MY YEAR IN THE WILDERNESS

DOUG MENUEZ

MY YEAR IN THE WILDERNESS PHOTOGRAPHS 1971-1999

DOUG MENUEZ MY YEAR IN THE WILDERNESS PHOTOGRAPHS 1971-1999

I

n “My Year in the Wilderness,” Doug Menuez gathers together a selection of images that reflect his continuing love affair with street photography. He began roaming the streets of New York City as a teenager in the 1970’s and has continued throughout his career to walk the streets, wherever he finds himself in the world, capturing elusive fragments of time.

Menuez uses the traditions of the genre and his encounters with strangers as a means to explore identity and meaning in the world. We all have a public face we project that we think reflects who we are. He seeks to connect with “the other” by watching for those fleeting moments when his subject’s guard and public face are temporarily suspended.

His observations are driven by an awareness of the duality of everyday life, shifting instantly between the profane and sacred. He creates meaning for his own life through the simple act of taking a photograph.

B

l a z i n g a c r o s s m i s s h a p e n skies, I ride t h e

c o m e t o f m y d e s t i n y.

E xc i ti ng st u f f, so v ery bu sy, b ut, um, what’s that fr o m d o w n b e l o w ? A t i n y r e d l i g h t , b l i n k i n g . O f f and on. Insistent, urgent messages piling up. Reminding me of unanswered, nagging doubts, pulling me down.

Qu e s t i on s, l on g i gn ored, no w d e mand ing to b e he ar d : Can o ne liv e committe d w holly to the ta sk c o m m an ded f rom w i t h i n one’s he ar t and skull, ye t still have a life a pa rt f rom the w ork ? A n d : c a n a r t a n d c o m m e r c e i n t ert w i n e, o r will ar t (and the ar tis t) d ie in the mat in g?

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I pa u se t h e comet t o con sid er.

There were other questions, about the dreams for a life; love gained and given, potential fulfilled, fears vanquished. The need for family and for time, much more than the standard ration.

Unhappy, and realizing I was so, I went away. Time out from a hectic, attention-deficit-disorderly style of living. I had to flee. I went out into the wilderness for at least a year, maybe twenty, to wa nder and t h i n k h ard. Wh at w as m y tr ue path? Why was I so lost? Some nameless ambition was burning inside, propelling me without aim. Born to do something meaningful, surely, yet somehow straying.

Ta king planes, buses, a mule train and finally walking, I arrived at the crossroads of my life’s d ire ction .

I m a d e t h ese ph ot ograph s alo ng the way, to eas e the iso latio n and u n ce rta in ty. E a ch ima ge a ppe a re d be f o r e m e l i ke t h e message lig ht, b linking s ile ntly until I no tice d an d lif te d my ca me ra .

Lo o k i n g i n t o t h e f a c e s I p h o t o g r a p h e d , I s o u g h t a n s w e r s a n d r e c e i v e d a n e d u c a t i o n — a n s w e r s t o q u e s t i o n s I ’ d n ot kn ow n t o ask. Fr o m o ne I lear ne d to b e q uie t and liste n . From a n othe r I le a rn e d ju st w h e n t o speak. F rom ot h er s I le ar ned o f what is s acr ed and to se e the f u tu re. I ob se rv e d the te n u ou s f l ow of on goi n g l i f e an d save d what I co uld in thes e p ag es .

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Harlan, Tiburon, California, 1995.

Isabella, Los Angeles 1998.

S

lave to the light I move forward, looking for my true path.

Time slows, then stops.

How long have I been wandering?

Unable to reconcile memory with perception I ponder what is real.

Basenji, San Francisco, 1996.

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Bryce Canyon, Utah, 1977.

San Francisco County Jail, San Bruno, California, 1978.

Jason Schwartzman, Napa Valley, 1992.

Trinidad, 1994.

F

ascinated by the other; am I different?

Our DNA-driven human behavior has only so many variants.

We forget the stories we’ve heard many times before.

Predictable, yet we are so unknowable, even to ourselves.

So we keep watching. Some pretending, others hoping, to understand what binds us.

Mill Valley, California, 1993.

Tiburon, California, 1992.

Tiburon, California, 1992.

Tereza, Mill Valley, California, 1991.

Palace of the President, Rome, Italy, 1989.

Stephanie, Faith, Mary Jane, Northport, New York, 1973.

Vale do Amanhacer, Brazil, 1989.

Betulia, Sweden, 1993.

Marin Headlands, California, 1977.

Salinas, California, 1992.

St. Tropez, 1999.

Ketchup & Mustard Man, San Francisco, 1993.

Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1997.

Fremont Raceway, California, 1978.

S

o I raise the camera.

Pressing the shutter I record the existence of another, while affirming my own.

This is my prayer for meaning in a meaningless world, 1/125th of a second long.

Bryant Park, New York City, 1971.

Mission District, San Francisco, 1977.

Frankfurt International Airport, 1995.

Eiffel ower, Paris, 1997.

The Deaf Club, San Francisco, 1976.

The Deaf Club, San Francisco, 1976.

Les Tuileries, Paris, 1992.

Walt Stack, San Carlos, California, 1979.

D

ust swirls slowly down, through a ray of light I imagine protons and electrons sailing around the nucleus of an atom, vibrating and spinning; the atom itself keeping time with all of us going around and around on our precious sphere.

Our planet in turn continues carving its long arcs through space/time...

And my blood circulating in my body, pushing me on, with all things in motion: revolving, retracing, repeating.

Forward, towards the light.

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DOUG MENUEZ MY YEAR IN THE WILDERNESS PHOTOGRAPHS 1971-1999

www.menuez.com Photographs and Text ©2010

by Doug Menuez. All Rights Reserved.

DOUG MENUEZ

MY YEAR IN THE WILDERNESS PHOTOGRAPHS 1971-1999