David LaChapelle! <3

David LaChapelle is most properly the sole reason why I am so passionate about photography. He is my absolute favourite of all time. He is so amazingly, fantastically, unbelievably over the top and talented. He completely challenged the stereotypes of portrait and fashion photography and raised the level of photography so much higher (in my opinion anyway). 

His photographs are always so jam-packed with colour, glamour, celebrity, amazing ideas and sets. 

The first five photographs are taken from his most recent work entitled "Jesus Is My Homeboy". I think these are brilliant, but then I think everything LaChapelle does is always brilliant! I love how he has used something so ancient, and turned it into modern day. I also admire how he has challenged authority, and taken a subject that has always been so serious and important to alot of people, and transformed it into a highly humorous editorial, without it becoming offensive.

I don't understand alot of the meanings/messages behind the majority of LaChapelle's work, but this is what I have always loved about it, as I find myself sat looking at his images for hours on end, coming up with different stories of what he could have possibly been thinking when the photograph was taken. 

I love this next image because of how clever it is, and, as a hater of tangerine-skin-coloured girls (aka too much time on the sunbed, too much fake tan), how much I can relate to it and laugh. I love love love how at first glance the model looks black, because of (the majority of) her skin tone and afro hairstyle, but when you look closer she is actually caucasian. I think it is really clever that her afro is blonde, another thing I only really noticed when I realized the model was of white skin tone.

Richard Billingham

"I was just trying to make order out of chaos"

I had actually never come across Richard Billingham, or his work, before the lecture on our class' 'Contemporary Art' brief, where he was listed as a recommended photographer for research, under the 'Intimate Life' catergoy. 

I'm very glad I have finally stumbled across Billingham, better late than never ey? I really enjoy the relaxed 'normality', undeniable truth, and intimacy of his work, especially these images above, taken from the book 'Ray's A Laugh'.  

Ray, aka Billingham's father, was an alcoholic and his mental state was unstable. The book lets us into the world of his very own dysfunctional family, and the poverty and neglect in which he had to grow up in/around. 

Billingham photographed his mother, Liz, who appears to be obssessed with 'nick knacks', cats and jigsaw puzzles, and his father, Ray, who is always drunk. They come across as disgusting, foul creatures at a glance, Ray "who gets drunk on cheap cider at the off license", and Liz who "hardly drinks, but she does smoke alot" but when studying Billingham's work properly there is an odd element of happiness between them? It's quite touching, knowing that people can be happy, even with so little.

I really love Billingham's honesty, and courage for producing such intimate photographs. He refers to his mother and father as 'Ray' and 'Liz' alot of the time, which makes me arrive at the assumption that they don't have a strong relationship, along with the sarcastic title of the book. 

I think my favourite thing about these photographs, is the fact that Billingham decided to photograph on the cheapest film he could find, "some of them got marked and scratched. I just used the cheapest film and took them to be processed at the cheapest place". I love how harsh the colours are, and the careless focus. These things just add to the brutal truth of his home life, and make the photographs look authentic, with an aesthetic snap shot style. 

They just seem to have a really shocking and alien-like lifestyle to me, personally. It is so different to the upbringing I had, and quite hard for me to believe.

The first two photographs show Ray looking ill, frail and pale. In nearly every photograph of him he has some kid of alcoholic beverage in his hand, or placed by him in the shot, obviously symbolizing his alcoholism. The next photograph is off Liz, looking extremely happy. I love this photograph, because even though she looks grotesque, yellow-teethed and in need of a serious shower, she looks so happy, and I love how much it contrasts with the shots of Ray, being drunk and miserable.

The fourth photograph I found very touching. Liz is handing Ray, what looks like, a cup of tea? I love how the composition boasts the mis-match wallpaper, which is stained in the corner, and the fact that she has, what looks like, a pair of drumsticks in her hand? I also really like the contrast this image has with the one below it, where Liz seems to be confronting Ray, with her fist clenched towards him, but Ray doesn't even seem to be listening. I enjoy this last photograph for its honesty, because its never nice to see your parents fighting, especially (I imagine) if one is too drunk to even be able to listen. I love how there is so much going on in the background aswell, evidence of Liz's fondness for "things that are decorative". I also appreciate the elbow/arm of an unknown subject in the top right hand corner, he looks as if he is putting his hands behind his head? I imagine him to be looking up at the ceiling in kind of disbelief and thinking "here we go again"....or something similar.

