Hank Willis Thomas: I'm Deb's son.
Hank Willis Thomas: 我是Deb的儿子
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Deborah Willis: And I'm Hank's mom.
Deborah Willis: 我是Hank的妈妈
HWT: We've said that so many times, we've made a piece about it. It's called "Sometimes I See Myself In You," and it speaks to the symbiotic relationship that we've developed over the years through our life and work. And really, it's because everywhere we go, together or apart, we carry these monikers. I've been following in my mother's footsteps since before I was even born and haven't figured out how to stop. And as I get older, it does get harder. No seriously, it gets harder.
Thomas:我们曾说过那么多次, 我们甚至为这个主题拍了张照片, 叫做“有时候我在你身上看到我自己”。 这叫做“共生关系”, 我们通过生活和工作培养了多年, 真的,因为不管我们去哪里, 一起或者各自去, 总会得到这样的绰号。 自从我出生开始, 我就一直追随着我母亲的脚步, 并且还不知道怎么停下来, 随着年龄的增长变得越来越难。 不那么严谨的说,越来越难。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
My mother's taught me many things, though, most of all that love overrules. She's taught me that love is an action, not a feeling. Love is a way of being, it's a way of doing, it's a way of listening and it's a way of seeing.
我的妈妈也教会了我很多事情, 最重要的是,爱会战胜一切。 她告诉我, 爱是行动, 不是感觉。 爱是去成为,去行动, 爱是聆听,是观看,
DW: And also, the idea about love, photographers, they're looking for love when they make photographs. They're looking and looking and finding love. Growing up in North Philadelphia, I was surrounded by people in my family and friends who made photographs and used the family camera as a way of telling a story about life, about life of joy, about what it meant to become a family in North Philadelphia. So I spent most of my life searching for pictures that reflect on ideas about black love, black joy and about family life. So it's really important to think about the action of love overrules as a verb.
Deborah:同样,关于爱的观点, 对于摄影师来说, 当他们拍摄时,他们就是在寻找爱。 他们找啊找,找到爱。 我在北费城长大, 身边都是家人和朋友, 他们都使用家庭相机拍照片, 去讲述人生故事, 去讲述人生乐趣, 去讲述成为北费城的一个家庭意味着什么。 所以我花了人生的大多数时间找寻照片, 能反映黑人的爱和黑人的快乐的照片, 和关于家庭生活的照片。 所以,对我来说,把爱至高无上 看做动词是非常重要的
HWT: Sometimes I wonder if the love of looking is genetic, because, like my mother, I've loved photographs since before I can even remember. I think sometimes that -- after my mother and her mother -- that photography and photographs were my first love. No offense to my father, but that's what you get for calling me a "ham" wherever you go. I remember whenever I'd go to my grandmother's house, she would hide all the photo albums because she was afraid of me asking, "Well, who is that in that picture?" and "Who are they to you and who are they to me, and how old were you when that picture was taken? How old was I when that picture was taken? And why were they in black and white? Was the world in black and white before I was born?"
Thomas:有时候我想知道这种 寻找爱的能力是否是基因决定的, 因为,像我妈妈一样, 从我记事起我就爱上了摄影, 有时候我都会想, 除了我的妈妈和她(Deb)的妈妈, 我最爱的就是摄影和照片了。 无意冒犯我的父亲, 但那就是为什么你会叫我“火腿”了, 不管你去哪里。 我记得不管什么时候去奶奶家, 她都会把所有的相簿都藏起来, 因为她怕我问她, “嗯...那照片里的是谁?” “他们是你的谁,是我的谁?” “拍那照片时候你多大?” “拍那照片时候我多大?” “它们为什么是黑白的呢?” “我出生的时候世界也是黑白的么?”
