Tanja Alexia Hollander – Are you really my friend?
“What is home? Is it just a place you live? Is it important to you? Do you share it with friends and family? Do you have photographs of it?”
Alex Steed, Cornish, Maine, 2011
Relationship: friends, art, met on FB through Bakery Photo Collective
Years known: 0-5
On New Year’s Eve of 2010, I found myself sitting at my kitchen table, simultaneously writing a letter in pencil to a friend deployed in Afghanistan and on Facebook, instant messaging a friend working on a film in Jakarta. I woke up in 2011, thinking a lot about friendship and relationships, and how we communicate with one another in the 21st century. On one hand, the letter has a tangibility that makes it seem more genuine and real, while on the other hand social networks provide an immediate way to be part of people’s lives all over the world, often through photographs. For the next couple of months, I started to analyze my use of Facebook and the “friends” I had accumulated in this online world. What I found were some people I hadn’t met in “real life”; a few people I was not speaking to in “real life”; ex lovers with new partners; ex-partners of friends; art dealers, curators and high school friends who I hadn’t seen in over 20 years. I asked myself, “am I really friends with all these people?” So, at the end of February, I set out to find the answer, using the only tool I know – photography. I decided to visit every one of my Facebook “friends” in their homes and make their formal portrait. The only thing stopping me was money and time. I quit one of my jobs, started writing grants and crowd fundraising and “Are you really my friend? The Facebook portrait project” was born.
In the last eight months, I have raised almost $20,000, completed over 100 portraits, photographed 163 Facebook “friends”, traveled to 11 states across the country and nearly 50 cities/towns. I have traveled by plane, train, subway, bus, car, bike and on foot. I continue to be surprised by the number of people, especially (the real life) total strangers, who have opened their homes to me, sharing their lives, their stories, their food, their gardens and their families while allowing my camera to document it. What started out as a personal documentary on friendship and environmental portraiture has turned into an exploration of American culture, relationships, generosity & compassion, family structure, community building, story telling, meal sharing, our relationship to technology & travel in the 21st century, social networking, memory, and the history of the portrait.
I made a conscious decision to travel lightly and unobtrusively, with a digital point & shoot, a film camera and a tripod, and to shoot in each home with only available light. I then process the film, scan it and put it online as quickly as I can. I have crawled on the floor, played legos and read books with children I just met, admired chickens and prize roosters, shared a bowl of gumbo in New Orleans (with a friend I hadn’t met in real life), toured the West Wing and listened to stories of family tragedy and strength. I have learned how people live and create home. When I asked on the project’s Facebook page: “What is home? Is it just a place you live? Is it important to you? Do you share it with friends and family? Do you have photographs of it?” I received some compelling responses.
More on the Facebookportraitproject.com
Alicia Sindel Vega, Juan Pablo & Sofia Vega, Clayton, Missouri, 2012
Relationship: friends, family friends, met through Toby Hollander
Years known: Alicia 25-30, Juan Pablo 0-5
Jenn Sichel & Kristine Moss, Chicago, Illinois, 2012
Relationship: friends, art, met through Laura Fried
Years known: Jenn 5-10, Kristine 0-5
Gar Allen & Larry Bennett, St. Louis, Missouri, 2012
Relationship: friends, met through Tania Allen
Years known: 30-35
Bernadette Magrath Brown, Kennedy Brown, Sheila, Sidney, Eric & Carlie Miranda, Webster Groves, Missouri, 2012
Relationship: friends, family friends, met through Toby Hollander
Years known: Bernadette & Sheila 30-35, Sidney 0-5
Kyle Durrie (in Type Truck), Brooklyn, New York, 2011
Relationship: friends, art, met at Local 188
Years known: 5-10
Sarah, Joe, Genevieve & Ellie Francois, St. Louis, Missouri, 2012
Relationship: friends, met through Tania Allen
Years known: Sarah 25-30, Joe 5-10
Rosy Ngo & Plum Vagnetti, Brooklyn, New York, 2011
Telationship: friends, art, met at Hampshire College
Years known: 20-25
More images and other interesting facts about the project on Facebookportraitproject.com or on the Facebook Page. Tanja Alexia Hollander (b. 1972) St. Louis, Missouri is Bachelor of the Arts (1994) and her works can be found on www.tanjaalexiahollander.com.
