Typologies

E-resources.


The origins of typologies in photography came from the Germans Bernd and Hilla Becher. It was the subtitle of their first monograph 'Anon-yme Skulpturen: Eine Ttpologie Technischer Bauten"

(Bernd and Hilla Becher)

(Jeff Brouws)

Another photographer using typologies is Jeff Brouws. Influenced by the photographs by the artist Ed Ruscha, Brouws also created a series of photographs of 26 abandoned gas stations.

(Ed Ruscha)

Typologies, are basically, similar objects that are  identified by their external appearance, and things that have that appearance have other things in common with it. So things are grouped together by how they look. 


                                                                     

Family and Photographed histories

(Book Stock)

Chinese photographer Wang Jinsong focused on family as an act of political resistance. In his series of photographs titled 'Standard Familys' he aimed to highlight China's one child policy. The images of middle aged and older couples is probably understood instantly by Chinese viewers but maybe not as apparent to western the western audience?


"Yet, as Wang, explained, the image can be appreciated negatively, by those who object to China's rule, and positively, by those who favour population control." (Mary Warner Marien, 2002)

(Wang Jinsong)  

I feel these these images have used the average Chinese family in a clever way. They have highlighted a controversial topic without causing offence to either side of the argument.






Sources


Mary Warner Marien. (2002), Photography: A Cultural History, London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd.

Picturesque and Sublime

When people refer to the an image as ‘pictureseque’ it always, for me, brings to mind the typical images that are found on Christmas cards – The old stone villages, freshly fallen snow, robins perched up on a fence post. And I guess, although a picturesque scene does sit in the realm of reality – it is at the far end of the scale - an example of a perfect scene, an almost imaginary time that is unlikely to be seen very often.

Gregory Crewdson

An artist I came across while looking into the sublime and the picturesque was the photographer Gregory Crewdson. I was instantly drawn to the photographs of Gregory Crewdson. At first glance they seemed to fit right in to the subject of the picturesque but as I looked deeper into his work it soon became apparent that there was a message more disturbing than that of a picturesque scene.

“Crewdsons 1995 forensic photographs of fetid body parts address this voyeuristic and particularly American fear that among the nightshade berries and unfurling ferns, we will find a body, or worse, a piece of body. Like Duchamps’s Etant Donnes, these photographs reach into the lexicon of fairy tale, that place where sexual awakening and violence are bedfellows” (Darcey Steinke, p11, Dream of Life)

(Untitled, Gregory Crewdson)

In this image Crewdson uses a suburban picturesque scene. Bright sunlit buildings and colourful flowers give the impression of a peaceful, tranquil scene,  and in contrast to this scene he uses the morbid subject of a decomposing arm, leading the viewer to imagine what lies just outside of the frame.

(Untitled, Gregory Crewdson)

Again in this scene Crewdson has the backdrop as a bright rural setting (seen between the gaps in the fence) but the subject is clearly the litter strewn habitat that the wildlife occupies. The message here is, perhaps, the destruction of the picturesque? Or what dark details are found if you delve deeper into a picturesque scene?

Although the photographs when looked at as a whole are not examples of a picturesque image, crewdson uses the picturesque to contrast the vulgar. And perhaps the resulting photographs, when using the correct definition of the term, is an example of a sublime image rather than an image of something sublime?

Sources

Gregory Crewdson. (January 1999), Dream of Life, Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.

Truth and credibility: fact and fiction

 Journals

When casually reading a magazine or newspaper I have rarely stopped to think whether the the photographs that I am looking are a truth or a fiction. Even though I have altered images in Photoshop myself and know how easy it can be done, I have naively assumed the photographs that accompany newspaper articles etc, are a depiction of the truth - an unaltered photograph of the scene accompanying the story.

After giving this some thought and seeing the examples of photo composites in this weeks seminar I feel I will look at photographs (especially documentary photos) with a touch more scepticism in the future.

