Untitled Document

Black and
White and
Color

AN INTERVIEW WITH
PHOTOGRAPHER DIANA adams

> Introduction

Photographer Diana Adams is a seeker of identities. Urban. Foreign. Temporal. Natural. Her best work has the power to transfix and transport. For her fifteen years of professional photography, she has become an area treasure. This status was confirmed once again last year when Washingtonian magazine listed Adams as one of the "Top Photographers" in Washington. Now, it seems she is on everyone's list; e-mails pop up avidly recommending her, and the phone at Studio Diana doesn't stop ringing.

Increasingly, Adams has set more time aside from professional activities in the pursuit of fine art photography. The results offset any sacrifices, and also serve to remind one that many an acclaimed artist was first an accomplished journeyman firmly rooted in craft.

Last year the second installment of a collection of works entitled Main Street, USA was shown in Fairfax, Virginia. Two more bodies of work are nearing completion: the Smithsonian Series and Blood Strains. Drift is doubly honored to have Ms. Adams as a guest for our premier offering, and to have a selection of her photographs shown here for the first time as well.

If you suggest to Adams that she captured the essence of someone or something, she will shake her head in disagreement. She will then tell you neither she, nor anyone else, captures any subject finally. In reality, the photographer only obtains a fragment of the subject in a brief interval of time.

In fact, Adams is very conscious of time and the myriad ways it is depicted through space. A certain use of space in a photograph will make the sense of time more elastic. A certain angle will suggest time is either abundant or scarce, elongated or abbreviated. In essence, time is either savored or rejected through space. Adams tells me it is one of the many issues a good photographer thinks about while working.

These conversations took place at Studio Diana over a few days in February of this year. I want to personally thank Ms. Adams for the generosity with her time, support, and photographic images.

--JLT

1. Tangier

DRIFT: You were attending the American School in Tangier at a time when many American expatriates--some of whom would later become literary icons--were making the city their destination. Some of them lived or stayed near your family. There is,of course, William S. Burroughs,Tennessee Williams, Allen Ginsberg--and at least a few other notable figures. Although you were only a teenager then, were you aware of any of them? And if so, do you have any memories or lasting impressions?

ADAMS: Well, I vaguely remember Burroughs walking in the street and sitting in cafes. He wore a skull-cap then--not the type of hat everyone associates with him. I was kid then--I went to school with his son, Billy, who was, already at sixteen, a fairly heavy drug user.

DRIFT: According to Burrough's biographer, Ted Morgan, his son was most likely born addicted to drugs, because his mother had been so involved with them while she was pregnant.

ADAMS: He was very handsome, had a beautiful face...

DRIFT: Perhaps, he had talent as well. At least one book he wrote was published.

ADAMS: I know. I'm impressed that he was able to complete anything.

DRIFT: So, Williams Burroughs remains a shadowy figure...

ADAMS: Yes, he was lurking around (laughter). However, I'm now aware he wrote some of his most experimental work there--I think Naked Lunch or the one after.

DRIFT: Anyone else?

...Ted Jones...and Ahmed Yacoubi... They called us "Lo and Lita" and tried to get us to go to hashish parties with them.

ADAMS: The American Poet, Ted Jones used to go to the same beach cafi as my sister and I with his good friend Ahmed Yacoubi, the Moroccan painter. They called us "Lo and Lita" and tried to get us to go to hashish parties with them. Ted painted and always included a rhinoceros in each painting-and he had a little house in Timbuctu. My English teacher, Joe McPhillips, took me over to Jane Bowles house for tea one evening--that's the kind of thing one did there, you had tea. I had read her novel, Two Serious Ladies, and she signed a copy for me which was really sweet of her. She was a warm person, the best smile in the world. She wore an orange wig because her hair wasn't in good shape. She had been through a lot--a couple of strokes--and had difficulty walking. Despite all this, she was quite a lot of fun. She had this big parrot in the apartment. Every so often this bird, which only spoke Arabic, would say, "Allah...Allah"--translating to "Oh God, Oh God". Also, I can't forget Fatima who was Jane's girlfriend...lover. She was always jealous, moving about and giving Jane's female guests the evil eye. She made me feel very uncomfortable. Fatima was probably afraid her meal ticket was going to go in a different direction. I heard she made very blunt advances to several other young girls who visited there.

DRIFT: Did Fatima take that approach when Paul Bowles was around?

ADAMS: I never saw Fatima when Paul Bowles was present. Paul and Jane Bowles were very sociable and fun when they were out. Paul was a good friend to a couple of my teachers, Joe McPhillips, and John Hopkins, who is also a fine writer.

2. Influences

DRIFT: Joe McPhillips is in charge of The American School of Tangier--there was an article in Vanity Fair recently recounting the history of the school and the presumably important role it is playing today. What is McPhillips' background?

