Larry Clack is American documentary photograph and film director. He is known for the film ‘Kids’ and his book ‘Tulas’. This book documents the aimless drug use, violence and sex activities of his friends. The photographs bin the book were taken between 1963 to 1971 and they combine documentary style photograph with intimacy and a raw edge to them. Most of all the photographs in the book have been taking in very low light and are all in black and white. The photos themselves are very grainy which I really adds to the hard edge of the subjects of the photos.
As I looked through the book the photographs seem to look so normal of young men and women jacking up and help each other with it. The photographs really like the viewer look at their lives and how they were living it. The image which really stands out for me is of a young girl jacking up. At first glance it shows the sunlight from the window in the room hitting the young pregnant girl, the light makes her look so beautiful and angelic, but as you look closer the young women is shooting up. The photograph which looked so innocent doesn’t any more.
This is what I really liked about Clarks images the stark contract between two ideas. All his images portray a harsh reality in yet such a beautiful way.
This book is an exploration of the designer duo Viktor and Rolf’s work to date. It features style shots by fashion photographers, catwalk images and exclusive sketches and snap shots that are from behind the scenes of the fashion house and previously ‘unseen’ documenting collections and backstage preparations at the catwalk show.
I feel in to the book not only works as a celebration of the duos work but also makes a chance for the viewer to get to know the designers more. They are invited into their private world in which readers are ensured to get lost in. Reading the book you get to understand the style and technique of the designers and you feel as through a previously private and hidden world have been opened up and revealed to you. The sketches are personal photography collections within the book add a sentimental, personal edge to the beautiful book.
Glen Luchford is known for creating seductive and imageries photography in a rich and dramatic style. His images span to fashion, portraiture and contemporary art recreated in an intense cinematic style. Luchford has created advertising campaigns for Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein as well as portraits for Madonna, and Tilda Swinton. His editorial work is frequently featured in Italian French & American Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Another Magazine and W.
What really attracted me to Glen Luchfords work was the amount of depth and richness each image has. They all seem to carry an air of mystery and in a sense almost appear like the stills from a film, as through the models are characters whose motivation and story line must be told to the viewer. I feel this strongly an influence of Luchford’s love of cinema. He prefers to work in the studio rather than on location as he can use elaborate high lighting techniques to create his evocative film like images. His images often have a romantic, softness about them, where models appear in a dream like state inviting viewers in to the Glen Luchford fantasy. He is known for using up to 50 tungsten lights and rarely shot in daytime which means Luchford style is so different from others. He also directed his first feature film – ‘Moch Documentry’ in 2001.
Juergen Teller is a highly influential figure with in the world of fashion. He is associated with the ‘Grunge heroin chic’ movement in fashion and is known for his open style. It was a stylist and photographer Vinetia Scott that encouraged Teller to get into fashion and the duo produced images that challenged the ideas of fashion, photography throughout the late 1980’s and 1990’s.
His images are never too polished and perfect and appear untouched digitally. There are usually shot within ‘Real’ locations whether it is on the street, back garden or the longue of the sitter. Teller was one of the first in a group of photographers including Connrie Day to introduce the aesthetic that allows viewers to reflect and connect to his images. Teller work combines elements of art documentary and fashion photography with his models often appearing to be unposed and natural. ‘I try to photograph people the way I really see them. I try to let them be the way they are. I think that I have the ability to go in to a person quite subtly… it comes naturally.’
Many of Tellers famous images have been advertising campaigns of renowned designers such as Marc Jacobs. These campaigns stand out against the many slick polished adverting campaigns, with their witty style, they often have a sense of sarcasm and portray the celebrates or models in an ironic way. One of the most famous subjects being Victoria Beckham which Teller spoke ‘I think at the time we shot her she may have been the most photographed women in the world. It would have been very to laugh at her but it was very important to Marc and myself that she was laughing with us.’
Juergen Teller stripped away the glossy air brushed of fashion and together with Venetia Scott in the early 1990’s their sprit changed the existing pre-conception of glamour and now fashion photography should look. Tellers free sprit brought personality as a sense of gritty and rawness to fashion photography.
Juergen Teller: Do You Know What I Mean by Juergan Teller.
