In Nobody’s Here but Me, Cindy Sherman does a great job of depicting postmodernism through her photography. Most of the women in her photos demonstrate what we talked about in class, that are not just selling a product or an image, they are selling a lifestyle. However, I do believe that Cindy Sherman is trying to develop a deeper meaning than that. She takes a concept, such as female vulnerability, for example, and really highlights that emotion in her subjects’ faces, like the woman that appeared to be covering most of her face under the covers. I really liked what Jamie Lee Curtis said about Cindy Sherman not trying to be a feminist, but really showing those qualities, and I’d have to agree with her. She depicts some serious feminist issues in her work, including the male gaze. For example, when the woman was leaning on the front door in the hallway, was she rejected by the man of the house because he was no longer interested in her for an insane reason like not being beautiful or young enough anymore? Another thing I really loved was when she used the medical dolls in place of actual people so she could still shoot some naked body photos after profanity was more regulated in the industry. I love artists who find their way around certain regulations and I believe Cindy Sherman did it in a very interesting and creative way. Although I’m not a big fan of her later work, just because of the blood and it being less realistic, I do think she does well to send a very powerful message in her work.
I really enjoyed the work of Vic Muniz and the powerful impact he had in the documentary. I think it’s very cool and unique to use food as a template for an outline of people and pictures used for photography. It is a very creative way to come full circle with the trash workers to build their outlines with recyclable objects. I thought it was very interesting to see the positive attitudes and outlooks in the personalities in the workers. Most people had a smile on their face, despite their job and he various hardships in their lives. I’m glad that Vic was able to document them and make a big impact in their lives by showing them how important they are. I especially liked when Vic used the bottle caps and various smaller objects to show texture in the faces. Vic’s wife brings up a valid point, however, with psychologically affecting the workers and taking them out of their “bubble.” I definitely feel that the workers were living in a bubble, but a lot of people all over the world do, especially when they live in rural areas. When someone lives in an area and has a certain way of life for so long, even their whole life, they often don’t know any better and only know things that learn about from others. They often don’t experience things for themselves, but Vic was able to give them that rare opportunity. Although there was a risk of the psychological health of the workers to change negatively, I think it was worth the risk for Vic to do this project.
It was interesting to me how he would use old abandon hospitals, slaughterhouses, and warehouses for his work, and he said he would depict what used to happen in those places, kind of like a reflection. I thought it was a unique way that he could make his “self-portraits” seem to float off the walls, although it seemed a little odd to me that he called them self-portraits at all, since all of them looked so different in their appearance and emotion. It baffled me as to how he was able to make his pillar paintings so realistic and three-dimensional. It is very impressive to me that he is such a strong artist in two different mediums of art, painting and photography. It seems like very tedious work to go back and forth from the area in the building to the viewfinder in his camera. At first I thought it was bizarre that he would cut into the walls, but it gives a very strong element of depth in his paintings. By using the same uniform color in his paintings, he is allowing the light to change the appearance naturally. The letters on the walls tell more of a story to his paintings, something that other effects like alterations in light would have trouble doing on their own. I liked when he used elements of his own life into his work, like when he used the lines of the mountains he walks in on the walls. I’m curious as to what happens to the buildings once he is done with them. It would be amazing if they could be preserved in the buildings for others to enjoy for years to come.
As Andreas Gursky said in his video, there is a certain level of consumerism in our culture, which I feel drives a lot of our actions. I feel like his photo of all of the shoes lined up is a perfect example of this, and is something you would likely see in a magazine ad. Everyone is so greedy these days and is so concerned about themselves and their possessions, that everyone feels a short of disconnect from each other. Even in the way Gursky tried to only take pictures in the galleries where people weren’t looking at the camera can be representative of this. In the picture of the dead soldiers, however, there seemed to be the opposite effect. There seemed to be an emotional tied that kept them all together and they all had something in common. It didn’t matter how much money, material possessions, or status they had, they are all victims of the war now, and they are all the same. There is a certain uniformity in those soldiers, as well as in all of us. Everyone likes to say that they are photographer, sometimes even calling themselves artists, but if everyone can do it, then what makes it special? Being an artist is creating something that no one has before and requires a unique skill that not everyone can obtain with taking selfies on their phones. It’s like the soldiers, at the end of the day, one day our possessions won’t matter, so it’s important to contribute something meaningful while you still can.