(Untitled, Author Unknown)

"For more than a century, this photo purportedly depicted General Ulysses Grant astride his horse, gallantly poised before his troops at City Point, VA. Researchers at the library of congress determined, however, that Grants head was placed on the body of Union Maj. Gen Alexander M Cook, and that the composite was set in front of confederate prisoners captured at the battle of Fishers Hill, VA" (Wrong!, Givens, Ron. American History)

The fact that a publication will print a photo and sell it as a truth when it is not, I feel is wrong. Publishers, especially those who are of a documentary nature, should perhaps be more forthcoming and say when an image is altered? Should there, perhaps be systems in place that prevent distorted truth, to stop people from being misled in such a way? And even if it is understandable why people would want to create composites or altered photographs for purposes of propaganda etc, the moral question they may want to ask is whether or not they should?

Sources.

Givens, R. (2010). Wrong!. American History. 45 (2)

Documentary still life - web

While searching the web for documentary still life images that captured my interest I stumbled upon a link for an exhibition. This was for the X-ray Vision - Fish Inside and Out exhibit held at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The collection of images for this exhibition was put together by Sandra Raredon, who works at the museum to "provide insight into the study of fish without damaging the specimen." http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/

The beauty of these photographs comes from the tiny details that the X-ray reveals, the patterns and symmetries that come from the bone structure of the the creatures nature created.

The questions I find I'm asking myself after viewing these images is what role technology has in artwork and photography in the future? What other ways of 'seeing' is there that doesn't necessarily rely on the visual spectrum? Are X-ray photographs something I could produce for my own work?

Although I have not currently found any commercially available X-ray camera equipment, I am inspired to look into other ways of photographing that are outside of the visible spectrum, such as infra-red or ultra-violet photography.

Sources.

http://www.mnh.si.edu/

http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/x-ray-vision/

http://www.sites.si.edu/exhibitions/exhibits/ichthyo/index.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nmnh/sets/72157628928831747/

Orlan - e-resources.

For this week’s blog I decided to research the French artist Orlan. I came to this decision as I felt I was a little closed minded about her and her work when she appeared in this week’s seminar. I am curious to know whether learning more about her will change my initial opinion of her and her work. Orlan is considered to be a performance artist. She often uses her body as the medium for her art, sometimes even resorting to body altering cosmetic surgery. Under local anaesthetic, so she is awake throughout the procedure and uses a camera to film the operation, making the act of altering her body a performance piece for her art.

In one of her earlier works, in 1978, Orlan put her menstruating genitals under a magnifying glass and used it as a performance piece titled Documentary Study: The Head of Medusa. The inspiration for this came from a text by Sigmund Freud: “At the sight of the vulva, even the devil runs away." In her Medusa installation Orlan filmed her viewers’ faces and expressions as they entered and exited the performance, this made the audience an essential part of the artwork. From 1990 to 1995 Orlan underwent nine surgical procedures. These plastic surgery operations completely changed how Orlan looked. Her mouth was altered to look like the mouth of Francois Boucher’s 'Europa', her forehead to mimic that of Leonardo’s 'Mona Lisa' and another to alter her chin to look like that of Botticelli’s 'Venus'. These icons were not chosen because of their appearance or beauty but for their mythological or historical significance.

I find the most interesting aspect of Orlan and her work is the use she makes of computer technology. The face she wishes to have made by cosmetic surgery is first assembled on a computer screen, digitally constructed from a mixture of her own features and the features of the icons that she wants reconstructing. Orlans surgical change of Identity appears at times to be a race with technology, sometimes the surgery that she requests is likely only possible in many years time. Orlan's art has always been on the edge of what is possible; she was experimenting with new technology such as holograms and lasers in her work in the 1980s. I think that, given the technological boundaries that she pushes, Orlan is an experimental artist whose work is genuinely original.

I feel I have particularly benefited from this week’s research/blog, as I felt that I had chosen a genuinely interesting artist to research. Although not 100% convinced that she is 'mentally sound' her work, nevertheless, is interesting and challenging to see. Although some of her work is rather vulgar and disturbing to see, I feel that the ideas and points raised by it are highlighting things in today’s society that people, intentionally or unintentionally, often overlook.



