notes on the authentic

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The text in this video is excerpted from Craig Dworkin's introduction to the UbuWeb Anthology of Conceptual Writing.

This is a journal entry on my desire to neglect the meaning-driven metaphor of my photographs. How ridiculous would I be to expect on-call authenticity in the model-photographer exchange! Dworkin's statement helps me think about this.

What does being on either side of the camera look like? We know what it's like to watch someone take a photo of us with their camera phone -- a series of muscle memory movements taken from an instruction manual. They shoot a photo, correct their shot, then shoot again. Are they always and necessarily self-expressing in "spontaneous overflow?" And what about the constant, graceful movements of the professional model? Are these actions of "meticulous procedure & exhaustively logical process?"

Kenneth Goldsmith states, "Authenticity is another form of artifice. It is possible to be both inauthentic and sincere. I trust self-consciousness and pretension -- they're indicative that a position has been considered, distanced, objectivized, and, in some way, theorized." It is possible to be both inauthentic and sincere.