DW: Well, that's interesting, just to think about the world in black and white. I grew up in a beauty shop in North Philadelphia, my mom's beauty shop, looking at "Ebony Magazine," found images that told stories that were often not in the daily news, but in the family album. I wanted the family album to be energetic for me, a way of telling stories, and one day I happened upon a book in the Philadelphia Public Library called "The Sweet Flypaper of Life" by Roy DeCarava and Langston Hughes. I think what attracted me as a seven-year-old, the title, flypaper and sweet, but to think about that as a seven-year-old, I looked at the beautiful images that Roy DeCarava made and then looked at ways that I could tell a story about life. And looking for me is the act that basically changed my life.
Deborah:嗯,真挺有趣的 光是想到“黑白世界”就觉得很有趣。 我在北费城的一家美容店长大, 那是我妈妈的美容店, 我在看“Ebony 杂志”的时候, 就发现图片讲出来的故事 并不经常出现在每日新闻里, 而是出现在家庭相簿里。 我希望家庭相簿是让我积极向上, 成为讲故事的一种方式。 有一天我在费城公共图书馆偶然看到一本书, 书名叫“轻舞飞扬”,作者是 Roy DeCarava和 Langston Hughes 我觉得吸引7岁的我的是-- 标题、“捕蝇纸”、“糖果”, 但作为一个7岁的小女孩去思考的话, 我看着Roy DeCarava 拍出来的漂亮的图片, 又想想我能讲述人生故事的方式。 寻找自我的行动彻底改变了我的生活。
HWT: My friend Chris Johnson told me that every photographer, every artist, is essentially trying to answer one question, and I think your question might have been, "Why doesn't the rest of the world see how beautiful we are, and what can I do to help them see our community the way I do?"
Thomas: 我一个朋友 Chris Johnson 告诉我, 每位摄影师,每位艺术家, 基本都在尝试着去回答一个问题, 我认为你的问题可能是: “为什么世界上的其他人看不到 我们所看到的世界有这么美? 我怎么帮助他们 让他们像我们一样看待这个世界?”
DW: While studying in art school -- it's probably true -- I had a male professor who told me that I was taking up a good man's space. He tried to stifle my dream of becoming a photographer. He attempted to shame me in a class full of male photographers. He told me I was out of place and out of order as a woman, and he went on to say that all you could and would do was to have a baby when a good man could have had your seat in this class. I was shocked into silence into that experience. But I had my camera, and I was determined to prove to him that I was worthy for a seat in that class. But in retrospect, I asked myself: "Why did I need to prove it to him?" You know, I had my camera, and I knew I needed to prove to myself that I would make a difference in photography. I love photography, and no one is going to stop me from making images.
Deborah:我在艺术学校学习的时候, 那可能是对的, 一个男教授告诉我说 我占去了一个优秀男人的位置, 他试图扼杀我想成为一名摄影师的梦想, 他试图让我在一个全是男摄影师的班级里 感到羞愧。 他告诉我,作为一名女性 像我这样是不恰当的, 然后他接着说,所有你可以做的和将要做的, 就是去结婚生子, 让一个优秀的男人坐在这里, 我记得那次我很震惊,没有说一句话。 但是我有相机,并且我决定向他证明, 我是值得坐在这里的。 但是回想起来,我问了问自己 “为什么我要证明给他看呢?” 你知道的,我有相机,我 知道我需要向自己证明, 我会在摄影界产生影响。 我爱摄影,没人能阻拦我拍照片。
HWT: But that's when I came in.
Thomas:但是当我到来的时候...
DW: Yeah, that year I graduated, I got pregnant. Yep, he was right. And I had you, and I shook off that sexist language that he used against me and picked up my camera and made photographs daily, and made photographs of my pregnant belly as I prepared for graduate school. But I thought about also that black photographers were missing from the history books of photography, and I was looking for ways to tell a story. And I ran across Gordon Parks' book "A Choice of Weapons," which was his autobiography. I began photographing and making images, and I tucked away that contact sheet that I made of my pregnant belly, and then you inspired me to create a new piece, a piece that said, "A woman taking a place from a good man," "You took the space from a good man," and then I used that language and reversed it and said, "I made a space for a good man, you."
