0:00:00.380,0:00:02.000 [Greenpoint, Brooklyn] 0:00:03.640,0:00:04.140 [DOOR SLAMS] 0:00:04.420,0:00:04.920 [LIGHT SWITCH FLICKS ON] 0:00:06.280,0:00:07.680 [SOUND OF COMPUTER STARTING UP] 0:00:07.680,0:00:09.260 [New York Close Up] 0:00:11.960,0:00:14.220 ["Lucas Blalock's Digital Toolkit"] 0:00:16.640,0:00:17.620 This is "The Smoker". 0:00:17.620,0:00:18.890 [SOUND OF CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING] 0:00:18.890,0:00:22.260 That picture started off by me wanting to[br]make a picture of a smoker. 0:00:22.260,0:00:26.420 It sort of relates to this Magritte painting[br]from the late Forties. 0:00:27.740,0:00:29.540 I was going to have an exhibition in Brussels 0:00:29.550,0:00:30.700 and Magritte is from Brussels. 0:00:30.700,0:00:35.280 It seemed like a suitable environment for[br]this, sort of, game. 0:00:35.280,0:00:36.420 [SOUND OF CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING] 0:00:58.020,0:00:58.540 [SOUND OF CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING] 0:00:59.460,0:01:01.260 [Lucas Blalock, Artist] 0:01:02.050,0:01:04.939 I started using Photoshop when I was still[br]in undergrad. 0:01:04.939,0:01:06.549 It was just, like, a procedural tool. 0:01:07.220,0:01:09.460 Like, it was a replacement for the dark room. 0:01:11.280,0:01:13.460 It felt like special effects for a long time. 0:01:13.470,0:01:15.600 It felt just like something after the fact— 0:01:15.600,0:01:17.780 that it was, sort of, making up ground for[br]a picture. 0:01:17.780,0:01:20.340 It took me a long time to get to a place 0:01:20.340,0:01:23.240 where I understood how I might be able to[br]use it. 0:01:25.490,0:01:29.070 Around the time I read Bertolt Brecht's book[br]on theater— 0:01:29.070,0:01:31.659 he was talking about bringing the labor 0:01:31.659,0:01:35.310 that happened offstage—in a theater production—onto[br]the stage. 0:01:35.310,0:01:38.930 I started to think about the kinds of labor[br]I was hiding. 0:01:39.520,0:01:43.179 There are all these ways to, sort of, hide[br]your labor in Photoshop. 0:01:43.179,0:01:46.310 And I'd been really interested in, sort of,[br]undermining those things. 0:01:46.310,0:01:48.749 There are a lot of things the computer will[br]do for you 0:01:48.749,0:01:49.880 that don't need you, 0:01:49.880,0:01:52.259 and those have never been tools that I've[br]been particularly attracted to. 0:01:52.259,0:01:55.840 Like, I'm attracted to the ones that are sort[br]of the dumbest tools in Photoshop. 0:01:55.840,0:02:00.200 And I tend to use them in the most blunt way. 0:02:00.760,0:02:02.540 [1. Eraser Tool] 0:02:03.300,0:02:05.880 One of the rules of photography seems to be[br]that 0:02:05.889,0:02:07.429 the photograph needs to be homogeneous-- 0:02:07.429,0:02:10.610 it needs to be one thing. 0:02:10.610,0:02:12.670 Usually that's one view. 0:02:13.750,0:02:18.450 I was really interested in how I add levels[br]of labor to photographs 0:02:18.450,0:02:20.510 without losing that sense of photographicness. 0:02:20.510,0:02:23.050 And the cutting through was part of that. 0:02:34.260,0:02:36.420 [2. Masking] 0:02:36.420,0:02:39.260 In commercial practice, masking is a way to 0:02:39.260,0:02:42.790 select the sky in a photograph and make it[br]a darker blue, 0:02:42.790,0:02:45.900 or to select someone's eyes in a photograph[br]and sort of brighten them up. 0:02:45.900,0:02:51.760 And for me, masking has sort of opened up[br]possibilities of drawing out relationships. 0:02:52.080,0:02:55.960 Like, when I saw this bag, it looked like[br]a human torso to me, 0:02:55.960,0:02:57.580 and when I took its picture, 0:02:57.580,0:02:58.880 that's sort of what was on my mind. 0:02:58.880,0:03:02.150 When I got the negative back, I started to[br]look for opportunities 0:03:02.150,0:03:04.950 to sort of enhance that relationship. 