<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Until I met Roddy, I had no idea how important it is to have a friend who can wear an ascot \u2014 it\u2019s a sure sign of independence and fearlessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One time, I asked Roddy, \u201cWhat goes through your mind just before depressing the shutter?\u201d He replied, \u201cIt\u2019s interesting you should use the word depressing.\u201d So, I asked him if he was happy or not. He said, \u201cI\u2019m a closet optimist.\u201d I encouraged him to come out of the closet and lead an openly optimistic lifestyle. But I believe that if he had \u2014 if he could have \u2014 he would have lost an essential part of his artistic identity. I think artists tend to be driven by a desire to correct what they think is wrong with the world \u2014 to make it perfect. For instance, the first time I visited Rodney\u2019s house in Snedens Landing, there were two workers raking the gravel in his driveway. When I went to see him a couple of months later, they were still there, raking. I said, \u201cRodney, how big is your raking budget?\u201d I think for Rodney, a clear mind depended upon an orderly driveway, and no price tag is too big if it leads to a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whenever Rodney and I got together, our conversation would inevitably turn to a discussion regarding the degree to which we felt underappreciated \u2014 not by friends or family, but by the rest of the world: especially the commercial world. Being underappreciated, being misunderstood, is a subject we never tired of. In fact, we believed it to be a subject worthy of being taught at the university level, and that the dean of the department should be Rodney Smith. Rodney understood that the only cure for feeling underappreciated is complaining about it \u2014 especially to someone who suffers from the same condition. I believe that is why Roddy admired Freud so much. One time he told me that \u201cFreudian psychoanalysis is the greatest gift that was ever given to me \u2014 much more important than money or anything else.\u201d (I\u2019m sure he wasn\u2019t including his wife or his children when he said that.) He continued, saying, \u201cI think that without 25 years of therapy I never would have been a successful photographer.\u201d I know how expensive Roddy\u2019s photographs are, and I also know how costly therapy is, so I always wondered if his earnings as a photographer were neutralized by the price of being a patient. When I asked him, he assured me that he was well ahead of the game, so I no longer worried about all that raking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But before there was Freud there was God \u2014 at least that\u2019s what some people say \u2014 so Rodney attended divinity school in order to explore the Big Questions: What is the nature of humankind? Why are we here? What does it all mean? And most of all: Why don\u2019t these questions have answers? It\u2019s like we\u2019re stuck in some kind of darkness. For Rodney, the light he chose for illuminating that darkness was humor. Rodney\u2019s work is often described as whimsical, or surreal, but his photographs portray the human condition as powerfully as those taken by his mentor Walker Evans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the day, the only thing that separates the artistic visions of these two men is wardrobe. Don\u2019t be distracted by the women in ball gowns. Don\u2019t be misled by the men in tuxedos. An exquisitely manicured garden can still be a labyrinth without an escape. Sometimes the only line of defense between insanity and the absurdity of life is a ledge. When you look at Roddy\u2019s businessman \u2014 who for all eternity is poised to leap off a building \u2014 miraculously, you don\u2019t fear for him. It\u2019s a Charlie Chaplin moment. And we know that somehow, he\u2019s going to land where it\u2019s soft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And all those people in Rodney\u2019s photographs who search the horizons with binoculars or telescopes or even magnifying glasses, looking for something that may never come, or the ones who put their head in a hedge, or a fireplace, or a jet engine \u2014 what is Rodney saying if not, this is who we are \u2014 this is the our plight, and all we can do, to endure it, to survive it, to try to understand it, is to embrace it. To put on our best clothes, put on our best face \u2014 to don our ascots \u2014 and enjoy it for as long as it lasts. And if that\u2019s closet optimism, I\u2019ll take it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5776,"template":"","filed_under":[],"class_list":["post-5754","journal","type-journal","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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