Blues

Reading about some of the major blues characters, in particular Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson, I was struck by how much writers seem to think of them as legends, not ordinary historical people. The Wikipedia contributor who wrote about Muddy Waters' early life spent a paragraph pondering whether he was born in 1913 or 1915 or some other unknown year. Griel Marcus wrote an article titled 'Top 10 Untrue Facts About Robert Johnson," just to revel in the mystery of a man who supposedly sold his soul to the devil. The article made practically no sense  but it struck the same nerve. What I think white people love most about blues musicians are the murky legends that surround them.

I know Robert Johnson wasn't on the Chicago blues scene, but I couldn't help exploring his story, and his music and the mythology of his life did become extremely well-known and commercialized, even long after his early and murky death.

Supposedly, Robert Johnson's song 'Crossroads' tells the story of how he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for inhuman musical talent. The story is very unlikely to have any truth to it, but it makes the man behind the song seem more distant from reality. The spooky coincidence of Johnson's death, possibly by murder, gives the story more weight. I think the blues belong in a world where it is both true and a lie.

For some popular material on the subject, I read a vanity fair article about unearthing photographs of Robert Johnson, and I learned that there are thought to be only two or three photos of him, one of which he took of himself in a photo booth. That got me started on this week's project.

* http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2008/10/a-disputed-robert-johnson-photo-gets-the-csi-treatment

I mixed the setting of a photo booth with that of a dim-lit city juke joint, playing with colored gels to filter the light. I made a tiny 'photo booth' that is meant to be held, moved around and looked at from all angles, but especially through the pinhole in the front. Obviously it's hard to photograph a small object with many facets, but I gave it a try: