I had a brief talk with Curtis Wallen about his “Springfield” project

Hello Curtis, could you tell us something about who you are and what you
do at the moment?

Hi Jonas. Something about who I am, hmm… My name is Curtis Wallen. I was born
in Barnestable, MA on January 17, 1989. I spent most of my grade school and high
school years in Park City, UT. Right now I live in Los Angeles, but only for a couple
more days.

For the past 3 semesters I have been studying at the Pasadena Art Center, but
starting this Spring I will be studying at Bard College in New York. In a few days I’ll
be packing all my things into the back of my Volkswagen hatchback and driving
across the country.

For the past four months or so I’ve been working on a project with a tentative title
of “Potted Plants.” Only a few people have seen any of that work, but I plan to put
a small sample out there soon. It’s an ongoing project that currently has no end
date, so we’ll see where it goes.

The photographs in your “Springfield” project are quite calm and show
a very traditional side of the US but also introduce a wild side of the
town. Would you see it like that too? And how do you yourself fit into
there?

It’s interesting you saw it like that. I guess that’s the benefit of being an
“outsider”.  For me it isn’t really about the traditional side vs. the wild side; it’s just
Springfield.

I should give a little background. My senior year of high school my parents decided
to move from Park City, UT to Springfield (well, not exactly Springfield, but close
enough. I’d also like to mention that I’m being intentionally vague about “Springfield.”)
I finished up high school and went to college there for a year and a half. All in all
I was there for a little under three years, which I suppose actually defines me as
a bit of an outsider.

The collection of images that became “Springfield” was made during my first trip
back after moving to Los Angeles. For whatever reason the shift coming from Utah
didn’t have as much impact as coming back from Los Angeles. I also had the
benefit of a fairly immediate before/after. I’d grown up a little and I was seeing my
old town through different eyes. I found it extremely curious and so I started
taking pictures.

At that point I honestly didn’t know all that much about photography. I had just
finished my first semester at “art school.” And had a very limited amount of
exposure to other work. I had two 35mm cameras with me. A Konica Hexar AF and
an Olympus Stylus Epic. I always had one or the other with me and I took photos
of the things I saw every day.

At the time I wasn’t really conscious of what I wanted to say or the pictures I
wanted to take. I took pictures of things I thought were interesting, especially
focusing on observations from my new outlook on the town.

I feel it’s important to mention I didn’t go out looking for any of these pictures, nor
did I really go out of my way to take them. For example, the photo of the two
police officers outside of the convenience store that had just subdued a homeless
man. I stopped to get gas and when I was walking in to pay I saw that happening.
I snapped a photo and was on my way. It was a very subconscious process. (Not
that it takes too much thought to realize a guy face down bleeding from his mouth
with a stun gun in his back might be a photo op, but you know what I mean.)
I tried to be a fly on the wall for the most part. I didn’t want to push a bias one way
or the other. I was much more driven by a sense of a curiosity that made me feel
like I had to take these pictures.

In the end I felt the body of work did a nice job communicating my feelings toward
the midwest. The calm feeling you mentioned is definitely the hand of the
photographer coming through. I’m a fairly low key kind of guy and I think the
nonchalant nature of my process reinforced that.

It’d actually be interesting to get some feedback on that though. It’s intriguing you
asked about my place in Springfield. Does the work read as being an outsiders
perspective? Or is it a bit more ambiguous?

What are you into right now? What do you like to listen to or read, etc.?

I’ve been into a lot of stuff. I saw the newest Coen Brothers movie “A Serious Man”
not too long ago and I loved it. It is a gorgeous film. I read “White Noise” by Don
DeLillo recently (completely unrelated to the movie of the same title) and I just
picked up “The Pleasure of the Text” by Roland Barthes, which I’ve been dying to
read.

I also read “Photography After Frank” fairly recently. I know it’s probably not cool
to read photography books, but it was a good read. It’s a very interesting
collection of essays, articles, and other various writings about contemporary
photographers and photography. If nothing else, it gives a fairly solid overview of
contemporary art photography and where it stands in today’s art world.

As far as music goes, I’ve been listening to a lot of Mississippi John Hurt, Modern
Life is War, Pavement, Owls, and Lil’ Wayne.

I’m also really into Police Helicopters. The building I live in has a nice deck on the
roof and I live right next to Downtown LA, so it’s a good spot to relax and watch
the searchlights. There’s definitely something about a police search helicopter that
captivates the imagination. I’m fairly positive it’s at least partly Wolfgang Tillmans
inspired, but that’s okay.

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