[strumming music]

- I like to make work
out in the world.

I find it endlessly
fascinating.

♪ ♪

And I find that
I could never invent

the incredible things
that happen.

♪ ♪

And I love going places
or having experiences

that are not completely
within my control.

♪ ♪

Melissa?

- Yeah.

- I'm right here.

- Feeling good?

- Yeah, how are you?

- Great.
- Good.

- Great.

- Will you move the, um...

Yeah, move that around
a little bit.

- Did you know this is Revlon?

And this is what they
actually wore in the '50s.

It's called, um...

- Hold on.

Let me see.

[grunts]

Just a moment.

I will figure this
freaking thing out.

Sorry, you were saying?

- This is what the movie stars
in the '50s actually did wear.

It's called
Cherries in the Snow by Revlon.

And I wear this.

I love it.

They still make it.

- [laughs] Let me see.

I met Melissa when I was
working in Hollywood,

making photographs.

She was or--and is
a Marilyn Monroe impersonator.

Where are you?

Um...

Okay, I'm gonna
go under this way.

We've known each other now
for ten years.

What era Marilyn are we doing?

- We are doing, um,
"Let's Make Love."

- It's just been this improvisational

whatever she wants to film.

And we've become extremely close.

You know, based around
making something together.

- Ooh, hold that mirror there.

It looks good.

I'm trying to get your...

your eyes in here.

Okay, so...

[rousing music]

So often the picture can be
a gesture,

in a way, of love.

- Okay, okay,
go a little to your left.

But it's also
about being seen.

♪ ♪

I'm from Arlington,
Massachusetts,

about 15 minutes
outside of Boston.

I think I was maybe eight years old

and my grandmother
gave me a camera.

I immediately

fell in love
with observing the world.

[melancholy
electric guitar music]

So, when I moved West,

the first thing that struck me

was just the quality
of the light.

♪ ♪

And so I--so I wandered.

I just wanted to walk around with
a camera and kind of explore.

♪ ♪

I never wanted to just
photograph people

that were unaware.

It has always
very much been about

my wanting
to photograph people

who are interested
in being photographed.

♪ ♪

The light was bright
and illuminating everything,

including the incredible suffering here.

♪ ♪

You know, formally,
I was interested in

a degree of abstraction,

of really stripping away
all the extra stuff,

and only leaving what was
absolutely essential.

♪ ♪

And for me, they've become
like a family album,

remembering
each one of these people,

and what we talked about.

I always imagine them
as dissident soldiers,

you know,
where they demanded attention,

where you could not
avoid regarding them.

♪ ♪

[train horn blaring]

[blade swishes]

I think often that there
might be a perception

that the artist is the author,

when in fact it is so much
more collaborative,

when in fact people
have very strong ideas.

[ambient music]

And in particular when I
when I met Nicole

and started
photographing Nicole,

she was the most fun,
the most challenging.

♪ ♪

At one point we'd been
photographing for a while,

we were very close,
and she said, "You know,

"I don't know,
I just think your pictures

"are a little weird,
you know, a little boring.

"Can we make
some real pictures?"

And, I said, "Well, yeah."

♪ ♪

And I said,
"I'll just lock off the frame

"and do whatever you want."

♪ ♪

She got naked
and was kind of imitating

these provocative poses,

but then almost doing violence to them.

There was, uh, a desire

to have some of that glamour
or, uh, sex appeal

or whatever, and then she
rejected it at the same time.

And I thought,

This is closer
to what I feel as a woman.

♪ ♪

I mean we're talking about what's beautiful.

That's beautiful.

That is raw.

That's generous.

And her

allowing herself to be vulnerable,

is actually a strength.

I'm always drawn
to more difficult material.

♪ ♪

My best friend growing up,

she ended up having
a lot of problems

with--with drug abuse
and homelessness, and

the last time I saw her alive

she told me,

"You know, people don't want
to look at me.

"I know I don't exist anymore."

Um, that people
avert their eyes.

