Oral history interview with Laurie Simmons
name: label: Interviewee
content: Simmons, Laurie
label: Interviewer
content: Lyon, Christopher
topic: label: Occupation
content: Filmmakers -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Photographers -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women photographers
label: Topic
content: Women filmmakers
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Simmons, Laurie
label: Interviewer
content: Lyon, Christopher
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Laurie Simmons is a photographer, filmmaker, and artist in New York, New York. Christopher Lyon (1949- ) is a writer in Brooklyn, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 4 Items (sound files (2 hrs., 41 min.) Audio, digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 54 Pages (Transcript)
phystech: label: System Details
content: Recorded on Tascam DR-100MKII R000330.
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2017 May 25-September 27
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.simmon17
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Laurie Simmons conducted 2017 May 25 and September 27 by Christopher Lyon, for the Archives of American Art, at Simmons' home and studio in Brooklyn, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Simmons speaks of her childhood and adolescence in Great Neck, New York; early exposure to photography; attending Tyler School of Art and studying in Rome; renting a loft in New York with Jimmy DeSana in 1973; attending formative exhibitionsin the mid-1970s; beginning her body of photographic artwork in 1976; forming social bonds with other artists in New York; "girl parties" and openings in the 1980s with Gretchen Bender, Jennifer Bolande, Nancy Dwyer, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, and others; the trajectory of her body of work's subject matter; becoming a mother; her ambivalence toward engaging with critical theory; the cinematic urge in her early work, later realized in her work as a filmmaker; the current stage of her career; and her burgeoning interest in Internet culture. Simmons also recalls Deborah Turbeville, Sarah Charlesworth, Carroll Dunham, Mel Bochner, Dorothea Rockburne, Barry Le Va, Tara Suzuki, Rosalie Onorato, Ellen Brooks, and others.