Photographer "Schaf" Turns a Parking Lot into His "Body of Work", a 50 Foot Tall Temporary Public Art Display of Thousands of Black & White and Color Photographs.

The "Body of Work", temporary public art exhibit of thousands of photographic prints from 17 years of photography. The "Body" is a 50 foot long figure of a man on the asphalt filled in with photos glued to the ground. The public will be encouraged to walk around and on the work and examine all the images in detail and in relation to the greater work.

Ventura, CA (PRWEB) November 8, 2003 -- Saturday November 6-8, 2003, Ventura photographer Stephen "Schaf" Schafer has turned an empty parking lot into his "BODY of WORK", a public art display of thousands of photographic prints from 17 years of photography. The "Body" is a 50 foot long figure of a man on the asphalt filled in with photos glued to the ground. The public will be encouraged to walk around and on the work and examine all the images in detail and in relation to the greater work. Families, and people of all ages will be able to see and interact with the work without the formality of a gallery or museum. The work will be on display from November 6th 2003 until the photos fade and are scraped up and discarded in a few weeks or months.

The "Body of Work" temporary public art project will be on display Saturday November 8 from 3:00 PM till 8:00 PM. for Ventura's tri-annual ArtWalk in the parking lot on the Northwest corner of California Street and Thompson Blvd., in Ventura's Historic Downtown Cultural District.

"On Wednesday the 22 of October I awoke at 5:00 AM with the idea of taking every extra print I owned in my files and albums and boxes and gluing them to a huge parking lot by November's ArtWalk 2 weeks later. Now, I have a parking lot, I've gotten donations, I had volunteers, I had enough prints to fill a 50 foot long shape of a man in a hat crossing the street, and now I've got one big Photo-Man"

With the help of a dozen or so volunteers, and tubes of silicone adhesive, Schaf and pals glued 17 years of prints, posters, and snapshots to the parking lot, following the chalked outline of a body taken from one of Schaf's photographs."We started first thing in the morning" after doing some prep the week before, "I passed out caulk guns of silicone and boxes of prints to teams of "Pastenators". All went according to plan, and we had the 'BODY" filled in by sunset, I can't wait till people start walking on all my photos at ArtWalk".

Schaf has lived in Ventura since he was four years old, now 34, he has been photographing for half his life. Schaf started a commercial photo business in Ventura after graduating from Buena High School in 1987 first shooting weddings and now architectural and corporate work in addition to fine art photography. His first introduction to photography came from high school teachers Gregg Norberg and Bob Thompson the Multi-media and Yearbook instructors at Buena High School. schaf is now on the City of Ventura Public Art Commission, Schaf has researched and been a vocal supporter of Public Art, but this is his first Public Art Project.

"Ever since I became a Public Art Commissioner I have seen and experienced all kinds of great public art, because the City of Ventura has a great Art in Public Places program. The drawback with being on the commission though, is I'm ineligible to apply for city funded Public Art Projects. Then on Wednesday the 22 of October I awoke at 5:00 AM with the idea of taking every extra print I owned in my files and albums and boxes and gluing them to a huge parking lot by November's ArtWalk 2 weeks later.

"Every Photographer has boxes of prints that never made the gallery wall, or had great personal meaning but that no one else understood or liked. After 17 years of non-stop photography from all over America and 20 countries, I have more than my share of "shoe-box" prints. Photos too good to toss, but not good enough for the wall. Then, WHAMO, I get this crazy idea to show them all, and make it fun... an event! This is a one shot deal, if it doesn't work, all I'll have is my empty shoe boxes. Everybody who comes to see this can get down on their hands and knees, or up on a ladder and see what they want to see. Kids can play, wheelchairs can roll over it, babies can crawl on top of my life's work and that's really beautiful, this is the most approachable my work has ever been. An exhibit without all the pretense and formality of a museum."

" Now that It's been ready a couple of days, it's really interesting to see people stand and stare at the BODY. Every person zeros in on different images, and everybody is so reluctant to step on the prints, even when I'm standing in the middle of the BODY. The American culture puts such a high value on photos and snapshots that most people just can't fathom the concept of a life's work glued down permanently. Viewers are inherently curious about what will happen to the photos after the ArtWalk, and when I tell them they'll fade away and then be discarded, they seem sad. It's only after I tell them I still have all the negatives that they appear visibly relieved, and go on pointing and saying "Oooh, look at that one Honey"."

City of Ventura Artwalk Info:
http://www.ci.ventura.ca.us/depts/cs/cultural/aw/default.asp

Schaf's website: http://www.schafphoto.com/

photos available via e-mail

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