Jeff Wall reminded me of Andreas Gursky in the sense that both of them took very large, interesting photos of architectural buildings. I thought the image of the 180 degree inside of the building was a fishbowl kind of effect that was very cool to look at. I think he did a good job of conveying emotion in his photographs. In his photograph of the Asian man walking by the couple, there are racist connotations through the man squinting his eye with his finger, and his trophy white-looking girlfriend who is made to look superior through the way she’s dressed. Just by looking at them, especially at how far away they are standing from the man, you can sense the anger and disgust of his race. Similarly with the picture of the destroyed room, the emotion leaps right out of the picture. It is obvious that it is a woman’s room because of the clothes and shoes all over the floor, but it angered me that they had to make it a woman because it implies that she is weak and emotionally unstable, unable to handle her emotions. I think it would be cool if his photos could have been in magazines like Life and Time, so people were more aware of their social impact of their choices on others. I really liked how complex his photos could look, and I felt like it would become tedious to stag such complex scenes for his photographs, like in the destroyed woman’s room.
At the start of the video, I was unsure what it was going to be about since it started in such a large warehouse. It was surprising to me to see all of the people documented at once in the photos and that there was still detail in their faces. The workers seemed to be content with what they were doing, some on the shipyard even saying that they were working for their country. I liked how the workers looked in the photo when they were all lined up in their yellow work clothes and that they had a uniform symmetrical look like in blocks. It seemed like the artist wanted to capture the masses and depict the overall hard working attitude of the workers. Seeing the smiles of the people, despite the hard labor jobs they were working so hard at to finish like the ship yard, for example. Also, there was the tedious jobs of assembly in the factory, yet you didn’t see the boredom and fatigue in the faces in the workers. Although the workers may in fact be bored of their day in, day out jobs, but it is hard to see that in the photos and video the artist chose to show. It was amazing to me to see the construction of the dam in action, instead of just before and after shots. I really liked the symmetry in the photographs, especially on the construction sites. It was also pleasing to see to see the smiles in the faces of workers.
Pina reminded me a lot of the staged photographs we have been learning about in class. The dance with the red clothe on the ground sounded like there was a heart beat in the background, so it felt like a moving representation of anxiety or abuse, similar to the staged photographs of the same things. My cousin is a dancer for the professional ballet company in New York, so I know first-hand how hard it is for the dancers and choreographers to covey emotions without the ability to use words. The same can be said of photography, since it is still life. I found it particularly on the misogynist side because the woman looked like a victim of violence in the first dance, and the man was looking angrily at her. In the scene where the woman had the polka-dot dress, she had to rely on the man to catch her every time she fell, instead of reaching out to check herself, and she looked like she had empty emotions that he had to fill, based on her facial expression. The women are always in dresses with the men having to catch and support, similar to traditional gender roles. I liked that Pina was so unconventional and didn’t strive to make things pretty and glamourous, like most ballet choreographers try to do. She uses very realistic and common life problems depicted in her work, like emotions of anger and sorrow. A lot of people can feel and relate to the emotions she reflects in her dances.
Jason Salavon used very creative ideas to make unique photographs that people both could not make without technology, and also probably would not think to even make at all. I love the first photograph of the morphing of the Titanic scenes. You are able to see such a complex movie in film scenes that are not individually recognizable, but you can see the blended of a common theme to the movie. The centerfolds have a similar idea. You are not able to see each individual woman, but you can see common themes for that time depicted in what people thought was the ideal sex symbol and beauty of that decade. You can see those common themes change over time in each of the different blended photographs. I thought the One Special Moment photographs were very unique since it shows something that is so special to everyone in the photographs, but it makes you realize how common each of those events are for many different people. The Census Data photographs also show commonalities in people over time that people may feel is unique to them, but is actually very common. The 3-D light images add a certain visual value that flat images could not. I liked to see that data could be represented in such a way that would not only make it easy to understand, but very pleasing to look at. I like when artists use technology this way in their photographs, since they are making something they normally couldn’t, not just smoothing out imperfections.
