Lens crafter

John Pickel poses challenging questions through his work and his teaching.

eering through the windows, we see a man's den–a worn couch, a bookshelf loaded with volumes. A television drones on in the empty room. No one is watching, but perhaps we are. The TV actor, lying sprawled on a coach, talks on the phone. Hearing only his words, we guess at the other side of the conversation. We make judgments, defining not only who he is but who we are at the same time. Are we mere spectators or participants in this work? Several hidden cameras capture our reaction, simultaneously projecting our images on another museum wall, transmitting them over the Internet as a live webcast.

Photographer and visual artist John Pickel continues his investigation into the cultural construction of masculinity in his multimedia installation, "A Man's World," and in his current installation "Camera Virilis," now on exhibition in the "Latitudes: New Media Art of the Southeast" in Nashville. An assistant professor of photographic and digital art, Pickel explores the cultural history of self-identification, especially through visual images. "To identify someone as a 'good, straight male,' you have to have the 'other'," he says. The other, who could be a homosexual, an effeminate person, or a woman, is created by mainstream cultural in order to define itself as normal.

These full-size installations, comprised of actual furniture, involve much more than the construction of the model. Pickel approaches his art as would a film producer, being responsible for not only the construction of the model, but for obtaining funding, scripting the dialogue, hiring the actor, producing the film and editing the web cast images. "My work is intentionally on the edge. I want to ask questions of the viewer instead of providing the answers."

Through his work and his classes, Pickel poses other questions as well. He forces his audience and his students to redefine photography. Demonstrating that photography is not an objective but a subjective medium, he challenges students to approach the art as not a medium of pure description, but as a medium that defines. The photographer always chooses what he or she will photograph. That choice makes it subjective, he says. This redefinition of photography becomes all the more important in the age of digital photography and image manipulation. When photographs can be altered with new backgrounds, different colors and juxtaposed images, they become not a depiction of 'real' life but a visual metaphor, he says. "We tend to want to think of a photo as the object that's represented. It's no more the 'real thing' than is a painting. They're both representations."

Pickel grew up in a household obsessed with photography, snapshots and portraits. With 200 images displayed on the living room wall, as a child Pickel thought all families were like his. "I grew up steeped in photography, but I didn't think of it as being art. As soon as I started using cameras and printing photographs, I became hooked. It was many years later that I became conscious of what photography really was," he says.

Being conscious of the essence and possibilities of photography is what Pickel tries to instill in his Wake Forest students. Teaching photography and digital imaging I, II and III, he begins his introductory courses with basic darkroom techniques and the fundamentals of framing and composition. He shows students ways to communicate on a two-dimensional plane. Approaching the medium in this manner, he says, is a valuable way for students to learn to respect the craft of photography.

One of the first assignments in the introductory course involves pairs of students working with disposable 35mm cameras. At the start of the assignment, one of the students throws a dart at a map of Winston-Salem. Where the dart lands is the location of their first photo shoot. They each take 24 shots of the same location and then return to the classroom to sketch each of the shots, exploring its compositional analysis. "This assignment slows students down and challenges them to explore the elements they compose on a two-dimensional picture plane. It focuses students on how for the first 50 years photography was a cumbersome craft. It shows them that to be a good photographer they have to be dedicated."

Dedication and passion for the art form are what Pickel models for his students through both his art and his teaching. Pickel's classes are in high demand, with all the digital classes being overbooked. He is extremely popular with the students, and he equates his role as one of a coach--to manage and encourage through constructive criticism. "I use my sense of humor in class and keep things light but serious. Our work is serious 'play'. The most important part of teaching is being a good role model, beyond displaying technical or critical skills. Art is usually on the periphery of a culture. When students see an academic artist who is passionate and intense about what he or she teaches, this is the most important gift an instructor can give the students," he says.

Pickel received his BFA in Photography and Art History from Indiana State University and his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. He has taught photography at the Herron School of Art at Indiana University/Purdue University in Indianapolis. He was appointed a visiting assistant professor at North Carolina State University, School of Design, for four years before joining the Wake Forest University faculty in 1997 as assistant professor of art. While at Wake Forest, Pickel set up a conventional 15-station gang darkroom and a 15-workstation digital studio, also establishing a course sequence in photography and digital media.

– Eileen Kerr