure. So here you have it... a companion piece to from THE ATTIC which I hope shines a light on a more focused view.
The irony: what I feel is almost the total reason for why I created the book presents as the biggest obstacle to publicizing the book and I just cannot get around that.
On the left are my photos and next to each image is the name of the famous photographer whose work is visually similar.
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