The copy right laws described in the film remind me of the same problem that happens when someone uses someone else’s photograph and recreates it or edits it. The problem when you blend together any type of art is that no one knows who the real owner to give credit and payment to the original artist and the property of it becomes ambiguous. “It’s taking something that was and making it something it isn’t,” is a very good quote to depict the overall problem with copy right laws. It can’t be your original work if all you do is add another sound to a song or change the beat. Similarly, it can’t be your photograph if you change the color of something or by zooming in. You have to capture your own photograph, or record your own musical elements in a song for it to yours, and for you to get the credit and payment for it. I think that print or tangible art is more definite and since the creation of the internet, everyone has to ability to find things and they don’t think about music not being theirs and it takes the personal attachment out of it. A lot of people would know not to steal a painting and sell it as their own, but with music copy rights, and especially mash ups, it is often unclear who owns what of the song. Some people may try to pass off the new “creation” as their own, even though they are not the original artists.
Walead Beshty uses unique elements of architecture with his work and he really makes his artwork look like very precise structures. The colors he uses go together well and show more depth and take on a 3-demontional look through his elements of shading. He goes above and beyond with his cuts and sanding to unsure that it looks perfect, something a lot of artist do not take the time to do. His meticulous precision sets him apart from many other artists in his field, combining both photography and elements of sculpture. His Travel Picture series reminds me of a bunch of box cut up and reorganized to look like tin cubes. I like that there is both a difference of color darkness and a light shining on the photos. It adds depth and more texture to something that would otherwise be flat. His photograms don’t even look like photos per say, but more colorful stripes of paper. It looks like all the colors of the rainbow and it is interesting to see how he places all of the pieces together and how it all blends. Some of the photograms have elements of white in them that give the photograms an overall lighter look. Walead Beshty is one of those rare artists that combines both mediums of sculpture and photography and he is very precise and meticulous at both. I like how in some of his work is solid colors and some of his other works has more of a transparent look.
Brian Bress’s video was very odd I thought and it was something I definitely wouldn’t watch for fun like some of our other artists videos we have watched in class. I thought the background scene with the miner looked like those fake rocks you see at children’s museums in their play area that they build with. I don’t think though that he was trying to go for an authentic look, just something fun. I would have enjoyed the video more if the actors were cut out and there were just the scenes of the optical illusions of the color quilts. I think they definitely made the video less like art and more like comedy. I didn’t think it was funny, however, and more just stupid above anything. I didn’t understand how he was trying to put all of the elements together, and I didn’t get their common theme, but again, maybe that was his point. I wouldn’t call his work art by any stretch because he wasn’t creating or capturing anything that an amateur teenager could make with a smart phone and a laptop. The only elements that were even close to be considered art were the different quilt scenes. I thought the music was reflective of the different scenes, however, and they fit well with what was going on. I found it hard to watch the whole thing and take his work seriously as an artist. Good art is often weird but being weird doesn’t necessarily make you a good artist.
I think there is some truth in the statement that all photography is conceptual and abstract. I think the problem is when critics and artists try to categorize groups of artists and their work when trying to describe them or display them in a gallery. Every artist goes one thing or another in their work that is part of a common theme or idea, hence conceptual. I think it is more important to group photography into categories like fashion or landscape photography, rather than conceptual or not. When I studied photography in high school, my teacher showed us some types of conceptual photography and I always thought it was photographs that had a hidden meaning to them and represented a word, for example. I didn’t realize that all photography stands for one concept or another. Even photography that is documentary or portrait still is conceptual since it is representing the thing it is documenting. I think labeling something as conceptual makes things easier for critics to talk about since everyone can understand its meaning. A lot of photographers use other art forms in their work, and they like to be called artists. I think it depends on the person and their preference, like the term conceptual, but I think the labels are more for critics and other people than for the artists and photographers themselves. I personally would like to call someone a general artist if they used lots of different art mediums in their work and not just photography.
