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“Sadie’s Choice”
As part of a larger project revisiting a variety of historic uses
of stereo (3 dimensional) photography, “Sadie’s Choice” explores
contemporary images of women and sensuality in contrast to the
famous pin-up and glamour photography of the 1950’s, for
which stereoscopic photography was a particularly popular application.
The title of the series, “Sadie’s Choice” reflects
the American tradition of holding one dance a year in high schools
that turned the traditional gender dynamic on it’s head and
allowed the females to pick their male partners for the dance. Seen
merely as a quaint idea nowadays, in the 1950’s it was weighted
with complex implications for the changing culture. My decision to
attempt to remove the context of the male photographer in control
of a sexual photoshoot was to collaborate with female models who
saw the project as a positive and creative opportunity to express
their individual strength and sensuality.
Peter Bahouth works in one of the oldest forms of photography. Stereoscopic
photography, having originated in 1860, fell out of favor by 1920.
The once futuristic technology of stereoscopic photography now
holds a retro charm and nostalgically mechanical sensibility in
today’s world of electronic wizardry. The use of transparencies
(slides) as the medium rather than their traditional role as just
one component of the photographic process, the tiny size of the
transparencies, (the opposite of the current dominance in photography
of large format print images), and the required use of a stereoscopic
viewer to actually see the images as only one person at a time
can look through the viewer, result in a highly personal experience
for the viewer as they discover the image, intimately and with
the immediacy of the transparency, in a completely private moment.
A delightful visual bang is the reward of approaching the tiny
lenses, peeking in and being confronted with a dramatically three-dimensional
image that feels oddly more inside one's head than any exterior
experience. The free standing "viewing
stands" that hold and present the transparencies, themselves become enigmatic,
sculptural, rather pop objects as they beckon, somewhat E.T. like, and innocently
invite, with their secretive pair of round eye-like lenses, for the viewer to
interact with them. The height of the stands are designed to cause most people
to have to bend down slightly to look into the viewer which enhances the effect
of secretive ‘peeking’ and emphasizes the 3 dimensional push-pull
impact of the image. Building upon the private peepshow nature of the viewing
experience, Bahouth is also subverting the current spectator sport nature of
current artistic practice by denying the ability, partly by the nature of the
medium and partly by design, for more than a single pair of eyes to discover
the image at one time.
Artist's Statement by Peter Bahouth
I utilize stereoscopic photography as a medium to address aesthetic
issues raised by the biology of vision and the problem of portraying
space. Concepts of vision and perspective have been central to
my work with stereoscopic photography, but I am equally motivated
by a personal history with stereo images and my interest in their
contemporary use.
Stereoscopic photography, as old as photography itself, has played
various roles in society. From 1860 to 1920 stereo views were essentially
the home entertainment of the times. More recently the View-Master,
intended as a substitute to postcards, instead become the popular
children’s toy. For many of us, this was our first art collection,
and the stereoscopic images were an effective medium for creating
the illusion of “being there”. In the early 1950’s,
the availability of commercial “stereo” cameras made
it possible to create amateur stereo images. Coupled with the introduction
of ultra-vivid Kodacrome film, resulting images portray an intense
perception of the time. It was my father’s stereo photographs
of our family that formed my interest in stereoscopic images and
their ability to convey spatial relationships and intensified perceptions
of time, place and feelings.
Images of binocular space, and the super realism of stereoscopy
are key elements in my photography. Stereoscopic perception, likes
color perception, can be controlled artistically, and as such is
an important medium in this context. The images are selected to
address the issue of space in a contemporary context, and viewed
through a viewer, which intensifies the experience through personal
participation. |
