Gregory Crewdson

The obsession of the way that we believe woman should look, slim, beautiful, and how we portray a commercial woman to be a role model for young teens and middle age woman. Most human beings choose to believe this is how they should look to achieve happiness. Advertisement with fashion photography is one minded and controls the perception of female models.

How should the ordinary image look, the majority of photography has been staged but to the extent of being realistic, to create a piece of art that you can relate to and start to understand.

Gregory Crewdson takes the factors of common photography and stages his work on large life like scales, in order to structure and capture this fantasy of maybe how some places should be, in his mind the world is confused the way that people act and look at themselves, this is how the world should be, a stage, twilight fantasy

Best known for his elaborately choreographed large-scale photographs, Gregory Crewdson has become one of the most exciting and important artists working today. Twilight is the magic hour when ordinary routines undergo strange transformations. Crewdson’s Twilight series consists of 40 images from 1998 – 2002. The collision between the normal and the paranormal in these narrative images produces a tension that serves to transform the topology of the landscape into a place of wonder and anxiety.

These enigmatic photographs catch the mysterious moment of time between before and after, revealing unknowable or unimaginable aspects of domestic reality.

'I have always been fascinated by the poetic condition of twilight. By its transformative quality. Its power of turning the ordinary into something magical and otherworldly. My wish is for the narrative in the pictures to work within that circumstance. It is that sense of in-between-ness that interests me.' 

Crewdson is explaining that this in between time where a person stops everything and has this fantasy and alone time, thinking about everything in a quiet time. His work is so creative in the way that he is able to capture such emotion from his models, and with the help of his fantastic sets.

images from http://krystinaplante.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/gregory-crewdson.html

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/gregory-crewson/

Ceasar Lima

Since 1991 Caesar Lima has been capturing provocative and visually stimulating images through the lens of his camera. A master at depicting unique and captivating subject matter, Caesar’s inspiration is derived from a singular drive to push the limits and evoke emotion through innovative photography.


With a Bachelors of Arts in Advertising, Caesar has always had an eye for the creative. With a passion and drive to depict unusual, even surreal images, his photography always evokes emotion. As a self proclaimed non-purist, his photography calls to mind imagery that is just outside of the box. I dont like to follow the rules, rather I like to explore the potential of what can be possible and yet unexpected, says the photographer. Caesars photography crosses the boundaries into a world of potential that doesnt live with the norm.

The work above body shades is a sexual heated set of images. Lima was trying to create the images for a fantasy veiwing, including woman part nude pressed against frosted glass with their breast's and bum's pressed up to create focus on these area's. The woman are in sexual suttle positions, exposing the lady like features and curves that entice people to look and explore.
I find the work fascinating and creates desire to use the style and progress.


Caesar has received multiple accolades and awards including the 2010 IPA Award, 2010 PX3 Paris Grand Prix, 2010 Archive 200 Best Ad Photographer, 2009 and 21010 IPA Award, 2009 Addy Award, and the 2008 Spider Fashion Award to name a few in recent years.


Stunning website : http://www.caesarlima.com/


http://abduzeedo.com/stunning-photography-caesar-lima

Illusion's with laurent laveder

Moon and sky in the night are pretty nice source of inspiration for the many of photographers.

Its funny how when abroad, you will see toursit's playing with the environment and attractions. I have noticed the most used are the leaning tower of pisa, the egyptian pyramids and the sun or moon. Most common to be holding or supporting these subjects.
Laeder is a photographer who has created work with the sun and moon using only simple objects.

'laveder is a professional photographer from France who prefers to take photos of nature and especially natural appearances and phenomena on the sky. It is also important to mention that he works as astronomy journals. Several of his photos can also been found on NASA's website and different astronomy publications from all over the world.'

The images above are taken from the body of work he created with the sun and moon. making his images work so well is the ability to isolate the sun/moon and make it look so real that it is next to the person in the photographs.


When i noticed his work i had to blog about it becasue it does not look clechet and tacky, but the photographs are very artistic and the use of angles, style and quality of the pictures really capture the audience, you want to see more idea's.


http://www.fludit.com/inspiration/illusion-photography-of-the-moon-and-people-by-laurent-laveder.html

Lindend Glendhill

High-speed water photography by Lindend Glendhill is in a whole different league.
This is the kind of photography that blows my mind because I can only imagine the amount of patience required to get the perfect shot. Everything has to be just right, the equipment, the colours, the background, the timing, and in this case, also the music!


She used a mic triggered SB800 Nikon flash controlled by stop shot which is a timing module that can assist with capturing images that move faster than your eye can see (it can even capture a moving bullet). To create the drops, Lindend used sound vibrations coming from a speaker! She was able to capture these photos while the paint drops danced to the music. The resulting paint sculptures are magnificent. She has some mad talent for sure.

As from the images above taken by Lindend, you can see how powerful and strong her work is. I beleive that work with fast moving objects frozen can be an everlasting doorway to extraordinary work.
Seeing her work caught my eye and i think this body of work will continue to fascinate and control the viewers eyes, wanting more !

