Elaborately staged photography with complex mise en scène is the lifeblood of advertising and it certainly packs a lot of wow-factor. But while I can get excited about the work of artists like Gregory Crewdson and Phillip-Lorca diCorcia, the involvement has more of the feeling of admiring a nice oil at a gallery than a relationship to my photography. I like diCorcia’s Streetwork series much better, and it’s artists like Nan Goldin that really get me humming with complex feelings and thoughts.
It might just be that it’s not my time to explore elaborate setups and days of post-production – who has the time? – but I suspect it’s more complicated than that. I think it’s to do with the connection between the art and the tools, and the special things that only a camera can do.
But I’m an open-minded adventurer, and I’ve been exploring some fairly elaborate art-photography lately, so I wanted to share a few artists I’ve especially liked.
AES+F are four Russian artists with a stripped back post-Pierre-et-Gilles style. Their Last Riot 2 series of circular photos is especially interesting and each one seems to be bursting to tell a complicated legendary fable, though the more I look at them the less of the story I seem to understand.
Julia Fullerton-Batten has a page full of awards, profiles and exhibitions, so I guess everyone likes her. It was her Teenage Stories that got me hooked (look under projects here), where even though all the proportions are distorted, it somehow seems like that’s the way it should be.
But the artist who is really blowing me away at the moment is Chinese photographer Maleonn. Lush colours, gorgeous textures, haunting composition and cheeky, weird and interesting stories. It’s about as elaborate as you can get, but every one of his pieces is intriguing and inspiring. I’m in love.
Top pic: Maleonn from the series Chinese Story, 2005
3 Comments
September 18, 2007 at 12:16 am
A thoughtful, interesting post. I’m glad to have found your blog.
Honestly, I have to agree with your original view of liking most the special things only a camera can do. Even as I venture into digital photography after many years of shooting film, I still tend to use PhotoShop as a fabulous retouching tool, better than all the dodging, burning and spotting of film photography. In the end, I still want my photos to look as if they could exist in the real world.
Even when Andreas Gursky combines images, sometimes adding entire floors to buildings, the end result still looks like a photograph.
But more than simply being an old school purist, I think non-manipulated [at least not obviously so] photography engages the viewer more, asks them to being more to the party in viewing an image. It’s less about marveling at some allegorical invention and trying to figure out how the trick was done and more about a dialogue with the photographer. Looking at the image and trying to see what there was about that moment that drove the photographer to capture it in the particular way he or she did.
Of course, I also believe photography freed painters to do what they do best—exploring line, shape, color, form and design without worrying about creating realistic, representational images. While I do enjoy the occasional photorealistic painting, my first love is pure abstract painting.
September 18, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Hi Bro
Love the images.
Part of me wants ‘real’ photography – to capture the essence of what currently exists. The other part of me loves the adventure of imagination that happens when you bring in tools and create a surreal image.
Both have their place and reason. Both can be enjoyed. Another example of ‘and’ thinking – rather than ‘either/or’.
And when, pray tell, do we get to enjoy the photos that you take? Waiting, waiting …
Sis
September 24, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Love your food pics at http://bluekitchen.wordpress.com/ Terry! Thanks so much for your comments – which are obviously intelligent because I agree with all of them
Where you say you want your photos to “look as if they could exist in the real world”, could I just say that your dishes look like they’re straight out of beautiful recipe books, and I always thought those photos were fantasies.
And Liz… coming, busy, getting there… but thanks for being on my case.
=)