When looking at images from Levine’s “Queer” portraits and “Alone Time” collections, I could see that the compositions were clearly well thought out and had some inspirations from tableaux style paintings. I typed in key words into google that related to Levine’s imagery in an attempt to find some paintings with similar compositions. This proved rather successful and although it unlikely that Levine took inspiration for the specific paintings that I selected to compare them to, it is clear that Levine had a traditional thought process when composing her images and directing their models.
Above is a comparison of JJ Levine’s “Mikiki 2012” and Iosif Iser’s “Woman in Yellow Chair” produced in 1933. The image have a very similar composition with the subjects seated at an angle on a low chair, a green wall and a table with a vase to the left of the seated subject. Both subjects have intriguing features (when considering the time of their production) Iser’s woman has bright blue shoes, red lipstick and a matching headscarf. Levine’s male subject is pictured with traditionally feminine items including a handbag, vase of tulips and a matching pearl necklace and bracelet set. Both of the images have a provocative undertone, Iser’s subject has a seductive expression, has her arms and legs exposed and has her shirt unbuttoned to reveal a large portion of her decolletage. Levine’s subject is presented rather provocatively due to the flesh coloured clothing which at first glance the subject appear less dressed. The subject also has their cropped vest rolled up to show the pierced nipples, but not in a overly exposed fashion as they are partially concealed by the layered pearl necklaces.
Both images have a green based colour scheme. Levine’s image reinforces this theme with a bright green wall, warmer green chair and the stalks of the flowers which are contrasted by the warm pink and yellow undertones of the the flesh of the subject and the warm ocher tone colour of the small table the vase is placed on. The wall in Isef’s painting is also green, however unlike Levine’s solid coloured wall, Isef’s wall features both cool and warm green tones. Isef exploits the complementary colour of red in the tones of the lipstick, headscarf, table cloth and floor. The orange and yellow tones in the flesh and chair are also contrasted with the cooler green tones and the blue of the shoes.
Above I separated the two images, Levine’s “Mikiki 2012” and Iser’s “Woman in Yellow Chair” into 9 sections which shows how each composition exploits the rule of thirds. In both images the torso is places on the right vertical line and the faces seem to be cut in half by this line. In both images the foot just peeks into the bottom section. When looking at each section you can see that they have very similar contents, for example the centre segment includes part of both thighs and a hand and the top right segment contains a shoulder and half the face of the subject.
The way that the eye travels through the two images is also quite similar. The eye is immediately draw the to the face and is then directed through the image by the shape of the body, along the extended leg to the foot and then from the foot up to the vase. In the annotated versions of the images above you can see how similar the line of sight is in both compositions. Many tableaux portraits of women have a composition that exploits the form of the human body to direct the eye across the painting.
Above is a comparison of JJ Levine’s fourth of eight images from her “Alone Time” Collection and Jan Miense Molenaer’s “music making couple” Levine’s image is at first glance a portrait of a heterosexual couple seated next to each other, the female counterpart holding a banjo and the male counterpart listening. The couple in Levine’s image are actually acted out by the same person in different costumes. Molenaer’s painting also depicts a heterosexual couple where both parties are holding musical instruments, the male, a lute and the female, an early woodwind instrument. In Molenaer’s painting the male counterpart is presented as dominant, he wears a large hat, stands rather than sits, placing him physically above his partner and the line created by the fret board of the lute also makes him appear taller. In Levine’s image however, the female is presented as the dominant counterpart of the couple as she is pictured holding the banjo while the male is simply sat, listening. Similarly to Molenaer’s painting, the fret board of the lute makes the female in Levine’s photograph appear bigger than the male. Both of the images, in my opinion have a sexual undertone this is implied by the fact that the couple are pictured together, suggesting a sense of commitment. Levine’s title “Alone time” could suggest sexual as well as emotional intamacy, Molenaer’s painting has a sexual undertone due to both counterparts seemingly taking part in the “music making” which a potential metaphor for physical intimacy.
JJ Levine is a trans masculine and gender queer photographer based in Montreal who is best known for her gender bending projects such as “Alone Time” and “Switch”. “Alone Time” consists of a series of tableaux portraits that depict the same model acting out two different characters within the same scene, one character being a woman and the other, a man. “Switch” is a series of diptych images that at first glance depict two heterosexual couples in a prom style studio portrait. However, on closer inspection the images actual consist of two models rather than four. The same two models are used in both images, the couple are dressed as a man and a woman in the first image and in the second, the roles of reversed. The intriguing nature of the images is that it is unclear of what the couples actually genders are and whether or not there are a heterosexual or homosexual couple.
