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[Jeff Wall: An Impossible Photograph]

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[INTERVIEWER, OFF SCREEN][br]So let me just ask a question.

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The gentleman on the wall there,

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who's looking in the plate-glass window,

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and who has these incredible trousers on--

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did you make those trousers?

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Did he make those trousers?

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Did you impose those trousers on him?

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Is there any artifice going on there?

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How do you describe that?

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[JEFF WALL][br]It's classified information.

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[LAUGHS]

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[INTERVIEWER][br]And the same of the other picture there,

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with the woman trying on the dress?

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[WALL] That's also classified information.

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What you see happening, happened.

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That's all I have to tell you.

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How it happened is secondary

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to the fact that it happened.

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And let's imagine that[br]I found this man on the sidewalk

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and got him to do what he was already doing--

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or if I had elaborately reconstructed that--

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what's the difference?

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I mean, there is obviously a difference

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factually, historically, and so on.

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And in photography, that difference matters.

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Artistically in photography,

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it can't matter any more than it does[br]in any other art form.

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In painting, it doesn't matter.

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In sculpture, it doesn't matter.

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In theater, it doesn't matter.

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In cinema, it doesn't matter.

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It only matters in one art form,

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and that's photography.

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That's why you have to deal with it.

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[INTERVIEWER] Well, what was the starting point?

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[WALL] Um...

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Kind of a memory from thirty,[br]forty years ago

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that came back unexpectedly.

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When I realized I liked the subject,

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the question was,[br]"How on earth could you photograph that?"

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The impossibility of seeing it was[br]one of the triggers for it becoming interesting.

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So, on that side of the dressing room,

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you know there will be a mirror,

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because on the opposite side is a curtain.

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But it's not a mirror image,

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because if you look at the hangers,

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they say "Barneys" on them--

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not backwards.

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The curtain is closed.

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No one has got access[br]to see into the dressing room.

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You're not allowed to have[br]one-way mirrors in dressing rooms.

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You can't have surveillance cameras[br]in dressing rooms.

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These are all facts that,

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if you analyze the picture,

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you will have to come to this conclusion.

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Therefore, the only thing[br]that you can be seeing

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is what the mirror sees.

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So, that's a picture that can't be made.

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This caused many interesting difficulties.

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Barneys is a store you can steal from.

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So of course I had to go to Barneys

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and take photographs of the dressing rooms

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and measure them and get every detail

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and then copy the thing.

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[CLICKING OF LIGHT SWITCH ECHOES]

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What I've told you is something that I believe

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if you pay attention to that picture

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and enjoy it and look at it--[br]get involved in it--

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it'll come to you.

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And when it comes to you, it'll be exciting.

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You know, the most beautiful artistry is hidden.

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But there's no secret.

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It's not like it's a secret.

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It's a condition.