Zoe Leonard: You See I am Here After all
QCQ Analysis of: “Photography, the Archive, and
the Question of Feminist Form:
A Conversation with Zoe Leonard.”
by Huey Copeland
Quotation: “Your perspective keeps changing, but your eyes are always in line with the original vantage point of the photographer (Copeland 2).”
(You see I am here after all by Zoe Leonard. Photograph by Bill Jacobson, New York.)
Comment: I feel that this quote seems to imply a sense of movement; of a journey through time and space. One’s vantage point might remain the same, but as one moves the scenery around them begins to transform, and little by little to change into a scenery entirely other than what the traveler began with. Perhaps the experience of seeing all of these postcards in this way is similar to that feeling of traveling, and seeing the world change before one’s eyes, giving a new and expanded sense of perspective.
In this way the audience can begin to understand the differences in multiple perspectives and to start to expand their thinking to encompass other points of view. It is almost a though exercise of sorts, walking through this installation and thinking about how other people look at the world.
Additionally, the collection of postcards seems to hint at another motif of travel and exploration: one’s tendency to collect things like stamps and postcards to remember the places visited and seen. Postcards are nostalgic symbols of a single point, often a climactic point, in one’s travels.
(The Culturist. Installation view, Dia:Beacon, New York, 2008. Collection of the artist. courtesy Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne. Photograph by Bill Jacobson, New York.)
Question: What similarities exist between the subjects of the postcards? Are they picked at random, or was there more intentionality involved in the decision making process? If so, how does that influence the meaning of the art and the potential interpretations of the viewers?
(image: google.co.uk photographer unknown)