Cindy Sherman
ReplyDeleteIn Nobody’s Here but Me, Cindy Sherman does a great job of depicting postmodernism through her photography. Most of the women in her photos demonstrate what we talked about in class, that are not just selling a product or an image, they are selling a lifestyle. However, I do believe that Cindy Sherman is trying to develop a deeper meaning than that. She takes a concept, such as female vulnerability, for example, and really highlights that emotion in her subjects’ faces, like the woman that appeared to be covering most of her face under the covers. I really liked what Jamie Lee Curtis said about Cindy Sherman not trying to be a feminist, but really showing those qualities, and I’d have to agree with her. She depicts some serious feminist issues in her work, including the male gaze. For example, when the woman was leaning on the front door in the hallway, was she rejected by the man of the house because he was no longer interested in her for an insane reason like not being beautiful or young enough anymore? Another thing I really loved was when she used the medical dolls in place of actual people so she could still shoot some naked body photos after profanity was more regulated in the industry. I love artists who find their way around certain regulations and I believe Cindy Sherman did it in a very interesting and creative way. Although I’m not a big fan of her later work, just because of the blood and it being less realistic, I do think she does well to send a very powerful message in her work.
Vic Muniz
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the work of Vic Muniz and the powerful impact he had in the documentary. I think it’s very cool and unique to use food as a template for an outline of people and pictures used for photography. It is a very creative way to come full circle with the trash workers to build their outlines with recyclable objects. I thought it was very interesting to see the positive attitudes and outlooks in the personalities in the workers. Most people had a smile on their face, despite their job and he various hardships in their lives. I’m glad that Vic was able to document them and make a big impact in their lives by showing them how important they are. I especially liked when Vic used the bottle caps and various smaller objects to show texture in the faces. Vic’s wife brings up a valid point, however, with psychologically affecting the workers and taking them out of their “bubble.” I definitely feel that the workers were living in a bubble, but a lot of people all over the world do, especially when they live in rural areas. When someone lives in an area and has a certain way of life for so long, even their whole life, they often don’t know any better and only know things that learn about from others. They often don’t experience things for themselves, but Vic was able to give them that rare opportunity. Although there was a risk of the psychological health of the workers to change negatively, I think it was worth the risk for Vic to do this project.
Georges Rousse
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to me how he would use old abandon hospitals, slaughterhouses, and warehouses for his work, and he said he would depict what used to happen in those places, kind of like a reflection. I thought it was a unique way that he could make his “self-portraits” seem to float off the walls, although it seemed a little odd to me that he called them self-portraits at all, since all of them looked so different in their appearance and emotion. It baffled me as to how he was able to make his pillar paintings so realistic and three-dimensional. It is very impressive to me that he is such a strong artist in two different mediums of art, painting and photography. It seems like very tedious work to go back and forth from the area in the building to the viewfinder in his camera. At first I thought it was bizarre that he would cut into the walls, but it gives a very strong element of depth in his paintings. By using the same uniform color in his paintings, he is allowing the light to change the appearance naturally. The letters on the walls tell more of a story to his paintings, something that other effects like alterations in light would have trouble doing on their own. I liked when he used elements of his own life into his work, like when he used the lines of the mountains he walks in on the walls. I’m curious as to what happens to the buildings once he is done with them. It would be amazing if they could be preserved in the buildings for others to enjoy for years to come.
Andreas Gursky
ReplyDeleteAs Andreas Gursky said in his video, there is a certain level of consumerism in our culture, which I feel drives a lot of our actions. I feel like his photo of all of the shoes lined up is a perfect example of this, and is something you would likely see in a magazine ad. Everyone is so greedy these days and is so concerned about themselves and their possessions, that everyone feels a short of disconnect from each other. Even in the way Gursky tried to only take pictures in the galleries where people weren’t looking at the camera can be representative of this. In the picture of the dead soldiers, however, there seemed to be the opposite effect. There seemed to be an emotional tied that kept them all together and they all had something in common. It didn’t matter how much money, material possessions, or status they had, they are all victims of the war now, and they are all the same. There is a certain uniformity in those soldiers, as well as in all of us. Everyone likes to say that they are photographer, sometimes even calling themselves artists, but if everyone can do it, then what makes it special? Being an artist is creating something that no one has before and requires a unique skill that not everyone can obtain with taking selfies on their phones. It’s like the soldiers, at the end of the day, one day our possessions won’t matter, so it’s important to contribute something meaningful while you still can.
