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"   Photo: Laurel Nakadate  One would be tempted to think that meeting anonymous men on Craigslist, going to their homes, having a dancing session there half naked and filming the scene isn&amp;#039;t the wisest thing to do (and we&amp;#039;re not suggesting otherwise). But Laurel Nakadate, whose body of work explores both the themes of loneliness and voyeurism, lets her art do the talking. Whether she&amp;#039;s photographing herself each day in tears, showing off her collection of bright pink underwear or filming two teenage girls road-tripping between Florida and Nashville in their bathing suits, most of the 35-year-old video artist and photographer&amp;#039;s art deals with the objectification of teenage girls and sexuality. Somewhere between the works of French conceptual artist Sophie Calle inviting strangers in her bed and Larry Clark documenting adolescent sexuality, Nakadate&amp;#039;s videos and photographs, unsettling as they may be, are impossible to ignore. ELLE: What inspired you to make the photographic series `365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears&amp;#039;?LN: I was looking at all these images on Facebook of all these &amp;quot;happy&amp;quot; people and I became interested in the fact that day after day friends were posting pictures of themselves taking part in some sort of constructed photographic world free of sorrow. I decided to deliberately take part in sadness each day of 2010, and to document that performance through a daily self portrait. ELLE: How do you meet the people you photograph? Why do you choose to work with non-professional actors?LN: I love the fact that anything can happen when two people enter a room and I believe that non-professional actors bring an extra surprise to that recipe. I meet the people in my videos in all the ways that we meet people in normal life: on the street, in elevators, at the grocery store, at the bus stop. ELLE: Did you ever feel at risk while shooting your series `Lucky Tiger&amp;#039; in the homes of anonymous men?LN: I&amp;#039;ve never felt at risk, because I follow my gut. I don&amp;#039;t work with just any stranger. ELLE: What is the story behind your film The Wolf Knife?LN: The Wolf Knife is a film about two teenage girls who run away from home. I cast the two lead actresses through open casting calls, but the entire supporting cast was found on location at the last minute. We traveled from Hollywood, Florida to Nashville, Tennessee during a ten day road trip and shot the scripted and improvised scenes as we went along. We had no budget for the film, but what we did have was the endless possibilities that come from no one watching how the money is spent and the desire to tell a difficult story. ELLE: How did you manage to carry out this project?LN: We borrowed a camera, slept on floors, were all crammed into one car, used airplane vouchers, and didn&amp;#039;t sleep. I really, really wanted to make the film. Also, a huge part of the budget was saved because I wrote, shot, edited and directed it myself. ELLE: Have you had to overcome any tough obstacles in the making of your films?LN: Making a film is a very, very hard task \u2013 physically and emotionally. Finishing a film is an event. The commitment to the act of making a film is a tough obstacle from beginning to end, but it is so worth it. ELLE: What are working on right now?LN: I&amp;#039;m working on a big art book that will cover the last ten years of my work. There will be essays written by great writers I admire in it like Rick Moody, Mary Gaitskill, Neil LaBute, Klaus Biesenbach and hopefully a few others. I&amp;#039;m also writing a new screenplay; I hope to shoot another film before too long. Laurel Nakadate: Only the Lonely at MoMA PS1, on view through August 8, 2011 and organized by Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1 and Chief Curator at Large at The Museum of Modern Art. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/news/a5957/laurel-nakadate-on-craigslist-facebook-film-16592/>