Ellen Von Unwerth is a photographer who specialises in erotic femininity. For ten years she worked as a fashion model and now works behind the camera. “The difference is that I don’t stand behind the camera drooling. Knowing that the model is more likely to be natural, to open up and relax”.The German-born photographer began by talking photographs o her models trends and soon her unique talent was recognised and she was soon image making for publications such as Vogue, The Face and I-D. Her work offers a distinctly playful and sexual style as well as being candid. However although Von Unworth models appear to be heavily made up and glamorous. She still manages to make a natural aspect to her images. Her sensual campaigns for Guess? In the early 1990’s launched her commercial career and she since worked for Victoria’s Secrets, Banana Republic, Tommy Hilfiger, Chanel, Mui Mui and Diesel as well as advertisements for HBO’s Sex and The City. Starting out with reportage photography Unwerth has gone on to make her self known and respected in fashion photography. She has developed a strong unique style that combines elements of Helmut Newton and Terry Richardson. As a computably self taught, untrained photographer she choose to work in black and white mostly she shoots on location and her images have a strong sense of spontaneity. I really love the impulsive, upstaged playful nature of depth and texture to them as though they have been taken decides ago , and the intimate locations of bedrooms and a sense of realism to Ellen Von Unwerth images.
Fashion visuals, whether it be photography or film, are often meticulously planned and composed in order to create a physically or metaphorically multi-layered image, and to convey a specific message to the consumer. Semiotics are always present as a way of providing a subject with more depth, and revealing things to the viewer in a subtle way, rather than spelling everything out for them. An image that is not only aesthetically beautiful, making extensive use of semiotics, but also intelligent advertising through a fashion visual, is the advertisement for the fragrance ‘Flowerbomb‘ by Viktor & Rolf. Traditionally the idea of a woman has been that she is ‘naturally nurturing, sensitive, emotional and deferring’ (Cranny-Francis, 2003, p143), however, the image challenges this stereotype, whilst still subtly maintaining the feminine and sensitive aspect that is often used to define women. It also represents a complete opposite of what Cranny-Francis describes as typical themes used around men, stating bluntly in Gender Studies; Terms and Debates, that they are represented as ‘all powerful, emotionless and authoritarian’ (Cranny-Francis, 2003, p145). These stereotypical ideas of gender are interestingly addressed through this advertising image.The photograph has a romantic stylistic form, and shows a nude female model with sheer fabric covering and obscuring her face slightly as it wafts upwards. She holds a bottle of the perfume against her face.Firstly, by blurring the models face slightly with the fabric, the image cleverly prevents itself emphasizing the model, keeping the consumers mind on the product and not the personality or celebrity of a famous face, something not often seen in perfume advertising. It also could be seen to convey to the viewer that through wearing this scent, they too could be this mysterious, enigmatic and beautiful woman, as her identity is not fixed.The fabric swathing her face could symbolise some very separate and contrasting ideas. Firstly, through its delicate colour change from purple to pink, the folds in the fabric and way it falls, it seems to simply represent a flower and its petals, however by having the model’s head encased in the base of the flower and the petals wafting upwards from this point, it represents to the consumer the perfumes ability to ‘fill’ your head. Furthermore, the positioning of the woman in the base of the flower again represents the strong and feminine lady, but also with undertones of fertility and reproduction – the idea of a womans ‘flower’, the position of her head in the part of a flower that houses its reproductive organs, and also, as flowers are asexual in their reproduction, symbolising the independent woman who does not need a man. The model appears to be wrapped in a black ribbon and wax seal giving the name of the perfume and its designers, instantly providing the advertisment with an identity and the consumer with the imperative information of the scents product details. The ribbon has been added using an image manipulation programme in order for it to give the appearance of floating and encasing the model around her shoulders and breasts, attempting to hold her arms down against her body, perhaps a comment on societies tendancy to feel protective towards females, or outdated views on how women should be and act.This is a very beautiful image on the surface, and an exquisite advertisement, fulfilling its purpose incredibly effectively, however, the levels of symbolism, and depths of messages and imagery contained within it make it much more than just a fashion image. Instead it is a defiant warcry for femininity and sexuality, a warning to men intimidated by the strong female, and a message to women that all through purchasing this scent, they can be whatever they want.
Nan Goldin work formed a ‘new kind of realism’ a characteristic which went on to inspire thousands of followers and imitators. She is an artist who has become obsessed with taking control of her own personal history. She saves her own memories through her photography, ‘The diary I let people read’.
