John Baldessari is renowned as a leading Californian Conceptual artist. Painting was important to his early work: when he emerged, in the early 1960s, he was working in a gestural style. But by the end of the decade he had begun to introduce text and pre-existing images, often doing so to create riddles that highlighted some of the unspoken assumptions of contemporary painting – as he once said, “I think when I’m doing art, I’m questioning how to do it.” And in the 1970s he abandoned painting altogether and made in a diverse range of media, though his interests generally centered on the photographic image. Conceptual art has shaped his interest in exploring how photographic images communicate, yet his work has little of the austerity usually associated with that style; instead he works with light humor, and with materials and motifs that also reflect the influence of Pop art. Baldessari has also been a famously influential teacher. His ideas, and his relaxed and innovative approach to teaching, have made an important impact on many, most notably the so-called Pictures Generation, whose blend of Pop and Conceptual art was prominent in the 1980s.
“I could never figure out why photography and art had separate histories.”
During the first 11 years of her career, Ono moved among New York, Tokyo, and London, serving a pioneering role in the international development of Conceptual art, experimental film, and performance art. Her earliest works were often based on instructions that Ono communicated to viewers in verbal or written form. Though easily overlooked, the work radically questioned the division between art and the everyday by asking viewers to participate in its completion.
In the above video Cut Piece, Ono confronted issues of gender, class, and cultural identity by asking viewers to cut away pieces of her clothing as she sat quietly on stage.
Yoko Ono and John Lennon collaborated on a number of works, often in response to global politics and conflict. At the end of the decade, Ono’s collaborations with John Lennon, including Bed-In (1969) and the WAR IS OVER! if you want it (1969–) campaign, boldly communicated her commitment to promoting world peace.
“I think that conceptual art – it works in many ways. What I think it does the most is when it opens up things within people’s mind. And they will follow it and do something that is conceptual – but it would create reality in their life.”
Bruce Naumann: early video works
https://youtu.be/D6LppuVHlus
Bruce Nauman was one of the most prominent, influential, and versatile American artists to emerge in the 1960s. For more than 50 years Naumann has worked in every conceivable artistic medium, dissolving established genres and inventing new ones in the process. “I’ve always had overlapping ways of going about my work,” Bruce Nauman once remarked. “I’ve never been able to stick to one thing.”His expanded notion of sculpture admits wax casts and neon signs, bodily contortions and immersive video environments. Using his body to explore the limits of everday situations, Nauman explored video as a theatrical stage and a surveillance device within an installation context, blending ideas from conceptualism, minimalism, performance art, and video art.
Some of Nauman’s earliest work was shaped by ideas that arose in the wake of Minimalism in the late 1960s. In particular, the way he treated the body – often his own, shown on video completing repetitive tasks – and the way he related the body to surrounding objects show the impact of Minimalism’s new ideas about the relationship between the viewer and the sculptural object. Ludwig Wittgenstein‘s ideas about language have been an important influence on his work, shaping his interest in the way words succeed or fail in referring to objects in the world.
Much of Nauman’s work reflects the disappearance of the old modernist belief in the ability of the artist to express his ideas clearly and powerfully. Art, for him, is a haphazard system of codes and signs, just like any other form of communication. Aside from informing his use of words, it has also encouraged him to use “readymade” objects – objects that, unlike paintings or traditional sculptures, already carry meanings and associations from their use in the world – and to make casts of objects ranging from the space underneath chairs to human body parts.
Andy Warhol
In 1963 he acquired his first motion picture camera, a hand held 16mm Bolex, and shortly after he claimed an ‘abandoning’ of painting. Disingenuous this claim might have been but his expansion into filmmaking was no passing jaunt. Between 1964 and 1968 the artist was particularly prolific, producing literally hundreds of films of varying length and style. Nearly 650 films were produced, including hundreds of silent Screen Tests, or portrait films, and dozens of full-length movies, in styles ranging from minimalist avant-garde to commercial “sexploitation.”
Warhol’s films have been highly regarded for their radical explorations beyond the frontiers of conventional cinema. One such film, Empire 1964, his eight-hour, static-shot of New York’s most recognisable skyscraper, is included in the exhibition at Tate Liverpool.
