Lorna Simpson
[Artist, b. 1960, Brooklyn, New York, lives in New York.]
I focus on details, either of the body, or of objects that represent gender, sexuality, and other themes.
Generally, the imagery and the text go hand in hand. It’s much easier when the text comes first, but sometimes I need visual stimulation in order to find the words. I get an idea of what I want when I begin to shoot, and the text is usually the last thing to be resolved. I tend to leave the text open, and I refine the words up to the last minute. As for the image, I can resolve that and get that done fairly quickly.
The only thing I can hope the viewer will get from the work is something about the structure of the work. It would be asking too much, I think, for them to get my exact intention. But if—through the construct of language, the way things are juxtaposed—there is some sort of disruption of the way you would normally go about reaching photographic images... if that is happening, that’s fine.
I started to concentrate more upon how the viewer looks at photographs... I would insert my own text or my own specific reading of the image to give the viewer something they might not interpret or surmise, due to their “educated” way of looking at images, and reading them for their emotional, psychological, and/or sociological values. So I would start to interject these things that the photograph would not speak of and that I felt needed to be revealed, but that couldn’t be revealed from just looking at an image.
