Thomas Hellstrom
Where you come from: Milwaukee, WI
Where you live now: NYC
Age at the time of the photograph: 34
How old you expect to live to be:
Hopefully old enough to have fulfilled a few aspirations.
Q: Have you ever known anyone who died of AIDS?
A: Not a close friend.
The location where Margaret made this portrait, the plaza of the American Museum of Natural History, was chosen as an homage to Felix Gonzalez-Torres, an artist I very much admire who died of AIDS at 39. He produced a series of photographs of the words inscribed in plaza’s walls that describe the accomplishments of President Theodore Roosevelt. But detached from their context describe an implied or potentially lost individual. According to a friend of the artist, he expected that others would go to the plaza and make the same photographs. So in this way Margaret and I have collaborated with Felix, as he intended, even after it should have been too late. And by wearing Adam’s outrageous and fragile sunglasses in the portrait another, parallel collaboration is complete.
Q: Have you ever known anyone who died at a young age?
A: I experienced several deaths as a child – of my elderly relatives in a short period of time.
Q: What is something that you do that gives you real joy in life?
A: Traveling: for the soul refreshing aspect of the unfamiliar. Making photos and video: it can be a way to feel ecstatically attached to my surroundings, which is to say feeling fully alive. Dancing is up there too!
Q: What about yourself do you really like?
A: I try to listen well. Isn’t it very satisfying to know when someone is really listening to you?
Q: What would you like to see people do to change the world?
A: This is hard. Someone’s virtue is always someone else’s vice. I think the most urgent matter right now is the sustainability of the planet. It is already demanding changes out of necessity. I hope the outcome is the realization of the need to work together; which would imply more co-operation and mindfulness of the so-called “other” be they plants, animals, or people who make one uncomfortable.
Q: What are your favorite memories?
A: Visits to Berlin; it immediately felt like a second home and I have met incredible people there. Also, riding roller coasters in the 1980s, which was an elaborate coming-out experience.