Interview

Right before I left for this trip to the Southwest I saw an interview on Charlie Rose with the documentary filmmaker Errol Morris.  Towards the end of the interview he and Rose spoke about what it means to interview someone.  Morris said that he sees interviewing as a form of discovery.  Rather than going into an interview assuming he knows who the person is and using the interview questions to get his subject to say what he wants, Morris sees the interview process as a form of exploration.  As the interviewer, he opens a space to allow the interviewee to come to him so he can learn who his subject is.
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11808

 

I arrived in New Mexico a couple of days ago and since I have been here I have been thinking about what it means to be here for the first time.  I realize that I have come with some expectations since I have read a lot about this area and spoken to many people, who live here or have visited.  This has led me to think that I know what I will find.   I also came with the intention of making a project and to some extent recreating the structure of my Turkey trip.  And although none of this is inherently bad, I am not sure any of it is very helpful either.

Over the past couple of days all I have found out is that this is a really different place for me and I don’t know what it is. So far, it hasn’t been anything like the way it was described to me or like pictures I have seen.  It will take some time to understand all that is going on here.  So to this end, I can start my interview now.  I don’t know what I will find, so I will listen and watch, put my expectations aside and give New Mexico the space to unfold.