One of the best examples of Exam Answer by Caroline Owen, who took the class last year.
Caroline
Owen
Exam 1
1.)
Hans
+ Stella Berchard
A husband and wife duo, the Berchards use the aesthetic style
of dead-pan photography, in order to access the most basic observational
features and abilities the camera naturally has. A lot of their work is spent documenting the
disappearing and deconstructed German architecture of the industrial age and
times gone by. The resulting images are
large-format, varying in black and white, leaving the viewer with a physical
testament to the scope and magnitude of the buildings they are
documenting. It is very
straight-forward, as most dead-pan photographers are, choosing to leave the
viewer with only the bare facts and allowing he or she to apply their own
narrative and interpretation of the images.
The large scale images of the failing, used-up industrial warehouses and
other buildings really speaks to the history that the German landscape has
undergone, from its grim part in World War II to its steady rise to joining the
‘modern’ world in today’s society, but just like any other country, there are
parts it wants to forget. I think the
Berchards paint the history of Germany in both a very stoic and straightforward
way as well as one that is beautiful to its own right.
There is something hauntingly beautiful about the pure
documentation style of their work. Each
shot is carefully planned and shot, in order to give you the best idea of what
each building was and what each one represented. I think that since they are shooting in a
dead-pan style, they are revealing objectionably the physical features of the
buildings that are documenting, and allowing you to fill your own narrative, as
I mentioned before. And depending if the
viewer recognizes the actual building or not, that would create an interesting
dialogue of what has been, and what might not be for much longer. It’s important to document the past to build
on the future, and I think the Berchands do a good job of working fairly with
that idea.
2.)
Andrew
Struth
Struth takes large-format images as well, similar to the
Berchards as mentioned above, but he is more interested in the relationship
between the people he is photographing, as well as the space they are
occupying. For example, he will spend
time in a historically-significant, ancient, famous architectural construct
located in a European country, and document the visitors to that space. As
mentioned earlier, Struth is very interested in the relationship of the
physical size of the visitors as well as the famous monument they are visiting,
as well as the fact that they are visitors to the site. ? It’s important to note as well that Struth
shoots with a low horizon line, allowing the people to be formatted along the
lower edge of the image, while the space of the artwork (or construct) is
filling the majority of the space. I
think the placement and choosing of the proper composition is what makes his
images so effective, as well as the size that he shoots and prints the
resulting image Are they architecture enthusiasts, who travel across Europe to
visit historically-significant constructs of ages past? Or are they simply a family, spending a week
in a foreign country, visiting the ‘must-see’ sights of that particular city or
region. He has also worked in famous art
galleries, documenting people visiting works of art on the wall, also focused
on the size comparison as well as drawing the unspoken question of, ‘What does
this historically significant work of art mean to these people?’
I appreciate the questions he is trying to ask, pointing
fingers at museum-goers as well as (ultimately) the art historical society as a
whole. Where are the teachers who are
instructing grade-schoolers to appreciate art as well as science? Have we all ended up simply staring in awe at
the size of the images or constructs before us, without really knowing the
history behind them?
Knowing the conceptual reasoning behind the images makes me
appreciate each of them a lot more. I
enjoy the questions he is asking about art culture as well as tourist culture
as a whole, and for the most part I agree with him. So many tourists are obsessed with going to
visit an art piece just to say they have visited said art piece, without
appreciating what said art piece actually has in history. Struth points to the truth in each of his
images.
3.)
Gregory
Crewdson
Crewdson was one of my favourite photographers presented in
the area of ‘fabricated/constructed’ photography (that is, the artist actively
creates a reality to be photographed and claims it as truth within the borders
of the image). Crewdson’s conceptual
basis behind his work is based on the investigation of the cultural idea of
small town America, as well as what happens behind those closed doors. At the soul of it, Crewdson is determined to
create a visually engaging scene that allows for the viewers to create their
own narrative, and I think that power to create an open-ended image in
photography is what is so potent. The
ability to create a false reality using lighting, props, models, and other pre-arranged
features is something I really admire about his work, and his drive to make
sure all of the scenes are perfect before he shoots. He has been recorded as waiting for days and
even weeks to wait for the perfect lighting if he is shooting outdoors in a
particular town that he chose himself, for its construction and design. He is also very versatile, working both
outdoors on a grand scale as well as indoors with private stages and
constructed homes. I appreciate the work
put into each of the images, knowing that for all the hours of construction and
test-shots, there is only one image that is chosen as the representation of
that specific reality. The idea of the
fabricated reality he poses in each of his images, as well as the fact that he
is presenting them as a ‘real’ reality,
Crewdson creates surreal and almost unnerving scenes,
suggesting of what happens behind closed doors in some homes around
America. A common theme I noticed
throughout all of the indoor spaces he shows is that stylistically, they are
reminiscent of 1950s America, when everything was assumed to be ideal and
perfect. They do vary, with some
instances of technology appearing in some scenes more than others, but overall
they appear to be a simpler time, with Crewdson’s manipulation of those
suggesting ulterior moods and emotions.