Nick Knight

Fashion photographer known purely for his unique style and way about's of his imagery.
Working for one of the top magazines Vogue.
Knight concentrates his idea's and flow on bringing fresh new medium to the front page of Vogue.


Starting off as a student at bournemouth university, there have been no breaks for the photographer.
After an exhibition he was noticed and commissioned by i-D editor Terry Jones to create a series of 100 portraits for the magazine's fifth anniversary issue. 


After his career took off, he went on to work for companies and advertising such as Audi, calvin Klein and more, working in the editorial and advertising parts of photography.

Nick Knight

Nick Knight

Knight directed back in 2001 his first music video ever, the controversial Pagan Poetry video, for avant-pop star Björk.
In 2011 he directed the video for Lady Gaga's single "Born This Way”.
Since shooting Lady Gaga, he has continued his chain of work with the talented musician and artist and created some of the new styles and face of fashion onto Vogue's front page.

Nick Knight

Nick Knight

Knight has an extraordinary way of thinking and creating art, his work above, both the images for vanity fair. I find the photographs very loose and softly lit, creating a shallowness that can join well with the colourful hair, lipstick etc and contrast highly onto the out of focused background and foregrounds.


images from :
http://governmentgaga.com/gallery/nickknight-vanityfair/
http://deadpassarita.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/nick-knight_27.html

Iain Crawford

 A fashion photography expert, you can usually find his photographs associated with brands such as L'Oreal, Givenchy, Harpers Bazaar and Vogue. Iain Crawford's work is simple but produces an un-mistakable aesthetic. Always through the use of simple backgrounds, his pictures stand-out for their colour and patterns surrounding the model. In this essay, Crawford captures the moment a woman comes into contact with a substance - paint, powder or water - thrown across the sky.

Iain Crawford

Crawford created a very strong set of images using female models, paint, water and sand.
Iain capture's images that have a strong graphic and textural quality, often searching out the graphical symmetry in chaos, while still maintaining the personality and emotion of the subject. His career has lead him to shoot campaigns for many of the world’s top brands and receive commissions from a host of top international magazines.

Crawford has a unique eye for fresh uncontrolable photography with subjects and materials.
Still looking at his work, there is so much to look at an absorb, this is why his work is so strong and has such an impact on the viewer.

http://obviousmag.org/en/archives/2009/12/iain_crawford_colour_bath.html#ixzz1sChAvV8H

William Lesch

William Lesch has been a working photographer for over twenty years. He earned his BFA in photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1978. Lesch had his first one-person show at the newly established Center for Creative Photography in Tucson in 1979, and since that time his work has been included in over one hundred group and one-man shows, both locally and around the world.

He began shooting at night in the mid to late seventies, and developed his signature style of light painting in the early 80’s. A monograph of his color desert light painting work was published by Treville Press in 1990.

"Tree Agave at Night, Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona", 32"x32", 2000

William Lesch

In addition to his split-exposure and night photography, Lesch is currently exploring aerial studies of the landscape. Lesch maintains an active schedule of shows and exhibits, and his work is represented in Arizona by Etherton Gallery in Tucson and Larsen Gallery in Scottsdale.

William Lesch

His desire to work with colour and textures, bringing out and controlling the audience through a single image is incredible.
How different and fresh the art is, using lighting and exposures to bring out this everlasting detail through his imagery. The use of strong colours gives off different emotions to each viewer, as i have found peace, beauty and recognition of the subjects.

Metaphors and Allegory.

Allegory is a device used to present an idea, principle or meaning, which can be presented in literary form, such as a poem or novel, or in visual form, such as in painting or drawing. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation. Allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric; a rhetorical allegory is a demonstrative form of representation conveying meaning other than the words that are spoken.

As a literary device, an allegory in its most general sense is an extended metaphor. As an artistic device, an allegory is a visual symbolic representation. An example of a simple visual allegory is the image of the grim reaper. Viewers understand that the image of the grim reaper is a symbolic representation of death.

Allegory is a story with a meaning other than a literal one.

Metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible object to represent a less tangible object or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figure of speech that achieve their effects via association, comparison or resemblance.

Metaphor is a figure of speech in which term is transferred to something it does not literally apply to.

Sarah Lucas

Sarah Lucas, Au Naturel 1994 Mattress

The mattress has been shown as a couple, this could been see as an old married couple, the bucket representing the woman, having children, all used up and tired, the male still standing tall, all he thinks about is his penis, hens the erect positioning.

There is also the other reason, the female representation could be a hooker, the melons on the mattress high up are perky, as if to be a boob job.

The first reason could well be a feminist view on a married couple, or it could well be the woman abusing her body over the years with sex, without the male with a sex drive, she would have no job.

Sarah Lucas

 Sarah Lucas, "Self-Portrait with Fried Eggs" 1996

The image is a metaphor.

The fired eggs maybe are there to show the masculinity, the abused parts of the female, breast's are a part that the male looks for.

