Reading Response: "Too Drunk to Fuck"

In this article, Mark Wyse dissects the 'feelings of anxiety' that accompany photography - anxiety regarding the confrontation of the desire of photography. What do we desire to do with our photography, what makes you want to take that photograph? He examines repression in the art of photography, using two main examples: Nan Goldin and Christopher Williams. Goldin's photography is all about the connection she has with her subjects, her desire for them and her fascination. On the other end of the spectrum, the desire that Williams holds is much more removed and hidden. He makes his photography more about the camera, the photograph itself, the process, as opposed to the subject being photographed. Though clarifying that he is not saying that Goldin's style is better than Williams' or vice versa, Wyse is clearly more intrigued by the lack of transparency of Williams' photographic style. Wyse ends with the following:

Photography has shifted from being a discourse on trying to understand the world to a discourse on trying to understand ourselves. This has always been the case, only now it is more transparent--or less so. This is how the neurotic writes.