for sufferers of delusions, obsessions and inscrutable wishes — what it means to be oneself and navigate a world entirely corrupted, historically treated as sideshow — attraction — perpetually considered fragile — the human mind — afflicted

“I tried to create a mythology from our contemporary world. This mythology—instead of having gods and goddesses—has the personifications of our fears and frustrations, our desires and dilemmas.” – Clarence John Laughlin

 

for sufferers of delusions, obsessions and inscrutable wishes

—

what it means to be oneself and navigate a world entirely corrupted, historically treated as sideshow

—

attraction

—

perpetually considered fragile

—

the human mind

—

afflicted 

 

Clarence John Laughlin (1905-1985) lived and worked in New Orleans, Louisiana

 

A self-taught photographer, he is known for his haunting and surrealistic images of New Orleans and the Southern landscape.  He originally aspired to be a writer, but found photography when he was 25 and taught himself how to work with a view camera.

His first photographic work was as a freelance architectural photographer, and he went on to work for other outlets such as Vogue magazine and the US government, though he later left both in order to focus exclusively on personal projects.

Laughlin is often credited as being the first true surrealist photographer in the United States, and he is arguably the most prominent Southern photographer of the mid-twentieth century.

Friends and Influences

Clarence John Laughlin was forced to leave school in his early teens to support his family after his father’s untimely passing. Subsequently, his artistic education was self-directed and entailed extensive correspondences with fellow artists and a legendary personal collection of books. This gallery highlights several key artists in Laughlin’s artistic development and displays several of the catalogues he worked on obsessively during his lifetime.

Clementine Hunter (American, 1886–1988), Melrose Plantation, ca. 1980, Oil on cardboard. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of John and Margaret Robson, 2012.251

Laughlin was instrumental in bringing self-taught painter Clementine Hunter to national attention when he photographed her for Look magazine in 1952. This picture shows Melrose Plantation, where Hunter grew up. Both of her parents previously had been enslaved in north central Louisiana. Hunter didn’t begin painting until later in life, but she started making dolls, clothes, baskets, and lace at an early age. Life at Melrose Plantation was one of the primary themes Hunter returned to in her artwork.

Joseph De Casseres, (American, 1921–2006), Clarence John Laughlin, 1968, Gelatin silver print. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, purchase, 1978.49

In addition to communicating with some of the era’s most prominent artistic figures—including Alfred Steiglitz, Man Ray, and Edward Weston—Laughlin also formed close bonds with artists outside the mainstream, such as West Coast surrealist Wynn Bullock and New Orleans–based self-taught painter Clementine Hunter. Laughlin was as much inspired by the canon of photographic excellence as he was by artists who challenged notions of what could be accepted as fine art.

Edward Weston (American, 1886–1958), Woodlawn Plantation, 1941, Gelatin silver print. Collection of New Orleans Museum of Art

San Francisco Bay Area photographer and Group f/64 founder Edward Weston was one of the earliest influences on Laughlin’s work. Best known for his still lifes, nudes, and landscapes, Weston pioneered an approach to photography that privileged sharp focus and a rich tonal range. In 1941, Laughlin and Weston photographed alongside one another for a few days in New Orleans as Weston traveled the South making photographs to illustrate a new edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Laughlin was Weston’s guide, taking him to some of his favorite sites of antebellum architecture. Both photographers produced remarkably distinctive images of the same locations in their own signature styles.

Minor White (American, 1908–1976), Found Sculpture, San Rafael Desert, Utah, 1963, Gelatin silver print. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of Lucinda W. Bunnen for the Bunnen Collection, 1992.350

Minor White photographed an anthropomorphic rock formation at close range. In so doing, he transformed a natural feature into a narrative. The photograph resembles two figures in an embrace rather than a simple rocky outcropping. Though they were often at odds personally and philosophically, both White and Laughlin employed a visually poetic approach to making photographs and encouraged readings of their work that followed a spiritual or narrative track. Yet their aesthetics were noticeably distinct: whereas Laughlin favored compositional complexity in the service of telling a story, White preferred a stark, minimalist style.

Guns, suggest smooth is vital to pike for its killing power, and also flexibility of hook, spike, wedge.

  "title": "Mentalism (discrimination)",
    "text": "Mentalism may lead people to assume that someone is not aware of what they are doing and that there is no point trying to communicate with them, despite the fact that they may well have a level of awareness and desire to connect even if they are acting in a seemingly irrational or self-harming way. In addition, mental health professionals and others may tend to equate subduing a person with treatment; a quiet client who causes no community disturbance may be deemed improved no matter how miserable or incapacitated that person may feel as a result."
    "title": "Existential therapy",
    "text": "For other theorists, there is no such thing as psychological dysfunction or mental illness. Every way of being is merely an expression of how one chooses to live one's life. However, one may feel unable to come to terms with the anxiety of being alone in the world. If so, an existential psychotherapist can assist one in accepting these feelings rather than trying to change them as if there is something wrong. Everyone has the freedom to choose how they are going to exist in life; however, this freedom may go unpracticed. It may appear easier and safer not to make decisions that one will be responsible for. Many people will remain unaware of alternative choices in life for various societal reasons.",
    "title": "Family nexus",
    "text": "It is this need for others, in order to \"be\", which makes us afraid to contradict a family nexus, risking family exclusion. However \"to a number of people the phantasy system of the nexus is a lousy hell, not an enchanting spell, and they want out...But within the phantasy of the nexus, to leave is an act of ingratitude, or cruelty, or suicide, or murder...Herein is the risk of defeat and madness.\" The distortion involved in not going against the nexus can force wrong thinking - leading to \"not being in reality\", which Laing saw as the essence of schizophrenia; and for Laing \"one of the most important questions, therefore, is whether such mistrust of her 'feelings' and the testimony of others arises from persistent inconsistencies within an original nexus.",
   
    "title": "The Game of Life (book)",
    "text": "BULLET::::- The Law of Substitution: According to Florence Scovel Shinn, sometimes our desires are misdirected: \"Many people are in ignorance of their true destinies and are striving for things and situations which do not belong to them, and would only bring failure and dissatisfaction if attained."

 

Scotsman launches fireballs from beneath his kilt. She shoots giant nails from a large briefcase that transforms into a crossbow with great proficiency, being capable of launching several in less than a second. The blacksmith brawler of his Loch rapidly punches his opponent's head, decapitates him with a kick, and headbutts head offscreen airborne. She is a transvestite, and normally wears feminine clothing and a pillbox hat. She fights Oblivion twice, the first time skewering his torso with many nails after launching him through several buildings. Elendira the Crimsonnail, referred to as the lost thirteenth man is the most powerful of the group. She is jealous of Legato, as Legato is not part of the Guns, suggesting that Legato is more important to Knives than she. The edge was given to the halberd for its killing power and the flexibility of its hook, spike, and axe head.

  

16'X18' prints on special William Eggleston Dye Transfer darkroom in 'museum of fire' red frames with dalmations and axes and firetrucks works by Cindy Sherman, Phillip Anger, FDNY of Hindenburg orig photos by William Deeke accompanying oil paintings by Joe Coleman and John Currin, sculpture by Jeff Koons featuring Cicciolina, color negative shows Hindenburg William Deeke Leica hydrogen flammable skin blowtorched by thermite-sparkling blaze suffers camera shake third degree burns hydrogen enrichment consuming skin burned twicefast

"color negative shows Hindenburg starboard droop releasing human ballast, upended sky horizontal weather, cameraman William Deeke, color photographs too heavy to focus Leica, pointed toward immolation, hydrogen flammable skin blowtorched by termite-sparkling blaze-burn--footage suffers camera shake third degree burns hydrogen enrichment consuming skin burned twicefast thermite, iron-oxide colors aluminum powder enriched dope.

three times before dripping rivers of fire shown in bright orange and blue ran down the length of landing lines and over its escaping Nazi crew, where a  flash fire backdraft is recorded  by experimental Hassleblad cameras the football field size fireball in experimental  stills similar to Zapruder film,  German crew jumping to their death on fire and screaming hot bright hotpink at a speed of  230 mph to their gruesome death 

 

"The newsreel was edited to show the ground crew footage prior to the fire with an explosion sound effect, giving the false impression the ship was exploding while the camera was focused to the ground."

"Suspended sky in a horizontal weather balloon was cameraman William Deeke, whose color photographs these were taken from his filmed but too heavy to fly-focus Leica camera, initially pointed toward ground crew, before immolation--hydrogen gas attached to flammable skin--blowtorch thermite-sparkling blaze-burn. The footage suffers camera shake because of his third degree burns as a result of the hydrogen enrichment consuming everyone's skin -- burned twice-fast thermite burning skin, painted iron-oxide and colors of  aluminum powder enriched dope.

"The film stars George C. Scott.""It was produced and directed by Robert Wise, and was written by Nelson Gidding, Richard Levinson and William Link, based on the 1972 book of the same title by Michael M. Mooney."