Bill Sullivan by Stefan Hancock

Bill Sullivan is an artist who lives in NYC. One of his earlier works titled "3 Situations" produced a series called "More Turns" in which subjects are candidly photographed walking through a subway turnstile. Sullivan said this in regards to "3 Situations":

"I was tired of the conventions in which most photographs of people are taken. And I was tired of the results that  often seem to pass for poetry. I needed something to be objective : I wanted the context to be clearly established . I  wanted play a role in the situation, but I wanted the situation to take a photograph of itself for me . I would design the scenarios in which this could happen, and then the situation could be responsible for creating the picture. The poetry would be as much in the design of that scenario as from any photograph that might come from it. These situations would include me but I would disappear as any kind of typical photographer. I would simply play a role in the  scenario. I would become someone waiting for an elevator, a man reading the New Yorker waiting for a friend to pass through the turnstile, or simply another tourist watching someone having his or her portrait done. The situations were mapped out, tests were made, and special clothing was worn. I became a spy for the obvious."

This was the inspiration for the works "More Turns", "Stop Down", and "Time Port". Sullivan has also explored the use of technology in his work by producing prints of photographs of computer screens with various subject matter. The series "Touch Screen" contains various subjects with a cursor hand interacting with the subjects in the photographs, and then is photographed by Sullivan. This use of technology is an interesting concept to me because of the thought of the interaction between humans and technology. In the series "Self Portraits with Mirrors", Sullivan explores technology through photographing computer screens again, but this time by re-photographing subjects that have taken nude self-portraits. This series is an interesting exploration into a trend of technology and sexuality, being that all of the subjects in the photographs are female.