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.