Fine art photography wasn’t a straight shot for John Blair: he left St. Louis, studied English at Mizzou, lived in an intentional community in the Bay Area, and pursued theology and psychology before realizing his true calling was making art.
However, there were always clues that this was the case: He recalls being drawn to the darkroom in college. The fascination with people and psychology that drew him to counseling is now translated into portraiture. In fact, psychology is one of the threads in his new show, Self-Objects, opening at Stone Spiral Gallery in Maplewood this Thursday; as the Facebook page for the show explains, the term “self-object,” comes from modern psychoanalytic theory, “representing an individual’s need to see others as an extension of him or her self for normal functioning. In the context of this show, the featured photography represents an artistic reflection on the ambiguity of the individual, as both a relational being and a subjective experience.” We talked to Blair by phone recently about his practice and the new work he will be unveiling on March 3.
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This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
I wanted to start with your background as an artist, your roots, your studio practice, your background in photography…
I actually went to University of Missouri–Colombia. I have a B.A. in English, with an emphasis in creative writing. I actually wanted to be a writer. But I got distracted; I went to graduate school. I was in San Francisco for a few years, living in a religious community. It was a Buddhist community that combined Buddhism and Christianity, so it was a little off-center. Then, I decided I wanted to pursue a more traditional religious studies type thing. So I applied to seminary, and got a Masters of Divinity. [Ed note: Blair also has a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min) from Eden Theological Seminary.] Somewhere along the way, I got the idea that it was incompatible with the writing, which is really silly, because some of my favorite writers, like Thomas Merton, were contemplatives.
Then I went back to school, got an M.A. in professional counseling—so, none of this is formal artistic training! But then, maybe 10 years ago, I went through a professional upheaval in my life. I was starting to get depressed, asking myself, is this really what it’s all about? I was making good money; I was an established professional. But I was really not happy. I met some people at the time who were different artists. Whether it was the visual stuff, some were writing, I just tried to my hand literally in everything (laughs), and what stuck for me was the photography.
Looking at your work, I made the assumption you had been doing this for a long time.
I remember, in high school, because they were still developing film—I was intimidated by the process. I remember being in the journalism club, and actually wanting to take pictures, but the whole idea of a darkroom scared me. So it was relatively late when I found out that you could do things digitally. And it just opened up a world of possibility for me. I mean, no, I don’t have formal, academic training as a photographer. But I’ve consumed a lot in terms of reading, books, documentaries. I’m pretty obsessive. So when I throw myself into something, I’m all the way in! (Laughs.)
Some of your images remind me of old Hollywood photography, back when they used all of those now-since-outlawed chemicals that gave photographs that beautiful silvery quality.
I do have a film camera. And I keep threatening to actually throw cost to the wind and start shooting with it (laughs), but my work has been primarily digital.
So, speaking of—who’s influenced you, in terms of artists and photographers?
Well I, I have a variety of influences. And people think I am joking when I’m about to tell you—one of my primary influences is Marvin Gaye, the singer.
Actually, that makes lot of sense—your images have a lot of emotion in them. I can totally see that.
I mean, that’s the stuff I was growing up on as a kid. I have been telling people I’ve been thinking about that stuff for decades. I look to Marvin Gaye, Teddy Pendergrass, the soul singers who, like you said, put emotion, they put risk into their work.
I used to work as a chaplain in the healthcare system, and I did a lot of pastoral care and pastoral counseling with both inpatient and outpatient folks, people with chemical dependency, all kinds of mental health issues. It became way of practically dealing with the things that I was experiencing through that population.
A lot of what people are struggling with is the inability to give voice to what they have experienced. There were just certain kinds of traumas that a lot of people had, both the women and the men, traumas that were related to the body, mental as well as physical abuse. And so, part of this was well, how do I take what is happening to me in response to that, and try to contribute some meaning, making sense to the world? One that I don’t have to react violently to but actually can contribute some beauty out of some challenging situations? So, I mean those are part of my influences I mean, artistically I could tell you, I actually look to the Renaissance for a lot of inspiration.
For a while, I was kind of intimidated by that period of art. So for a long time, everything I was looking at was out of the modern period. And actually, I was having this discussion with another photographer, about you know, dark and light values or what not. And she said, “You know, you really want to understand this, you have to look at some of the old masters.” And after that conversation, I wandered over to the St. Louis Art Museum one afternoon and I really just looked. And, it changed everything for me.
Can you talk a little bit about the show at Stone Spiral, what we’ll see there?
This is going to be very deeply personal show for me in some respects.
