Deutsch
English
Background Information
"Polaroids were Dash SNOW's entry into the art world and, according to legend, were taken by him to document experiences he could not otherwise remember due to his state of intoxication. The very spontaneous-looking photographs depict whimsical everyday scenes, parties, drug use, sexual innuendo, and very intimate portraits of the artist's surroundings. In many Polaroids, the artist himself appears, becoming both the caretaker and subject of his images. Dash SNOW was always on the go with his camera, capturing his excessive life with his friends (including Ryan McGINLEY and Dan Colen).
The Polaroid shots in this thick volume of photographs illustrate the fast-paced, short life of the artist who died young, as well as his importance to the New York scene and his friends. The abundance of Polaroid material and the 'appearances' of many figures of the New York scene of the 90s and 2000s such as Ryan McGINLEY or Gawin McInnes, founder of the legendary VICE magazine (and author of 'How to Piss in Public: From Teenage Rebellion to the Hangover of Adulthood', 2012) make the photo volume an indispensable document of US youth culture. The photo book 'I Love you Stupid' belongs in every well-stocked photo book shelf that already has publications by Ryan McGINLEY, if only to show another side besides the aestheticizing one." (© Richard G. SPORLEDER)
Content
The catalog volume 'I Love you Stupid' was published on the occasion of the large Dash SNOW exhibition in Berlin curated by Blair Hansen and fits - despite its fullness - as a paperback, very well to the scene artist Dash SNOW. A 20-page introduction by Glenn O'Brien (subtitled 'Some thoughts inspired by Dash Snow') is followed by blurry B&W shots (as on the cover of 'I Love you Stupid') of the preparation for a heroin injection - a counterpoint to the mostly life-affirming Polaroid shots and a reference to Dash SNOW's heroin addiction, from which he died from an overdose two weeks before his 28th birthday. Throughout the volume, the Polaroid images are divided into chapters of about ten such pages, with two full-size Polaroid images on each page in between - in color, but not highlighted in print as in other publications. The book ends with two symbolic images of empty train tracks, again framed by two short essays: a five-page text by Blair Hansen on the exhibition and the proclamatory text by Gawin McInnes, which ends with the moving statement: 'I Miss Dash Snow'.About US-American photographer Dash SNOW (1981-2009)
Photo books by Dash SNOW
- Ed(s)/Author(s)
- Mary Hansen
- Format
- Pb. (no dust jacket, as issued), 18,5 x 28 x 4 cm., 435 pp., color ills., text language: English