President's Message
As photographers, we feast on aesthetic pleasures, but those same aesthetics can propel a deeper meaning to the world within and around us. To our good fortune, that motivation can serve us for a lifetime. And so many of us in the Long Island Center of Photography continue, over the years, as friends and art-making colleagues, sharing our visual experiences every month, continuing to learn, grow, and create. It affords us the chance not only to know each other better but also to know ourselves better…through the act of self-expression.
Allow me to digress. The chances are that you are familiar with the “Twilight Zone Marathon” at the cusp of every new year. This past TZ marathon, I only got to watch 2 episodes. Miraculously, I actually hadn’t remembered seeing one of them in the last 65 years! Its title is “Number 12 Looks Just Like You.” And here’s the premise: In a future society, everyone must undergo an operation at age 19 to become beautiful and conform to society. Since her father killed himself after his surgery, 18-year-old Marilyn Cubberle desperately wants to hold on to her identity. She is happy with herself, partly because she is sincerely interested in the world around her and appreciates her uniqueness among others. Vanity does not play into her lifestyle. Nevertheless, she is coerced into having herself transformed into a “Number 12” prototype so she can enjoy the approval of her mother and her peers.
As with many TZ episodes, this one got me to reflect on things; it instantly registered as a metaphor with fine art photography.
If you drift through our homepage slideshow of member photographs It will be immediately clear that we exist artistically as different people with different ways of seeing. Each member has discovered within him/herself a unique being. Each month we are treated to a presentation of current photographic series and we get a chance to discuss our reactions. I’ve spent dear money on Broadway shows, concerts, opera, movies, books, restaurants, etc, but it is always a gamble where I may come away thinking that I’d wasted time and money. That is never the feeling after an LICP discussion and critique, a session for which we borrowed the label “Little Gallery” from Alfred Stieglitz. The work and our banter are always fresh and engaging…and the presentations are unique to each member; we do our best to stay clear of that dubious Number 12.
Marc Josloff