There ought to be some attention paid to integrity. And this project sorely lacks integrity. Certainly Facebook is a timely and topical subject for contemplation. Social interaction has undergone dramatic change because of technology. Peeling back the layers of that profound phenomenon is important work. But what is “Are you really my friend”? Despite its title being a question, it demonstrates no intellectual curiosity. The artist questioned the nature of friendship in 2010, but what has she done since to further examine it? Taking the step of making portraits of people who are Facebook friends (along with family and mates) in their homes is barely superficially logical. Why make portraits? Why travel to people’s homes? What can a viewer discern from the portraits that suggests some link to the nature of friendship? What do the portraits say about virtual social networking versus face-to-face social networking (or the impact of the former on the latter)? Why use only natural light? Why use film?
Perhaps more importantly, why make decidedly BAD portraits? One need only review environmental portraiture on the web for ten minutes to conclude these portraits are vastly substandard. Moreover, these portraits purport to be art. Is it justifiable to categorize them as such? Art is agreed by many to have the role of questioning, provoking, inspiring, tantalizing, penetrating, transcending, edifying, challenging, satisfying. This work does not of that. Accordingly, the project fails as an intellectual endeavor AND an artistic one. Many artists fail at one or the other, very few fail so resoundingly at both. That the project has garnered so much attention is not the least bit surprising. Imagine the headline, “Women travels world to meet Facebook friends!” Fascinating, right? Well, sort of. It certainly caught my eye. But like a teaser on local TV news, the story turns out to be entirely inconsequential compared to its promising lead-in. I have heard the artist declare that the project is designed to raise more questions than it answers. (Cleaver.) But does it even do that? I’m left asking only one question after viewing the project, why?
Not convinced? Consider the artist Jocelyn Lee. She too spent considerable time in Maine. View one of her portraits. Just one. It is inarguable that her work provokes, penetrates, transcends, inspires, questions. There is no gimmick to her work. No flashy headlines. No trendy travelogue. Just deliberate art that draws on deliberate introspection and social exploration.
In a time when contemporary art is routinely criticized for being facile and superficial, a project such as “Are you really my friend” must be called out for being intellectual lazy and artistically bankrupt. It should be shunned by artists who have committed themselves to the heady endeavor of truly questioning, uplifting, transcending, and inspiring. There ought to be some attention paid to integrity. And this project sorely lacks integrity.
To Tanja’s Facebook friends and mom:
I hate to sound mean spirited or cruel — I really do. But as her friends, I believe you better serve Tanja by acting less as cheerleaders and more as supportive, constructive sounding boards. Please read Tanja’s words:
“What started out as a personal documentary on friendship and environmental portraiture has turned into an exploration of American culture, relationships, generosity & compassion, family structure, community building, story telling, meal sharing, our relationship to technology & travel in the 21st century, social networking, memory, and the history of the portrait.”
I want to humbly suggest that I can’t imagine another artist with so little humility. I don’t want to tear Tanja down. I want to point out that the statement and project itself is more braggadocio than substance. I’m sincerely embarrassed by it. Consider the scope of what she purports to achieve in her work and her experience. Could any artist achieve all of it — or even a fraction of it?
Now consider Jocelyn Lee:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bu.edu/prc/prcportfolio/portfolioimages/Lee_500x625.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bu.edu/prc/prcportfolio/portfolioartists/leeportfolio.htm&h=625&w=500&sz=65&tbnid=5CUyBdi2KSUmsM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=72&prev=/search%3Fq%3Djocelyn%2Blee%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=jocelyn+lee&usg=__0JaY1437jFVokNSNhlEUlwvZltQ=&docid=Yg3UDulWNK1q-M&sa=X&ei=nNraT5GBOsTi2gWA9oiQBg&ved=0CIwBEPUBMAg&dur=525
Any comparison at all? Should they be hung on the same museum/gallery walls?
Or consider Holly Andres’ “Four Siblings and their Pet Chicken”:
http://hollyandres.com/Portraits
Andres’ presents a stunning environmental portrait (consider the brilliant facility she has with camera and lighting) AS WELL AS a compelling commentary on and metanalysis of the environmental portrait, “normative” family configurations, the construction of the middle class myth, etc., etc., etc.
Note that neither Andres nor Lee make any bold pronouncements about the scope or accomplishment of their own work, as does Tanja.
Will you continue to blindly support Tanja’s ambitious efforts without placing them within the context of other exhibited contemporary art? I fear that your reaction to my post above says more about the nature of Facebook than all that Tanja has produced. Sometimes a true fiend must be an honest friend. So perhaps, Tanja, this is as good a time as any to ask yourself of those who rush to your defense, “Are you really my friend?”
Please excuse my typo in the second to last sentence of the above post. Of course I meant to say: “Sometimes a true FRIEND must be an honest friend.”
Hi Winston,
Thank you for the visit. I will try to answer later to your questions.
You have to notice, first of all, that this is a personal blog and I feature photographic projects.
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