ADAMS: He studied literature at Princeton. Loves theater. He took a year in the 80's to apprentice himself to a theatre in New York. In Tangier, there was no distinction between living and formal education. They were not separate as they are here. He was somewhat to blame for this approach-to be young was to be in development twenty-four hours a day in twenty-four ways!

In Tangier, there was no distinction between living and formal education.

DRIFT: What role did McPhillips play in what you would do later?

ADAMS: It's incalculable, really. He created my thinking-and my confidence in my own approach to art and literature. He wanted me to be an actress and was primarily responsible for getting me into Sarah Lawrence College. I did try to follow through with acting there, but I didn't enjoy the theater world at the university, which was very closely tied to the theater world in Manhattan. So, I ended up pursuing film criticism and writing instead.

DRIFT: Does your film criticism background play a role in your work in photography?

ADAMS: Probably, most of all when I am in Europe. When I'm in Italy, France, or even Greece, I find myself kind of seeing the scene from the perspective of old films.

DRIFT: Such as Fellini's or Truffaut's?

ADAMS: Yeah, bicycle motifs (laughter). It always looks that way to me. Things haven't changed physically there all that much. Yes, especially if I'm shooting black and white, and I start thinking in black and white. It can all start looking like a New Wave production.

DRIFT: I don't suppose I'm not the only one who notices your pictures sometimes appear to be stills extracted from a movie.

ADAMS: They do! And they also look like they could have been taken forty years ago. And I like that effect. On my recent trip to Europe I wanted to do something very different--something along the lines of Michael McKenna. Something very pared down, pristine, modern, Zen-like, and simple. But as soon as I was there, I reverted back to my "white telephone movies" as they called those Italian films of the 50's.

DRIFT: In contrast to Europe, does the American scene seem to free you up to experiment more?

ADAMS: Yes. I was really influenced by things in New York when I attended Sarah Lawrence. I loved modern abstract images that were being made there.

DRIFT: Whose images?

ADAMS: No one's in particular. Believe it or not, they could even be things sold in the gift shop of the Museum of Modern Art--promotional things. I was interested in the way painting looked--not so much photography.

DRIFT: Was there anyone in particular you really liked?

ADAMS: No, I was just doing an overview of art history. I was learning.

3. Smithsonian Series

DRIFT: Let's talk about some of your photographic projects, the Smithsonian Series. The photos are stark and beautiful--in their own way, they are definitive versions of the Smithsonian buildings. How did that project come about?

ADAMS: That project came out of experimentation with film. Infrared film needs certain conditions--you need bright sunlight, you need a dark place to change your film. For instance you have to load and unload in closet. So I read about this other film that Ilford manufactures (SPX) that has 20 percent infrared and 80 percent regular film. So, I bought some downtown, went for a long walk on the Mall and starting shooting the Smithsonian buildings just to see what the film was like and how things would turn out. By the end of the day I inadvertently had the beginnings of a body of work about the Smithsonian.

DRIFT: I'm amazed to hear that! The pictures are so expressive and purposeful, one would never know that you did not set out to finally capture the essence of these places once and for all. So, it is really your curiosity about your tools and materials that lead you to this expression. How many pictures do you take before you have something you are satisfied with?

...a photograph is not necessarily judged individually, but by how it will fit in with the others from that same series...

ADAMS: I might take up to 30 to 60 images then choose one that appeals to me. And I don't always know which photograph I will finally choose. Most photographers, including myself, work in series, so a photograph is not necessarily judged individually, but by how it will fit in with the others from that same series. The photographs have to work together. Something about the progression or the use of space...something related from one picture to the next.

DRIFT: Again, I believe your Smithsonian Series is definitive-particularly, in their mood. If I wanted someone in another country, who had never seen the Smithsonian buildings, to know what they looked like or felt like to be in the presence of, I would send them these photos. Also, in this collection I see the larger notions--the abstract and austere grandeur of Washington, D.C. itself. One perhaps can catch a glimpse of Washington's subtle moral and aesthetic aspirations and see how those aspirations co-exist. Lastly, the photos can serve as a portal onto what makes Washington, D.C., in its own fashion, quite sublime. I think one way they achieve all of this is at least in part how they eschew of all the unnecessary elements such as tourists and their baby carriages, cabs, and so on. Happily, you only included the essential structures.

ADAMS: In a way, they really are outside the current aesthetic in photography for exactly what you said--all those elements have been removed. If you were doing something really contemporary in photography you would take big garish pictures showing all the detritus.

Including tourists with play clothes on, ice cream cones melting, people laughing, whining, being hot...