Warhol began to take an interest in the avant-garde film in 1963 when it was at the height of the mythic stage. He quickly made himself familiar with the latest works of Brakhage, Markopoulos, Anger, and especially Jack Smith, who had a direct influence on him. On one level at least Warhol turned his genius for parody and reduction against the American avant-garde film itself.
The first film that he seriously engaged himself in was a monumental inversion of the dream tradition within the avant-garde film. His Sleep (1962) was no trance film or mythic dream but six hours of a man sleeping.
Planning Response
I plan on taking inspiration from these videos by producing my own video recordings of the same task everyday. I will then edit these recoding together so the video dress the theme repetition. I think by doing this I will develop more ideas for my project and will inspire me to produce more video responses. By recoding a task I do everyday will produce the same shot in different variations i.e. different lighting, compositions.
Video art is an art form that relies on using visual technology as a way of creating a visual and/or audio medium.
One pioneer of video artists I found interesting is Bruce Nauman.
Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman is an American artist. His work ranges from creating sculptures, photography, neon, videos, drawing, printmaking and performance. He lives near Mexico and give up painting to focus his work on sculptures. A lot of his work is characterised by an interest in language, often involving itself in a playful, mischievous manner. He has a strong interest in setting the metaphoric and descriptive functions of language against each other. Nauman began working in film with Robert Nelson and William Allen whilst teaching at the San Francisco Art Institute. He produced his first videotapes in 1968. He describes the transition of film to video as: “With the films, I would work over an idea until there was something that I wanted to do. Then I would rent the equipment for a day or two, so I was more likely to have a specific idea of what I wanted to do. With the videotapes, I had the equipment in the studio for almost a year; I could make test tapes and look at them, watch myself on the monitor or have somebody else there to help. Lots of times I would do a whole performance or tape a whole hour and then change it. I don’t think I would ever edit but I would redo the whole thing if I didn’t like it.” Nauman uses his body to explore the limits of everyday situations. He explored video as a theatrical stage and used the camera as a close observation device. He was influenced to produce this video art through the experimental work of Merce Cunningham, Meredith Monk, La Monte Young, Steve Reich, and Phillip Glass.
Here are a few links to some of Bruce Nauman’s video art:
Another pioneer of video art that I have researched due to my interest of capturing something similar is Martha Rosler.
Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler was born in 1943 in Brooklyn, New York. Roster grew up in New York and was involved in poetry, as well as participating in civil rights and anti-war protests. Looking at the outcome of her career, a lot of Rosler’s art reflected her interest in consciousness and awareness, raising a variety of social issues. ‘A budding gourmet’ inspired Rosler’s first video piece, which features the silhouette of a woman describing how gourmet cooking facilitates a better and easier life. Her seminal feminist work, ‘Semiotics of the Kitchen’ (1975), expands upon these issues but is involved with more direct angst and frustration. In several videos that confront the viewer with a range of spliced scenes, Rosler critiqued the coercive and dishonest effects of the relationship between the media, politics, and the private society circle. Some examples of this work is: ‘Domination and the Everyday’ (1978) and ‘If It’s Too Bad to Be True, It Could Be DISINFORMATION ‘(1985).
Here is a link to one of Martha Rosler’s video art:
I want to experiment with video art in a similar way to Rosler as I want to portray an everyday task and routine that I do.
Dictionary of Water Still Water (The River Thames, for Example) is a series of fifteen large photo-lithographs of water, printed on white paper. Each of the images focuses on a small area of the surface of the river Thames. The colour and texture of these watery surfaces varies dramatically between images: colours range from black to blue and from dark green to khaki-yellow, and in each case the water’s texture is differently augmented by tidal movement and the play of light.
