For me, there are three sides to ’80s photography: Metro Pictures, Robert Mapplethorpe, and the Germans. In other words, there was appropriation, AIDS and the memory-function of photography, and the Bechers. In school, I took the whole “there are no more pictures to be taken” idea very much to heart. But then I saw the typological possibilities of the Germans, and the way they crafted images, and that brought everything back to taking pictures.
—As told to Tim Griffin


Artforum print subscribers have full access to this article. If you are a subscriber, sign in below.
Not registered for artforum.com?
SUBSCRIBE NOW at the discounted holiday rate of $45 a year—70% off the newsstand price—and receive the print magazine plus full online access to this issue and our archive.*
Order the PRINT EDITION of the April 2003 issue for $17 or the ONLINE EDITION for $5.99.
* This rate applies to U.S. domestic subscriptions.