(all quotes from a passage from Richard Billingham about 'Ray's A Laugh')

Tim Walker

Tim Walker is another favourite photographer of mine. This editorial is my favourite of Walker's work. He is very 'fairytale-esque' which is what I love about his work. The male model, here, is dressed up as a toy soldier, and i think the way he is sat - very straight and stiff, propped up against the wall, is a very clever way of making a human look like a doll/toy. His white face with heavily blushed cheeks and slicked back black hair and mustache is also very well executed, plus his blank expression staring straight on. I love how there are other 'toys' on the floor aka dominoes, but they are a larger-than-life size to make the models look smaller and doll-size.

Its lovely how her polka-dot tights match the white spots on the dominoes, and another thing that makes the models look so small is the set surrounding them; the high up skirting board, the massive door and I love the way the light is shining through the door, almost like they are living in a child's dollhouse and the front of it has been left slightly open by a little girl who was mid-play and got shouted downstairs for dinner by her mother.

I like the way he looks as if he has no life, like he is made out of plastic, and she looks very doll-like but still has some 'life' in her? I think this is made more apparent by the way he is staring over to the right and she is looking straight into the camera. Her pose is also not one you would see a toy doing, her leg wouldn't be able to stay like that (obviously, as a doll no muscles), and I like the way that plants the idea of 'dolls coming to life when people aren't around'.

Modernism/Postmodernism

Alfred Stieglitz - "Fifth Avenue 1892"

Postmodernism evolved because artists/photographers/musicians became frustrated with the boundaries and rules of their field. They pushed theses 'boundaries' and broke the 'rules', and now there are no restrictions on what an artist can or can't do. Postmodernism is about combining old methods, with modern ways of thinking, and allowing the photographer/artist/musician to decide the limitations, if any at all. 

An example of a great modernist photographer is Alfred Stieglitz. I only ever learnt about him and his work because I've been a massive fan of the painter Georgia O'Keefe for years and years, and Stieglitz is most well-known for his discovery of her, and their marriage. 

Stieglitz amazes me so much because his work was so different to the other stiff and retouched images (taken by other photographers) that surrounded him at that time. His work included movement, and he would often stand in very bad weather just to get the shots that he was particuarly looking for.

Jackson Pollock is a good example of a postmodernist artist.

"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well."

His work and his view on "art' is a perfect example of postmodernism. He completely rejected any form of boundary, rule, limit that had been put there before, and worked completely how he wanted to work, and produced work he wanted to produce, rather than sticking to some ancient rule book of art.

Modernist artists tend to take the approach of attempting to make their work mean something, to have some sort of affect on world, to change it? Where as postmodernists do whatever they please. not for a reason as such, just because they want to, to express themselves and for others to express themselves.

Semiotics

"Semiotics, semiotic studies, or sociology is the study of sign processes (semiosis), or signification and communication, signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. It includes the study of how meaning is constructed and understood".

Roland Barthes.

Roland Barthes is most well-known for his book "Mythologies".  He was born on the 12th of November 1915 and died on the 25th March 1980.  He carried out extensive research on how meaning/meanings are constructed, the 'sign process', which resulted in the book being based on connotations and codes. 

When I was first introduced to "Semiotics", there was an image of a chair infront of us and we were asked "what do you see?" and the majority of us answered "a chair" (the minority of us didn't answer at all). Of course it was a trick question, because what we were actually seeing was, infact, a photograph of a chair, not the actual chair itself.

Semiotics affect a large majority of modern day;

• Advertising (the eye doesn't need all the letters of a word to read it e.g. "I konw you, are oyu okay")
• Education ("we only know what a symbol means because we were taught it in earlier life)
• (even) Safety (road signs etc)

This "I shop therefore I am" image ("I think, therefore I am = original philosophy) is by Barbara Kruger. This slogan was used to advertise one of Selfridges' Christmas sales aka Advertising.

Different colours have different meanings to different people/cultures. This makes its very difficult to do global advertisements. These advertisements are for 'The United Colours of Beneton';

"The “united” colors of its sweaters soon became a metaphor for the united skin tones of the youth from many different countries for whom the sweaters were designed. As the markets expanded—Benetton became a global force in just a few years—the United Colors concept spread from encompassing the different races to the ideas of tolerance, peace and respect for diversity."

