Jeanne-Claude is my new heroine.

by sam on 02/12/2005

Back in the days when I used to make attempts at creativity, I got into a fight with my photography professor in the middle of class one day. I had gone to a budget protest rally in Albany and taken a bunch of pictures of the protesters, and they were fantastic looking (if I do say so myself). So when it came time to present them in class, I was quite proud of my work. But this professor kept going, "yeah, they’re nice to look at, but what do they mean?" After a few rounds of this, I finally had enough and just blurted out, "why do they have to mean anything? why can’t they just be an interesting-looking documentation of an event? why can’t they just be great-looking pictures?" I’ll admit that I thought I actually lost the argument, not because my point wasn’t valid but, well, because I disagreed with the professor. But he must have taken what I said to heart, because I ended up with an A in the class (even though I certainly didn’t get an A on every assignment).

The reason why I post this story now? Because I was just watching the news, and they had an interview with Christo and Jeanne-Claude, where Jeanne-Claude had this gem:

It has no purpose, it is not a symbol, it is not a message, it is only a work of art.

I feel so…validated.

Maybe that’s why I’ve been enjoying the whole Gates process more than I thought I would. At this point, the city is all Gates, all the time. I had lunch with some clients today in a conference room with a view of the park, and we could see the orange towers just snaking through the trees. Aside from my attempt to get up super-early tomorrow morning to take pictures from the ground, I may have to attempt something from our offices as well.

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