“The Thames has this incredible moodiness, and that’s what the camera picks up. [I]t has these vertical changes and it moves very quickly. It’s actually a very dangerous river and you sense that just by looking at it … [E]very photograph is wildly different – even though you could be photographing the same thing from one minute to the next. It’s almost got the complexity of a portrait.” (Quoted in ‘Roni Horn Interview: Water’)
Horn’s work, which has an emotional and psychological dimension, can be seen an engagement with post-Minimalist forms as containers for affective perception. She talks about her work being ‘moody’ and ‘site-dependent’. Her attention to the specific qualities of certain materials spans all mediums, from the textured pigment drawings, to the use solid gold or cast glass, and rubber.
Sigfried Hansen: Hold the Line
Street photography exploring colour, shapes, geometry
Siegfried Hansen traces visual compositions from graphics and colours and creates street photography the main point of which is not body’s or faces, but graphic connections and formal relations. It shows the aesthetics of coincidence in a public area, which is full of surprises.
Siegfried Hansen’s Hold the Line is a playful examination of the city as a graphic playground of color, line, and form. Filled with bold geometric images and brightly colored pages. The book’s key design elements echo the graphic content of the images and give it rhythmic presence. Color pages are interspersed throughout, accentuating the bold colors that dot the city and contrasting the city’s monochromatic stone.
While people are present, this work is not entirely about the dynamism of the street and its inhabitants in a way that typifies classic street photography. Instead, it is about the city as a graphic force and how it not only shapes the way we move, but also frames what we see.
I chose this photographer to look at to generate ideas as his work reminds me of the photos I produced in the ‘Future of St Helier’ project where i focused on bold lines and bright colours. Looking at this photographer in this project could develop the style of work I was producing then, looking at industrial structures and the shapes they make to address the theme of variation and similarity in buildings.
Li Hui
Li Hui is a young Chinese photographer based in the city of Hangzhou, capital of the province of Zhejiang, China. Since 2009 she has used photography to see a different world and get the courage to “explore things her own way.” Her images are a blissful mix of sensuality and purity that disclose a unique artistic sensibility. She expresses her feelings through her sensitive personality. Mostly influenced by cinema, music, nature and human body, this photographer keeps learning by experimenting the ideas that cross her mind.
The “leit-motif” in your work seems to be sensuality (through light, details and feminine lines). What motivates you to capture this subject and what do you want to say through it?
“I have a great interest in simply observing, I can be very quiet just looking at the sky, the water, a plant, or an animal for hours. I would like to motivate myself more to shoot this themes because they are just all around me. ” I am mostly inspired by my natural surroundings, such as the patterns of a flower, the shape of the trees after a strong wind, thick clouds in the sky before a storm, the rain hitting the ground, the sun and the way its rays shine on my hand and the palm of my hand becomes transparent. I am touched by these subtle things. “- Li Hui
“I think watching films is a way to improve the overall aesthetic of my work. But music can also evoke images that float around in my head. Different types of music have different associations.”
She doesn’t show her models faces in her photos as she wants the viewer to find their own feelings and experiences in them. She says it’s ‘interesting to hear different opinions and what different people take away from the pictures’, leaving the story up to the viewers imagination. What people take away from an image depends on their personality and their own background.
I particularly liked this photographer when I came across her work as I liked how she focused on beauty in landscape and her use of movement and light. If I were to take inspiration from her in my project I would focus on producing images that looked at light and delicate shapes that expressed a specific emotion.
Rinko Kawauchi
Rinko Kawauchi’s work is characterized by a serene, poetic style, depicting the ordinary moments in life. Kawauchi’s art is rooted in Shinto, the ethnic religion of the people of Japan. According to Shinto, all things on earth have a spirit, hence no subject is too small or mundane for Kawauchi’s work; she also photographs “small events glimpsed in passing, conveying a sense of the transient. Kawauchi sees her images as parts of series that allow the viewer to juxtapose images in the imagination, thereby making the photograph a work of art[ and allowing a whole to emerge at the end; she likes working in photo books because they allow the viewer to engage intimately with her images.
Her attention to small gestures and coincidental details enables her to cast a gaze of enchantment upon her daily surroundings that is always fresh and new. With her camera, she captures elementary and casual moments, all with the same passionate concentration. Rinko Diary is a visual diary that includes photographs of everything from sandwiches and Patti Smith to the poignant butterfly/flower/leaf set against a concrete pavement.
