Bruce Wagner - Dead Stars

“Please listen, Jacquie dearest. Because I am being utterly serious . David Hamilton. I bow my head to the Master. But now I speak of peri-pubescence , which is a littered field . You’d have no chance there, no chance at all, & besides, there’s no time, you would have to twiddle your twat waiting for Jerilynn to grow up. Where did you get this name, ‘Jerilynn’? It’s horrid! Hamilton — I’ve known him for years, he lives in St. Tropez — peri-pubescence has been good to him! What they call ‘the sweet cusp of pubescence.’ For me, it is intensely boring — I call it The Blah Lagoon. Hamilton once had a stranglehold , an absolute monopoly of the market. 11-year-old blondes with nipples a bit too large for their tiny chests — most of them viewed through linen curtains, nonetheless. . what can one say? It’s nice work if you can get it! Haha! Hamilton is absurd, but attention must be paid . His work is a litigation perennial . Every year, somewhere in the world there’s a fuss, like clockwork, the man doesn’t need to lift a finger (or a diaphanous curtain!), doesn’t even have to leave his balcony . David is the king of the ‘landmark ruling’—you are always in need of the landmark ruling, darling! A landmark ruling in the UK declared his work indecent (which of course it is, but for aesthetical reasons!), it was so far-reaching that anyone who had his books displayed on their coffee-tables — that’s a lot of coffee-tables! — if you had the Master’s book in the privacy of your own home, you were at risk of arrest! The bobbies went on a rampage , clearing the bookstore shelves. David released one of those statements — oh, that you must do as well, the ‘released statement’—what they call a measured statement of protest released through one’s spokesperson . We shall find you a spokesperson, my dear Jacqueline!

“Others soon got wise. Frankly, I don’t know what took them so long. Jock Sturges. . his pictures were terrible , terribly banal, in some ways far worse than David’s. Because they aspired . To Art! He puts the kids on the beach— the beach! The mind staggers at the audacious paucity of imagination. Better they be posed reading a book through damned Victorian curtains than be lollygaggling on the beach. . they’re just nudies — you’ve seen nudist colony magazines? With the occasional hairy bush thrown in to give absolution to anyone who may have had a seizure of guilt when they found themselves lingering over the delicate line-drawn y of the hairless pubis at rest. . or he throws in a Mom. You know, ‘If Mom’s in the shot, she must have approved!’ That way, you get the good housekeeping seal . Very clever. Wouldn’t you like the good housekeeping seal, cher? There’s Larry Clark — a real pervert, not a fake one like myself! But let’s not talk about Mr. Clark, frankly I’m not too interested in exploring the endless mystery of unwashed 13-year-old boys, particularly not when they’re shooting up!

“Cher Jacqueline, you will some day have a book of your own. We must find a title for it. One must always pay attention to the titles , they’re very important. The Age of Innocence— that’s David, of course. El Maestro! The Last Days of Summer is Sturges. A wonderful title, I have to say. I’ll help you with that. . you see, the title must let the people know what you’re up to, what it’s all about. They went after Sturges — was it ’91? In San Francisco, of all places! They went completely berserk , it was a crusade , they were carrying torches! And yet… and yet. . can you guess what’s coming, my dearest? ‘The grand jury has refused to indict.’ I am telling you, the grand jury always refuses to indict! It’s a marvelous game , Jacquie, and you must start to play toute suite! Because it is a very lucrative one. Sturges made millions off the shenanigans. But the field is too crowded , cheri. Giants walked the earth before you; the ground is littered with scorched peri-pubescent & prepubescent cunts. You’ve got to go one better. Jerilynn — horrid name! — she’s just turned 5, no? Little Jerilynn? Take courage! Take heart! The pre- prepubescent playing field is wide open! Why at the moment, I believe there is no one on it at all! Jerilynn’s your ticket. .

“ Jerilynn is your point of view! ça va? Take courage, Jacqueline!

“And you must have a cold, hard look at Sally Mann. She is the Ideal— the class act. That’s what you want to shoot for. Sally’s the template, the Gold standard. She lives in Virginia. She was thrown by a horse & broke her back. A terrible thing. We spoke every week of her convalescence, for 2 years. I called from wherever I was in the world. Sally made her bones with those family shots — the Huck Finn nudies. At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women. Can’t beat that for a title, can you? I’m telling you, titles are everything. That was something Sally knew very well. . now, I don’t believe they ever went after Sally in the courts, not as far as I know, but she was banned in the media . (Which is what we hope for you. ) Banned by Artforum— Artforum! Can you imagine? A superstar! She worked in wetplate collodion. Used a very old camera, an antique , an 8 × 10 bellows. Which I think is very shrewd. You see, when you embark on this sort of thing, it is my strong feeling that it is a very good idea to approach the work via a defunct process or difficult-to-use camera . Don’t go Goldin. And the most important part of Sally’s example — listen closely, Jacqueline! — was that she shot her children, then moved on. She didn’t make a fucking career of it. Take a lesson from that, Jacquie! She’s doing wonderful work at this time, she’s in her prime, hasn’t a thing to do with naked kiddies. . & that’s where you want to land, Jacquie dear. Sally Mann showed there can be light at the end of the vulva!

“In summary:

“A gallery shows your pics. Someone complains— & if they don’t, pick up the phone & complain yourself , just don’t tell em it’s you! The gallery gets raided — by gendarmes or even better, the FBI. (Scotland Yard’s a coup.) Then: the tiresome wave of fascists & libertines. A celebrity speaks out in your favor, crying ‘It’s just a mom keeping an innocent diary of her babies!’—they’re always good for a sound byte. Because it’s important in this phase that you stay out of the fray. An articulate celebrity gets you lots of mileage, that’s money in the bank. They’re First Amendment whores. . but it doesn’t really matter, because that storied ‘fierce debate’ will follow, & if you’re lucky — a media firestorm! Jacquie, there’s one thing that is guaranteed — people will know your name. Your supporters will invoke Caravaggio and Degas; there’ll be sidebar editorials in the Times on Nabokov & Charles Dodgson; ‘chilling effects’ and ‘landmark rulings’; the sound & fury of grand juries, signifying nothing . . sales, sales, sales! ”

Cherry ripe, cherry ripe,

Ripe I cry,

Full and fair ones,

Come and Buy!

Stars Without Makeup