Internet based research
The Dusseldorf School of Photography
A group of students at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf in the mid 1970s who studied under the influential photographers Bernd and Hiller Becher,known for their rigorous devotion to the 1920s German tradition of Neue Sachlichkeit(New Objectivity). The Bechers¿ photographs were clear, black and white pictures of industrial archetypes (pitheads, water towers, coal bunkers). Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth modified the approach of their teachers by applying new technical possibilities and a personal and contemporary vision, while retaining the documentary method their tutors propounded.
Gillian Wearing
“Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say”
This photograph is from a series called ‘Signs..(you can see the very long title above)’. Gillian Wearing
asked random people who walked by to write down their thoughts on a piece of paper.
If Wearing stopped you on the street today, what would you write down on the piece of paper? Desperate means the same as ‘really need’ – what do you think this man needed? What do you think happened to him after this picture was taken?
I signed on and they would not give me nothing' 1992-3
The complete series of Signs is comprised of over fifty colour photographs. A broad cross-section of people participated in the photographs and the series provides a fascinating social and historical document. It refers to the economic decline in Britain in the early 1990s, manifested by statements such as 'Will Britain get through this recession?'. However most of the signs express intimate thoughts or personal convictions. This selection of five photographs shows the wide range of responses Wearing elicited from the collaborating members of the public. One of the photographs shows an elderly couple, standing on the curb of a busy street, holding a sign saying 'I like to be in the country', while another photograph shows a homeless man bearing the poignant statement: 'I signed on and they would not give me nothing'. Among the group is one of Wearing's best known images which depicts a smartly dressed young man with a mild, even complacent, expression holding a sign saying simply, 'I'm desperate'. In a 1996 interview Wearing described how 'People are still surprised that someone in a suit could actually admit to anything, especially in the early 1990s, just after the crash… I think he was actually shocked by what he had written, which suggests it must have been true. Then he got a bit angry, handed back the piece of paper, and stormed off.' (Unpublished interview with Marcus Spinelli, South Bank Centre 1997)
Like many of Wearing's later works, such as Confess All on Video. Don't worry you will be in disguise. Intrigued? Call Gillian. 1994 (Tate T07329), the Signs series examines the relationship between public image and private identity. Wearing often cites the influence of early British 'fly-on-the-wall' television documentaries such as Michael Apted's pioneering Seven-Up (Granada Television 1964), which charted the progress of a group of children at seven year intervals, or Paul Watson's raw investigation of family life in The Family (BBC 1974). In these television programmes intimate experiences were presented to a nationwide audience as apparently unmediated 'real life'. However the tradition of 'fly-on-the-wall' documentaries, as well as confessional TV chat shows, imply an authenticity which Gillian Wearing persistently questions. In an attempt to break down social stereotypes and masks, Wearing frequently works with people marginalised by mainstream society, such as homeless people, drunks, transsexuals or convicts. She has said: 'A great deal of my work is about questioning handed-down truths… I'm always trying to find ways of discovering new things about people, and so in the process discover more about myself.' ('Sign Language', Dazed and Confused, no. 25, 1996, pp.53, 55)
Rineke Dijkstra
Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra tends to work in series, concentrating on individual portraits. She focuses on people in a transitional stage of their life, such as women after giving birth in 'Mothers', adolescents and pre-adolescents on the beach in her 'Beach' series and new recruits in 'Israeli Soldiers'. Her subjects stand facing the camera against a minimal background. The simplicity of the resulting image encourages us to direct all our attention towards the isolated subject. Dijkstra has published two monographs (Rineke Dijkstra: Beach Portraits and Rineke Dijkstra: Portraits) and her work is exhibited in museums worldwide.
No comments:
Post a Comment