I like this photographer and think I will take inspiration from her in my project as I like how she portrays casual moments with a lot of meaning. I also like how she views nature in her photos, emphasising the sunlight and beauty. She ‘creates compelling portraits of everyday life, rendering the mundane as sublime through her lens’ (ignant.com) which is an aspect I would like to interpret. Her works radiates a sense of fragility and emotion.
My first thoughts on how to approach this noun which appears as part of our exam theme, is to explore differences in objects or people. Straight away, I felt that I could base my exam on simple, everyday things, such as everyday routines that people do, as well as everyday objects, such as food, flowers, shoes and so on. Most people do similar things every morning, like brushing their teeth, eating breakfast, and travelling to school/work in a car, a bus or walking or cycling. This leads me onto the other part of the exam theme, which is ‘similarity’.
What is similarity?
Similarity is “a similar feature or aspect.” Google’s example of the noun in a sentence is “the similarities between people of different nationalities.”
I feel that similarity can be explored in many interesting ways; for example, people and families would be interesting due to how family have similar features, like face shape, skin and colour so taking a portrait approach would be intriguing. Additionally, people and bodies is another portrait approach that could be successful because everyone has the same body parts, yet linking to the other part of the exam theme ‘variation’, everyone’s body parts and features varies due to DNA.
My broad range of aspects to focus in on for this exam is bringing me new ideas that I could explore. Below is a mind map of some ideas that I have come up with:
• markings and patterns, shells, butterflies, trees, dog breeds, eggs, seeds, collections
• family resemblance, size, shape, facial characteristics
• customs, conventions, foods, languages,
• uniformity, conformity, standardisation, monotony, routine, supermarkets, car parks, office buildings
• housing estates, blocks of flats, front gardens, windows, doors, lockers,
• attempts to achieve individuality, standing out from the crowd
• market stalls, spice racks, car boot sales, zoos, public gardens
• microscopic creatures, snowflakes, crystals
• symmetry, asymmetry, structural variation, flaws, faults, schisms
• colour, tone, texture, shape, scale
• seasons, climates, weather types
A L T E R N A T I V E P H O T O G R A P H Y
In such an accessible medium as photography, the human body has often been portrayed in a highly predictable way. Finding a variation on this well-worn theme can be difficult. Thomas Florschuetz and John Coplans are exceptions to this and have presented the body in ways that attempt to establish a more original variant on the theme. Hiroshi Sugimoto’s seascapes present a more minimalist approach transcending the conventional seaside image.
Aegean Sea, Pilion 1990 Hiroshi Sugimoto
M O V E M E N T
The illusion of movement is created by running together sequences of single images, each being a slight variant on the previous one. Eadweard Muybridge’s photographs from the 1880s are still used as a basis for studying motion by animators and filmmakers. Gifs made of his photographic series have a quality that is somehow both humorous and compelling. Steven Pippin in Laundromat Locomotion paid homage to Muybridge’s processes. Étienne-Jules Marey’s photographs have similar aims, with perhaps more poetic qualities.
S U B T L E C H A N G E S
Many photographers, such as Lorna Simpson create subtle variations of a similar image to make their audience look more closely at the world. William Christenberry returns to the same places to photograph familiar objects and buildings over time, creating a kind of typology that has links with the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher. In his book where Children Sleep James Mollison records the sleeping conditions of different children across the world. Ian Breakwell, Jem Southam, Georg Gerster, Antony Cairns and Olafur Elliasson have all explored variations and similarities around given themes.
