Final Portfolio

Sorry, I don't know what the heck I did with that last post. I can't figure out how to get my photos next to each other the way they should be, but here are the images regardless:

Artist Statement: 

This series of work explores the problematic degradation of women particularly within the confines of erotic photography and the pornography industry. I wanted to create a series of several different over-the-top performances that recreated different scenarios common to the porn-world, while also exploring the grotesque or absurd nature of many niches of fetishism. Due to the performative nature of this body of work, I chose to use the camera as a means towards documenting these self-inflicted performances. Therefore, many of the images present remain purposely blurred to indicate the intensity of the movements being made, as well as to convey the sense of vertigo or ambiguity.  I have also chosen to arrange the photographs as triptychs so that they may be read more as a sequence of events than independent images. Several of the images also contain imperfections such as shadows, out-of-frame compositions, or a door-frame seeping into the side of the photographs which play into the idea of “amateur” pornography. The photographs present all stick with the same color scheme, mostly of green with hints of magenta. These colors were chosen as to mimic the balance between the sickness of the psychology that is at play within these sexual fantasies and the sensuality uniquely attributed towards women. Furthermore, this complimentary color scheme helps create the sense that something is just a bit “off” within the pieces. The photographs were printed at a life-size to slightly larger than life-size as to instill an interesting and off-putting sense within the viewer. The scale, in combination with the empty space of the border, also helps give weight to the issue as the viewer becomes forced to sit with the uncomfortable nature of some of the details lurking within the prints. 

In my History of Photography class, we have been recently discussing what makes photography unique from all other art forms. As a primary-painter, I sometimes struggle to see the "art" in photography, particularly digital photography which is so easily accessible to everyone, so having a conversation devoted to what it is that makes photography independently important & able to do something that no other form of art could accomplish was really interesting and semi-revolutionary in the way I think about it. These images are of brain cells & of galaxy clusters. Without photography, we would have no way to share images of the micro or macro. We have been studying photography in the Fine Art sense, but I think that the science aspect of photography is equally as fascinating and can also be considered "art" in a way. These two "science" images are quite beautiful, and when placed together to note the resemblance, I think something really beautiful is conveyed. I just found this incredible, and if it weren't for photography, I would have never known about it. 

Google Reader

Rhythm 0, 1974 - Marina Abramović

I found a photograph documenting a performance art piece by Abramovic where she dedicated herself to the role of submission and allowed other people to make decisions for her. She placed random objects on a table and allowed the other people to pick out objects to use on her. By the end of the performance, people had torn her clothes off, inflicted pain, and even held a gun to her head. I found this performance really intriguing, as well as the use of photography as a way to document a performance that I was clearly unable to attend. It's similar in the way that I approach photography, as I tend to use it as more of stills from a performance than as anything else. 

Google Reader

I found a French photographer named Aëla Labbé on lenscratch.com that really captured my interest, particularly this image. She focuses on doing nontraditional portraiture of children, and I just found her compositions to be really intriguing. I have recently become obsessed with notions of exploring identity throughout portraiture, and I find that a lot can be read from a person outside of just their facial expressions. I think that Labbe is able to convey the whimsy of childhood without falling into the typical imagery and photographic cliches. She captures a sort of emotional sophistication than is typically attributed with children. 

Critique #4: Photos.

Critique Images

I wanted to express my internal struggle with femininity through an external manipulation of my form. I chose to use the foot to represent masculine influence for multiple reasons. First, the foot is most easily recognizable as male due to the roughness & hair. Secondly, the foot has ties specifically to eroticism as del as having a particular stigma of being dirty or disgusting. I wanted something that caused a somewhat revolting reaction to manipulate my facial expression. I wanted to highlight the invasiveness of the masculine presence on my femininity and my personal struggle with that.

Chapter Five

This was my favorite chapter so far!!!

