Vik Muniz
[Artist, b. 1961, Sao Paulo, Brazil, lives in New York.]
As for Happenings, I have been to a few performances and I confess that I get embarrassed and rarely enjoy them. Photographs of such events, however, are always fascinating.
Some people may find it hard to call what I do photography, but I don’t feel myself so distant from the wedding photographer who asks people to smile before he takes a shot.
Even though photography was a direct result of the general difficulties people encountered while trying to draw a picture, ironically… very few people have paired the two media with success.
Smiling for a camera seems to be embedded in the genetic code—even the blind do it.
