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Jeff Wall: An Impossible Photograph | Art21 "Extended Play"

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    [Jeff Wall: An Impossible Photograph]
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    [INTERVIEWER, OFF SCREEN]
    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]
    It's classified information.
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    [LAUGHS]
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    [INTERVIEWER]
    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
    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
    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,
    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,
    "How on earth could you photograph that?"
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    The impossibility of seeing it was
    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
    to see into the dressing room.
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    You're not allowed to have
    one-way mirrors in dressing rooms.
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    You can't have surveillance cameras
    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
    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--
    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.
Title:
Jeff Wall: An Impossible Photograph | Art21 "Extended Play"
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"Extended Play" series
Duration:
03:37

English subtitles

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