Two summers ago I was blessed with the opportunity to backpack across a few cities in Western Europe. I started my trip in Paris and was excited to go to the Louvre, but it was a Tuesday and it was closed. When I returned a month later to end my trip, my excitement for visiting museums had withered. Still, I forced myself to go, and the Louvre was disgustingly packed. You couldn't see any paintings, only the backs of people's heads and the video camera strap around their necks. When I finally got to the Mona Lisa, the crowd was more interesting than the painting. How do people react when they are in front of "the painting?" I asked a stranger to take a picture of me looking snobbish in front of the entire crowd. I thought I was being funny.
Since that moment though I've felt pretty snobby. Maybe I just can't enjoy things that other people enjoy. But still I thought the project was pretty interesting, even if i didn't have the right tone. A photograph in this Thomas Struth exhibit of two Asian women is described as "Their mix of desire and reserve, measured across a clear cultural gulf, seemed gently comic and touching. " That was the tone I was trying to capture, just like I tried to in the "People looking at god" photos I took in NYC.
Anyway, it's hard to not seem like a total asshole when you are observing people in, I think, a pretty vulnerable place. An art museum is considered "Culture" with a capital C - it would be like video taping someone at the opera - any sign of boredom or disinterest makes one feel unintelligent and alienated. Observing people trying to understand the importance of a painting like the Mona Lisa can be cruel, only because its importance as a piece of art will rarely be refuted.
okay okay i need to work
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