Barthes also looked at handwriting. For example if you were asked "what type of person do you think wrote this?"

the majority of people would automatically assume that it was a lawyer or a doctor's hand, because it is so well written. But who's to say that a criminal did not write it? and why is that so shocking/unexpected. My mother is a lawyer and her hand writing is awful!

http://production.investis.com/ben_en/about/campaigns/history/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics

Feminism

"does the camera sustain and perpetuate certain kinds of viewing relations that reflect an unequal order of sexual and social relations?"

The self portraits/film stills of Cindy Sherman are extremely influenced by feminism, mainly because of the time when she produced them, the world was a very male-dominated place.

  In her films, she played roles of 'the domestic goddess' and 'the sex symbol'. They always seem have the look/feel of helplessness and/or vulnerability to them, which I think is very clever. Even if she is playing a 'sex symbol' she still has this vulnerability to her which grabs your attention because sexy and vulnerable work so well together, but are so unusual and not expected.

I like Sherman's work, she has been one of my favourite artists for quite a while now. I love her "i don't give a shit" attitude to life, which shines through brilliantly in her work, which will be recognized and appreciated so much more than it already is (if possible) because of growing feminist followers.

Sherman's work is rarely titled, and that makes her work so much more powerful. If titles were involved then it would force the viewer to feel/see something that they might not of necessarily felt if the image was left untitled. I also love this about her, this means everyone can make up their own mind on what Sherman was thinking/portraying when she produced the photograph.

I just wanted to quickly add "The Guerilla Girls" into this blog, because I think they're brilliant. They dress up in gorilla outfits, and take one name each of a dead female artist to promote them.

They raise issues, for example, about the fact that when "art" began, why were there no female artists recognized? how come it was all men? (e.g. Micheal Angelo, Vincent Van Gogh) why weren't women selected?

"We’re feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Wonder Woman and Batman. How do we expose sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture? With facts, humor and outrageous visuals. We reveal the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, the and the downright unfair."

The Guerilla Girls (http://www.guerrillagirls.com/)

The Ballad of Sexual Dependency

Nan&Brian (who she loved very dearly) in bed

Nan, after Brian beat her up

  Nan Goldin is best known for the huge success of the 'Ballad of Sexual Dependency' - a photographic account of her friends, lovers and real life while living in New York, presented in a slide show fashion, and accompanied by music.  

I'm trying desperately to reframe from beginning a paragraph with the words "I love Nan Goldin"... but I'm finding it extremely difficult, so, to hell with it...

I love Nan Goldin! I love how her work is so raw and non-staged. I love how she has photographed the bad times aswell as the good, and how bare and honest her photographs are. Every single photograph screams emotion, and that just makes me so passionate about this art, she makes me passionate about this art. 

I think it is really brave and clever to include your friends and/or lovers in your photographic work because it adds that extra spark when you know that these photographs are real life, its like a secret open window into a complete stranger's life, which now I read that sentence back over, sounds like some sort of definition for "paparazzi", 

"They don't understand that it's not about a style or a look or a setup. It's about emotional obsession and empathy."

Nan Goldin

but Goldin's work is so much more extreme and interesting (obviously) than some snap-happy pap, even if her work has been described as "snap-shot",  the underground film and story telling nature of her shots make them one of a kinds, and so addictive. Her subjects are only 'famous' to her, not the rest of the world. They arent super models or actresses, they are just the people who make up her life, who now also make up some of the most influencial photographs of time.

Since the Ballad of Sexual Dependancy, Goldin continues to document her life through photograph, with the help of friends and lovers, but there is a change of tone in her work, since she moved to Europe and lost many of her dear friends to AIDs.

"Kathe in the tub"

"I used to think I couldn't lose anyone if I photographed them enough. I used photography to stave off loss. But with the recent deaths of many of my friends I realized the limits of what can be preserved."

Nan Goldin

This is my favourite photograph of Nan Goldin's. It looks like a typical sunny day at the beach, and reminds me of home. I love the way she is shielding her eyes from the bright sky and the fact she has sunglasses on. I also love the use of primary colours in this photograph; the red of her trousers, the green of her cardigan/jacket and the yellowness of the mickey mouse (cute!) magazine.