Levine’s work explores the concept of gender roles and strives to break these down but also questions the gender binary and questions whether gender is fluid and not as rigid as society has lead us to believe. JJ Levine’s “Queer Portraits” features many of Levine’s friends and acquaintances that are all part of the LGBT community which, if I am not mistaken can be considered under the umbrella of “queer”. I also believe that this title is significant as “Queer” generally means “strange” or odd” and generally has negative connotation. However, Levine’s subjects are present in a positive way that celebrates the differences and individuality of people. The descriptions of the portraits also do not also reveal what makes these people fit within the LGBT community, usually the image title consist of the name of the subject and the year the portrait was made. However, some images of more than on subject are titled differently, three examples being “Boyfriends in Bed 2011” , “Roommates 2013” and “Girlfriends 2012” (all pictured below) I think that these images are intriguing and beautifully composed.
I was drawn to Levine’s work because of her use of bright colours and striking subjects. Her work has a tableau feel due to the seemingly carefully selected colour schemes and the deliberate posing of the subjects which creates aesthetically pleasing compositions. This idealised controlled enviroment and subjects are themes that I want to include in my own work during this project. I also want to take direct inspiration from her use of colourful backgrounds and have ordered two backdrops to use in my response to her work as well as my own project.
Rather than physical space, the theme of Environment can also be considered within a psychological context where artists construct or imagine an environment that they respond to in creative ways using photography, performance and film.
Using binary opposites we can think of these environments as;
exterior/ interior private/ public masculin/ feminine
physical/ psychological
Currently visiting Jersey as part of the Archisle international artist-in-residence programme is Clare Rae from Melbourne, Australia. Clare will be researching the Claude Cahun archive, shooting new photography and film in Jersey and contributing to the educational programme. Clare Rae produces photographs and moving image works that interrogate representations of the female body via an exploration of the physical environment.
from the series Magdalen. These images engage with the site of the Magdalen Asylum, where girls and women were housed at the Abbotsford Convent, whilst working in the laundries downstairs. The asylum was in operation for approximately 100 years until it was decommissioned in the 1970’s. These rooms are laden with history, and provided a dense and loaded environment within which to make artwork. Using this history as a starting point, I attempted to activate these spaces using my body, gently testing the physical environment.Stages is a collaborative project by Clare Rae and Simone Hine. Both artists follow in the tradition of feminist art practices, using their own body to examine broader ideas related to the conditions of feminine representation. Stages takes the Rosina Auditorium at the Abbotsford Convent as a catalyst for the production of new work. Both artists will bring their own aesthetic and line of questioning to this very particular space. Together, Rae and Hine present works that are defined by the space, whilst also contributing to a redefinition of the space.Untitled (NGV). 2013 This project engages with the public and private spaces of the National Gallery of Victoria (International), in particular the photography and print store rooms.Monash Commission 2016. The series of 10 photographs investigate institutional spaces around the Monash University Clayton Campus, mostly engaging with buildings within the Science faculty, but also including iconic modernist architecture such as Robert Blackwood Hall, the Law Library and the former site of the Monash University Museum of Art.
Clare will give an artist talk contextualising her practice, covering recent projects that have engaged with notions of architecture and the body, and the role of performative photography in her work. Clare will discuss her research on these areas, specifically her interest in artists such as Claude Cahun, Francesca Woodman and Australian performance artist Jill Orr. Clare will also discuss her photographic methodologies and practices, giving an analysis of her image making techniques, and final outcomes.
All students MUST attend her public lecture on Wed 22 March at Jersey Museum 5:30-7:00 pm. Here is a link to her Talk
Saturday 18 March Clare also ran an Archisle workshop on Body & Architecture in Photography. The workshop consisted of a talk by Clare, providing insight into her photographic practice focusing on recent projects that have engaged with the body and performance.
Homework: Here is the task that she asked participants to respond to. All students must complete this task within one lesson and upload 3 images with an evaluation by Mon 27 March.
1. Produce a self-portrait, in any style you like. Consider the history of self-portraiture, and try to create an image that alludes to, (or evades?) your identity.
2. Produce a performative photograph, considering the ideas presented on liveness, performance documentation and Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment. ‘Captured’ vs. pre-meditated?
3. Produce a photograph that engages the body with the physical environment. Think of architecture, light, texture, and composition to create your image.
For further context lets consider some of these artists’ influences on Clare’s practice.
Claude Cahun, born Lucy Schwob was a French photographer, sculptor, and writer. She is best known for her self-portraits in which she assumes a variety of personas, including dandy, weight lifter, aviator, and doll.
In this image, Cahun has shaved her head and is dressed in men’s clothing. She once explained: “Under this mask, another mask; I will never finish removing all these faces.”1 (Claude Cahun, Disavowals, London 2007, p.183)
Cahun was friends with many Surrealist artists and writers; André Breton once called her “one of the most curious spirits of our time.”2(See Guardian article below by Gavin James Bower, “Claude Cahun: Finding a Lost Great,)
While many male Surrealists depicted women as objects of male desire, Cahun staged images of herself that challenge the idea of the politics of gender. Cahun was championing the idea of gender fluidity way before the hashtags of today. She was exploring her identity, not defining it. Her self-portraits often interrogates space, such as domestic interiors and Jersey landscapes using rock crevasses and granite gate posts.