There will be portraits, but the actual series I am presenting for the first time is called “Family.” I’m actually posing in the photos with another model, and we’re using a doll. I’m recreating, re-exploring, and re-charting some kind of issues related to family.
My mom passed in 2013… I struggled with it. I didn’t know how to make sense of things. I began kind of looking at some childhood things, looking at family and at the crossroads of my own life: middle-aged man, single, never married, I don’t have any children, realizing I’m older than my parents were when they had me. And so the show is a look at what that’s all about. The photos themselves are kind of provocative, maybe a bit challenging. I use a lot of digital manipulation so they’re kind of gritty.
The central piece in each of the photos is a doll, which was actually my sister’s. The doll was probably older than both myself and the model, but it’s kind of looking at that as a weird continuity. And I call the show “Self-Objects.” the idea is that we have to see people as extensions of ourselves to function normally, if you will. That can have its positives and its negatives and so, in a sense, the show then is casting, both in the “Family” series and the portraiture work, trying to look at individuals but through my lens of how I see them and, indirectly then, how I see myself.
I noticed that Cheeraz Gormon is going to be co-presenting the artist’s talk on Saturday. Can you talk a bit about that?
I’d met Cheeraz Gormon last summer. I heard her read poetry at a local gallery and I was just blown away. I mean, I was just like wow. She is dynamic. And so, over the summer, we developed a friendship and she’s come to be someone I deeply respect. With regard to my own artwork, I realized that sometimes I was terribly inarticulate in explaining to people what I meant, because I just assumed a lot of things were very obvious.
I’ve tried to become more intentional about my own work and explaining it and looking at the different layering of it. And this artist’s talk is the first time where I will be publicly explaining my own work. The idea with Cheeraz is to establish a dialogue. I’ve invited her to look at the work ahead of time, to write a reflection on it, without me saying, “This is what I want you to say.” It is in some sense intersectional, because I think there are some things that are being explored in terms of ethnicity and gender, and also just what does it mean to be a person, growing up? What are some of the things we have to navigate? I’m hoping she can start a discussion by first dialoging about the work, then inviting people to share their own reflections. One of my points of view is that the artist does not have final say on what the work means. I think by its very nature, it is dialogical; there’s the meaning I intended, as well as the audience’s response.
Can you talk a little bit about your process, and why you feel drawn to portraits?
I’m just fascinated with people. I always tell people, “I want shoot you as if I’m not in the room. Literally you, when no one is looking.” (Laughs.)
Is that hard for your models to do?
Maybe not for some who may have a little more experience modeling. But then, there again, too, maybe they’ve been more into a, a glamour or fashion or lifestyle kind of modeling where they’re looking directly at the camera and they’re smiling—and in some sense, I’m undermining that. Some will actually say, because there’s a lot sharing in the sessions—and I always tell people that whatever they share with me remains confidential because I’m not trying to do an expose on anyone—I’m just trying to capture who they are as a person—sometimes, people will actually walk away from the shoots and say that they feel safe, that it was a cathartic experience. And wow, they got a chance like you said to break out of the mold and to do more. And yeah, I mean some of them like it better than others. Some are like well, just please tell me what to do.
So in addition to the actual shoot, part of your process is digital manipulation of the photographs, right?
Right. There are some images that I will identify strictly maybe more as digital art, because everything has been enhanced. But the idea of texturing and layering a photograph is almost like a painting for me. The blending itself is part of the art form, and then what begins to emerge is something rather different than what we started with. And it’s also driven by my own sense of how people are pretty layered and textured themselves. Sometimes you hear people say, there’s our self and our social self, but I think that we’re a multiplicity of selves, so layering… is my way of saying there’s more here than just a face. Whether you call it pretty or not, there is a complexity here. And so I’m trying to find the best way to strive for complexity, but still maintain some sense of integrity to the people themselves.
Sometimes when I shoot, I will ask women in particular to have a very natural look. And part of that is because I’m going to manipulate the photo. In other respects, I don’t want to manipulate the character or the content of the person. Because what I’m striving to say is that regardless of your gender, your ethnicity, your youthful or middle age, whatever is here—it’s sufficient unto itself.
Self-Objects opens Thursday, March 3, with a reception from 6–8 p.m. at Stone Spiral Gallery, 2506 Sutton; the opening includes refreshments and music from Mark Neiaber. On Saturday, March 5, Blair and poet Cheeraz Gorman co-facilitate a discussion on the exhibit from 1–3 p.m. Self-Objects runs through April 3; gallery hours are Saturday from 1–3 p.m. and by appointment. For more information, call Stone Spiral at 314-807-1230, or email Blair at [email protected].
