JPG: The Magazine of Brave New Photography has posted my profile of photographer Clayton Cubitt, aka Siege, online. Issue 12: Fashion, edited by designer Alison Kelly of "Project Runway," will be out soon.
Recently, his work has taken a new turn. He has begun "degrading" his images. The results bring to mind the experimental films of Stan Brakhage, who painted on and scratched the film surface to dramatic effect, and "Decasia," a 2002 film by director Bill Morrison created out of found silent film footage that is actively deteriorating. This new work—in which shards of light streak across a model's face and shooting vectors intertwine with whirling hairdos—are as enamored with desecrating beauty as they are invested in paying it homage. In this case, his inspiration came from a most unlikely source. In 2005, his mother, a resident of Pearlington, Mississippi, a small town located not far from New Orleans, was living in a new home Cubitt had spent his savings buying for her six month previous. Her home and all her belongings were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. His subsequent efforts to help his mother recover from this devastating loss, his repeated tours through this fallen city in shambles, and his experiences creating portraits of the survivors he encountered there deeply moved him and forever changed his view of the world. "The more recent work, the personal and the fashion work," he reveals, "where I'm literally degrading the quality of the image—injuring it, damaging it—is a result of Hurricane Katrina, what it's done with New Orleans, and what it's done with my family. It's that notion of beauty—not in spite of decay, but because of decay. It becomes so horribly beautiful that you can't look away."