Before commencing with my shoot I thought it would be appropriate to come up with ideas regarding what I would want to base my shoot around. I had previously looked at the works of Aaron Siskind and his use of portraying the surrounding area in abstract ways, defined by patterns and textures which present deteriorating areas in a new aesthetic light. Using him as my major inspiration for the shoot I decided to focus on a slightly built up area which would be surrounded by different landscapes and environments. To do this I would have to look at a map and decide upon areas that I thought I could use this style of photography to properly reflect my opinion and viewpoint regarding how that area portrayed. Here are a few locations that I could possibly explore on the shoot below:
The areas I chose I found to have the biggest variety of aspects within the landscape, consisting of urban and natural viewpoints which would allow me to explore opposing opinions in abstract ways which could be linked into each other. I tried to include areas within Jersey that were next to the sea, this was because I wanted to explore the use of reflects to create abstract patterns of different materials in the water such as the bricks on a pier. To do this I’m going to plan out a few ideas which I would be able to photograph regarding the topic of the variation of textures and surfaces, which once done can be used to link in with each other providing me results that would not seemed rushed but instead compliment each other and can be presented as a set. Here is a mood board of some of the textures and surfaces I wish to capture on the shoot:
One aspect of the shoot I wanted to explore is the formation of rocks, due to Jersey being an island it is completely surrounded by rocky beaches that consist of various types of rock. By using a monochrome filter I wish to highlight the detail and aestheticism of the structures, using a higher contrast to portray the light and dark more drastically than usual, exaggerating the features as a result. To accompany this I could take pictures of the reflect given off by the sea during a sunny or overcast day, this would provide me with a variety of different shades and results which could determine the mood of the entire image. By reflecting objects like walls on the sea it could further enhance the abstraction by including two different environments into one image, man-made and the natural landscape.
Another idea within the shoot could be the use of materials found in that area to display textures and a variety of surfaces. This would consist of surfaces such as walls and wood, I chose these because of the huge variation in shape and form that they come in making each surface unique to that specific area. What I also wanted to pick up from these surface textures was the use of symmetrical aestheticism which would present the viewer with the idea of something with intelligence designing the shape of form of the photographed subject.
For my last idea I found that focusing on everyday objects found in the area explored would be a great topic to pursue. This is because the objects found in the area can often be linked to the people living there, with ropes lying around maybe reflecting a beach side village or cigarettes and rubbish present inside town. This idea for me links best to the works of Aaron Siskind as he moved from portraiture to abstract due to finding that the objects found often best portrayed the people living there in a unique and unusual light, giving more meaning to the image as it then becomes down to the audiences interpretation instead.
Arron Siskind was born December 4th, 1903, New York, dying in February 8th, 1992, Providence, Rhode Island. Siskind became an influential teacher, editor and photographer who is best known for his innovations in abstract photography. Starting 1932, as an English teacher in New York City he became a member of the Photo League, participating in projects designed to document neighbourhood life during the Great Depression. Siskind’s project Dead End: The Bowery and Harlem Document shows his concern for pure design rather than the subjects themselves. Because of this in the late 1930s he stopped photographing people and instead moved onto architectural photography, seen present in his book Old Houses of Bucks County, a book which looked at natural phenomena and still life.
Siskind soon specialised in abstract work which he became best known for, where he expresses his own state of mind instead of recording the subject matter as it is. In the late 1940s textures and patterns became the core focus for him, looking at regular objects such as rope, sand and seaweed. Siskind’s inspiration came from Group f.64 who photographed the subject up close much like his own style, this led him onto photographing two-dimensional surfaces such as pavements, billboards and walls, especially the ones which had been decayed and worn out by the weather. This turned into his main theme that allowed for him to take photos of the ruins of Arch of Constantine in 1967, a piece that was not originally accepted by other photographers. However many artists liked this and Siskind’s was hung up alongside abstract expressionist paintings.
Most of his inspiration comes from various activities as a founding member of the Society of Photographic Education and as a co-editor of Choice, a literary and photography magazine. Overall his greatest inspiration was as a professor of photography at the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, a post he held from 1951 to 1971. His final works consist of a 30 year anthology of his photographs, Bucks County, Photographs of Early Architecture and Places. Here are some examples of his work below:After looking over some examples of his work I decided that I would analyse one of his images, by doing this it would allow for a greater insight into how these photos are created and what makes them so effective. When looking over the photos it would give me the ability to incorporate the style into my own works, making them more effective as a result. The image I chose for this is called San Luis Potosi 16, a photo of a rotting billboard with deteriorating paper:
Visual:
Visually the image is of a billboard that had been left to rot, and as a result has become this abstract piece in itself which hides the initial meaning meant to be put across by it. This is accompanied by the fact that the paper has been repeatedly stacked upon different posters underneath, because of this the writing seems to jump around the image rather than stick in one place. When looking at it I found that the different sizes of fonts really attracted my attention due to it breaking up the piece from becoming too generic and repetitive, allowing for your eyes to travel across it with ease rather than become eye-sore from a lack of contrast. Composition wise the use of placing the biggest text in the centre of the photo really creates the whole image, as it becomes the focal point for your initial glance and the source of it’s overall aestheticism.
