Photographic Icons: Fact, Fiction, or Metaphor?
This section is a good beginning for a chapter titled The Staged Document. In this section we read many examples of how the moment that was captured was either fabricated to prove a point or asked to be reenacted. While these pictures may look good and even published, they don't capture the moment like photographers in the past prided themselves so much on. Manipulating the scene allowed the photographer to achieve what they wanted, but it does not make the sense authentic in real time.
The Picnic That Never Was
Fabricated scenes are one of Beate Gütschow specialities. She constructs landscapes using multiple images and they end up looking very natural! There are other photographers who do this as well such as Loretta Lux, who makes portraits of German children digitally inserted into painted backgrounds. This mixture of multiple frames or mediums is an interesting one for sure and blurs the lines between artists who use photographs and photographers that make art.
As Unpretty as a Picture
The marriage of two competing mediums is what Eric Fischl strives to achieve. Eric has been "establishing a photographic vocabulary within the realm of painting" I'm going to be honest, this reading is odd and I'm not totally sure what to feel about it.
Moments in Time, Yet Somehow in Motion
JoAnn Verburg did something very interesting with photography that must have took a great deal of time and effort. She created a large collection of then-and-now images from other photographers in the past. Additionally, she used similar technology or even the exact same technology that the original photographer had used. In her younger years she explored with the art of photography as well and attempted to create “still lifes that were supposed to look as though they hadn’t been arranged”. Also, I really enjoy the way she split up the frames in her olive tree picture. I’ve always wanted to do something similar to this but have simply never gotten around to it.
This section is a good beginning for a chapter titled The Staged Document. In this section we read many examples of how the moment that was captured was either fabricated to prove a point or asked to be reenacted. While these pictures may look good and even published, they don't capture the moment like photographers in the past prided themselves so much on. Manipulating the scene allowed the photographer to achieve what they wanted, but it does not make the sense authentic in real time.
The Picnic That Never Was
Fabricated scenes are one of Beate Gütschow specialities. She constructs landscapes using multiple images and they end up looking very natural! There are other photographers who do this as well such as Loretta Lux, who makes portraits of German children digitally inserted into painted backgrounds. This mixture of multiple frames or mediums is an interesting one for sure and blurs the lines between artists who use photographs and photographers that make art.
As Unpretty as a Picture
The marriage of two competing mediums is what Eric Fischl strives to achieve. Eric has been "establishing a photographic vocabulary within the realm of painting" I'm going to be honest, this reading is odd and I'm not totally sure what to feel about it.
Moments in Time, Yet Somehow in Motion
JoAnn Verburg did something very interesting with photography that must have took a great deal of time and effort. She created a large collection of then-and-now images from other photographers in the past. Additionally, she used similar technology or even the exact same technology that the original photographer had used. In her younger years she explored with the art of photography as well and attempted to create “still lifes that were supposed to look as though they hadn’t been arranged”. Also, I really enjoy the way she split up the frames in her olive tree picture. I’ve always wanted to do something similar to this but have simply never gotten around to it.
Robet Polidoi: In the Studio
Polidori believes that his work contains a lot of pathos. Because of the lack of people in his photographs this may seem odd at first, but once he explains it, it really does begin to make a lot of sense. “We have lived beyond our means economically as well as ecologically, pathos is a natural response.” He likes to play with the meaning of composition. The balance between what is in the frame and what is not has a emphasized sense of power over his photos. I think he looks at a photo a lot more than I do. However, he has no formal photography training and learned all he did simply for the love of it. He has also photographed only in color and is known for his rich saturated images.
A Young Man With an Eye, and Friends Up a Tree
Young photographer Ryan McGinley has taken an approach new to me in the realm of photography. Or perhaps it is not so new. He photographs the life he wishes he was living. Creating an alternate reality to what actually exists. He is a bold young man who simply loves creating art and images that do not already exist yet. His subjects are primarily his friends and a lot of the time he photographs them nude or in very comfortable situations. Just a side note, he is not the kind of photographer you want to google in the UO library. His images portrait risque situations from parties, to drugs, and even sex. Ryan also takes his photography on the road shooting massive amounts of film documenting the lives and activities of himself and his friends. He was not just the photographer of these situations, he was the centerpiece of it all and he captured the happenings around him.
Overall Response
This section is definitely better than the previous section. The stories told here were more artistic and abstract. We have left the realm of photography regarding the structure of it and have moved into a surreal art form that I think of when I think of photography today. One thing I noticed is that none of these people ever shoot digital. Perhaps it is an old world thing to shoot digital. But I however do. I think that film may have something special about it that I am missing, but I have no desire to find that special something. I instead wish to find my own something, just as these photographers have done themselves. Creatively crafting their shots to seem real whether they are or not is something that seems strange to me though. I’d much rather “Capture the moment” and not have to fabricate something. Perhaps that is why I am so interested in sports photography.
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