Deborah:对,我毕业那年怀孕了。 对,他说对了, 然后我就有了你, 我摆脱了他用来攻击我的 性别歧视主义语言, 捡起我的相机,每天都去拍照, 在我准备考研究生的时候 给我怀孕的肚子拍照 但我也想到黑人摄影师 正在从摄影史册上消失, 我那时在寻找讲故事的方式, 我偶然看到Gordon Park的书《武器的选择》, 那是他的自传。 然后我就开始摄影,拍照, 我把我怀孕肚子的相片集藏起来。 然后你启发了我再去创造一个新的, 名字叫“一个女人占了 一个优秀男人的地方”, “你占了一个男人的位置”。 然后我用了那句子,但是把它颠倒过来了, “我给一个优秀男人,你,创造了一个位置”
(Applause)
(掌声)
HWT: Thanks, ma. Like mother, like son. I grew up in a house full of photographs. They were everywhere, and my mother would turn the kitchen into a darkroom. And there weren't just pictures that she took and pictures of family members. But there were pictures on the wall of and by people that we didn't know, men and women that we didn't know. Thanks, ma.
Thomas:谢谢,妈 我和我妈一样, 我也是在一栋满是照片的房子里长大, 到处都是照片, 我妈把厨房变成了一个暗室, 那里不仅仅是她拍的照片, 还有家人们的照片。 但是墙上的照片还有我不认识的人, 我不认识的男人和女人, 谢谢你了,妈妈
(Laughter)
(笑声)
I have my own timing.
我有我自己的时间
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Did you see her poke me?
看见没,她戳我
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Puppet strings.
“木偶线”
I grew up in a house full of photographs.
我在一个满是照片的屋子里长大。
(Applause)
(掌声)
But they weren't just pictures of men and women that we knew, but pictures of people that I didn't know, Pretty much, it was pretty clear from what I learned in school, that the rest of the world didn't either. And it took me a long time to figure out what she was up to, but after a while, I figured it out. When I was nine years old, she published this book, "Black Photographers, 1840-1940: A Bio-Bibliography." And it's astounding to me to consider that in 1840, African Americans were making photographs. What does it mean for us to think that at a time that was two, three decades before the end of slavery, that people were learning how to read, they had to learn how to do math, they had to be on the cutting edge of science and technology, to do math, physics and chemistry just to make a single photograph. And what compelled them to do that if not love? Well, that book led her to her next book, "Black Photographers, 1940-1988," and that book led to another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another.
并不只有我认识的人的照片 还有我不认识的人的照片。 很不一样,这和我在学校学到的很不一样, 和这世界的其他东西也都不一样。 我花了很长时间去弄明白她在做什么, 但不久后,我弄明白了。 那是我九岁的时候,她出版了这本书, “黑人摄影师,1840-1940:人物目录” 我很震惊的是, 1840年有非裔美人在摄影。 这对我们来说意味着什么, 在二,三十年前, 在奴隶制接近尾声的时候, 在人们都在学习如何阅读的时候, 在他们必须学习数学的时候, 在他们必须处在科技最前沿的时候, 仅仅是为了去拍摄一张照片, 必须学习数学,物理和化学 如果不是爱的话, 那还有什么能迫使他们这样做呢? 那本书促使了她下一本书的出生-- “黑人摄影师,1940-1988” 从而又促使了再下一本的出生, 再下一本, 再下一本, 再下一本,再下一本, 再下一本,再下一本, 再下一本,再下一本。
(Applause)
(掌声)
And throughout my life, she's edited and published dozens of books and curated numerous exhibitions on every continent, not all about black photographers but all inspired by the curiosity of a little black girl from North Philadelphia.
在我的一生中, 她编辑并出版了许多本书, 也在各大洲担任了了各种展览的馆长, 不全是有关黑人摄影师的, 但是都源发于一个来自北费城的 一个黑人小女孩的好奇心。
DW: What I found is that black photographers had stories to tell, and we needed to listen. And then I found and I discovered black photographers like Augustus Washington, who made these beautiful daguerreotypes of the McGill family in the early 1840s and '50s. Their stories tended to be different, black photographers, and they had a different narrative about black life during slavery, but it was also about family life, beauty and telling stories about community. I didn't know how to link the stories, but I knew that teachers needed to know this story.