As I mentioned earlier, the scenes appear surreal and very bizarre, his
control of the lighting I think to be one of the key factors in these small
montages he creates, setting a particular mood or theme based on the amount,
direction, and temperature of the light that is used.
4.)
Gillian
Wearing
For so many reasons, I appreciate Gillian Wearing as an
artist. Working primarily in photography
and film, she jumped onto the art world in the 1990s and early 2000s, as part
of the Young British Artist group that also held other contemporary artists who
are still active today. Her series, Signs That Say What You Want Them to Say and
Not Signs That Say What Others Want You to Say received a lot of public
attention to her that kind of set her off in the modern art scene. What is wonderful about this series is that
she uses volunteers that she grabs from the London streets, she does not plan
what the signs are going to say, and so though each sign held up by each
individual is true to the heart and a representation of that person, it is also
a greater reflection of British society at that time as a whole. So you have the individual self and the
collective self. She is also known for
her Family Portraits or Self-Portraits as My Family Members
series, done a little more recently, that documents her as other members of her
family, her conceptual basis behind this being her interest in sharing some genetic
code with so many people, and yet the actual, varying results were so
different.
What is really beautiful and true about her work is the use
of other people as well as herself to talk about identity and our own
individual sense of self. She uses some
digital manipulation, some physical fabrication of reality, as well as some
dead-pan and documentary-like aesthetics in order to create the dialogue of
work. I think that Wearing’s
investigative work into identity, and what it means to identify yourself as a
single or a part of a whole, is very intriguing. I find a lot of connections in her work to my
own, and I appreciate that she works to show the connection of human activity,
regardless of age, sex, background, education.
She also seeks to represent herself through the literal eyes of other
people, in order to better understand herself – connection, connection,
connection! It’s important to think of
yourself and your identity in many different contexts, and I feel that
Wearing’s work does something very similar.
Her constant question of identity of a single individual within the
larger concept of the world is something I look forward to seeing in her next
work.
5.)
Ken
Josephson
Josephson’s work is very intriguing to say the least. I appreciate what he does and understand his
reasoning behind it, but I myself do not find it appealing in the aesthetic sense. Josephson is known for working with polaroids
or other ‘snapshot’-esque, small photos, and placing them in the scale of
something greater. That is, he will
usually have the smaller snapshot in the frame of the larger area he’s working
in, to give you a sense of scale; whether he is holding it, or it is placed
among the composition in the larger photograph.
The reason he does this is to make the viewer question the reality
presented in the snapshot when placed among a larger context. What does a tourist capture in a shot of
their vacation of the identity of the place they are visiting? Showing friends and family their developed
photos (or on Facebook), we are seeing their own personal interpretation of the
trip they took. As soon as someone takes
a picture of their reality, they are framing and limiting our perception and
understanding of the area outside of the camera’s lens. Josephson works to question that, by
carefully placing the snapshot of a famous river in the actual location it was
shot in, showing you how much wider and different the area appears outside of
the small, 4”x6” piece of paper.
He also works with other themes, not limited to just the
tourist industry. Some images such as a
small snapshot of a woman’s lower section wearing panties placed over top a
model in a black dress in the same position, immediately changing our
perception of the scene than if we were presented with a photo of the same
woman in the black dress, but without the ‘racy’ photo in the picture. One is elegant, one is inappropriate.
Like I said, though I appreciate his work conceptually and I
understand what he is working towards, I struggle to find myself in deep, deep
visual appreciation of any one photograph of his. Because visually, his photographs are just snapshots
included in a larger scene, black and white.
