Ellen Carey came of age artistically in the 1980s, which was a decade in photography that saw radical innovation, and a real move away from merely representational and reportorial image-making. Carey鈥檚 investigations in the ensuing years have charted a course increasingly abstract, boldly experimental, arriving a place where, as she puts it, 鈥渟ubject matter is not there.鈥澛燞er trajectory in the art world began at the University of Buffalo, in the late 1970s, and continued to develop when she moved to New York City in 1979.聽Carey聽often makes images without a camera, in a process she calls 鈥榩ainting with emulsion.鈥 When she trains her camera鈥檚 eye onto an object, the resulting image may bear no relation to the subject. She uses light the way that abstract painters use paint.聽We speak聽to聽Carey about her聽inclusion in聽group exhibition聽Les ann茅es 1980, l’insoutenable l茅g猫ret茅聽at Centre Pompidou in Paris.
A: In a world where everyone walks around with a camera in their pocket, has the rise of the smartphone had an impact on Fine Art photography?
EC: Yes, I think it鈥檚 great for photography, as we鈥檙e now seeing a global visual culture. People think visually now; images transcend language barriers, age, race, economics. 聽People are more open to images. With three-year-olds having smartphones, who knows what images we鈥檙e going to be seeing?
A: The exhibition at the Pompidou focuses on the 1980s. What is iconic聽about this decade, and what makes聽it culturally important today?
EC: We are now 25 years out from the 1980s, and the decade is being looked at with new eyes. 60s Pop and 70s Minimalism and Conceptualism have been reappraised, now it鈥檚 the turn of the 80s. 聽There were barriers broken down then, innovation was not only allowed, it was expected. There was an 鈥榓nything goes鈥 sort of chaos, graffiti art, neo-expressionism.
A: In your opinion, was it easier for artists to develop and establish themselves聽back then?
EC: 聽I feel it was just different. 聽There鈥檚 more to learn today. 聽There鈥檚 social media. 聽There was no gatekeeping. Today there鈥檚 the emerging artist, there鈥檚 the mid-career artist, you need to go up the ladder. 聽In the 1980s, it was open territory – you could break rules. 聽It was a meritology. 聽Remember, early on there were almost no galleries for us. 聽P.S. 1 聽(the Museum of Modern Art鈥檚 contemporary venue) had just opened up, and you had to go to museums and look in books to see art. 聽New York was gritty, it was scary, a new territory for young artists – it was kind of like Blade Runner.
A: 聽You call yourself a 鈥榣ens-based artist鈥 rather than strictly a photographer. Can you describe the term聽abstract photography?
EC: 聽All photographs are inventions and processes. 聽Photography was always based on picture-signs: you had the portrait, the landscape, the still-life. With abstract photography, you don鈥檛 know what the picture is, or how it was made. 聽I took out the picture signs. I got restless with straight photography, with the surface. You turn the camera on yourself. 聽I started doing painted self-portraits.
A: It seems your investigations are akin to that of James Welling and Cindy Sherman, though of course her鈥檚 are not abstract.
EC: There are affinities and overlaps with what I do and what they do, as well as differences. My influences stem from the world of Dada, surrealism, and especially Man Ray. Russian Constructivism has also had a great influence on my development. With Jackson Pollock, for example, you had the gestalt of the brush, the thing itself. He took the canvas off of the stretcher, and put it on the floor. 聽So, change of process. 聽I stepped into the black box of the darkroom. 聽Also tools are important; the Polaroid 20×24 was an innovation every bit as ground-breaking as anything Steve Jobs created.
Tim Barry
Ellen Carey’s work features in Les ann茅es 1980, l’insoutenable l茅g猫ret茅, until 23 May, Centre Pompidou, Paris.聽For more, visit聽.
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Credits
1. Ellen Carey,聽Self Portrait, 1987.聽Courtesy Centre Pompidou 漏 Photo 脡ric Simon.