0:03:13.000,0:03:15.960 One of the tools that I've used a lot is the[br]clone stamp-- 0:03:15.960,0:03:16.620 [3. Clone Stamp] 0:03:16.630,0:03:19.170 you would use to take out imperfections, 0:03:19.170,0:03:22.730 or you would use to remove a lamp post from[br]a street. 0:03:24.200,0:03:27.180 I think something with the clone stamp particularly[br]that I'm really excited about: 0:03:27.180,0:03:30.640 it's an activity that can be either additive[br]or subtractive. 0:03:31.590,0:03:33.210 So you could cover something up-- 0:03:33.210,0:03:35.370 say, take an object out of the picture-- 0:03:35.370,0:03:37.200 but if you did it poorly, 0:03:37.200,0:03:41.660 it would leave this, kind of, interference[br]pattern in the background. 0:03:49.220,0:03:51.380 There's been an anxiety about, sort of, you[br]know, 0:03:51.380,0:03:52.520 [4. Brush Tool] 0:03:52.520,0:03:53.960 "Why would you make another picture now?" 0:03:53.960,0:03:54.560 "What's the point?" 0:03:54.560,0:03:56.290 "There are pictures of everything already." 0:03:56.290,0:04:01.370 I really had started to think about photography[br]as an activity of drawing-- 0:04:01.370,0:04:05.750 as a way to try to understand the world through[br]making a picture of it. 0:04:05.750,0:04:09.480 And this seems to be a continuation of the[br]historic activity of drawing-- 0:04:09.480,0:04:10.680 like, drawing with a pencil. 0:04:18.370,0:04:19.590 When I started, what I was doing 0:04:19.590,0:04:22.580 was sort of making a burlesque of commercial[br]practice. 0:04:22.580,0:04:25.490 Because, really, these were the only people[br]who were using 0:04:25.490,0:04:27.250 digital effects in their pictures. 0:04:27.250,0:04:31.240 And so, I use all of the tools that I use 0:04:31.250,0:04:33.110 in a really similar way. 0:04:33.440,0:04:34.040 [SOUND OF CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING] 0:04:34.040,0:04:36.240 They're all, really, this shovel, you know? 0:04:36.240,0:04:37.650 They're this extension of the finger. 0:04:37.650,0:04:38.430 [SOUND OF CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING] 0:04:39.120,0:04:41.510 Being sort of stuck into space, 0:04:41.510,0:04:45.240 it's an entry into a space that I couldn't[br]enter any other way 0:04:45.240,0:04:46.780 but through Photoshop. 0:04:48.280,0:04:51.320 Humor, for me, has been an important thing[br]in my work 0:04:51.320,0:04:53.750 because it's a way to, sort of, bring people into[br]the room. 0:04:53.750,0:04:54.750 It's literally disarming. 0:04:54.750,0:04:55.650 Like, Buster Keaton, 0:04:55.650,0:04:56.790 or like, early cinema-- 0:04:56.790,0:04:59.070 it's people who were incredibly effective 0:04:59.070,0:05:02.880 at drawing our understanding of the cinema. 0:05:02.880,0:05:06.660 Buster Keaton's gags give us a way to enter[br]movies. 0:05:07.680,0:05:09.600 Humor for me is about relationships. 0:05:09.600,0:05:12.680 It's about an invitation to relate to the[br]objects in the pictures, 0:05:12.690,0:05:15.810 and I think that more and more, as time has[br]gone on, 0:05:15.810,0:05:19.120 it's been also about relating to this sort[br]of 0:05:19.120,0:05:21.380 ambiguousness of photographing digital space 0:05:21.380,0:05:24.240 and the way that it's now being construed. 0:05:24.870,0:05:27.950 I believe in art because art makes new spaces. 0:05:27.950,0:05:31.020 Aesthetics is a way of, sort of, proto thinking-- 0:05:31.030,0:05:33.570 of thinking before you can think these new[br]thoughts. 0:05:35.490,0:05:38.210 Even in the goofiest, most ridiculous way, 0:05:38.210,0:05:41.450 aesthetics is a way of, sort of, unpacking[br]possibility.