In a contemporary context of photography it is nearly impossible to divorce highbrow "art" photography from the photography found in advertisements. Whether it is because we are so bombarded with images that we allow these two seemingly separate realms of photography to influence each other or because these two industries enjoy responding/mocking/referencing each other, it is clear that when pursuing photography even in a strictly Fine Art sense one must now become well-versed in commodity culture. I found this chapter so vastly interesting as it covered everything from stock images to fashion photography to gender roles within advertisements. The common link between all of these different subjects discussed within the chapter however, I feel, was the use of photography as a means of objectifying people. For instance, in stock photography the photographer seeks out the nondescript. This contrasts radically with the photojournalist, who typically seeks out the extraordinary or sensational. Effective stock photography needs to be as banal as possible with as little indication of specificity or individualization as possible. The other aspect I found intriguing about this chapter was the trend of dislocating body parts to objectify and/or sexualize a person (such as in the Fashion ad where a woman's legs were shown coming out of an egg, or the ad where a black woman's head was cropped out). I think this chapter raises a lot of awareness to how images can be so manipulative and telling of society's gazes. While the chapter focused primarily on women, I think that men are also being widely objectified in advertisements today. It made me think a lot about how commercials now tend to try to find someone of ambiguous race in hopes that that will help a broader audience to connect. I also found the parts about the sexualization of non-Western women widely interesting. I think there is a sort of deep-seated fantasy that goes along with exoticism (such as that non-white women are more sexually available to men) that is still prevalent today and this chapter did an excellent job of highlighting that.

While I don't have any specific questions I want to ask, I am curious to see if my classmates think that there are any times or instances in which disjointing body parts in advertisements could be anything other than objectification. I'm also just really interested to hear what other people have to say on this chapter and I am definitely excited to talk about it tomorrow!

Work In Progress II

         
  In this particular series of photos I wanted to focus on the sexual appeal of young women often fantasized about in erotic photography and pornography. It is meant to be a play upon the common scenario of naive teen having a sleep-over, and thus I chose to use a strong presence of "girly" colors (such as pinks and blues) and saturated them heavily to create an obvious tension with the viewer. I also used Photoshop to smooth-out my skin to create an unrealistic youth and used playful yet suggestive poses to highlight my message. I played around with creating a bit more of a setting with these photos, as someone during my last critique brought up how I should try to experiment with that more so than just consistently relying on a blankish background. In two of the five images I went in to Photoshop and added "make-up" meant to mimic that of a geishas. I did this visually to highlight the expression of the face. Conceptually, I was thinking about how geishas were, in Japanese culture, often young girls who would be sold off to sexually-please men. Often times, their customers would bid upon who would get to take the girl's virginity. I saw a parallel between this practice and the obsession with young, naive teens that runs rampant in the porn industry.

Chapter 4

I found the section on "objectification, fetishism, and voyeurism" of particular interest because of how it relates directly with my theme. It was interesting to learn about the contradictory nature of the gaze, especially the quote from Berger which essentially states that women equally objectify themselves as they become aware of how men are looking at them and thus begin to identify themselves through the male gaze. I also found it thoroughly interesting to learn about Freud's views on voyeurism and hope to incorporate some of this play upon "childhood wonder" in my photographs. This really makes me wonder  if photography hasn't always been rooted in some sort of voyeuristic impulse; such as when photographers "document" exotic cultures. In my opinion, all photography dealing with the figure is somewhat voyeuristic as it is an obsession with getting a look into that which would not normally be seen.

Chapter III

I found chapter three incredibly intriguing because it raised many ideas that I simply had not thought about, such as the start of pornography, family albums, and personal-use photography. I enjoyed the section which discussed carte-de-visite, the "visiting cards" people would have made for themselves which eventually evolved into many people collecting cards of famous people. I think it is interesting that people have always been interested in obsessing over celebrities.

I also found it really fascinating to think about how photography was able to unveil many of the exotic far-away places (such as Asia, the Middle East, and Africa) that most European people would never actually be able to visit. It makes me wonder how this photography, which was taken at a period in time where racism and a "us" vs. "them" mentality was fairly normal, differs from contemporary photography found in publications such as National Geographic. I wonder how much photography today differs, because I imagine that people still have the tendency to over-emphasize a population's differences in order to achieve some strange sort of romantical view of exoticism.