I Extend My Arms 1931 or 1932 Claude Cahun 1894-1954 Purchased 2007 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P79319
The Jersey Heritage Trust collection represents the largest repository of the artistic work of Cahun who moved to the Jersey in 1937 with her stepsister and lover Marcel Moore. She was imprisoned and sentenced to death in 1944 for activities in the resistance during the Occupation. However, Cahun survived and she was almost forgotten until the late 1980s, and much of her and Moore’s work was destroyed by the Nazis, who requisitioned their home. CaHun died in 1954 of ill health (some contribute this to her time in German captivity) and Moore killed herself in 1972. They are both buried together in St Brelade’s churchyard.
For further feminist theory and context read the following essay:
Amelia Jones: The “Eternal Return”: Self-Portrait Photography as Technology of Embodiment – pdf Jones_Eternal Return
Currently the National Portrait Gallery in London brings the work of Claude Cahun and Gillian Wearing together for the first time. Slipping between genders and personae in their photographic self-images, Wearing and Cahun become others while inventing themselves. “We were born in different times, we have different concerns, and we come from different backgrounds. She didn’t know me, yet I know her,” Wearing says, paying homage to Cahun and acknowledging her presence. The bigger question the exhibition might ask is less how we construct identities for ourselves than what is this thing called presence?
Behind a mask, Wearing is being Cahun. Previously she has re-enacted photographs of Andy Warhol in drag, the young Diane Arbus with a camera, Robert Mapplethorpe with a skull-topped cane, hard-bitten New York crime photographer Weegee wreathed in cigar-smoke. Among these doubles, you know Wearing is in the frame somewhere, under the silicon mask and the prosthetics, the wigs and makeup and the lighting. Going through her own family albums, she has become her own mother and her father. It is a surprise she has never got lost in this hall of time-slipping mirrors, among her own self-images and the faces she has adopted. Wearing has got others to play her game, too – substituting their own adult voices with those of a child, putting on disguises while confessing their secrets on video.
Cahun has been described as a Cindy Sherman before her time. Wearing’s art undoubtedly owes something to Sherman – just as Sherman herself is indebted to artist Suzy Lake. Looking back at Cahun, Wearing is both tracing artistic influence, and paying homage to it, teasing out threads in a web of relationships crossing generations.
Cindy Sherman, A selection of images from her film stills
Masquerading as a myriad of characters, Cindy Sherman (American, born 1954) invents personas and tableaus that examine the construction of identity, the nature of representation, and the artifice of photography. To create her images, she assumes the multiple roles of photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser, and stylist. Whether portraying a career girl, a blond bombshell, a fashion victim, a clown, or a society lady of a certain age, for over thirty-five years this relentlessly adventurous artist has created an eloquent and provocative body of work that resonates deeply in our visual culture.
For an overview of Sherman’s incredible oeuvre see Museum Of Modern Art’s dedicated site made at a major survey exhibition of her work in 2012.
This exhibition surveys Sherman’s career, from her early experiments as a student in Buffalo in the mid-1970s to a recent large-scale photographic mural, presented here for the first time in the United States. Included are some of the artist’s groundbreaking works—the complete “Untitled Film Stills” (1977–80) and centerfolds (1981), plus the celebrated history portraits (1988–90)—and examples from her most important series, from her fashion work of the early 1980s to the break-through sex pictures of 1992 to her monumental 2008 society portraits.
Some of her latest images using digital montages
Sherman works in series, and each of her bodies of work is self-contained and internally coherent; yet there are themes that have recurred throughout her career. The exhibition showcases the artist’s individual series and also presents works grouped thematically around such common threads as cinema and performance; horror and the grotesque; myth, carnival, and fairy tales; and gender and class identity.
Clare Rae sites other influences in her practice, particularly artists living and working in Australia such as Jill Orr and Julia Rrap.
Jill Orr is a contemporary artist based in Melbourne. She is best known for her works in performance, photography, video and installation works that often explore the body, and its positioning within social, political and environmental contexts. While Orr’s works are predominantly site-specific, the recording of her works are regarded as equally significant aspects of her working practice.
Jill Orr, Trilogy, performance & videos for Performance, Presence, Video Time, curated by Anne Marsh, Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide. 2015Jill Orr: Antipodean Epic, 2015
BLEEDING TREES 1979
BETWEEN SOMEWHERE AND NOWHERE, 2011
Jill Orr’s work centres on issues of the psycho- social and environmental where she draws on land and identities as they are shaped in, on and with the environment be it country or urban locales.
Julie Rrap’s involvement with body art and performance in the mid-70s in Australia continued to influence her practice as it expanded into photography, painting, sculpture and video in an on-going project concerned with representations of the body.
