Anthony Goicolea

Anthony Goicolea's work deals with issues in indentity and adolesence - similar themes I have touched on in some of my work. I have always been interested in my childhood and how normal events at that time seem very strange and uncomfortable to me now. It would have been interesting to have Goicolea lecture right after Justine Kurland to compare and contrast their work. The first series she showed dealt with female adolesence, but her images came off as less obtrusive as Goicolea's. His images are definitely more literal, humorous, and in your face. There is no mystery as to what is going on, specifically in the series You And What Army. Goicolea captures awkward events, that become strangly elevated due to the similarities between characters. While going through his series, I was surprised to see how sexual his work was. It seemed like he sensored his images during the lecture, because there are some images that are more provactative then others, refering heavily to childhood sexuality.
I feel like the first image I posted from the series, Dentention Center, is a clear reference to Henry Darger and his female fairies with male genitalia. Goicolea becomes a life-like version of those fairies - odd and fascinating. The minute he mentioned Darger, I could see him referenced in a lot of Goicolea's images.
What I think is both a success and failure of Goicolea's images, is that individually they can stand on their own. They do not need the other images to supplement them, there is no need to reference another photo in order to understand one of them. This is great because it means he can create a narrative within a single frame, which I find very difficult to do, but I also found myself wanting to see an image not so grand - a detail shot, a close-up of an important aspect of the narrative- something intimate and interesting. I think that is why I was so drawn to the last image I posted from the Detention Center because it was completely different from the majority of Goicolea's images. Even as a close-up I think it can stand on its on - it reveals a lot about the narrative and is visually interesting.
Overall I think Goicolea's work is amazing - each shot is carefully planned out, with lots of attention to detail. You cannot just glance over his work because there is so much to take in and engage with. Also, not one image is the same. Each one tells a different story, even if in the grand scheme of things it is telling a single story, coming from an individual series. I am also blown away by his craft, his amazing photoshop skills and the ability to print in such enormous scales.
Though I can appreciate his work, I surprisingly did not find it very inspirational. I did not leave the meeting with a new sense of hope about my work, even though I felt we shared some similar prevailing themes and work habits. I have a very difficult time just going out and shooting - I have to have something in mind, a plan of action, and a system. Though he said he gets bored with routine, I think it is difficult to create such complicated images without knowing ahead of time what you want to do. I also can appreciate when Goicolea said, "I photograph things that I am attracted to, then figure it out later." Though he is obviously very well informed about the themes he is referencing, it's still nice to know he simply photographs things he just merely likes.