Kenneth Josephson

ARTIST:   Kenneth Josephson

 TITLE OF WORK:  New York State, 1970, Gelatin Silver Print

SOURCE: Book 'The Nature Of Photographs' Stephen Shore

What I like: 

I'm immediately drawn to the photo within photograph play, a self reflexive expression of the photographic medium that functions to break the illusion of the photographic truth. Josephson is reviewed as a highly influential American photographer who had a great deal to do with encouraging experimental and conceptual photographic practice. This layering technique implored in this image does not stand alone in his oeuvre as he is well recognized for this style of black and white photography. 

There is a strange dialogue created in this action of even just viewing this photograph because, within this action is the action of the photographer to be also viewing an image. The actual photo no longer exists as a representation of reality but merely as a frame for another image within the frame. It's very clever. I feel really torn looking at this photograph, there is such a tension created in the action of the photographer to celebrate another image inside the scene that is being captured. I don't know what the hero is, or maybe the hero is the action. It's wonderful to ponder this image, the suggestive nature of a constructed narrative is very engaging. I have not yet mentioned the use of the point of view angle to make the viewer to feel like it they could be taking the photo, there is such a closeness created here as I think about the possibility of my arm reaching out.

Annegret Soltau

ARTIST:   Annegret Soltau, b. 16 January 1946 Luneberg

 TITLE OF WORK:  Self Portrait

SOURCE: Internet, http://ineedaguide.blogspot.com.au/search/label/photography, accessed 3/03/15

WHY DOES THE IMAGE INTEREST ME.

This photograph demands attention, it is a self portrait that has been given to the reader in a new light. In a photographic self portrait we might expect to see a realistic depiction of facial features, however this example of a self portrait strays from the regular selfie. Soltau has taken several different images and combined/juxtaposed them to create a whole new image. 

Imagine a person posing for a photograph. smile. snap. An instructed image created for purpose. The purpose to recognise a moment in time for the sake of identity. In the same way that a photograph can be instructed and constructed this artist has shown that a photograph can be deconstructed and simultaneously reconstructed. 

The embroided element of collage is most interesting, it creates an extra chaotic layer to this expressive piece. It reminds me of an exothermic reaction. 

Ryan McGinley

Ryan McGinley

Contemporary American photographer
These works are from his 'Adventures' and have been referred to as Evidence of Fun
Sources - http://www.vice.com/read/ryan-mcginleys-yearbook-opens-at-team-gallery
http://www.vice.com/read/ryan-mcginleys-advice-to-young-photographers

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201404/ryan-mcginley-photographer

An article by Alice Gregory published online through GQ provides a really comprehensive discussion into McGinley's artistic trajectory and he is a HIGHLY accomplished photographer. 

• 2003 Solo Show at the Whitney Museum of American Art (he was 25) 
• 2007 Young photographer of the year
• has been titled the most important photographer in America

Photo editor of Vice Matthew Leifeit did a write up on a speech that McGinley gave at his graduation ceremony and he had had some really wonderful words to share that provide a great insight into how he approaches his photography -

"Everyone always says it helps to picture [the audience] naked to calm my nerves. Unfortunately, that’s another day at work for me."

Everyone I shoot is part of downtown's creative community—painters, musicians, dancers, writers, sculptors, photographers. Those are the people who understand what I do and are excited to pose nude for me.

Here is another piece of fabulous advice -

"Be busy. Seek and find a way to do what it is you want to do. Identify what that thing is and do it. Don’t stand around too long having conversations about it. Do it. Refine it. Do it more. Try it a different way. Keep at it until you break through to the next level. Don’t talk or think yourself out of doing it. Put one foot in front of the other and let it happen organically."

Another article reports that over the last ten year McGinley's photos have evolved - his work now is more ambitious and complex. The images are the results of road trips across America; the forms of the models make the images scream as they run, jump, dive, fall, zip-line. Then there is the addition of colour and light - dreamy, surreal and other worldy.

Punchy and exotic; I imagine that these photos are created in far away places void of any realistic responsibility. Bodies are flying and falling, in the presence of wildlife and nature, there is a definite sense of freedom. 

Rhobin Rhode

Rhobin Rhode

Collection of works 2002 - 2015

Much of Rhodes work is stills from animation videos

I'm drawn to artists that create the majority of their image in camera, letting aspects of their imagination show through in the process of making and experimenting. The extent in which an artist can push their materials and surroundings is of much intrigue to me and for this reason Rhobin Rhode is exciting and fun! I love that he can take a rather plain space and transform it eg. taking a footpath and part of a road and displaying it as a half pipe; the angle that his photos are taken from is part of that innovation. 

he is genius!

This is my favourite. It is one simple line that is added to a seemingly boring setting then BAM looks like this guy is having a hoot!

Double backflip ally oop cowabungaaa

This is called Colour Wheel! It's a really interesting concept to apply people to a somewhat calculated representation of the colour spectrum. We can identify complementary colours, primary colours and secondary colours - what does this say about how colour represents people?

Karine Laval

Artist: Karine Laval
Title: The Pool 04
https://www.lensculture.com/articles/karine-laval-poolscapes#slide-12


The heart of this body of work is the pool; each photo involves glassy reflections, watery distortions and blown out colours that ooze summer day dreaming.  I am drawn to the warmth in these images even though this particular photo is very cyan and cool, I think of the heat that would allow for this scene and I just want to be in his picture! I love heat and summer and swimming and leisurely days in pool and this series of photos is screaming all of these things to me. These images literally make me feel closer to summer, which sounds lame but growing up at the beach and always by water will make cold winters seem difficult and the photo takes away the winter chills.

Another aspect of this image that I love is the way in which it has been cropped and the angle from which it is taken. Im not really sure as to what the bottom white half of the photo actually is but take from this angle it could be part of a white tiled pool. This angle which dances across the floor emphasises the action and movement of the two ladies coming in and out of the water. This movement is further accentuated by the leading lines of the hand rail. If I were to summarise this image in three words I would choose - crispy, beautiful and inviting. 

Derek Fernandes

Artist: Derek Fernandes/Brazil/24

Sourced from: online blog I Need A Guide http://ineedaguide.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/derek-fernandes.html

Body of Work: Series Untitled.

I found the work of this Brazilian photographer on one of my favourite blogs Ineedaguide and what immediately attracts me to these works is the warmth and spiritedness that dances through the two combined/blended images. In some images below a silhouette appears blended into a background, breaking down barriers of timespace, presenting a world of imagination that has manifested through the photographic medium. Its grainy and gritty, film appears to have been destructed and I imagine memory in its tactile form - fragile to the point of ephemerality - so easily lost/destroyed/smeared.

I realise that these works speak directly to my interest in perspectives on memory and the idea of nostalgia.

Personally I am intrigued by how we filter our memories into the present - how we can understand events of our past to make sense of the present and future.  

      Memory

1. the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information.
2. 
   
3. Nostagia
4. 
   

   1. a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past.

Photography at its very core emanates a potential for nostalgia by collecting and cementing the visual dimension of an event into a document to be stored. The notion of looking at a photograph involves recollecting past whether the individual was involved in the image or not the photograph has the ability to summon present thought into the past to reimagine the past from the perspective of the future. 

This is where the truth of an image is called into question - we can see immediately in the photo series below that images have been manipulated as our eyesight does not allow for the perspective that these images are showing. This imagined image begs the question what is the artist trying to stir and create? 

My reading is that there is an effort to re-create the feeling that a location can stir. For example the first image seems like "At that exact moment I felt so free" so the image has a grainy film like quality and the body is wide open to the endless possibilities of the sky.

The blending of these two images(above) rings even truer to the sentiment of calling upon a memory. This silhouette elegantly appears as a window through to the scene behind. 

Lee Friedlander

ARTIST:   Lee Friedlander

 TITLE OF WORK:  New York 1966, Gelatin Silver Print

SOURCE: Book 'The Nature Of Photographs' Stephen Shore

What interests me: 

Recently I have been doing a lot of reading on psychoanalytic theory and feminism and I cant help but to immediately think of the notion of 'scopophilia', the act of looking for pleasure, this notion is addressed in Laura Mulvey's essay Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema. Mulvey formulates the idea of 'the gaze' which describes the kinds of looks of the cinema; the active look which is male and the female look which is passive as she is being looked at. This image is kind of creepy and reminiscent of these ideas of looking in cinema as  the shadow of the photographer appears on this subject, unknown to her! But my mind probably just cannot escape theory at the moment so this photo is owed more in-depth research!

Reflections and shadows are central to Friedlander's body of work, ideas that permeate through images of the American social landscape. His unique observations have earned him the title of master of street photography. This particular photograph in which his shadow falls onto a woman in the streets of New York is part of the Self-Portrait series. This series Friedlander takes a witty, experimental take on the idea of self portrait. His environment presents a strong visual case for who and where is, this scene tells us way more about this guy than any school photo portrait I have ever had taken. 

Friedlander shows the viewer a unique display of self reflection, it is clever and engaging - I could stare at this forever. 

Emma Hack

Emma Hack

Australian Artist

Body Painter

I think that Emma Hack creates exquisite photographs that incorporate many disciplines of art making, which is why her practice is so unique. 

The first time I saw work by Emma Hack I was intrigued - it was a photograph hanging in my friends home. The photo comprised of a country Australian landscape, with few trees and some sporadically growing vegetation. Within this scene there was a more unusual tree; its tree like shape was determined by the bodies of circus performers. 

There humanness was disguised and hidden beneath a painted surface, these bodies became part of the natural landscape, connected to place.

Upon further research I learnt that Hack had been working on a project with Cirkidz travelling around the Gawler Ranges and Ceduna to produce a body of work that spoke to the fragility of the South Australian environment. This series is titled Panoramic Bodies.

This collaborative effort was shot early mornings and late afternoons - and just look at those beautiful shadows! A quote from the Artist "The collection explores the dichotomy of the landscape, which is often depicted as harsh although truly fragile and vulnerable to our action and inaction"

I am also a fan of these beautiful works that involve repetitive motifs that cover beautiful bodies and walls. The body painting that depicts wildlife and nature is so light and delicate, it create such a serene quietness. These works inspired me to add this drawn element and to experiment with body painting!

Pan

Kip Harris

Artist - Kip Harris

Series - Wall Abstracts

Source - Lens Culture - https://www.lensculture.com/editors_pick?modal=true&modal_type=project&modal_project_id=100542 (accessed 6/05/2015)

The images in this series resulted from hours of wandering through poorer parts of cities looking at 

collapsing walls. All of the photos were taken in available light.

This reminds me of the earlier work I posted of the flaking wheat paste politicians! The interest is in the texture of the street - its vibe and feeling is conveyed in such an interesting way. This series of work literally looks like high art abstract paintings and in this sense I think that they're really clever because they are mismatching blotches of colour placed carelessly. It is like when an artist wants a serendipitous splash of colour to happen but this is really just that - it was never created with the intention to be presented as art. For this reason I think it is such an intriguing project and they are interesting in a purely formal aesthetic.

I am reminded of American Expressionism 

The wall as canvas

“... the canvas began to appear ... as an arena in which to act. What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event."

—Harold Rosenberg

Issei Suda

Issei Suda (*1940)

Tokyo

These two works are silver gelatin prints the first is titled Hakata Fukata and the second image is titled Ajigawa.

Hakata Fukata is a striking image that sees an everyday transformed into a realm of abnormality - where has the top half of this person disappeared to? Their pose remains so casual, as if waiting for a person to arrive, if their top half were there I imagine it would have been leaning up against the wall. 

The cropping it tight and the architectural elements in this images contrast nicely with this persons slouchy pants and pose. 

I would like to imagine that the top half of the body was like hey I want to go do this over here but the bottom half was like um I think I just want to chill here thanks so they split. What is fabulous about this image is that it absurdity makes the viewer question the narrative unfolding in the scene. 

What a surprise - I am drawn to an image that involves a leisurely beach activity.

This photo is great on many levels but what captures my eye the most is the alluring combination of textures. Looking at this photo I can basically feel the grittiness of the sand between my toes, the warmth and softness of the towel and the slimy body oil to get that summer glow!

This photo is really honest as it captures a real essence of being at the beach, especially the composition and position of the hand to cover the face. The sun is beaming down, glaring upon these beach goers and Suda has revealed their exact response to their environment. The woman's shadow elevates and frames the positioning of her body, placing emphasis on the shape of her figure and also creating a lovely crisp leading line through the image.