Another site of influence to Clare Rae is Francesca Woodman. At the age of thirteen Francesca Woodman took her first self-portrait. From then, up until her untimely death in 1981, aged just 22, she produced an extraordinary body of work. Comprising some 800 photographs, Woodman’s oeuvre is acclaimed for its singularity of style and range of innovative techniques. From the beginning, her body was both the subject and object in her work.
The very first photograph taken by Woodman, Self-portrait at Thirteen, 1972, shows the artist sitting at the end of a sofa in an un-indentified space, wearing an oversized jumper and jeans, arm loosely hanging on the armrest, her face obscured by a curtain of hair and the foreground blurred by sudden movement, one hand holding a cable linked to the camera. In this first image the main characteristics at the core of Woodman’s short career are clearly visible, her focus on the relationship with her body as both the object of the gaze and the acting subject behind the camera.
Woodman tested the boundaries of bodily experience in her work and her work often suggests a sense of self-displacement. Often nude except for individual body parts covered with props, sometimes wearing vintage clothing, the artist is typically sited in empty or sparsely furnished, dilapidated rooms, characterised by rough surfaces, shattered mirrors and old furniture. In some images Woodman quite literally becomes one with her surroundings, with the contours of her form blurred by movement, or blending into the background, wallpaper or floor, revealing the lack of distinction of both – between figure and ground, self and world. In others she uses her physical body literally as a framework in which to create and alter her material identity. For instance, holding a sheet of glass against her flesh, squeezing her body parts against the glass and smashing her face, breasts, hips, buttocks and stomach onto the surface from various angles, Woodman distorts her physical features making them appear grotesque.
Through fragmenting her body by hiding behind furniture, using reflective surfaces such as mirrors to conceal herself, or by simply cropping the image, she dissects the human figure emphasising isolated body parts. In her photographs Woodman reveals the body simultaneously as insistently there, yet somehow absent. This game of presence and absence argues for a kind of work that values disappearance as its very condition.
Since 1986, Woodman’s work has been exhibited widely and has been the subject of extensive critical study in the United States and Europe. Woodman is often situated alongside her contemporaries of the late 1970s such as Ana Mendieta and Hannah Wilke, yet her work also foreshadows artists such as Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Nan Goldin and Karen Finley in their subsequent dialogues with the self and reinterpretations of the female body.
For those interested in exploring identities, stereotypes, gender, alter-egos through self-portraiture using varies techniques such slow shutters-speeds, use of dressing up, make-up, props, masks, locations (mine-en-scene) Often these images are questioning ideas around truth, fantasy or fiction an involve artists making images in both interior and exterior environments
Juno Calypso won the recent BJP International Award 2016 and is currently exhibiting in London at TJ Boulting Gallery. It was an old picture of a lurid pink bathroom that inspired London-born photographer Juno Calypso to spend a week honeymooning solo at a Pennsylvania love hotel. “My first thought was that I’d be out of my mind to go all that way to take some pictures, but after failing to find anything similar in Europe I knew I’d be even crazier not to go,” Calypso says.
Surrounded by heart-shaped tubs, sparkling mirror lights and her signature anachronistic beauty devices, the Penn Hills Resort became the setting of The Honeymoon,Calypso’s new series of photographs exploring the absurdities of female identity and sexuality.
Read article here and also this article on artists exploring their alter-egos and inner selves in photography.
Anne Hardy’s photographs picture depopulated rooms that suggest surreal fictions. Working in her studio, Hardy builds each of her sets entirely from scratch; a labour-intensive process of constructing an empty room, then developing its interior down to the most minute detail. Using the transient nature of photography, Hardy’s images withhold the actual experience of her environments, allowing our relationship with them to be in our imagination.
Hardy’s work transforms sculpture into photographic ‘paintings’. Though her scenes are built in actuality, their compositions are developed to be viewed from one vantage point only and it’s only their 2 dimensional images that are shown. Hardy uses the devices inherent within photography to heighten her work’s painterly illusion. In Cipher, aspects such as the hazy aura around the fluorescent lights, faux grotto walls, and the spatial defiance of the hanging ropes, give allusion to gesture and drawn lines.
The construction of an environment taking place in her studio
Tableaux Photography and Staged environments. Tableaux photography always have an element of performing for the camera. See artists such as, Tom Hunter, Jeff Wall, Gregory Crewdson, Duane Michaels, Sam Taylor Johnson (former Sam Taylor-Wood), Hannah Starkey, Tracy Moffatt, Vibeke Tandberg
Jeff WallGregory CrewdsonSam Taylor-JohnsonTracy MoffatUntitled – May 1997 1997 Hannah Starkey born 1971 Purchased 1999 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P78246Vibeke Tandberg
Performance and Photography
For those of you who would like to explore Performance and Photography further here is a link to a project we did in 2015 when Tom Pope, was in Jersey as the Archisle Artist-in-Residence.
Study the blog posts below when we were exploring Pope’s practice and the themes of Chance, Change and Challenge . You should be able to find some starting pointshere.