Goldin and her photos, her work and personal life locked together to form one single who with an original feel to it. Goldin’s work can be described as concept driven snap shots. Her locations are usually interior spaces such as cluttered rooms and bathrooms or bars and beds.
Born in 1953 Goldin was born in WashingtonDC where her parents shortly moved to Boston where she spent several years unhappy. She moved away from her family in 1963, where she was 14 years old. She discovered her sister whom she had been every close to had committed suicide, Gioldin was deeply distraught and her family kept the suicide hidden from her for some time. Telling her the death was a terrible accident – this is perhaps why truth is something very important to Goldin and something she alwaus wants to reveal.
As the memory of her sister started to fade, Goldin began to take photographs to hold and preserve for fear of losing memories of her friends whom had become her ‘Alternative’ family.
One of the reasons I was attracted to Goldin's work was the emotional document in her images. I love the way she used colour to highlight the intimacy . The raw style of Goldins work and snapshot aesthetic works together to form the documentary of her life and shared memories she has a strong desire to keep. I also love the purity and innocence of her work and informal style that follows no rules. Her work doesn't act as anything else but what it is - a document moment in time.
“There are other stylists who have a very strong fashion point of view that they want to put across – I’m driving a mood more than a look.”
Venetia Scott has an elastic take on fashion that has led to collaborations with Helment Newton, Mario Sorrenti, Steven Klein and her former husband Juergen Teller. As I London based stylist she has worked for a number of magazine such as British and Italian Vogue, W, I-D and The Face as well as being creative director of Marc Jacobs and his diffusion line Marc By Marc Jacobs. Scott has desire to capture an expression of youthful innocence. Her work is always highly heartfelt and autobiographical. She says “Delves in to her subjects syncline and extracts the desired emotions” which takes determinations, time as well as intimacy and thrust. This is something that Scott feels people no longer include in today.
“Everything is done in such a short amount of time and that there is now no connection or relationship between photographer and model. This is no emotion. Everything is quick and thrown away.”
It is Scoots way of thinking that I find so inspiring. I agree with the above quotation about everything being quick and thrown away today. Looking at Scott’s work has made me think about what emotions a photographer can hold and the memories it can store. I think as Scott explains it is about connection between the photographer and the model.
Venetia Scott technique is to make fashion statements that involve a look specifically tailed to a character and narrative. She has an anti-fashion approach to styling and photography and in the late 1980’s her work was considered unconventional with her use of imperfectly beautiful models which were shot in random locations, styled effortless ‘Thrown together clothes’.
‘It wasn’t about consciously not doing what people has done before, but I did want styles and stands I want to create something that you aspire to with out it involving a lot of money. None of the stories I did were about having a nice big or expensive outfit”.
With her democratic methodology’s Scott would use second hand clothing and vintage finds. She intends for her style and images to express something about the subject – models personality. Scott prefers to use models that you wouldn’t normally use models that you look at but don’t instantly recognize, meaning that her expressive vision and narrative are not over shadowed. This method has led to Scott challenging the current perceptions of beauty. She is known to cast models that often go on to become big fashion names such as Nadia Auermann, Angela Lindou and Lily Cole.
Tim Walker is a fashion photographer, who mostly works for British and Italian Vogue; from his photographs it’s clear to see that he is all round British photographer. Walker was born in 1970 in Guildford and went to do a degree in Photography at Exeter Art College. He’s work shows an obvious love of the country side and British landscapes. He went to New York to be come Richard Avedon assistant. AndIn 1990s he went to do work experience at Vogue and started to look Cecil Beaton’s negatives which led a deep understand of Vogue s history and heritage.Not only did he look at Beaton’s work but also Norman Parkinson photographs. Walkers work also shares with them a true British photographer.
Walkers photographs when I first looked at them made me think of the books by C.S Lewis The Chronicles of Narniabut most of the Lion the Watch and the Wardrobe, this book is one of my all times favourite books but why I think it stands out even more to me and why it makes me think if Walker work is that it brings back my childhood. This book has all the elements (English countryside, adventure and hot summers) to what Walker’s photographs are made from and what they are all about. The other writer I feel that also makes me think of walker is E.H.Nasbitt who wrote the book the Railways Children in 1906, this I have not read but have seen on TV and feel that this also have the key elements to Walkers photographs. Also being set in the country side and the children having an adventure of which the have to help their father. Walker’s photographs have a very child like feel to them but somehow just like the Lion the Watch and the Wardrobe you never grow board of reading or looking at them.