Technical:
When looking over the image there is a use of high contrast, this is done so that there is a clear definition between the lights and dark present inside the piece, emphasising and changing the final outcome as a result. The photo has been taken using monochrome, this like the contrast increases the difference between the lights and dark whilst also honing in on specific details that may of not been previously picked up upon when looking at it in colour. A relatively normal exposure and shutter speed have been used as there is no sign of blur or one of he shades overpowering the other, instead capturing the billboard as it was seen at the time.
Conceptual:
The image itself is part of a series consisting of various billboards in and around cities, capturing their deterioration in an aesthetic and unusual way. When looking over the photo it is clear to me that it was taken at the peak of Siskind’s exploration and experimentation regarding various takes on the environment which makes us the surrounding area, using it to reflect what can be seen and expected rather than take portraits instead. By using a monochrome filter it brings out the aestheticism of the image, making it entirely possible to interpret the image purely on an aesthetic level. The reason for Siskind’s attraction to abstract takes on cities come from experimentation between photographing an object in an unusual way or photographing the people found in that area, after much time he decided upon using abstraction to express his opinion regarding his viewpoint of the surround place, making the viewer interpret his meaning through only visual appearance alone.
Before going ahead with a shoot and artist reference I decided that I would explore a fine artist that I could link into my future work. I would be looking at their composition and portrayal of certain everyday objects, whilst also looking at how their portray their vision of the landscape in new and creative ways. One particular artist that I found to be inspiring was the fine artist Jason De Graaf, someone who focused on reflections and objects that reflected as a means of enhancing the colour and vibrancy of the subject photographed. For me this was a unique way of seeing the subject photographed as he sets about using natural reflections such as splashes and sunlight to add contrast to otherwise boring everyday items such as fruit. Some examples of his work can be seen below:
I really liked his use of tinfoil to create abstract landscapes in a sort of surreal and conceptual way with no actual editing done. For me this gave rise to the idea of used a kaleidoscope when photographing my intended areas, further abstracting the subjects from their natural environment and instead producing it to the viewers as something up to interpretation regarding what it could be. When thinking about the use of textures and patterns and creating surreal landscapes with it I stumbled across the photographer Seydou Keita, a photographer who captured African culture through the subjects clothes and patterns present in their everyday lives.
Seydou Keita was a self-taught photographer who in 1948 opened a studio in portraiture gaining a reputation for his skill throughout West Africa. Most of his photos and style are influenced by a great sense of aesthetics, dressing man young men European style clothing with customers bringing in items of clothing they wanted to be photographed in. Keita provided his own clothing and accessories such as watches, pens, radios, scooters, etc. which he often left inside his studio. Originally it was mainly women who came with their traditional robes that covered their legs and throats, only later shifting towards wearing Western outfits in the late 60s. Once again some examples of his work can be seen below:
For future shoots I may consider taking objects out of my home into the natural landscape I have chosen and portray it in an abstract way which reflects a part of me rather than just the landscape itself. An alternative method which I could use would be to photograph the landscape on a more personal level, getting closer the to the subjects and capturing them in a more abstract way through up-close photography and their isolation from their surrounding environment. Some examples of this could consist of fences, horses, gardens and trees, all of these subjects play a part for something in society, whether it be work or just for relaxation, and so by portraying them in an unusual way which captures them in a light not previous used would as a result give viewers a new perspective. One of the image I found to be particularly effective for me is a piece by Seydou Kaita called Untitled [Seated Woman with Chevron Print Dress]:
Visual:
Visually the piece uses traditional African textiles and dresses as the main method of presenting aestheticism towards the viewer. What Keita does here is use two contrasting textiles which class in pattern not colour, as a result of this the opposing texture defines the women opposed to her blending into the backdrop. By leaving a section of the floor in it increases the effectiveness of the textures due to how it stops the entire image from becoming too eye-sore whilst also adding contrast between the predominantly white textiles, once again helping to define the figure of the women from the backdrop. Composition wise the women is centered in the middle of the photo, by doing this for me it immediately draws my eye to the subject as the contrasting clothing she’s wearing draws your eyes to the face in particular which is presented as a breaking point between subject and texture.