For example, write a manifesto with a set of rules (6-10) that provide a framework for your performance related project. Describe in detail how you are planning on developing your work and ideas. Think about what you want to achieve, what you want to communicate, how your ideas relate to the theme ENVIRONMENT and how you are going to approach this task in terms of form, technique and subject-matter.
A list of art movements that you may use as contextual research. Many of them also produced Manifestos:
Dadaism, Futurism, Surrealism, Situationism, Neo-dadaism, Land/Environmental art, Performance art/Live art, Conceptualism, Experimental filmmaking/ Avant-garde cinema (those studying Media make links with your unit on Experimental film)
Here are a list of artists/ photographers that may inspire you:
Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Yves Klein, Bas Jan Ader, Erwin Wurm, Chris Arnatt, Richard Long, Hamish Fulton, Joseph Beuys, Chris Burden, Francis Alÿs, , Sophie Calle , Nikki S Lee, Claude Cahun, Dennis Oppenheim, Bruce Nauman, Allan Kaprow, Mark Wallinger, Gillian Wearing, Marcel Duchamp and the Readymade, Andy Warhol’s film work, Steve McQueen, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Marina Abramovic, Pipilotti Rist, Luis Bunuel/ Salvatore Dali: , Le Chien Andalou, Dziga Vertov: The Man with a Movie Camera
Environmental art as a movement includes a range of artistic practices such as historical approaches to nature as well as new politically motivated works which explore the deeper relationships to environmental systems and social concerns. The physical environment has always inspired art, for example it could be said that it began with Palaeolithic cave paintings which represented aspects of nature such as animals and humans interacting with them.
Environmental art is an umbrella term which encompasses many different art styles , techniques and objectives. The artists associated with it often share similar beliefs about human interconnectedness to the natural world-socially, economically or spiritually. Environmental art contains a variety of sub movements including romanticism in the way that it seeks to celebrate the beauty and greatness of nature and the people connected to it as well as Eco-realism and Gaga art.
The growth of environmental art as a specific movement began around the late 1960’s and early on it was associated predominantly with sculpture and land art. It partly arose out of criticisms that sculpture was out of harmony with the environment. In 1968 Robert Smithson organised an exhibition in New York titled “Earthworks” which challenged conventional ideas to do with exhibitions because his artwork was too large to be collected. They were represented by photographs which emphasised the resistance to acquisition .
Earth art uses the natural landscape to create structures, forms and sculptures and it grew from ideas associated with conceptualism and minimalism. These were popular during the 1960’s when artists began to abandon traditional approaches and new ways of engaging with the world through art. There was a change from representing nature in art to utilising it as a material which has connections to primitive artists who used the natural materials available to them. Although some artists such as Smithson used mechanical earth-moving equipment to make their artworks, other artists made minimal and temporary interventions in the landscape such as Richard Long who simply walked up and down until he had made a mark in the earth.
The system of presenting art went through radical change as the Book ‘The representation of nature in art’ explains, artists reject the “traditional workshop-museum-gallery circuit”. It goes on to say that Land artists are grouped together by their desire to “work on the spot so that they can leave their mark, in one way or other, on whatever scale, and for however long, without deciding in advance how their works are to be accessed. They use photographs, film, maps and drawings to describe their work, which usually remains inaccessible… these artists use nature, not to reveal its beauty and evoke emotions but rather to dig, mark, plot, and transform. In this way the sculptural dimension emerges”. It is explained that Land art is “more the result of different intellectual, sociological and artistic paths than an aesthetic manifesto. The only thing the paths have in common is their medium: nature.”
By using the most basic materials Earth artists aim to get as close to the essence of their work as possible. The often ephemeral nature of their work means that they accept the inevitability of their work disappearing which means the role of photography in recording it is very important. I find this connection between art, sculpture and photography interesting as well as the way that it is reflective of very primitive methods of creating art but utilises new technologies to record it.
China: The terrible condition of the air in its cities is just one example of how this country, growing at breakneck speed, does not exercise sufficient control over its emissions. Development of this kind must take account of environmental risks, given that in just a few years it has overtaken the United States in terms of tons of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere.
Air pollution is the combination of Carbon dioxide and Methane increasing and so increasing the earth’s temperature.
It is the most dangerous of all the environmental problems, it kills around 7 millionpeople each year or 1/8 deaths globally.
Indoor air pollution is the equivalent to smoking two packets of cigarettes a dayif you cook and heat your homes using open fires.
What causes it:
Most of our air pollution is from energy use and the production of it, burning fossil fuels releases gases and chemicals into the air.
Passenger vehicles is one of the major contributors to our air pollution, they contribute to 75% of our carbon monoxideemissions. In urban areas, it can be up to 50% to 90% of our carbon monoxide emissions.
The effect of Air pollution:
Carbon monoxide is a odorless, colourless and is poisonous. It is responsible for over 430 deaths a year and the annual death from carbon monoxide for males is 0.22 per 100,000 and for females it is 0.7 per 100,000.
Air pollution can induce headaches, nausea and allergic reactions.IT can also aggravate other medical conditions such as Asthma and Emphysema.
There are long term effects such as Chronic Respiratory disease, Lung Cancer, Heart disease, and even brain damage.
Apart from health effects, Air Pollution can also lead to a variety of environmental effects such as Acid Rain which precipitation containing harmful amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids.
Smog and Soot:
Emissions from fossil fuels react with sunlight to produce Smog which is similar to Fog but it thick and stays for days, months or for 365 days a yearin places like China.
Soot, is made up of tine particles of chemicals, soil, smoke, dust or allergens.
Ibris Khan is a London based artist who focuses on an array of techniques and mediums from photography, painting to sculpture and film. He takes photographs from other sources as well as entire books and overlays them to create these compelling and abstract black and white images. His work evokes a very intense form of energy. The huge amount of layers creates a very provocative sense of texture. His photographs also reflect something spiritual with their use of movement and ambiguity.
Stephanie Jung
Stephanie Jung is a photographer based in German who as a passion for experimental photography using overlay and montage techniques. She takes her own photographs of places shes traveled and overlays them together. She picks places that stand out to her where she is really compelled by the ambiance and environment. Her work is a reflection of lost moments that cant be taken back as well as capturing the energy of somewhere such as a bustling city or eerie country road. Her work really emphasizes a sense of energy created by city environments which is also emphasized by the vivid colours used. Similar to Khan’s work, her use of overlay techniques gives a new sense of life to the image evoked by the intense textures that run through the image.
“My work is a lot about everyday scenes from a city, I take the images during a walk through the cities. I do not plan to take images from a special motive, it happens very spontaneously, I find beauty both in calm and busy moments, as I think both represent life at its best.” – The Phoblographer interview
Another view of Paris
I was really drawn to the photograph above by Jung which features a view overlooking the city in Paris. For this photograph she took various photographs moments apart, which evokes the movement of the cars as they drive up and down the road. The photographs features a very artistic colour scheme with its intriguing grey and yellow sky line contrasted with the blue buildings and vivid streak of red from the lights.
This was taken in 2009 on top of the Arche de Triomphe, watching Paris at night with my friends. The view was amazing, the La Defense district at the back, and the road in front with all the cars rushing from one place to another. It’s my favorite image because of the warm lighting and the coloured lights of the cars. –COOPH interview (2014)
Both artists use this technique to add energy into their work. The strong use of texture give both artists work a very crowded effect. Jung’s work evokes the atmosphere of her environment with its use of scenery and vivid colour and bold use of colour scheme, her work also reflects a romantic influence with the use scenery and colour, which evokes beauty. Khans work on the other hand is a lot more conceptual, the often indistinguishable shapes evoke something eerie or ghostly, his work is a lot more subtly compared to Jung’s chaotic landscapes. I like Jung’s use of rich colours and textures to make her work evoke a sense of energy and an exaggerated ambiance into scenery of her photographs which is something I plan on incorporating into my own work.
“Stephen Gill (1971), is one of the most interesting emerging photographers of the British scene. Photojournalist, visual poet, anthropologist, sociologist, alchemist, his series hybrid conceptual and documentary photos through obsessive explorations of different themes.”
The series “Talking to the Ants” presents a collection of images composed as doubles but within a single shot. By arranging objects inside the camera or one the lens, traces of coloured film, small bugs and other miscellaneous are left on the final film.
“Stephen Gill’s body of work is an enigmatic, multilayered archive of photographs”
Producing a range of project pieces, the self taught photography tends to shoot in and around London. Subverting expectations of areas with traditionally negative connotations, Gill’s work highlights colour and hidden experiences within the city. His photographs shift attention to the forgotten parts of the city, showing the neglected and the left behind. Labeled as an adventurer of the urban, he is an explorer both literally and in terms of his photographic experimentation. He opens a truly unique perspective of the world to a growing audience looking in on ordinary urban life.
“In addition to the idiosyncratic choice of subject matter, Gill experiments widely with film development and photographic processes. He has buried photographs in the ground, only to re-photograph them once again; he has dowsed film in energy drinks; he has immersed prints in water. In the more recent series, such as Talking to Ants, Gill began dropping objects collected from his surroundings directly into the camera before loading the film. This way, he is getting that much closer to depicting his subject matter and experience of a place in the final work. The outcome is unpredictable. The resulting images are messy and blurry, but they are also beautiful and deeply evocative. It is satisfying to see photographic work that is not crisply digital and perfectly executed. Instead, Gill’s images retain the tactility and randomness of the real world.”
The above section is taken from an article exploring Gill’s photographic techniques and in particular his more extreme methods of experimentation such as burying photos and spilling acidic drinks on film. What this shows is the willingness to take risks and play with the chance of loosing. There are always risks working with film but the collection below shows some of the outcomes available with patience and a lot of careful preparation. The coloured sections on the images particular appeal to me aesthetically and appear almost scientific in their composition. When first looking at this project with a friend, we debated the idea of images being burnt, spilt on or ever microscope images being placed over the top. Microscope slides with small compositions on were also an option we discusses but attaching items to the physical camera – even if it is a plastic ‘toy’ camera in this case – was not something which even occurred to us. There is something about these abstract images that inspires a personal experimentation in a similar style. What could be done to enhance and encourage positive perceptions of neglected areas locally? Could this be done with people and portraiture?
Alex Hofford is a photojournalist who is based in Hong Kong, he has lived there for over a decade now. He uses the city as a base to cover stories in Greater China. He is also a regional representative for the European Press-photo Agency (EPA). He is British and has now a young family .
Since he arrived in Hong Kong, he has carried out over a hundred editorial assignments across the region as well as having worked in Asia but also in Middle East and Africa.
His works focuses on Environmental issues, he has done many assignments in the Pacific Ocean with Greenpeace, covering the problems of Marine Pollution, shark fining and over-fishing. His work is currently focusing on toxic e-waste, air pollution and solar power problems in China.
An activist from the environmental group Greenpeace wears a gas mask in front of a Hong Kong skyline thick with smog, Hong Kong, China, 23 March 2010. The city is experiencing record levels of air pollution, in part caused by dust storms coming down from northern China, but also caused by roadside air pollutants emitted by diesel vehicles and ships, as well as industrial air pollution from factories in China’s Guangdong Province. The Hong Kong Government has ordered all outdoor school activities in Hong Kong to be cancelled. EPA / ALEX HOFFORD
A pedestrian covers her nose and mouth to protect herself from air pollution as she crosses the road in Hong Kong, China, 23 March 2010. The city is experiencing record levels of air pollution, in part caused by dust storms coming down from northern China, but also caused by roadside air pollutants emitted by diesel vehicles and ships, as well as industrial air pollution from factories in China’s Guangdong Province. The Hong Kong Government has ordered all outdoor school activities in Hong Kong to be cancelled. EPA / ALEX HOFFORD
A ‘Clean Air Network’ handout photo shows a primary school student wearing a gas mask in the street in Hong Kong to protest against the city’s high levels of roadside air polution caused by diesel fumes from buses, trucks and minibuses, Hong Kong, China, 30 June 2010.
A ‘Clean Air Network’ handout photo shows a primary school student wearing a gas mask in the street in Hong Kong to protest against the city’s high levels of roadside air polution caused by diesel fumes from buses, trucks and minibuses, Hong Kong, China, 30 June 2010.
A ‘Clean Air Network’ handout photo shows a young woman at a bus stop wearing a gas mask in the street in Hong Kong to protest against the city’s high levels of roadside air polution caused by diesel fumes from buses, trucks and minibuses, Hong Kong, China, 30 June 2010.
A ‘Clean Air Network’ handout photo shows a street sweeper wearing a gas mask in the street in Hong Kong to protest against the city’s high levels of roadside air polution caused by diesel fumes from buses, trucks and minibuses, Hong Kong, China, 30 June 2010.
A ‘Clean Air Network’ handout photo shows an old woman wearing a gas mask in the street in Hong Kong to protest against the city’s high levels of roadside air polution caused by diesel fumes from buses, trucks and minibuses, Hong Kong, China, 30 June 2010.
A ‘Clean Air Network’ handout photo shows a construction worker wearing a gas mask in the street in Hong Kong to protest against the city’s high levels of roadside air polution caused by diesel fumes from buses, trucks and minibuses, Hong Kong, China, 30 June 2010.
A ‘Clean Air Network’ handout photo shows a newspaper vendor wearing a gas mask in the street in Hong Kong to protest against the city’s high levels of roadside air polution caused by diesel fumes from buses, trucks and minibuses, Hong Kong, China, 30 June 2010.
My opinion: His project on Air pollution relates to my idea of photographing the stages of pollution using a mouth and nose mask and a gas mask. I like that he focuses on very real issues which are affecting the real world in present time. Not many photographers focus on the environment but rather people instead which i think is boring after a while but nothing changes. People in undeveloped countries will always go through the same cycle of being born, getting ill from bacteria then dying. No amount of images will change the cycle and charities don’t seem to do much anymore. Whereas Alex Hofford photographs issues which the whole population of China and the world can change with simple changes such as walking and taking public transport instead of driving 5 minutes to the shop. The images he creates are different every time, they capture the eye as some are shocking to look at such as the Gas Mask images he created in collaboration with Clean Air Network.
i want to change the world, i want the trees to grow again and the planet return to it’s full health but every government and rich boy is working against every person who wants to make a difference due to money. They ignore the warning signs because their is opportunity to earn 15 million in the next building project. Earthquakes caused by quarry explosions get blamed on tectonic plates when they aren’t even close to that country. Acid rain get’s blamed on air pressure and the increase in volcano explosions, tsunami’s, tornadoes, and hurricanes also get blamed on simply air pressure but what is causing this ‘air pressure’? Well this is due to the constant increase in Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen, the increase of global warming and the increased amount of oil accidentally spilling into the sea with the government not carrying and talking blankly to the media saying they are doing everything they can. They then return to their 5 million pound home and get waited on hand and food whilst those who care and walking in oil and rescuing animals covered in oil. They wouldn’t dare dirty their handmade suits.
His Images:
Alex Hofford created this image with a student to protest against the road side pollution caused mainly by buses. This image is really well constructed as the main point of the image is complete focus and the second point which is the bus has motion blur which i think it really effective at drawing our attention towards the student with the gas mask. In china, they do not actually where gas masks, they were mouth and nose masks instead but at the rate the pollution is increasing, within a decade they may have to wear gas masks to protect themselves against carbon dioxide poisoning. The composition of the image is not very good quality, however it is meant to be messy and not perfect like a sunset photo because it is portraying a serious message. That if we do not control our pollution, our future, our children’s futures will be spent in gas masks. However, i think how the sky has been darkened to make the student, bus and buildings more prominent in the photo works really well as it draws our attention into the centre of the photo. Also the outline of the bus acts as a frame for the students head which makes the viewers eyes drawn to her. Another aspect of the image which is quite interesting, is that we cannot see her eyes very clearly and i think that works in Hofford’s favour as it adds tension to the image as we can not see her facial expression which keaves us guessing to what it is. Without any context, you can understand what this image is about but it also leaves many things up to the viewer’s imagination such as who the girl is, why she is standing next to a bus and why the photo is in black and white. This image relates to the Realism Art movement in the 1850s in which realists rejected Romanticisim which dominated French literature. They were against the exotic subject matter and exaggerated emotionalism. Realism’s purpose was to “portray real and typical comtemporary people and situations with truth and accuracy”. Alex Hofford wanted to portray the truth of students protesting against road side pollution with the use of gas masks. He did not set up this image, he wanted only there to capture what was happening in that moment.
An activist from the environmental group Greenpeace wears a gas mask in front of a Hong Kong skyline thick with smog, Hong Kong, China, 23 March 2010.
This is a similar photo to the one above taken by Alex Hofford. This photo is of a student activist who is protesting against the high levels of pollution in Hong Kong by wearing a gas mask. She is a symbol of the environmental group Greenpeace. She is standing most likely on a boat in front of Hong Kong who’s sky is thick with smog. The composition of this image is interesting because the background is very dull and boring but she is wearing a bright blue t-shirt and you can tell a flash was used as her face is brighter than it should be when there is no sun in the picture. I think this draws our attention towards her face and the gas mask which is the most crucial part of the image. The only problem with this image is that the skyline is slanted and i think if it was straight the photo would look much more symmetrical. I think the contrast in colour is meant to represent the stand that many Chinese people are taking to try and make people aware of the dangers of smog and the high levels of pollution in the city. The blue of the shirt may represent the colour the water should be but it is grey instead and it represents that the sky should be blue not grey and full of cloud every single day. Hofford attempted to use the rule of three as she is almost in the center but i think the flash on only her face partly ruins the consistency of the image. This image again relates to Realism which is the art movement of rejecting Romanticism which dramatized and over exaggerates emotions in paintings. Realism shows the raw truth of events and use the camera as a tool to portray it. They rarely manipulated images or used Tableaux photography to portray emotion. I think this is Alex Hofford has done, he has captured an image of an activist protesting against the high levels of pollution in Hong Kong and the only manipulation of the image is the flash. However, it has to be used due to the amount of smog making the daytime seem more like late evening.
Double exposure photography is an area which aesthetically interests me. The process of combining multiple images to create a final photo – often with colour and contrast variations – can not only be used aesthetically but also symbolically. Tying this to the theme of environment (and possibly portraiture?) could produce some graphically interesting outcomes where people can be merged with their personal landscapes. Working on this idea can involve both
digital and analogue images which I intend to take advantage of in this project. As an idea starting point – I would like to explore the theme of environment through it’s connections to people with the intended end result producing a series of portraits showing people and environments as a single concept. This may play on the idea of stereoscopic images which have a 3D effect to them, much like those below. These tend to use red and blue as colour opposites to create contrast not only in the subject but also in the presentation. Below is a starting mindmap for some basic double exposure portraits – many of which include landscapes. Animals are another theme often included and digital manipulation can be used to heavily alter photos creating surreal images (such as the fish girls)
Double exposure photography is an area which aesthetically interests me. The process of combining multiple images to create a final photo – often with colour and contrast variations – can not only be used aesthetically but also symbolically. Tying this to the theme of environment (and possibly portraiture?) could produce some graphically interesting outcomes where people can be merged with their personal landscapes. Working on this idea can involve both