Jeff Wall
ReplyDeleteJeff Wall reminded me of Andreas Gursky in the sense that both of them took very large, interesting photos of architectural buildings. I thought the image of the 180 degree inside of the building was a fishbowl kind of effect that was very cool to look at. I think he did a good job of conveying emotion in his photographs. In his photograph of the Asian man walking by the couple, there are racist connotations through the man squinting his eye with his finger, and his trophy white-looking girlfriend who is made to look superior through the way she’s dressed. Just by looking at them, especially at how far away they are standing from the man, you can sense the anger and disgust of his race. Similarly with the picture of the destroyed room, the emotion leaps right out of the picture. It is obvious that it is a woman’s room because of the clothes and shoes all over the floor, but it angered me that they had to make it a woman because it implies that she is weak and emotionally unstable, unable to handle her emotions. I think it would be cool if his photos could have been in magazines like Life and Time, so people were more aware of their social impact of their choices on others. I really liked how complex his photos could look, and I felt like it would become tedious to stag such complex scenes for his photographs, like in the destroyed woman’s room.
Manufactured Landscapes
ReplyDeleteAt the start of the video, I was unsure what it was going to be about since it started in such a large warehouse. It was surprising to me to see all of the people documented at once in the photos and that there was still detail in their faces. The workers seemed to be content with what they were doing, some on the shipyard even saying that they were working for their country. I liked how the workers looked in the photo when they were all lined up in their yellow work clothes and that they had a uniform symmetrical look like in blocks. It seemed like the artist wanted to capture the masses and depict the overall hard working attitude of the workers. Seeing the smiles of the people, despite the hard labor jobs they were working so hard at to finish like the ship yard, for example. Also, there was the tedious jobs of assembly in the factory, yet you didn’t see the boredom and fatigue in the faces in the workers. Although the workers may in fact be bored of their day in, day out jobs, but it is hard to see that in the photos and video the artist chose to show. It was amazing to me to see the construction of the dam in action, instead of just before and after shots. I really liked the symmetry in the photographs, especially on the construction sites. It was also pleasing to see to see the smiles in the faces of workers.
Pina Reflection
ReplyDeletePina reminded me a lot of the staged photographs we have been learning about in class. The dance with the red clothe on the ground sounded like there was a heart beat in the background, so it felt like a moving representation of anxiety or abuse, similar to the staged photographs of the same things. My cousin is a dancer for the professional ballet company in New York, so I know first-hand how hard it is for the dancers and choreographers to covey emotions without the ability to use words. The same can be said of photography, since it is still life. I found it particularly on the misogynist side because the woman looked like a victim of violence in the first dance, and the man was looking angrily at her. In the scene where the woman had the polka-dot dress, she had to rely on the man to catch her every time she fell, instead of reaching out to check herself, and she looked like she had empty emotions that he had to fill, based on her facial expression. The women are always in dresses with the men having to catch and support, similar to traditional gender roles. I liked that Pina was so unconventional and didn’t strive to make things pretty and glamourous, like most ballet choreographers try to do. She uses very realistic and common life problems depicted in her work, like emotions of anger and sorrow. A lot of people can feel and relate to the emotions she reflects in her dances.
Jason Salavon
ReplyDeleteJason Salavon used very creative ideas to make unique photographs that people both could not make without technology, and also probably would not think to even make at all. I love the first photograph of the morphing of the Titanic scenes. You are able to see such a complex movie in film scenes that are not individually recognizable, but you can see the blended of a common theme to the movie. The centerfolds have a similar idea. You are not able to see each individual woman, but you can see common themes for that time depicted in what people thought was the ideal sex symbol and beauty of that decade. You can see those common themes change over time in each of the different blended photographs. I thought the One Special Moment photographs were very unique since it shows something that is so special to everyone in the photographs, but it makes you realize how common each of those events are for many different people. The Census Data photographs also show commonalities in people over time that people may feel is unique to them, but is actually very common. The 3-D light images add a certain visual value that flat images could not. I liked to see that data could be represented in such a way that would not only make it easy to understand, but very pleasing to look at. I like when artists use technology this way in their photographs, since they are making something they normally couldn’t, not just smoothing out imperfections.
