An Interview with Contemporary Photographer Brian Ulrich on his New NCMA Exhibition "Copia—Retail, Thrift, and Dark Stores"
by Julie Z. Russo
Going shopping is the overarching narrative of living in America post 9/11. The common theme of where we shop and what we choose to consume on a daily basis is often carried on with unconscious regularity in trips to the grocery store, the mall, the big-box stores and thrift shops that provide an anchor for the American economy, the middle class, and those struggling below it.
During the past decade, photographer Brian Ulrich has been documenting images of shoppers and stores across the country to capture how Americans are coping. Starting with the giant Homeland Security billboards announcing threat levels outside of stores, to the barren isles of food and retail chains, to used goods bulging out of discarded boxes and piled to the ceiling, Mr. Ulrich’s photographs lure us into the beautiful, entrancing, in turns antiseptic and broken patterns of over consumption.
Entitled Copia—Retail, Thrift, and Dark Stores, 2001-2011, the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) will be featuring almost 50 of Mr. Ulrich’s photographs on view starting September 29, 2013. The exhibit portrays how photography can be used as both an art form and a narrative for documenting historic trends and shaping perceptions of our national psyche. In a Sept. 19 interview with Mr. Ulrich, an assistant professor of art and film at Virginia Commonwealth University, he provided insights into his upcoming photography exhibit Copia, and the implications of unsustainable consumption at the beginning of the 21stcentury.
Q: How did your project get started?
BU: A big part of the project during the past 10 years started out as a curiosity about things happening out in the world after 9/11. There was a social breakdown culturally, and societally we were grieving. I was in the Midwest at the time. It was an interesting moment. I wanted to make pictures about the activities going on in the daily lives of Americans to see what the connections were after this event. The language started to change from solidarity and grieving in the moment to ways we protect ourselves from fears, threats. The news media and politicians were telling us we needed to protect ourselves by shopping. It was a strange thought. We need the economy to be strong. It’s one of the tenets of democracy. I started to photograph people shopping. People were going to stores, but what kind of product were they buying. By 2002, I realized I had a much bigger project. I started to look at the idea of consumer habits and consumption habits tied to economic security, our sense of well-being. The photographs were transparent, up front about how Americans were immersed in the activity.
Q: Can you describe how the project developed.
BU: I divided the project into parts. Retail is about pictures of the middle class shopping between 2001-2006. But in 2005, with Hurricane Katrina, I discovered the dark side to consumerism especially for those struggling below the middle class. The project Thrift emerged based on our relationship to goods, consumption, economic class and those in financial trouble. At thrift stores serving at-need populations, the picture was far bleaker. There were too many donations, what we call a “planned obsolescence.” Thrift stores were inundated. They needed to buy warehouses to store all the extra goods. Then the warehouses were abandoned.
Q: What does the term planned obsolescence mean?
BU: The idea of planned obsolescence is a marketing scheme. Manufacturers used to make goods that did not break, but learned that it was more profitable for goods to “run out.” A shorter life-span was needed. The threshold seemingly has shrunk. This leads to conversation, like whether we really need a new IPhone every year.
Q: How should teachers discuss your work with students? To a lot of children, going to the mall is the best part of their day. Can you discuss how photography can be used to support critical thinking skills without casting judgment.
BU: The concept of critical thinking has a negative connotation, but it’s an essential life skill. The camera is really wonderful for doing that. I’ve had the opportunity to present my work to many audiences including children ages 6-12. We go through the pictures to teach visual literacy. An example is my photo of the girl in the Disney store with Tinkerbelle flying out of a castle. There’s all sorts of items out of reach in the picture. I ask the question of why they think some items are out of reach. We discuss the concept of stores (as) places to buy things, but you are not indebted to them. I’m not casting judgment on Disney. If my pictures bring about knowledge so we are not doing things unconsciously, if my work can empower people a little bit, if it could be transformative, (this is its purpose.)
Q: What can aspiring artists learn from you about making a career in the arts?
BU: In the world we live in today, there’s this notion that being an artist is a luxury. It requires a lot of work. It really comes down to loving it—that’s the one great thing that matters the most, if you’re really committed to doing it, you’re signed up for life. It reminds you that it is going to be difficult at times and easy at others. If you love making pictures, making the work is the best part. The ups and downs come in turns. There’s responsibility towards the project. It’s not always fun being out in Target for hours or an empty asbestos building where the floor might cave in at any moment.
Q: Your photos have a beautiful quality drawing the viewer into subjects that can be harsh at times. During your talk at the NCMA (on Sept. 27) what would you like the audience to know.
BU: We’re in the first decade of the 21st century. It’s important to have and talk about what I’ve documented over time. In Copia, this three-part series moves from retail to thrift to the empty big box stores that provide a beautiful but haunting glimpse into an unsustainable model. At the Cleveland Museum of Art (an organizer of the NCMA exhibit) my photograph of a rotted escalator was paired with the artwork of (German painter) Anselm Kiefer. His work includes desolate, polluted, led materials (of a post-holocaust world.) I liked the dialogue that was created between our two pieces.
Q: Can you discuss the kinds of cameras used for making these images.
BU: In my photography and film classes, my students learn about the processes used in photography and finding the right tools for image making. I used three types of cameras for this project. A medium format camera for taking candid photos, and larger, slower 4x5 and 8x10 cameras that sit on a tripod. These cameras are used historically to create extremely high quality, high fidelity images, a slow, expensive, labor-intensive process with each negative costly ($26 per picture).
A collection of Mr. Ulrich’s work entitled Is This Place Great or What, was published by the Aperture Foundation in 2011. Retail, Thrift, and Dark Stores, 2001-2011 is on view between September 2013 and January 2014 at the North Carolina Museum of Art.