Andre Serrano came to speak at the last of the PRC spring lecture series. He walked into a full house in tight jeans cuffed at the bottom, black boots, and a full head of curly hair. He opened up the lecture by saying he wanted people to ask questions and to open up a dialog more than anything else.

He started by defining what exactly he thought the roles of a photographer and an artist are in his mind. A photographer is someone who photographs for a venue. Galleries, Weddings, Magazines and the likes. An artist is someone who makes are for themselves. He then moved on to the Fluids series that was all blood, milk, and “piss”. And then came the great Piss Christ (Shown above) where the discussion of titles came up. Serrano said that he only uses titles to describe, not to provoke. It was a Christ, in piss, and thus, Piss Christ. A funny story that came off of these photographs was that at first, he asked his wife for her piss; but later decided that his pissed was “the best yellow”. Below is a picture from Immersions that I particularly enjoy. This picture was a surprise because the lines from the bubbles and air were not preconceived but were a happy mistake that I think adds another layer to the photograph.

The newest set of work is America which is 113 photographs of all sorts of Americans with these horrible commercialized backgrounds. The project stemmed out of 9/11 where he photographed all sorts of people who were involved in/affected by 9/11 and then moved on to a greater spectrum of America. Playboy bunnies, Firemen, Priests, Nuns masturbating, vagina’s with teeth, boy scouts and this beauty pageant girl who was 5 years old at the time of the photograph.

I did not realize that he had so much work, Fluids, Immersions, Ejaculartory Series, America, The Morgue, History of Sex, etc…etc. But he was exactly what I thought he was going to be; a witty, exciting, involved photographer. He loves photography and making images or at least I think so. When I left the lecture I was inspired to know that someone is consistently making work as much as he has, and is still working in his older age. Check out the book Andre Serrano America: And Other Works if you ever run by it.