To me, it is not anything interesting, but I guess that’s what happens
sometimes with conceptual work, sometimes it’s the concept behind the image
that makes it so powerful, and it’s important to remember that.
6.)
Jake Berman
A sculptor turned photographer, Berman works very closely to
create a fabricated reality, one that bends and twists the rules of
dimensionality and makes you (as the viewer) question your perception not only
of the space within the photograph, but how you can understand the world around
you. He creates these small, fabricated
realities that exist only within the realm of his images, working heavily with
constructed and the suggestion of a fabricated space to communicate an idea
about reality. Like the other
fabricated/constructed artists mentioned (Crewdson, some Wearing), he works
behind the scenes for hours and shoots the images for a single resulting
negative that he shows. The dedication
is really important, because even little things such as the angle and the
distance of the camera, can disrupt the reality he is showing. He questions our perception of reality, and
how too easily viewers can understand and claim to know and digest what is
happening in various images. By creating
these fabricated realities, he is able to question our sense and understanding
of deep and visual space.
Like another artist not mentioned in this test, Georges
Rousse, Berman chooses one angle and one space and works with actual 2D and 3D
elements in order to suggest a form being created. This imagined reality is shown in the
resulting, final image, giving you only a single frame to understand the world
that he built. It’s a very clever form
of image making, forcing the viewer to look again at the image, when at first
it may appear a simple, series of geometric patterns and scenes. The quality of making viewers take that
second look and spark that question or ‘Aha!’ in their heads is what make
Berman’s photographs very powerful, if visually they are not particularly
intriguing at first. All you need is a
little hook to make the viewer stay investigated in the piece, and Berman does
a good job of this.
7.)
Vincent
Prince
Prince’s work is based heavily on appropriation,
appropriation meaning the artistic right many artists work by (think Duchamp,
etc.) to claim someone else’s image and manipulate it to their own methods and
concepts and claim it as their own.
Basically, by taking a commonly-understood cultural image or an art
historically-significant image, the artist relies on that common knowledge of
the image to be recognized, but places it into a different context. This is controversial for many reasons, but I
think that Prince uses appropriation to the best of its abilities. The images we looked at during class majorly
consisted of Prince’s appropriation of the idea of the ‘Marlboro Man,’ a
cigarette ad campaign that has long-since lost its appeal and run, but whose
theme has lasted throughout contemporary culture today. Prince would re-photograph scenes of the
Marlboro Man from commercials or flyers/paper ads, relying on America’s
knowledge of the Marlboro Man for his images to be recognized. But instead of advertising cigarettes, Prince
instead questioned the fabricated reality that the Marlboro Man was pictured to
exist in. This is the time period of the
past: the simple. idyllic, wild and free 1800s America, where everything was
perfect to the wild cowboy who spent his time herding cattle and fighting off
‘Indians.’ Prince appropriates the idea
of Marlboro Man, photographing it again under his own conditions and model, and
now has a unique and original art piece that belongs to him, because he worked
to put a new understanding of the cultural icon. Very clever, and his images were recognized
because of this. And I think he brought
attention and made others question the happy-go-lucky wild life of the cowboy
and the ‘Wild West’ that the modern world is such a culprit of romanticizing.
I appreciate Prince’s work, and although I struggle with the use
of appropriation in art, I do believe that Prince does an excellent job of
relying on society’s understanding of a cultural icon and reconstructs the
meaning behind it for his own work.
Prince was right to question America’s understanding and perceived
notions about the Wild West in the 1800s, because for the most part it did not
exist as we imagine it. Life was very
hard and very terrible, and I think Prince is right to draw our attention to
our so easily-romanticizing of the life style that existed in the past.
8.)
EXTRA
– Edward Burtynsky
Manufactured landscapes and how humanity is changing the
natural world around his. How our use of
the natural, recurring materials of the Earth is further changing it. Though he presents his work in a fairly
neutral light, it’s hard not to be negative when shown large-scale, full-colour
photographs of abandoned/used up mines, broken down towns, etc.
9.)
EXTRA
– Frank Majore
Uses appropriation from
various advertisements in order to create the mood and theme for his own
work. Relying heavily on how a
commercial advertisement can be read, he extorts colour, lighting, and props
and constructs his own spaces to replicate how a commercia
