I was going to write a little something about That interview with Antoine d’Agata in Vice, but Darren’s got it covered:
“What is most troubling about D’Agata’s work is not specifically its content, but the rather trite assumption that life as a drug-addicted prostitute (in some conveniently distant place) contains more “truth” than that of, say, a suburban housewife or a plumber […] It remains a tiresome (if quite familiar) misapprehension that extremes of living can bring us closer to the most fundamental aspects of what it is to be human – as though there were no other kinds of truth.”
“The “reality” that he frames as an existential crisis is in fact an economic one, so his rhetoric is more like a transparent pretext for the way he has chosen to aestheticise what he photographs – a denial of his implied privilege. [d’Agata’s work] is beautiful and often daring, just not in the ways that he would have us believe.”
Well said Darren.
Put another way, and I heard this a few years back, “Oh d’Agata, he’s the Magnum photog who fucks and sucks his way around the world, yeah?”
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November 25, 2010 at 9:50 am
FEAR, DESIRE, DRUGS AND F***ING – Photographer Antoine D’Agata Lives a Life Less Ordinary – Vice Magazine | The Click
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April 22, 2011 at 6:09 pm
jacobo
I just ran into this looking for some specific photos of Antoine, this is such a topical thing to say about him. I don’t think he brings back those pictures with the intention of selling ideas of truthfulness, that is quite obvious to anyone who is alive, and values their own subjectivity and experience. Which is what his photos are about; subjective experience, not “truth products”. Also please, don’t build posts on the basis of quotes it looks really bad.
April 24, 2011 at 12:00 pm
petebrook
Jacobo. I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. d’Agata’s subjectivity is not in any question. What is in questions is whether there’s any value to his work. Personally, I don’t think his photographs engage the right audiences in the right ways to promote a realistic dialogue about the sex industry. Of course, d’Agata is not trying to change the world, he’s trying to make art that is honest to himself. I’m just not a fan and I am quite comfortable saying that I think d’Agata is indulgent.
I’m quite happy to build posts around a quote when the quote reflects my position well. I think I do enough leg work elsewhere in my writing to warrant some leeway.
Also, please don’t put a term like truth products in quotation marks as if it is a phrase of someone else’s you are repeating. It’s misleading and looks bad.