How Do You Photograph a Friend? | Tanja Hollander | The Art Assignment

TL;DR

To photograph a friend, make a formal portrait that shows both the person and the space where they live. Tanja Hollander developed this approach while photographing all 626 of her Facebook friends for “Are You Really My Friend?”, a project examining friendship in the age of social networking. Read on for her assignment, her definition of friendship, and the project’s collaborative Post-it-note element.

Transcript

Today we're meeting with artist Tanja Hollander, an artist who began her career as a landscape photographer but who since 2011 has been on a mission to photograph all 626 of her Facebook friends in their homes and take their formal portrait. She's titled the project, "Are You Really My Friend?" and has been traveling all over the world, visiting fr... Read More

Key Insights

• 🤕 Hollander's project explores the changing dynamics of friendship in the digital age, highlighting the contrast between online and offline interactions.
• 💭 The project involves a collaborative element, inviting visitors to contribute their thoughts on what defines a real friend.
• 👻 Photographing people in their homes allows for a deeper understanding of their personalities and environments.
• 🧑 Hollander's approach to formal portrait photography focuses on capturing the essence of the person through careful composition and attention to detail.
• 🤨 The project raises questions about the authenticity of friendship in the age of social networking.
• 🙈 Hollander's project can be seen in the context of other photographers' series documenting people and their environments, such as August Sander's "People of the 20th century."
• 🎙️ Portraits have been a popular subject in photography since its inception, evolving from static studio shots to more dynamic and personal approaches.

Questions & Answers

Q: How do you photograph a friend for Tanja Hollander’s Art Assignment?

Make a formal portrait of someone you consider a friend, defining both “friend” and the setting however you want. As an optional addition, send Hollander a Post-it note written in pencil explaining what you think a real friend is.

Q: What is Tanja Hollander’s “Are You Really My Friend?” project?

It is Hollander’s mission to photograph all 626 of her Facebook friends in their homes. Begun in 2011, the project includes friends, acquaintances, and people she barely knows, and explores friendship in the age of social networking.

Q: What inspired Tanja Hollander to begin the project?

On New Year’s Eve in 2010, Hollander was messaging a friend working on a film in Jakarta while handwriting a letter to a friend deployed in Afghanistan. Comparing those two important friendships and two forms of communication led her to consider how internet-era relationships are changing, what remains the same, and whether those ideas can be photographed.

Q: Why does Hollander photograph people in their homes?

Hollander’s portraits concern the spaces people inhabit and the things they collect and keep around themselves. Unlike the quiet, solitary state she associates with landscape photography, the portraits help her create a sense of community in an internal space.

Q: How did Hollander bring online participation into the museum exhibition?

She designated a museum wall where visitors could write what they believed a real friend was on Post-it notes and place them on the wall. This translated the commenting and conversation found on the project’s Facebook pages into a physical, collaborative museum experience.

Q: What happened to the friendship Post-it notes after the exhibition?

Hollander kept the notes contributed at the museum and continued collecting more during lectures and other exhibitions. Her collection now includes notes from around the world in different languages and colors, and she considers it an important part of the project.

Q: Where and when was the completed project scheduled to be displayed?

The completed project was scheduled for display in 2017 at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Massachusetts. The episode visits Hollander there while discussing the planned exhibition.

Q: How does Hollander’s portrait style relate to other photographic series?

Her systematic approach and careful framing are compared with August Sander’s “People of the 20th Century.” Like Sander’s portraits, Hollander’s images place viewers in direct eye contact with their subjects, creating a feeling of familiarity despite differences in location or time.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Tanja Hollander is an artist who has embarked on a mission to photograph all 626 of her Facebook friends in their homes.

• Her project, titled "Are You Really My Friend?" explores the ideas of friendship and how they are impacted by social networking.

• The project will be displayed at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in 2017.