Rip Remix Manifesto
ReplyDeleteThe copy right laws described in the film remind me of the same problem that happens when someone uses someone else’s photograph and recreates it or edits it. The problem when you blend together any type of art is that no one knows who the real owner to give credit and payment to the original artist and the property of it becomes ambiguous. “It’s taking something that was and making it something it isn’t,” is a very good quote to depict the overall problem with copy right laws. It can’t be your original work if all you do is add another sound to a song or change the beat. Similarly, it can’t be your photograph if you change the color of something or by zooming in. You have to capture your own photograph, or record your own musical elements in a song for it to yours, and for you to get the credit and payment for it. I think that print or tangible art is more definite and since the creation of the internet, everyone has to ability to find things and they don’t think about music not being theirs and it takes the personal attachment out of it. A lot of people would know not to steal a painting and sell it as their own, but with music copy rights, and especially mash ups, it is often unclear who owns what of the song. Some people may try to pass off the new “creation” as their own, even though they are not the original artists.
Walead Beshty
ReplyDeleteWalead Beshty uses unique elements of architecture with his work and he really makes his artwork look like very precise structures. The colors he uses go together well and show more depth and take on a 3-demontional look through his elements of shading. He goes above and beyond with his cuts and sanding to unsure that it looks perfect, something a lot of artist do not take the time to do. His meticulous precision sets him apart from many other artists in his field, combining both photography and elements of sculpture. His Travel Picture series reminds me of a bunch of box cut up and reorganized to look like tin cubes. I like that there is both a difference of color darkness and a light shining on the photos. It adds depth and more texture to something that would otherwise be flat. His photograms don’t even look like photos per say, but more colorful stripes of paper. It looks like all the colors of the rainbow and it is interesting to see how he places all of the pieces together and how it all blends. Some of the photograms have elements of white in them that give the photograms an overall lighter look. Walead Beshty is one of those rare artists that combines both mediums of sculpture and photography and he is very precise and meticulous at both. I like how in some of his work is solid colors and some of his other works has more of a transparent look.
Brian Bress
ReplyDeleteBrian Bress’s video was very odd I thought and it was something I definitely wouldn’t watch for fun like some of our other artists videos we have watched in class. I thought the background scene with the miner looked like those fake rocks you see at children’s museums in their play area that they build with. I don’t think though that he was trying to go for an authentic look, just something fun. I would have enjoyed the video more if the actors were cut out and there were just the scenes of the optical illusions of the color quilts. I think they definitely made the video less like art and more like comedy. I didn’t think it was funny, however, and more just stupid above anything. I didn’t understand how he was trying to put all of the elements together, and I didn’t get their common theme, but again, maybe that was his point. I wouldn’t call his work art by any stretch because he wasn’t creating or capturing anything that an amateur teenager could make with a smart phone and a laptop. The only elements that were even close to be considered art were the different quilt scenes. I thought the music was reflective of the different scenes, however, and they fit well with what was going on. I found it hard to watch the whole thing and take his work seriously as an artist. Good art is often weird but being weird doesn’t necessarily make you a good artist.
Conceptual photography
ReplyDeleteI think there is some truth in the statement that all photography is conceptual and abstract. I think the problem is when critics and artists try to categorize groups of artists and their work when trying to describe them or display them in a gallery. Every artist goes one thing or another in their work that is part of a common theme or idea, hence conceptual. I think it is more important to group photography into categories like fashion or landscape photography, rather than conceptual or not. When I studied photography in high school, my teacher showed us some types of conceptual photography and I always thought it was photographs that had a hidden meaning to them and represented a word, for example. I didn’t realize that all photography stands for one concept or another. Even photography that is documentary or portrait still is conceptual since it is representing the thing it is documenting. I think labeling something as conceptual makes things easier for critics to talk about since everyone can understand its meaning. A lot of photographers use other art forms in their work, and they like to be called artists. I think it depends on the person and their preference, like the term conceptual, but I think the labels are more for critics and other people than for the artists and photographers themselves. I personally would like to call someone a general artist if they used lots of different art mediums in their work and not just photography.