DRIFT: It would seem to me that the contemporary photography you are describing increasingly has more to do with commerce than it does art. Those peripheral elements refer me to the ambiance of magazine and TV commercials desperately trying to convey where the action is. I believe the peripheral elements can be included in a work of art if they add to the whole in a meaningful and original way. However, I still believe it is more of a challenge for an artist to trust the central material he or she has either created or chosen rather than trying to spruce up something inferior with cheaply bristling ambiance. I'm referring to a central tenant of minimalism--trust the central material at hand. Of course, this material must be quality stuff. It must have an almost eternal characteristic or value.

ADAMS: One of the reasons I've enjoyed photographing the Smithsonian buildings so much is because I'm freelancing on the weekends and have to shoot these inclusive, busy pictures. And I have to shoot hundreds of them. These pictures have all kinds of elements, all kinds of chaos in them. So, it's rather a relief to walk around and do these very quiet things which don't have this messy humanity (laughter).

DRIFT: Where do you envision these photographs? Who especially do you want to see them?

ADAMS: Of course, it would be marvelous for the Smithsonian to take interest in them. Also,

I would like architects to appreciate these photographs. I would love to exhibit them at the American Institute of Architects or the National Building Museum.

DRIFT: Would you discuss the architectural considerations of this project?

ADAMS: A lot of the museums are primarily rectangular boxes--which most Washington buildings are given the building codes which allow only a certain height. If you really look at one of these buildings from all sides, you can get an idea of what the architect's motives were. What elements were added for enhancement or meaning--because symbolism plays a very significant role in Washington. So, some of these building have decorative flourishes added and, of course, there are the fairly well known sculptures placed alongside. These elements work well together. For instance, if you know the sculpture, you can also identify the building. So, in some instances, I have tried to incorporate the sculpture associated with a particular building. I actually re-shot the Air and Space Museum because I was not satisfied with what I had. This time I focused on a sculpture to one side and juxtaposed that with the way the windows looked from a certain angle. It ended up looking like a more interesting building, whereas only seen straight on it could appear to be otherwise. It's been a challenge because all of these buildings could just as easily be big boxes if their context or details were not taken into consideration.

4. Blood Strains

DRIFT: You recently had a show in Fairfax, Virginia--a work in progress called Blood Strains. I think, conceptually speaking, it is perhaps your strongest and most original work. Here, you work with a variety of genres--performance art and portrait photography. As I see it, it is an opportunity for people of mixed ethnic heritages to act out how they visually perceive these racial backgrounds in front of a camera. A catharsis whereby the subjects act out or discover something in themselves that was not really acknowledged before. For instance, you have a triptych depicting a subject who is half German and half Indian who visually acts out those cultural identities on two separate side panels. Finally, that subject is depicted in a larger central panel as the everyday person who acknowledges his/her assimilation into culture at large by posing as an American with the tee-shirt and a smile. Tell us more about this project.

ADAMS: Since we've been talking about inspiration, I would like talk about the way that project started as well. I have a friend who was half-Vietnamese and half African American. One evening I kept noticing how part of the time she looked very Oriental and part of the time she would look very African depending on how her face was angled or how the light was catching it, or how she was feeling. She would go in and out of these different ways of appearing, so I couldn't help but be very conscious of it.

A couple of days later I asked if she would be interested in posing that way--some pictures in each attitude. She said it had been her life-long dream! She told me that I was the only person she would trust to try to do it. So, she came over to the studio and brought her passport from Vietnam--she was a little over two years when she arrived, and she brought a little oriental doll, a lot clothes and props. She was every imaginative, very creative. And we also did a white tee-shirt shot just because she wanted to have cute picture in a white tee-shirt. And that picture seemed to hold the two together quite nicely.

That's how that happened. And the pictures were very strong. She acted both parts out beautifully and I became very excited by the results. So, we decided to pursue that theme of Vietnamese war orphans. That was the way the project began. She knew quite a few orphans--in fact, about nine who she contacted who were willing to come down from as far as Vermont to participate in the project. We thought we would have a round table discussion beforehand regarding their experiences of coming over as war orphans, being of mixed race, and being raised in America.

For me it was huge solution to my problem of grieving over the Vietnam War that never really ends for people who were upset by it. I thought this would be a contribution I can make twenty years later which can solve or alleviate some of that pain. I was so excited about it. However, later we experienced a fundamental disagreement. Eventually, she felt it would be a project more suited to someone like her--it might even be her life's work involving a movie or other media all having to do with the same subject. In other words, she wanted more control--it would be solely her project. I was an older white woman, and not inside her life history.

For me it was huge solution to my problem of grieving over the Vietnam War that never really ends for people who were upset by it.

DRIFT: At this point, I assume you began to see the larger form and drama of mixed races and not simply the dilemma of one group of people.