"I'm not even a person.

I'm a junkie."

♪ ♪

And as time has gone on,

the people that
I've photographed,

or the places I've gone have
been completely overlooked.

♪ ♪

I'd been thinking for a long
time about making a film,

or how to make a film,

because the circumstances of

making my photographs are,
in a way,

almost more important
than the pictures themselves,

or as important.

- What's in your hair?

- In my hair?

- I've been thinking
a lot about,

how can I represent or convey
a person's energy,

sense of humor, stories,
what have you.

♪ ♪

There's a lot that a
photograph can do.

But it can't do that.

- ♪ I've made
some bad decisions ♪

♪ In my life ♪

♪ Oh, oh ♪

♪ But it could get better ♪

- This place is, uh...

It's really
something else, man.

- Well, The Nine's
the name of a street.

It's the local name
for South Ninth Street

in the Central Valley,
Modesto, California.

[ambient music]

Everyone shares, [stammers]
you know, a struggle.

And there's a candor and
openness about that struggle.

[on TV]
- It's plain old-fashioned.

- Nobody says you have to like it.

- That's the way it is.

I met a woman
named Vanessa on The Nine,

and she introduced me to

to some other people
over time.

I asked them
if they might be interested

in making a film together,

and they were
really enthusiastic,

and I spent a long time
hanging out,

seeing what would happen,

getting to know people
really well,

seeing what would unfold.

[acoustic guitar music]

I didn't want to make a movie
that was sensationalizing

lives that are
already quite victimized,

but instead
showing how mundane,

how ordinary, how in fact, recognizable,

their lives were.

♪ ♪

- My mama used to say every
hair on my head was counted.

When I met Kiki,

it was really vital that she tell her own story.

♪ ♪

- She said, "Don't be afraid.

"You're worth more than
hundreds of sparrows."

♪ ♪

I don't know, though.

Even one sparrow
is holy to me.

♪ ♪

Let's eat.

Come on, babies.

[chatter on television]

- I'm not a journalist.

I saw us as making a film together.

[ambient music]

I worked with her for five years.

Spent so much time with Kiki.

And at the same time,
I am watching her

hurting herself.

And then I get to go home

to my house in Berkeley.

And what does that mean?

Do I have the right
to be there?

♪ ♪

It's--yeah,
it's--it's difficult,

and it raises
a lot of questions.

♪ ♪

I struggle with
wanting to do more.

Probably feeling a bit guilty,

and at the same time really valuing my friendships.

♪ ♪

I don't know, it'sit's
you know, the fact is,

it's complicated
and it's not resolvable,

and yet to avoid it

is sort of becoming
complicit

in--in not seeing.

[stirring music]

- Is this where
we went last time?

- Um, yeah, this is
the same route we went.

I think what we should do
is wait and get the sunset.

It's rather short, the dance.

Right now I'm kind of at the beginning again.

♪ ♪

And I have lots of ideas.

♪ ♪

I torture myself
'cause I feel like

I never know where I'm going,
but that's what's required.

- This is cool.

I really like all of this.

♪ ♪

- There are these
repeated kinds of

relationships that I have,

which are about

an unexpected collaboration.

[whispers]
Okay.

- What--what
what does this look like?

♪ ♪

- It's all beautiful.

Probably the most
important part for me

is the leap of faith

that we both take
to trust one another.

♪ ♪

Life is a lot more interesting

than kind of remaining
in my studio

or my little
my little bubble.

- Yeah, you know, should we do
the thing with the spotlight?

The--the car lights?

♪ ♪

I guess I wanna be
shaken out of complacency.

I think discomfort is
a really important feeling,

and it might
help you recognize

some of your own limitations
in the way you see the world.

Or just the fact of other possibilities.

[laughs]
I'm sorry.

Hold on.

♪ ethereal ambient music ♪

To learn more about Art21 and our educational resources,

please visit us onine at PBS.org/art21

"Art in the Twenty-First Century" Season 9 is available on DVD.

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