Fearless Genius – The Digital Revolution (1985-2000)
Doug Menuez / Contour by Getty Images / Stanford University Libraries
Some stories, like relationships, last longer than others. Twenty-seven years ago I began a story that I worked on for fifteen years and then put away, thinking it was over. Now I’m thrilled to find my project about Steve Jobs and the digital revolution being featured at Visa Pour L’Image and taking on a new life.
Readers of Le Journal (La Lettre) may recall a piece in December of 2011 by Gilles Decamp about my project “Fearless Genius: The Digital Revolution 1985-2000.” It sparked crucial interest in what I was then trying to pull together into a coherent whole. I assumed it was an esoteric work for a small audience of tech fanatics. Instead, with the support of Jean-Jacques Naudet, who inspired me to persevere, I was amazed to be invited to exhibit as part of the Moscow Photobiennale by Olga Sviblova, which opened in March. There I saw my audience expanding internationally beyond technology creators to people of all ages and walks of life. Their lives are now deeply entwined with this new technology. At the opening my booth was mobbed – mostly by Russians actually reading the captions. I was then interviewed on Russian TV, radio and newspapers, and gave a lecture to a standing room only crowd of 600 people at the new Skolkovo Innovation Centre in Moscow. This blew my mind. The story was resonating with viewers in unexpected ways. It felt great.
This reaction validated my original thinking that despite the surface appearances there was a deeper story about profound societal change worth discovering. I’d found a hidden tribe imbued with tremendous powers to change our lives forever through the new digital technology they were inventing. Steve Jobs was the avatar of this explosion of innovation. By understanding Steve and documenting his process I could gain insights into the larger story of Silicon Valley. And once Steve agreed to let me inside his world, Peter Howe at LIFE Magazine generously gave me a three-year assignment that set me on this path.
Every project turns elegantly to the light or crashes into the abyss depending on the generosity of one’s subjects and the support of editors, critics, gallerists, curators and collectors. Stanford University acquired my archive in 2004 intending to develop this work into a resource for scholars and historians. They hired the legendary Karen Mullarkey to edit. She counted 250,000 negatives of over 70 companies I shot over the fifteen years and began to pull images into stories within the story. Later, Elodie Mailliet at Getty Contour got involved and introduced me to Jean-Jacques, which leads me back to this moment and the story of my story.
There was a delegation in Moscow at the Photobiennale from China, which included the curator Duan Yuting from the Lianzhou photography festival. Shortly afterward I received the news that I was invited to exhibit “Fearless Genius” at the 9th China Photographic Arts Festival in Wudang Mountain, China. I was flown there for the opening in May and again received a terrific response, especially to my lecture where I answered questions for almost an hour. In both Moscow and China there was a hunger to learn more about how Steve Jobs and others made their breakthrough innovations.
The most stunning news this year was the email from Jean Francois Leroy asking me to participate in Visa Pour L’Image. Given the many turns my life and career has taken, being accepted at Perpignan feels like coming full circle to the passions of my early days as a young photojournalist. The good news keeps rolling in with invitations to exhibit in Lianzhou at this year’s photo festival in October, and from a museum in Shenzen in December. It would be great to bring the work to the US soon. There is a discussion underway with a California museum and a few galleries, which is important as I’m starting to sell edition prints and box sets from the project as well. National Geographic Imaging did all my scans that were then printed on silver gelatin paper. I love combining the digital technology I documented being invented with the traditional wet darkroom I grew up in.
My idea is to continue interviewing and videotaping the subjects I photographed originally, along with the technology innovators of today, and combine this with the stills to make a documentary and large format book. I’m looking for the right publisher for this work. I hope to include essays exploring the themes within the material and historic context in addition to the images. I’m also developing a traveling exhibit, iPad and other apps, and a web site where people can share their experiences in Silicon Valley during the digital revolution and discuss issues around new technology.
Then my biggest dream is to create a non-profit education program from the work to inspire the next generation of engineers and innovators. I know. It’s all a bit much. But what the hell. I’m driven by the memory of Steve, his drive and what I learned from him. I have to try. And if I die today I will be satisfied that it appeared at Perpignan and other serious venues. The work was seen and the story was told.
The exhibition only represents a fraction of the material. As I continue to work on these photographs, researching captions and interviewing the subjects to prepare for the exhibitions, I’m learning so much I did not know at the time I made the photographs. The story is definitely not over, it’s gaining complexity and meaning. Actually, I have a feeling I’ll be working on this for some time. “Fearless Genius” is really not about the past but our future.
Douglas Hayes Menuez
Douglas Hayes Menuez (b.1957) is an American photographer based in New York City. While his varied career over 30 years has ranged from photojournalism to commissioned work and personal book projects, his methodology has evolved to employ a traditional documentary approach that allows for his subjective interpretation of the story. The driving concern of all his work is to explore the struggles and joys of the human condition.
His early work as a photojournalist began in 1981 while covering a wide range of news stories for The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, LIFE, USA Today, Fortune, and many other publications worldwide. His subjects have included the Ethiopian famine, the Olympics, and the AIDS crisis. He gained exclusive, unprecedented access to record the rise of Silicon Valley from 1985-2000 and documented the private daily lives of its most brilliant innovators, including Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, John Warnock, Carol Bartz, Andy Grove, John Sculley, Bill Joy, and John Doerr during an era when more jobs and wealth were created than at any time in human history.
His many portrait assignments range from Hollywood notables such as Charlize Theron, Cate Blanchett, and Robert Redford, to Mother Teresa and President Bill Clinton. Menuez’ work has won numerous awards over the years and been honored by many organizations, including the Kelly Awards, The AOP London, The Cannes Festival, The One Show, The Art Director’s Club of NY, Photo District News, The Epson Creativity Award, American Photography, NY Photo Festival, Graphis, and Communication Arts.
Menuez has been exhibited in solo and group shows and has also been featured in nine of the bestselling Day in the Life books. His commissioned campaigns for global brands include Chevrolet, Emirates Airlines, GE, Siemens, GE Hewlett Packard, Coca Cola, Charles Schwab, Chevron, Nokia, Samsung and Microsoft.
Menuez’ books include the bestseller, 15 Seconds: The Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1989, co-produced with David Elliott Cohen, which generated more than five hundred thousand dollars in relief money for earthquake victims. Three of his personal documentary projects have been published as books to date: Defying Gravity: The Making of Newton, Beyond Words Publishing, 1993, Heaven, Earth, Tequila: Un Viaje al Corazón de México, Waterside Press, 2005. His recent book Transcendent Spirit: The Orphans of Uganda is from Beaufort Books, NY, 2008, with an introduction by Dame Elizabeth Taylor, has raised over one hundred thousand dollars to date for Ugandan AIDS orphans. Stanford University Library acquired his extensive archive of over 1 million photographs for their collection. His next project, Fearless Genius: The Digital Revolution 1985-2000 is in production as a film, app, book, exhibit, and non-profit educational program. The first exhibition of Fearless Genius opened in Moscow at the Photobiennale in March. Menuez has lectured and taught at institutions and workshops such as RIT, MIT, Eastman House, Santa Fe Workshops, Palm Springs Photo Festival, The Tech Museum, and The Center for Photography at Woodstock, where he is a board member.
Fearless Genius : the Digital Revolution 1985-2000 – Doug Menuez
From september 1st to september 21st
Couvent Sainte Claire
Rue Général Derroja
66000 Perpignan – France
