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Transcription: [00:13:09]
{SPEAKER name="Anne Goodyear"}
[[crosstalk]] That's- yes- UHuh. Right. UHUH. Yes. UHUH.

[00:13:12]
{SPEAKER name="Audience-1"}
...given that one of things that he is most noted for is being a listener, his ears are are blurred.

[00:13:19]
And so I find that to be very interesting, as well.

[00:13:22]
And, uh, so I wondered why he does that. In contrast to McCain-- now McCain doesn't appear to have ears! [[laughter]]

[00:13:32]
{SPEAKER name="Anne Goodyear"}
[[crosstalk]] It-it's-- It's a great-- it's a great question.

[00:13:37]
As far as I know he has ears, umm, but I

[00:13:41]
I think it's a great- I think is a great question and I think it says a little bit, actually, about the artistry of Schoeller's photographs.

[00:13:49]
Um, Martin Schoeller - um I, I should have mentioned, is a German-born photographer.

[00:13:55]
And for those of you who are interested in the history of photography and the history of portraiture,

[00:13:59]
you may also be familiar with the work of Thomas Struth and Thomas Ruff who are other Germans who create

[00:14:07]
large-scale portraits that really zoom in on the face.

[00:14:10]
And it's not entirely a coincidence that this group of photographers happens to be coming out of Germany.

[00:14:16]
They all have in common, having been influenced by a couple by the name of Hilla and Bernd Becher,

[00:14:24]
who are really known as minimal and conceptual artists,

[00:14:28]
who are really building their careers during the '60s in Germany.

[00:14:32]
And actually, the grid of images on the back wall gives you a little bit better idea of

[00:14:37]
what Martin Schoeller was taking away from his engagement with the Bechers.

[00:14:41]
They photographed architectural structures - they didn't actually photograph faces.

[00:14:46]
But they made a practice of photographing every single architectural structure in the exact same format.

[00:14:53]
And that's something that's important to Martin Schoeller -

[00:14:57]
he's very, um, he is very emphatic about the fact that he is actually not a photographer of celebrities.

[00:15:06]
And when he said that to me, I was actually quite surprised - because if you look around this room, you do see a lot of celebrities.

[00:15:14]
And in fact the Pirahā people of Brazil were included, in part, at his insistence

[00:15:20]
of the need to demonstrate he isn't only interested in famous faces.

[00:15:24]
Now the Portrait Gallery - because of the way we're constructed in our desire to say something about American history

[00:15:30]
through the accomplishments of people whose- who we can point to, in a historical narrative -

[00:15:39]
makes these types of images appealing for this type of environment.

[00:15:44]
But, Martin Schoeller wants to, in a sense, be very democratic in the approach that he takes to photography.

[00:15:51]
And so I suspect that what we're seeing here - with the distinction between Obama and McCain, if we were to ask Martin Schoeller -

[00:15:58]
is just the way that their particular faces happened to work within the parameters that he always uses for his pictures.

[00:16:07]
And I, I think that Barack Obama's ears are out of focus because of the depth of field that the lens, that the lens had,

[00:16:15]
and I just, I think it just happens that McCain's ears just, must be flatter against his head. But it is really interesting.

[00:16:24]
And actually, I must say - one of the things that I find so revealing about the uniform approach to these images -

[00:16:31]
is that I think it puts a premium on even really subtle aspects of expression.

[00:16:36]
So, I think if I were just looking at the McCain, in isolation from everything,

[00:16:41]
I would take it to be a relatively serious expression.

[00:16:45]
But somehow, in conjunction with the image of Barack Obama, it almost seems to me that he's smiling.

[00:16:51]
And I find that to be a really, sort of, surprising revelation.

[00:16:56]
And in fact, one of the other things that I really like about Martin Schoeller

[00:17:01]
is that he's an incredibly gregarious, engaging person - and I hope you all can come hear him speak, when he comes.

[00:17:09]
He has the quality of putting people at their ease.

[00:17:13]
And in that respect, he actually reminds me of Gilbert Stuart who was an 18th century painter, and

[00:17:20]
who actually did the famous image of George Washington that made it onto the dollar bill.

[00:17:25]
And, in fact, the original of that painting can be seen- of that image can be seen hanging in our Hall of Presidents.

[00:17:31]
But, like Stuart, who is described by the people who sat for him as having been a wonderful person to spend time with,

[00:17:41]
Schoeller goes out of his way to help his subjects feel at ease -

[00:17:45]
playing music that they like - I guess, chatting with them - allowing them to engage in activities that they enjoy -

[00:17:52]
he recently photographed Condoleezza Rice and let her play the piano during a session.

[00:17:57]
And so, although the images are very uniform in their composition,

[00:18:04]
one of the things that Schoeller, I think, is always reaching for, is a moment when -

[00:18:08]
his subjects stop focusing on the camera -

[00:18:12]
and stop trying to compose their faces for the camera -

[00:18:17]
stop trying to do the sort of knee-jerk smiles, or other types of, things we do - really to protect ourselves.

[00:18:25]
And it may be that that was why- that may be another reason that Schoeller himself

[00:18:30]
clearly favored the more serious image over the image that was published in GQ.
[00:18:37]

Transcription Notes:
spellings confirmed: Martin Schoeller Hilla and Bernd Becher Thomas Struth Thomas Ruff Gilbert Stuart Condoleezza Rice