indentity

This is Ross. Ross works at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art here in Fort Worth. Ross came out of NYU's film program at the Tisch School, studied film archiving and preservation, interned in Amsterdam, and was offered a job at the Museum of the Moving Picture in New York but felt it was too narrow for him. He wanted to expand his horizons, to move West. Thus, two years ago, he came to the Carter to work as a Registrar, helping with the Museum's vast photography collection, obtaining exhibits, loaning out to other museums, and all that.

This is Ross in front of four original prints from Richard Avedon's legendary "In the American West" portrait series, funded fully by the museum over six years in the late 70s and early 80s. I was granted a personal tour to see the prints in the Amon Carter basement vault after applying for a research visit a few weeks ago. These particular images were covered in a protective gauze, but the other 75% were not and hung on these enormous metal racks that slid out, attached to the ceiling and the floor. All of the prints are mounted on aluminum. And I saw them all. I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the uncovered images, for reasons I both understand and do not, but Ross was all for letting me get his portrait in front of these partially obscured ones. We talked for over an hour, as he pulled photographs out, slid others back in. There was a good rhythm to it all. Ross is good people. He is someone I could totally see myself hanging out with--we shared a lot in common and have similar senses of humor, which came in handy when we conversed about the Museum employee who really rubbed me the wrong way last week when I inquired about these Avedon images. I won't really relive that conversation now, but suffice to say, many native Texans and American Westerners found the Avedon series to be mocking or exploitative of Westerners--a view I completely disagree with, also for reasons I don't want to recapitulate now. But this attitude coupled with the Museum's clear mission of de-prioritizing the photographic arts (both intentionally and unintentionally--oops, guess I am going to get into this now...) so it was nice to have him there, examining, analyzing, considering, judging, commenting, laughing. Ross had actually never seen them in person, he told me, in his two years employed there, so he enjoyed the experience as much as I did, I think. Well, I know he did, because he told me so when I said to him that he had a pretty amazing job. He didn't argue with that.

And now it's pouring a much needed rain. What a fine day this has been.