Drop Out of Art School Photobook

Drop Out of Art School Photobook (2012) - Now Available at Amazon.com www.amazon.com/Drop-Out-School-John-Goldsmith/dp/0988046601/ In the age of an Instagram billion dollar buyout, pushing a button digitally transforms an original picture into one of manufactured nostalgia. An artificial time passage is applied by simulating a physical-chemical process relating to a film emulsion that is increasingly in short supply. While the moment captured is not generic, the uniformly applied veneer of a declining technology, and the mood it intends to evoke, is. While the moment is real, the sentiment imposed by the aesthetic may be as bankrupt as Kodak. Within this automation, users themselves can be elevated to the status of artists, or at a minimum, appear artful. 'Drop Out of Art School' is an impermanent look at the changing Fairview neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada. Within the time of a month, I photographed the area while on routine errands with a used and gifted iPhone. Fairview, which is where my family calls home, is also the city’s political seat and is home to City Hall and a flux of new big box stores. As the residents of Fairview, and also Vancouver, face intensifying transformative pressures, the project takes a snapshot of the community as our mayor strives to make this former Olympic host and “Most Livable City” also the Greenest City in the World by 2020. Just as the neighbourhood has and continues to evolve, though arguably over longer timeframes, this project will continue to do so. It will age and some pictures might disappear altogether, like those delaminating from the insides of your parents’ family photo albums.