The slouching in the chair may reflect on how a man is, the portrayal of a lazy man, also the floor boards, maybe being a checkers match, being the female playing against the male to achieve and control what needs to be done and what she has to do.

David Cotterrell at the John Hansard gallery.

An immersive experience here, as David Cotterrell swaps Sheffield Hallam University (where he is a Fine Art professor) for Southampton’s academic quarter, bringing with him a cinematic portrayal of his journeys to Afghanistan in a series of works galvanising complex technology.

David Cotterrell.

Review:

After two years of studying and resourcing the Afghanistan landscape, Cotterrell has created an exhibition on the reflection on war and the man destroyed horizons.

Its hard to beleive that this landscape has seen so much more than we choose to think or believe. The photography does it justice in the sense that it is peaceful and controlled, although the death and blood loss has been retrieved and extracted through the imagery.

David Cotterrell

David Cotterrell

David Cotterrell

Gallery one had a curvature set up, with a projected image of the Afghanistan horizon. There stood three men and one i the background. To me could only show the distance, loneliness and death of the soldiers who fought.

Cotterrell used small connect cameras around the room. The amount of people, impacted the second piece in gallery two.

The close up of the hand sculpted landscape has projected people walking around.
As the quantity in Gallery one increases, the increase of projected people on the chalk made landscape.

Gallery two had an offset, into a tiny gap hallway, either side sat two hand made dome's, projected with a live fed view from above of the nothingness that the desert now holds. 
A panoramic display creating an atmosphere to only be described as beauty.

Semiotics:

The importance of signs and signification has been recognized throughout much of the history of philosophy and in psychology as well.

The use of signs that are understood and viewed the same through people's cultures and experiences helps to evolve and understand symbols, signs and objects.

Artist's can also use semiotics to lure their audience into viewing the work, having a second look, try and work out and understand rather than a glance.

This advert of pasta. what is seen, what makes you feel comfortable and draws you in. would you buy the food ? yes. why ? because of the rich luscious colours.

The artist's have used factors that humans are familiar with, the red background has been used, as most people would see it as love and warmth. The pasta has been set in this string bag with other vegetables, which subliminally tells you that the pasta is fresh, tasteful and good for you.

The use of Semiotics can be very powerful if applied correctly.

'Semiotics has changed over time, since semioticians have sought the weaknesses in early semiotic approaches. Even with the most basic semiotic terms there are multiple definitions. Anyone attempting semiotic analysis would be wise to make clear which definitions are being applied and, if a particular semiotician's approach is being adopted, what its source is'

http://jawhiriaahmed.blogspot.com/2010/04/semiotics.html.

Charlotte Cotton - The Photograph as Contemporary Art

This week we were each given a section of a reading for Cottons book The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Along with this we were each given the same set of questions to answer about the section of text. 

The narratives that are explored in this chapter of Cottons book range form the idea of paranoia with in society as well as the use of twisted plots on what would be seen as innocent fairy tale stories. 

Charlotte Cotton

Charlotte Cotton

Charlotte Cotton

Off topic wow factor - Lieko Shiga

Not at all L.A. related, but I came across the work of Leiko Shiga, who's won the ICP's Infinity Award for best young photographer (28 years old). I like work that confuses me a bit. Lieko's work feels like a bit of a mix between Ryan McGinley and Bill Henson with some mysticism thrown in. She definitely has something unique, dreamlike going on.

This is my forerunner for favorite find of 2009 thus far. A taste of her work below but I highly recommend a visit to her site.

I find this work exhilarating ! the images being controlled somehow, even though the lights, subject and atmosphere is beyond emotion across the images.

Contemporary art has no limit's, it can be progressed and evolve for our life time as we know the art.

Visual Exploration

We started off the week and the new project as a whole group talk on what we are going to be doing and the things we will need to do.
1000 words photography:

Chris Shaw began working in London hotels in 1993 and over a ten year period he created what would become life as a night porter which was published in 2006 by Twin Palms. 


     'Born in 1967, Shaw studied photography at the West Surrey College of Art and Design at Farnham, graduating in 1989, and has had solo exhibitions at the open eye gallery in Liverpool, GUP gallery in Amsterdam and 779 gallery in Paris. Shaw has also been shown as part of Paris Photo and arles photography festival in 2005.  He lives in Paris.'


There are few things that are subtle in Juliana beasley’s photography. But then, the fact that you don’t get to see stuff like that too often in our somewhat sanitized culture doesn’t mean that you’re looking at the fringes (as much as many people would like to believe that). 

'One night, I came into one of the clubs on my night off, out in New Jersey, and asked the manager if I could photograph a dancer on stage. I knew this could be a wonderful ploy to begin getting the expressions of the customers’ faces in the shots. Over the eight years of dancing, I went from photographing the dancers in the dressing room to finally, getting the chutzpah to ask customers in the club if I could get them in the shots at the stage.'

The formal impact of her imagery, she deconstructs the men lusting over the female strippers and involves the emotion and excitement of the drunk horny men.


http://1000wordsphotographymagazine.blogspot.com/
http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/extended/archives/a_conversation_with_juliana_beasley/