Photography Inspiration
Today I spent some time talking with Ricky in the photography department about various items/facilities available for loan in the photography department. He also showed me a variety of books, I took a few pictures to remind myself of the ones I found most interesting/inspiring!
Most of my conclusions and knowledge of the artists I have written about have been based around the discussions I had with Ricky and the things he told me about the artist's work combined with my own interpretations and evaluations.
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Hellen Van Meene
A sequence of unusual portraits where the models are often wearing a wig back-to-front to cover their faces. Each photograph is very posed but in a forced sort of "relaxed/natural" way. Hellen Van Meene has a fantastic way of shooting with natural light and capturing beautiful light patterns across her subjects. I love the quite eery feel to a lot of her work.
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Boris Mikhailov A sketchbook like journal of a group of young people from his Ukrainian hometown of Kharkov, who were persecuted and jailed by Soviet authorities at the end of the 1950s for "pornography". A lot of very snap-shot style work, mainly involving nudity and unusual acts. A lot of his work is quite explicit and there is a lot of imagery that could be classed as fetishism, for example a nude man and woman - the woman with her feet on the mans face. Another example is a woman urinating into a river with a very direct, purposeful look in her eyes directed at the photographer. Perhaps this is just my view on his work and how it compares with my own lifestyle choices, but I think this would be interesting to research further. A lot of his work also pushes socially acceptable boundaries.
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Ryan McGinley. Ryan McGinley became very famous at a young age for his photography work. He captures groups of young people being free and youthful. In some ways his work is documentary style; capturing people being completely themselves, yet at the same time, his eye for composition and colour is a piece of artwork in its own right! I absolutely adore they way McGinley captures people in such a natural state of being whilst producing such incredibly beautiful imagery!
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Richard Renaldi http://www.touchingstrangers.org/ At first I thought this was a strange concept and the title almost seems like a non-consensual act, however when you begin to look at Richard Renaldi's work it becomes clear that he is capturing a whole story/relationship between two or more people in a single image. His power of story-telling is incredible and I find it massively inspiring! His images often look very staged, yet in a natural setting, he mainly uses natural light for his work. I would love to study his work further and perhaps even do a project based around it. I am fascinated by people's lifestyles, I'm interested in people that live alternative lifestyles and whether they embrace this in daily life or whether they have an alter-ego. How much do they show to the world and how much do they hide on a daily basis - who sees which side and why? I'm very interested especially in non-standard relationship dynamics, genders, sexuality and labels. I'd love to do a whole series of portraits trying to capture people in their happiest state, for example: Photographing people involved in the fetish community in their happiest state (DDlg, adult baby, pet-play, bondage etc.) I don't feel these images need to be "pornographic" I want them to be more documentary style portraits that tell a raw and true story about people's hidden lives and relationships.
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Stephen Shore Stephen Shore used colour film at a time when black and white was the "standard"/expected format for all journalism/documentary style photography. He captured things so unusually normal at a time when no-one else was taking such photographs. He documented everything from the inside of a fridge to his meals and television. Currently Instagram is a huge social media application and thousands of people photograph and document their lives including meals and surroundings in a similar style to what Stephen Shore was photographing years ago. This current "fashion" perhaps relates back to his work and Stephen even has an Instagram account! (I wonder if this makes his work and books less valuable because his work is now so easily available?).
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William Eggleston In a similar vain to Stephen Shore, Eggleston also started to document his surroundings in colour at a time when black and white was "the way" photography was recognised. Ricky mentioned that his work was heavily criticised at the time of his first exhibitions by the press/media and other photographers. A lot of people viewed his work in colour as being something that anyone could do and therefore not very highly valued.
When you look at William Eggleston's work you see the way he sees the world, the richness of colour he finds in otherwise plain locations combined with his eye for composition is something I highly doubt many people could replicate. His models are often very posed and have a somewhat glamorous look/feel in what are often quite mundane locations, however some of his work is less posed and more capturing a moment that sums up a place. I like that Eggleston's work makes you feel like you've been there and seen the things he sees as his work has such a "real" impact. You really do see his version of the world through his work.
