"Gumby," Angola, Louisiana 31 - 1999

Deborah Luster made "Gumby" in Louisiana, using the tintype process, which is like, a super old-school method of photography. The man’s face takes up most of the image. He’s wearing a massive cowboy hat, casting a shadow over his face, and those stripes on his shirt tell you something about where he is. Looking at it, I imagine Luster setting up her camera, the whole process slow and deliberate. There’s a certain weight to these kinds of photographs, a gravity that comes from the way they’re made. I can feel the history of photography looking at this, the way people used to pose and hold still for what seemed like forever. There is something about the directness and simplicity of this portrait; it's honest. It reminds me of the work of other photographers who have documented people on the margins, like, say, Diane Arbus. In the end, artists are always looking at each other, responding, and trying to see the world in new ways.