inherently provincial about photography, which is screwy. EMH: But I think it’s more representative of our time. That’s not to say that painting wasn’t scrutinized but, because of the way the history of art has progressed, you look at photography as an extension of painting. It has replaced it as a medium, so now painting can get away with not asking as many questions.
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GP: It affords more freedom, a broader sense of freedom and possibility, which is what one would ideally want from any art form. Photography, by comparison, is young, but the rules seem to be really apparent if you take photography seriously. There are too many rules attributed to great photography for my sense of pleasure. It’s not entirely easy to talk about those rules, but one comes up against them when one is trying to do serious photography: the limits that collectively surround the depiction of the nude, the limits of what the properties of color ought to be, what really good color in photography is… Is it naturalistic color? These little inner conflicts within the medium of photography interest me, but they seem puny in the face of the problems that painting has wrestled with. They seem petty. EMH: I would say I use photography as a means to achieve painting. GP: That’s totally acceptable. And that definition fits me like a glove, too, but we draw different
conclusions about what that means. Yet, you’re comfortable with the word decoration, right? EMH: I am. All art inevitably is decoration in some end. GP: Do you know why you aren’t interested in the human condition, or the interior life of a human being? Or why you don’t try to get some semblance of that in a portrait? Does it have no interest for you whatsoever? EMH: I do encapsulate a person in my portraiture to the fullest possible extent. Yet, the veneer of my imagery doesn’t need to appear to be emotional for the sake of appearances. “I’m fine with the subject becoming a postured sculpture in profile, because that’s what we are. GP: Doesn’t that mean at the end of the day you’re a formalist? EMH: Yes, very much so. Speaking of, have you ever approached fashion photography? GP: My work is profoundly influenced by fashion, but I don’t want the word “fashion” to involuntarily enter the viewer’s mind. EMH: Why? Do you think it cheapens it? GP: No, it just undercuts the integrity of what I am doing. What I’m taking from fashion is the narrative length that is inherent in having ten or more pages to work with. In the print medium, the fashion story is the only story,