statement on the artist


Duane Michals
TRESS' VAUDEVILLE

If Arthur Tress comes to photograph you, beware. Do not be taken in by that
innocent smile and shy demeanor. They are his disguises. Arthur sees rather
than looks, and he will see your secrets. I don't know quite how he does it.
Tress will not just photograph your chin or nose or eyebrows. He will not seat
you in front of a piece of white no-seam paper and pretend that a photograph
of your wrinkles and a receding hairline is anything more than wrinkles and a
receding hairline. And that bored look on your face is certainly a picture of
boredom, not revelation or character. Actually that type of portrait has always
been more insult than insight in my opinion. He has not been mesmerized by
the camera's wonderful ability to describe and does not perpetuate the photo-
graphic myth that people are what they appear to be in front of a camera.
Tress takes enormous chances and makes new demands on traditional ideas
of what a photographic portrait might be, always a risky business. But he is
up to that risk, and in expanding his photographic vocabulary, he also ex-
pands ours.

Tress will upset you. When he photographs you with a friend or lover, you
will become an actor. You will perform in his theater and that drama one soon
realizes is one's own. Don't be surprised if Arthur suddenly asks you to put
your mother in a wheelbarrow, and don't be amazed to find yourself doing it.
lt all seems a joke, but when our smiles fade we are quietly shocked by what
we are experiencing. Something disconcerting has happened. Looking at
some of these photographs is like listening in on some strange family's ar-
gument. We are embarrassed and want to leave quietly, but don't. Ultimately
the joke has been on us. What at first glance seemed corny and obvious now
has become quite serious and makes us feel uncomfortable. And we are not
used to this discomfort. Most photographers make us so comfortable that we
fall asleep. We prefer photographers not to make demands on us.

Arthur is not nice. He irritates the way children do that ask too many questions.
We wish that they would be quiet because we do not know the answers to
those questions. Arthur does. lt's not that he photographs all those things that
are so readily seen between people. Rather that he ifltuits all those unseen ties
of a relationship and brings them to our attention. Now we understand and
nothing more needs to be said. lt is a kind of photographic vaudeville, funny
and sad.

I don't think that I want Arthur to photograph me. I might not be prepared to
deal with what he sees. And I know he will be right.



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