Looking much more at his photographs they show I clear link to British Neo Romantic style. This was a movement in the 1930’s and 1940’fixed beyond surrealism which didn’t just happen in England, artist may of called themselves ‘English’ but only as a mark of pride. There were other no English artist such as Welsh and Scottish artist however it was a small group of London born British Artist who really stood out. The word ‘English’ seem to cover all nationality of the movement.I feel that this movement was taken out of British history and culture. However Neo-Romance dominated over more than ten years of British art round the 1940’s. The British artist of the 1930’s really looked back at of their Romantic predecessors and really drew on their ideas and the techniques they used. At this time the Second World War has just broke out.
Neo-Romance covered many different area of art in Britain, such as painting, illustration, literature, and theatre. One of the main areas in which it thrived was film making, the two main artists were Michael Power and Emeric Pressburger their films which were glowing, Gothic films were ignored. However Power was Hungarian/British and Pressburger was British.But after a shifted in 1970 ant 1980 which changed critical context. The other area of which artist focused was on personal, poetic vision of the landscape.
Having looked at Neo Romantic style I feel that Walker although he may not know it has clear links to it. He photographs have are now the modern day Neo Romantic style, With the use of pale pastel colours and his glazy lighting of his work and of course all his work has a very British feel, not only as they are most set in the English county side but Walker always finds a way to put a object in to the sense that says some thing about English tradition. Walker also brings a magical feel to his work that I feel no photographer does, Walker I feel seems to have an idea and roll with it, and no matter how theatrical it is he does it and makes it work. With this I feel his photographs take on some thing new about them, they not only tell a story but also give a real insight to what Walker is telling the viewer.
Ref
Spirit Of Place, Nine Neo Romantic Artists and Their Times by M Yorke
Beaton In Vogue by J Ross
Beaton’s Portraits by R Strong
I have chosen this photograph by Anthony Suau titled "U.S. economy in crisis". Suau photographed and documented life in Cleveland .For this particular image he followed a police officer who had to hand out up to 20 eviction notices a day .The officer’s duties included ensuring evictees had moved out of their homes ,that the properties had remained vacant and additionally to ensure no looting had taken place.
I enjoy the way in which the Suau has composed the officer centrally within the frame, your eyes are drawn to and focus straight to him. The white wall behind ,contrasting strongly with his black uniform ,framing him and ensuring that the central visual element of his image stands out. Then you follow his actions and to what he is about to do .The door and the unknown which lies beyond its threshold acting as a strong metaphor for the uncertainty in today s economic climate.
The scene that the officer has entered depicts destruction, unrest and chaos reflecting the current state of the US and global economies. The detective has been ordered to use authority to try to control a situation that is in turmoil. The lone subject swamped by the scene shows how much of a losing battle this man faces in the struggle of controlling an uncontrollable situation. It can be viewed as a microcosm of how governments are trying to control the current economic crisis effecting the world today through a dwindling set of fiscal controls
William Eggleston is an American photographer and is one of the most influential photographers of the last half centaury.Eggleston is best known for his colour photography and has been names the father of colour photography, he really has the ability to fine the beauty but somehow also darkness to the subject, Eggleston photographs very simple and everyday object but seems to characterize them by using colour.
Eggleston’s latest work was shown at Victoria Miro Gallery which I went to see. It was a small exhibition with only 22 photographs. The photo of which really stood out was this one called ‘Untitled’ (Bathroom with pink curtain, Cuba) 2007, this photo stood to me as it so empty, and I felt lost looking at it. Even through the light is shinning through and the bright pink curtain makes me think of sadness and sorrow I’m not sure why but it does.
Eggleston has had an amazing career but recently he received a life time Achievement Award at the International Centre of Photography (ICP) Infinity Awards from Gatty Images and lately he has had a documentary made about him. 'I had an old Canon and a Leica,' he says, 'but I didn't know the first thing about photography. Never learnt it off anybody either. It quickly came to be that I grew interested in photographing whatever was there wherever I happened to be. For any reason.’ I like that Eggleston leant photography from getting stuck in to it. I feel that this is the best why to understand and to really get to grips with photography.