Bibliography.

Ince, K 1998, 'Operations of Redress: Orlan, the Body and Its Limits', Fashion Theory: The Journal Of Dress, Body & Culture, 2, 2, pp. 111-127, Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost, viewed 10 February 2012.

Enright, R 1998, 'Beauty and the I of the beholder: a conversation with Orlan', Border Crossings, 17, 2, pp. 44-47, Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost, viewed 10 February 2012.

Blair, L, & Shalmon, M 2005, 'Cosmetic Surgery and the Cultural Construction of Beauty', Art Education, 58, 3, pp. 14-18, Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost, viewed 12 February 2012.

Tony Oursler research. Book stock.


The installations of Tony Oursler, an American installation artist, create a synthesis of video works, sculptures and environment installations. Ourslers installation art is aimed to be perceived emotionally by the viewer. Many of his works involve the projection of moving images onto everyday inanimate objects. The use of sound heavily affects the atmosphere of his exhibitions and plays a large part in making them an emotional experience.

Much of Ourslers work includes an assemblage of facial features (eyes, mouths, noses etc) for example, the exhibition ‘eyes’ held in 1999. This installation turned a gallery into a planetarium of suspended eyeballs that created a vision of disembodied gazes, stares and blinks. “I have a theory which is that all people are most attracted to the face. It carries the most information about us for many reasons. The rest of the body is inconsequential in comparison. Thus, the evolution of the close-up and the talking head on television” Tony Oursler.

Bull's Balls, 1997

“The transmigration of the face and what it signs has always been of interest to me, even since my first tapes in the 70s. The personification of the bull’s testicles in this exhibition is a logical extension of that exploration" Tony Oursler.

I feel that Tony Ourslers work, to be fully appreciated and understood, would need to be experienced in person. His art is an experience that aims to provoke emotion and create atmosphere. The photographs and descriptions of his work that I have researched cannot effectively convey the full effect of Ourslers exhibitions.

Mirror Maze (Through Dead Eyes)

I found this weeks research to be fairly difficult. The books that I found on Tony Oursler, I thought to be quite 'full on' and I found myself struggling to digest the information within. I feel perhaps that I should read more books written in such a way so I can better understand the language that they are written in, so my research will flow a little easier in the future.

The body as an object of medical research - Web

When the body is pictured for medical purposes, wether drawn, painted or photographed, is known as Medical Illustration. Medical Illustration has been around almost as long as medicine iitself. Since 1968 there has been an organisation - The Institute of Medical Illustrators -that aims to bring together people working in that field and provide ways to improve the proffession by way of education, resources and meetings.

Examples of Medical Illustration. www.imi.org

Jo Spence.

The works of Jo Sence that I looked at for this blog was the works she did while she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She documented her journey through her treatment of the disease by taking hundreds of photographs. Although I have used this photograph as an example, in my opinion it is not the best image for a example of medical illustration. I feel it is using her medical condition as the subject for her art, to perhaps show and document her journey and emotions towards what is happeninng to her. To highlight and send a message to others about the experience she is going through.

The second photograph that I looked at I found to be a lot more moving than the previous. This image shows alot more fragility than the one before. There is no sign of the artistic props or exhibitionism that appears in her earlier works. It feels to me like a much truer documentary photograph. I think the photograph has much more meaning once the story with it is known. The photo appeared in the last page of her book, that was published after her death. Appearing with the photograph was the words 'Jo Spence on a "good day", shortly before her death, photographing visitors to her room at the Marie Curie Hospice, Hampstead'. Knowing that she is in a hospice and that her death is near makes the image all the more thought provoking.

Sources.

http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/2001/mirror-mirror-self-portraits-by-women-artists/portrait-33.php

http://www.imi.org.uk/section/about-us

http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/37994921001/#media:/media/37994921001/26617053001&context:/channel/most-popular