Technical:
When looking at the photograph you can see how the image was taken mid-movement, this is because of how the top right of the textile backdrop is motion blurred, this adds a sense of depth within the piece as it defines the women more due to her being photographed more crisply. An average exposure and shutter speed seems to have been used due to shades all being relatively normal without exaggeration, whilst the blurred areas provide me with evidence that the shutter speed is normal and has been unedited or untouched. The piece seems to use natural lighting as the light appears from all sides of the subject, not emphasizing or reducing the effect of the shadows, meaning that the image must have been taken outside of his studio.
Conceptual:
In the twentieth century, photography became a medium of expression that African artists began to draw upon to reflect on the world around them. One of the exceptional talents to emerge in this area has been the Malian photographer Seydou Keita (ca. 1921–2001), whose work has been admired on an international scale. Keita’s oeuvre consists of portraits that chronicle Malian life during the mid-twentieth century. His portraits are renowned for not only their masterful formal composition, but also their ability to capture the nuances of this important transitional period in Malian history.
This portrait of an unidentified woman displays the signature pictorial style that made Keita the premier Malian photographer of his generation. Employing different backdrops and successfully combining pattern on pattern, the woman’s skirt is dynamically juxtaposed with the regularity of the floral motif on the backdrop behind her. Keita positioned the woman so the arrow design of her dress directs the viewer to her bodice, where light vertical elements of her blouse lead toward her smiling, confident face. The overall pattern on the backdrop holds the viewer’s attention while it gently repeats itself and simultaneously guides our eyes back down to her skirt.
Eadweard Muybridge, (April 9, 1830 – May 8, 1904) was an English photographer important for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion and in motion-picture projection. Muybridge’s photography of moving animals captured movement in a way that had never been done before. His work was used by both scientists and artists. He immigrated to the United States as a young man but remained obscure until 1868, when his large photographs of Yosemite Valley, California, made him world famous. Muybridge’s experiments in photographing motion began in 1872, when former California Governor Leland Stanford contacted him to help settle a bet. Speculation had raged for years over whether all four hooves of a running horse left the ground at the same time. Stanford believed they did, but the motion was too fast for the human eye to detect. In 1872, Muybridge began photographing a galloping horse in a sequence of shots. In 1877, he returned to California and resumed his experiments in motion photography, using a battery of from 12 to 24 cameras and a special shutter he developed that gave an exposure of 2/1000 of a second. This arrangement gave satisfactory results and proved Stanford’s contention.
In 1883, Muybridge was invited to continue his research at the University of Pennsylvania and for the next few years produced thousands of photographs of humans and animals in motion. Near the end of his life, he published several books featuring his motion photographs and toured Europe and North America, presenting his photographic methods using a projection device he’d developed called the Zoopraxiscope. Muybridge’s innovative camera techniques enabled people to see things otherwise too fast to comprehend, and his sequence images continue to inspire artists from other disciplines to this day. His work links to the idea of variation and similarity as he is capturing the slight, varying motions and movements of the one subject. His photographs explore similarity as despite the slight differences of motion within his images, the individual photographs are interchangeable. His work is extremely interesting and innovative and I will respond to it with my own photo shoot based around motion.
Dictionary of Water
After looking over some examples of his work I decided that I would analyse one of his images, by doing this it would allow for a greater insight into how these photos are created and what makes them so effective. When looking over the photos it would give me the ability to incorporate the style into my own works, making them more effective as a result. The image I chose for this is called San Luis Potosi 16, a photo of a rotting billboard with deteriorating paper:
