Las Vegas like you’ve never seen it before: photographer Jeff Burton dives into the heart of the city of unlimited desire
Nov. 16, 2022
Thibaut Wychowanok: Your book on Las Vegas opens with 3 almost abstract images where, in a flood of visual effects, we can make out an aquatic presence. As if your experience of Las Vegas was above all linked to sensations and colors more than to specific places that you would seek to document.
Jeff Burton: When I was doing my scouting, I chose to book a room on the 50th floor of the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Because in this case, it’s been 34 days since I quit smoking, but at the time I took these photos, I smoked a lot, and this room had a balcony. It was one of the reasons for my choice, very slightly selfish. But I also said to myself that it would be great to be so high, so far from the ground, without vis-à-vis, without glazing and with an infinity of possibilities for shots. What you see in these first images are the Bellagio fountains. This floating sensation was quite extraordinary. The impression of floating up there, fifty floors above the city, as if I were flying over it. The fountain was the most spectacular object I could see at that time, from that angle. Like something from space, as if it had been extracted or dissociated from its environment. She drew you to her, hypnotized you. It was the first thing I started photographing. The layout of the book follows a chronological order, because it seemed logical to me: a progression that follows that of my own experience. For me, it was also relevant from a narrative point of view: I arrive, I am attracted by what I notice first, then I move on to the next phase, with almost the feeling of landing in a new space. I was actually reacting to sensations, to colors, to beauty. as if it had extracted itself or dissociated from its environment. She drew you to her, hypnotized you. It was the first thing I started photographing. The layout of the book follows a chronological order, because it seemed logical to me: a progression that follows that of my own experience. For me, it was also relevant from a narrative point of view: I arrive, I am attracted by what I notice first, then I move on to the next phase, with almost the feeling of landing in a new space. I was actually reacting to sensations, to colors, to beauty. as if it had extracted itself or dissociated from its environment. She drew you to her, hypnotized you. It was the first thing I started photographing. The layout of the book follows a chronological order, because it seemed logical to me: a progression that follows that of my own experience. For me, it was also relevant from a narrative point of view: I arrive, I am attracted by what I notice first, then I move on to the next phase, with almost the feeling of landing in a new space. I was actually reacting to sensations, to colors, to beauty. a progression that follows that of my own experience. For me, it was also relevant from a narrative point of view: I arrive, I am attracted by what I notice first, then I move on to the next phase, with almost the feeling of landing in a new space. I was actually reacting to sensations, to colors, to beauty. a progression that follows that of my own experience. For me, it was also relevant from a narrative point of view: I arrive, I am attracted by what I notice first, then I move on to the next phase, with almost the feeling of landing in a new space. I was actually reacting to sensations, to colors, to beauty.
It reminds me of the abstract expressionism of Joan Mitchell, currently presented at the Louis Vuitton Foundation. Mitchell said that these paintings expressed “feelings”, where Monet spoke of sensations.
Reading this morning’s Numéro art article on Joan Mitchell, I was just imagining what it would be like to absorb Las Vegas like that, come home, and start painting. Completely different. What is interesting in photography, as opposed to painting, is its total immediacy. It is an instantaneous reading, a presence in the world, a reaction to what is happening – and that we capture. Personally, I like to lose myself in the moment with the camera, which intervenes like a buffer between me and the subject. For example, when I photographed for this book the combat opponents of Ultimate Fighting, what I liked was the perfection of the bodies, the intensity, the virility. But I was also a little afraid of this atmosphere. Afraid of the effect it would have on me to see people throwing punches in the face. And then I really got into it. Photographing the fights reminded me of the time when I arrived, still very young, on pornographic film sets – the way in which I was exhilarated by the physical side, the side hardcore. In Vegas, I found a form of familiarity. And I tried to refrain from any snobbery, realizing that when my porn work started to be noticed, some people were only interested in its sexual dimension, not agreeing to open it up to anything. either else. I said to myself that there could be the same risk with this material. Vegas is Vegas. And porn is porn. But it’s also more, depending on how you look at things, how you translate your experience. Let’s say that abstraction is for me a way of approaching this aspect, to avoid a description so literal that it no longer leaves the slightest chance for the mind to look elsewhere.
Another strategy in your photos is to always imply that something is happening out of frame. The imagination can unfold there beyond the limits of photography.
Yes, and we also find this approach in my early days, when I was trying to reinterpret or shake up the narration. During a shoot, I get all excited when different messages come to me: what am I looking at? What is it, and what is beautiful about it? And I kind of try to be non-judgemental. I just absorb the beauty.
In your interview with Patrcij Remy, published in the book, you explain that one of the best pieces of advice you have ever been given is that there is no question of morality in art. And that beauty can be anywhere. I think that’s what your mom tells you when she finds out you’re a photographer on gay porn shoots.
I truly cherish what she said to me that day, because it took me a long time to admit to her that I worked in porn for a living, that it was my job. – I thought it would scare her, that she was going to worry about her little boy. She was surprised at first, and then she told me that beauty can come from unexpected places. I was very proud of her at that time.
After your photos for the porn industry, you were quickly spotted by the fashion industry. Two mediums that ultimately operate on the same mechanism: creating desire. The entire city of Las Vegas itself seems to feed on desire, wanting to create ever more desire, a desire to consume, the desire to gamble… Desire also seems to be the driving force behind all your images. Who pushed you to photograph ultimate fighters ?
When I was young, I wanted to see porn, I was interested in it. And in Texas, there weren’t a lot of portrayals of homosexuality, or anything else that would support the idea that it was a possible experience, in reality. Then I moved to LA and saw an ad in a magazine looking for a photographer for porn shoots. I told myself that I could do it, but I wondered if I would manage to manage it from a psychological point of view. When we don’t have a personal experience of things, we very easily project what the culture tells us about them. So, I was a little apprehensive: “Wow, that’s going to be heavy to bear. For me. Lots of drugs, lots of instability, sad stories. But you know, Going back to what my mother said about how beauty can go to strange places, I still have friends, very close friends, with whom I worked at that time. I had somewhat the same feeling, and comparable fears, for theUltimate Fighting Championship. I was exhilarated, I was attracted, but I also told myself that it wasn’t really my universe. I am not a violent person. When I arrived I spent five days getting to know some of the competitors and attending their press conferences. From then on, we see them as human beings, who have dedicated years and years of their lives to martial arts. They are in total resonance with their body, they practice their art by striving to perfect it. And they are nice to each other. They hug each other. They can beat each other to death, but when the fight is over, they hug with great sincerity. And that is very touching, really.
We find this idea of performance through all your photos of the shows in Las Vegas, the fighters, the Cirque du Soleil, etc. An idea also to play a role in front of an audience, of an artificial situation….
I appreciate your mentioning this aspect of the performance, which is the expression of a mixture of different talents – ultimately quite close to what porn was to me. We often make fun of porn stars, we talk… But the exhibitionism that you have to tap into to achieve that is something quite incredible… To be able to sexualize this situation. You are faced with about thirty strangers, with cameras, you know that the sequences are going to be edited, and that millions of people are going to see these images. I felt the same with UFC fighters. And with the artists of Cirque du Soleil. To have such mastery of body and mind, to be able to do that in front of a crowd, knowing that the action is going to be recorded and broadcast. I have incredible respect for those who do that, because I’m the exact opposite. I imagine this is also what creates the attraction between exhibitionists and voyeurs. I like that my device, my camera, puts me at a distance. But to be able to capture these moments, to seize them accurately, it is really a luxury for me – and a real privilege – that people let me approach and seize them as closely as possible.
I was referring to Joan Mitchell and painting, but your photos also evoke a certain Hollywood cinema, a panoramic vision, but also the voyeurism at work with Hitchcock or De Palma.
I almost always shoot in a horizontal plane, at least whenever I have the possibility – it’s my instinctive format. So there must actually be a cinematographic anchor in my way of reacting to what I see. Very often, in my photos, there are three or four things happening at the same time. And I try to give the feeling that they happen simultaneously. The challenge is not to accurately describe, but rather to force your mind to imagine what is not shown. Because the image will create confusion, which makes you wonder, “What do I see? What’s going on there? These things turn me on when there’s a real seduction to them, but you can’t help but also want to know more.
How do you work with your camera? Do you capture a moment, or are you working on a staging?
In the beginning, to talk about what I was doing, people often talked about snapshot aesthetics, the aesthetics of the snapshot. I have often heard my work described in this way. And I didn’t like that at all, because in my work, the forms and the subjects are actually quite studied. It reminds me of a phrase I’ve used with friends who know me and my way of working – I’m talking about “first, second, third and fourth degree photos”. In the first degree, I tend to get bored quite quickly. For example, if I photograph a portrait, and during the whole session, there is this connection that is established, it can be fantastic, and the result can be very successful. But from time to time, I like to become the voyeur again. This is where we go to the second, third or fourth degree – it depends… When we start to show the mechanisms and the apparatus for making the photo – ah, well, the is there, etc. By revealing the artificial nature of the situation. I like to have that in mind when I’m in these kinds of environments, and that’s what I did on porn sets by the way – not so much a “behind the scenes” commentary on the cinematic part, but just give some clues, enough to give food for thought. And it can get confusing fast. In a kind of in-between, I would say. What turns me on is when you get the feeling that it doesn’t look like someone else’s image. etc By revealing the artificial nature of the situation. I like to have that in mind when I’m in these kinds of environments, and that’s what I did on porn sets by the way – not so much a “behind the scenes” commentary on the cinematic part, but just give some clues, enough to give food for thought. And it can get confusing fast. In a kind of in-between, I would say. What turns me on is when you get the feeling that it doesn’t look like someone else’s image. etc By revealing the artificial nature of the situation. I like to have that in mind when I’m in these kinds of environments, and that’s what I did on porn sets by the way – not so much a “behind the scenes” commentary on the cinematic part, but just give some clues, enough to give food for thought. And it can get confusing fast. In a kind of in-between, I would say. What turns me on is when you get the feeling that it doesn’t look like someone else’s image. but just to deliver some clues, enough to give food for thought. And it can get confusing fast. In a kind of in-between, I would say. What turns me on is when you get the feeling that it doesn’t look like someone else’s image. but just to deliver some clues, enough to give food for thought. And it can get confusing fast. In a kind of in-between, I would say. What turns me on is when you get the feeling that it doesn’t look like someone else’s image.
Source: Numero