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July 04, 2006

ARI'S NEW BOOK. from Mike Mills

I got Ari's new photo book a little while ago and I'm very envious of the whole thing. It so makes me want to be a photographer - how great would that be, work at home, take pictures of what happens that day, being always conscious of how each moment is actually this big mysterious thing we call "art". This book is mostly shots of his two boys and wife Jennifer - just stuff around the house, but it's so beautiful, surreal, tragic and hopeful to me. I think the crazy interwoven world that a family makes together is one of the most interesting and difficult things to capture, but with Ari's stuff you get a sense of the air in the room when he shot it, the conversations we aren't hearing, all the ambition and desire for mastery that pre-teen boys embody. I am always so impressed when people make surprising, beautiful work based on the very simple events of their everyday life, with no affects added. Ari's also inspiring to me cause he works alone a lot, he's not super trendy, he's not living in some big city, he's not 25 years old and filled with the ease of just starting - he works very hard everyday, no matter if other people are watching or not. I think this is really hard to do, maybe the hardest thing to do, but also the key to being liberated from the dependence on what other people think of you - the key. Here are some photos out of his book, I didn't ask him, I hope that's okay, it should be, sometimes he calls and just talks at me for a long time so this is my payback.
Thanks Ari - Love, Mike

A spread with his wife and boys.

My favorite photo.

Ari Marcopoulos "Even the President of the United States Sometimes Has Got to Stand Naked" (2006 JRP/RINGIER)

Posted by Humans at July 4, 2006 01:55 AM