Google Reader Response: #3

While viewing some of the different photo blogs I am subscribed to, I came across this photograph by Amy Lyne titled Butts, Butts and more Butts on "Hey Hot Shot Blog." I think what drew me to this image initially was how candid of a photograph this is --- in many ways, especially living in Florida, this image is relatable or reminiscent to a humorous, tacky postcard available in nearly all supermarkets. I found it interesting, however, that it depicts a sort of absurd, grotesqueness to these beach-goer butts as opposed to it being something appealing or sexually arousing. I think I found this of particular interest now that I'm settled on a theme, since I want to achieve a similar effect from my photographs by turning sexually-oriented things humorously grotesque. 

Google Reader Response #2

This week, the blog post I found most intriguing came from americansuburbx's article on Jess Brouws' "Innercity" photographs. I think what intrigued me about these photographs were the almost post-apocalyptic subject matter, of city slums that had appeared to be deserted. I have always been so enamored with figurative work that I often over-look how brilliant non-figurative work can be. In this series, however, I found myself taken out of my preferences and appreciating the aesthetics of the space that the figure inhabits. In spite of the fact that the scenes are of run-down cities and eerily void of human presence, I find myself drawn to the quietness of desolation in such a manner that it is almost peaceful for me.

Reading Discussion I

While the first chapter brought up many different points, varying from the invention of photography, the iconography of The Migrant Mother, modern/postmodern theory, and technique vs. content, what I most found interesting is how photography acts as the bridge between art and science. I am curious to see if, in the context of a photography studio-art class, we are more apt to think of photography on a content-based art-sense or if we are more likely to value technique and the documentary/scientific quality of photography. I also cannot help but wonder what we think the average public more readily-accepts photography as. While I initially want to say that I interpret photography in more of an artistic sense, I have to admit that I have a hard time accepting photography that is strictly content-based and does not exhibit an understanding of aesthetic technique. 

On a separate note, I am also intrigued about how photography very uniquely relates to concepts of truth and reality in a way every other medium (minus video) simply does not. I feel like even in today's society, where images can so easily be manipulated or faked, there is a certain psychological response to seeing a photograph that makes us trust it more than any other artistic medium. I would like to know if my classmates agree with me, or if they feel there is more suspicion around photography now. I am also curious to see if they see photography as more of an art or science, or equally caught between art and science. Lastly, I am interested in finding out if they find themselves more impressed by technically striking photography or photography that is content-based. 

Google Reader Post #1: What is The City But the People?

The particular article I found interesting this week is from SIP (http://thesip.org/2011/08/what-is-the-city-but-the-people/#more-2127), and focused around the portrait photography of Erica McDonald, which I found exceptionally compelling. I am heavily inspired by the figure/portraiture in my own work, spanning across many different mediums and outlets. I enjoyed reading about the philosophy the article applies to portrait photography, which is explicitly stated as catching "the soul and spirit of a person by unveiling the hidden without letting the photographed subject feel 'naked'," largely because I agree with it entirely.

My favorite photograph out of the collection contained in this blog is of a heavy-set black man sitting on a bed (Erica-McDonald-03.jpg). This photograph is heavily saturated and feels very uneasy & unsettling. The man, who would in any other setting perhaps seem intimidating appears rather vulnerable, and after reading more of the article it is revealed that this man is living in an Adult Home for mentally ill people. Even without reading the article, though, the viewer can get a sense of this from the uneasy color palette of complimentary yellow & purple which clash for attention, and the strange expression on his face.

I really enjoy portrait work which allows for a narrative of some sort to take place or that forces the viewer to fill in the blanks about the person presented before them.

Artist Selections

1. Helen Van Meene
2. Sally Mann
3. Cindy Sherman
4. Justine Kurland
5. Richard Billingham
6. Ed Ruscha
7. Andrea Modica
8. Kelli Connell
9. Katy Grannan
10. Sharon Lockhart

Chapter Selections

The chapters I would most like to cover for the class discussions are:


1. Chapter 4 - The Subject as Object: Photography & the Human Body
2. Chapter 5 - Spectacles and Illusions: Photography & Commodity Culture
3.  Chapter 7 - Photography in the Age of Electronic Imaging