ADAMS: Yes, but I had to respect her point of view only because of the history of our country as a racist imperialist country that took slaves. And is still in some sort of reparation state of things. And, also because of the Vietnamese people who are also in a reparation state. So, actually, given those political and historical aspects, I did not feel it was my place to say no to her. Looking back at it, I think her position was more superficially political then I thought then. Years have gone by and she has not done any more with her project

DRIFT: Is she one of the subjects in Blood Strains series?

ADAMS: She is the first person in the series. We went through a month without talking. I told her I respected her decision. Then again, luckily, I found it possible to open that project up to lots of people of mixed race and not just have the Vietnamese focus. And that's how that project started. As I met people and had conversations about it, I gradually ended up with what I have now which is a collection of thirteen different people-36 images in all.

DRIFT: Please give us some background on them.

ADAMS: Many of the people I worked with, of course, had more than two races, but we would choose the predominant ones. One woman had quite a few--she chose to portray the Indian and Scottish sides. Later, I photographed someone who is Scottish and Moroccan...a person who is Indian and German...someone who is East Indian and Jamaican. And I have a woman who is half American Indian and half Italian. I took pictures of twins who are half Chinese and half Italian. There are other combinations.

DRIFT: The woman whose mother was from Vietnam and whose father was from the United States told you that the opportunity to act those heritages out fulfilled a deep and long lasting emotional need. Did others react to the cathartic aspect the same way the first subject did?

ADAMS: To greater and lesser degrees. Women are much more expressive of that than men on the whole. The guys generally came because a woman in their life or I would ask them pose. And they came along, cooperated and were subsequently amazed by how excited their families were by the results. Sometimes family members would dig up costumes, clothes and props. Initially, the guys would usually be asking "Why am I doing this?" However, they would later love the pictures.

DRIFT: Why do you think the women were less ambivalent about the project?

ADAMS: Maybe it's because they can have babies, and most will go on to do that. Perhaps, the woman is already thinking of how her baby will be a mixture of this, that, and the other...

5. Solutions

DRIFT: In what other ways have you initiated your projects?

ADAMS: I think a lot of projects arrive out of looking for a solution to a problem or a cluster of problems. Sometimes, the solution is to do a series of things in a particular medium or with a particular material because you might be infatuated by that material--like the infrared film I was interested in. But sometimes it can be a lot more complicated. Maybe you need a resolution for emotions, ideas in conflict, political preoccupations or situations. Things that you've bumped up against that you haven't been able to resolve. Then what happens for me is that the project comes up as...not exactly a solution, but the closest I can come to a solution. In other words seemingly disparate problems which previously did not seem connected will begin to be related...

...projects arrive out of looking for a solution to a problem or a cluster of problems...

DRIFT: And form a matrix or sorts?

ADAMS: Become a set of related concerns which can somehow be addressed by a project which is the closest I can come to a solution. The project is a cut or an attack at the problems finally assembled which is sort of a solution. It's a lucky break when it bursts through. For instance, my project Street Encounters: Blacks and Whites in Washington began with many different issues that arose.

DRIFT: What were the issues that led to the idea or opportunity for that project?

ADAMS: I had taken a picture of a black man and a white man in Union Station which inspired me, but I didn't see it consciously as a total project. Later, that month I took pictures of the Million Man March which were mentioned to a gallery in Houston. The gallery told me that it would be more palatable if I were a black photographer.

DRIFT: On the contrary, I would think it would be much more unique to have a white woman's view of the subject. One of the reasons why is that you have really nothing to gain politically from doing it. And the detachment from the subject would make it all-the-more objective.

ADAMS: I had similar feelings. Anyway, that sat there as a kind of problem for me, so I dropped it for a while. Then one day, I had lunch with Ken Hipkins, an African American photographer, and saw some pictures he had taken of South Africa. Our friends said that he should have an exhibition of these, but he wasn't thinking all that seriously about it. The next visit I had with him he told me of his experiences as a black man in the District. All of a sudden it hit me. Why don't we have a show together? A white photographer and a black photographer taking on the exact same subject. It was a solution to all of these problems. The solution is at least a place to start. It's only a beginning. Again, it might come down to materials. We may set very severe limits for ourselves. We may just decide it all has to be all black and white, or all transparencies, or everything a certain size. Both of us have lived here a long time, so there will also be the emotions which will come to play a part in it all. I think it will really give him a chance to express these feelings he has about race in the District in a constructive way.

DRIFT: Do you have any immediate feelings about racial relations in Washington, D.C.? And, if so, how do you predict these views will emerge in your work?

ADAMS: I think it is deeply ambivalent and extremely important. It should be something that we are all aware of and looking at as much as possible. Preferably, through many approaches: art, politics, humor, which I also think is a great medium...Finally, it would be fruitful to have an appreciation of diversity rather than a feeling of misery. It's important to recognize the struggle...I think our work will have a lot to say about the ambivalence, the difficulty... (laughter)...I don't know what it going to be like, really!

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