There is another aspect of this photo that is interesting to me - which is the angle - there is something slightly scopophilic about this which might be hard to avoid given that photography is about looking but I get the sense that this woman does not know her photo is being taken. If the image is read this way suddenly I am aware that this image is a sexualised experience of the beach in which the female form is presented to be looked at. 

What I see in this tension of ideas and combination of photographic elements is that there is ultimately the creation of something really interesting.

Rinko Kawauchi (a favourite)

Rinko Kawauchi
Series: Ametsuchi
2013
Website source - http://www.aperture.org/traveling-exhibitions/rinko-kawauchi-ametsuchi/

B. 1972 Shiga, Japan
Works in Tokyo

Well known for her photographic book publications.


These works were exhibited under the title Ametsuchi; a word composed of two Japanese characters meaning heaven and earth. The images reveal insights and tensions of heaven and earth - people scaled down against large environmental settings, scenes of crop burning insight cultivation and recovery processes. It takes a certain feeling to accept that the burning is part of the cycle of cultivation for these crops, what seems so destructive is in fact necessary. Kawauchi is able to capture a cyclical essence of life.

Series: "the eyes, the ears"

2005

Interested in the ephemeral

"likes shooting bugs, flowers and living things that are small... that live for a short time"

A point of contact is sweetly fragile with infinite possibility - Gloria Sutton

This series of work speaks to my interest in the softness of touch, the ephemerality of a sweet encounter and the power of the quality of light in an image. I love her use of natural light.

I have learnt that Rinko shoots almost exclusively with Fuji 400 film and she does this because it renders that lovely cool cyan aesthetic (which I am mildly obsessed with).

All of her work seems to reveal her awareness and closeness with every little tiny breath of life, every moment of being and existence can be simplified and exaggerated simultaneously in Rinko's work. In this sense I find it very emotional work to view, especially the eyes.. the ears. Looking at her work I actually feel as if she has given me a gift; there is such pleasure in being shown these rare, ephemeral moments.

Araki Nobuyoshi

Araki Nobuyoshi

B.1940

Japanese Photographer

Sources: http://www.vice.com/read/nobuyoshi-araki-118-v15n7

VICE interview with this crazy horny old man! 

Araki

Considered one of the most prolific Japanese photographers; Araki is concerned with the exploration of erotic art photography.

I found some really interesting words in a VICE interview with Araki

“Taking pictures of everyday life that is not normally ‘important’ in the photographic sense of the word is very important for Mr. Araki,” adds Isshiki. According to the manager, Araki has an undying desire to devour life and to murder the concept of time with each of his image.

Time can be seen in social and cultural reflections; Araki's photographs are not claiming either of these notions. His experimental photographs celebrate universal human desire and hence the concept of time is rendered invisible. 

Araki's work is often highly sexualised, he has been openly referred to as a horny old man. Now this does seem somewhat disturbing to hear without seeing some of his work but his is work is SO SEDUCTIVE. 

Araki has said some really wonderful things about the way in which he approaches photography that will make the viewer understand why he can produce such strong work.

In discussing how he approaches his subject he reveals that they are certainly more extraordinary than him as they all have their own charms. Often, he says, they aren't even aware of their own charms so you have to discover it and present it to them. He believes that this is an essential part of his work - finding how to present the aura that people naturally radiate. This belief in finding people's aura and beauty is very romantic.  

Araki has created an enormous amount of work so much that he has voiced the idea of many different Araki's being inside of him - which I think is silly and equally great and probably true to most people. Each of us has different urges and places in our personalities that respond differently to what is occurring around us - Araki has documented his ways of seeing through his artwork. 

Andrea Sonnenberg

Anna Sonnenberg

Californian contemporary photographer

I really thought I had posted on this Anna as I went to reference her work drawing a comparison to Jared (previous post).

So here it is

Images are sourced from her website

images appear in continuous reel 

(did not seem to have defined series)

Like Jared this artist mimics the snapshot. The sense of spontaneity appears strongly; telling intuitive  stories about friends, strangers and locations from one unique perspective; which belongs to Anna. 

There is a youthfulness present through much of her work - scenes of music moshes/death circles and cultures and scenes that are embraced by youth.

Raw images shot from eye level draw the viewer closer in to the world that encapsulates Anna; we are given the chance to stand exactly where she exists and it's just cool.

Colour is celebrated through character and landscape