Deborah:我发现黑人摄影师有故事要说, 并且我们需要去聆听。 后来我找到了并且发现了 像Augustus Washington 这样的黑人摄影师, 在19世纪40年代早期和50年代, 他用银版摄影法为McGill家族 拍摄了这些美丽的照片。 黑人摄影师的故事都是不一样的, 他们讲述了奴隶时期黑人的不同故事, 但是都是有关家庭生活,美, 以及讲述社区的故事。 我不知道怎么把这些故事联系起来, 但是我知道,老师们需要知道这个故事。
HWT: So I think I was my mother's first student. Unwillingly and unwittingly -- puppet strings -- I decided to pick up a camera, and thought that I should make my own pictures about the then and now and the now and then. I thought about how I could use photography to talk about how what's going on outside of the frame of the camera can affect what we see inside. The truth is always in the hands of the actual image maker and it's up to us to really consider what's being cut out. I thought I could use her research as a jumping-off point of things that I was seeing in society and I wanted to start to think about how I could use historical images to talk about the past being present and think about ways that we can speak to the perennial struggle for human rights and equal rights through my appropriation of photographs in the form of sculpture, video, installation and paintings. But through it all, one piece has affected me the most. It continues to nourish me. It's based off of this photograph by Ernest Withers, who took this picture in 1968 at the Memphis Sanitation Workers March of men and women standing collectively to affirm their humanity. They were holding signs that said "I am a man," and I found that astounding, because the phrase I grew up with wasn't "I am a man," it was "I am the man," and I was amazed at how it went from this collective statement during segregation to this seemingly selfish statement after integration. And I wanted to ponder that, so I decided to remix that text in as many ways as I could think of, and I like to think of the top line as a timeline of American history, and the last line as a poem, and it says, "I am the man. Who's the man. You the man. What a man. I am man. I am many. I am, am I. I am, I am. I am, Amen.
Thomas:所以我认为我是我妈妈的第一个学生, 不情愿的,不知不觉的--“木偶线” 我决定拿起一部相机, 我认为我应该拍出自己的照片, 有关以后和现在,有关现在和以后。 我考虑了应该如何运用摄影 去讲述相机的画面之外发生的事情 是怎么影响我们能看到的照片里的画面的。 事实总是掌握在实物拍摄者的手里的, 到底把什么排除在外也是也是由我们决定的。 我感觉我可以用她的调查结果作为一个出发点, 那些我看到的关于这个社会的事情。 我想开始思考如何用历史图片 来讲述现在中的过去 也开始思考用什么方式 来描述长久不懈地争取人权和平等权利 作的斗争 通过运用照片 来表现雕塑,视频, 造型和画。 但是在这其中,有一种对我影响最大, 它仍然在滋养我, 这是基于Ernest Withers的这张照片, 拍摄于1968年, 那是三月的孟菲斯环卫工人, 男人和女人们站在一起去维护人权。 他们拿着上面写着“我是一个人”的牌子, 我很震惊,因为我从小到大 知道的句子不是“我是一个人” 而是“我是那个人”, 并且我很惊讶的是它是如何从种族隔离时期的 集体声明中分离出来 在整合后达到这种看似自私的声明的。 我想要仔细考虑一下, 所以我决定去以我能想到的 所有方式重新合成那个主题, 我想把第一行以美国历史的时间轴开始, 最后一行以一首诗作为结束, 写着, “我是那个人,谁是那个人, 你是那个人,什么是人, 我是人,我是许多人,我是,是我, 我是,我是,我是,阿门。”
DW: Wow, so fascinating.
Deborah:哇,太棒了。
(Applause)
(掌声)
But what we learn from this experience is the most powerful two words in the English language is, "I am." And we each have the capacity to love.
但是我们从这次尝试中学到的 是英语中最有力的那两个字:“我是!”。 我们每个人都有能力去爱。
Thank you.
谢谢!
(Applause)
(掌声)