On Show At The ACP - Zed Nelson and Olivia Martin-McGuire

The Australian Center of Photography (ACP) is the nations longest running contemporary art space. The two current series of work on exhibition, 'Love Me' by Zed Nelson and 'Sleepers' by Olivia Martin-McGuire, could not have been in greater contrast in relation to intention and philosophy. 'Love Me' is a collection of images that explores societal values and the persistent quest for physical perfection. The subjects of Nelson's series features school girls, pageant entrants, body builders, vaginal reconstruction surgery candidates, Iranian's queuing for nose jobs, plastic surgery junkies and New Yorkers having foot surgery to fit into Jimmy Choo shoes. Nelson's series negotiates the boundaries between documentary and artistic photography. The harsh bright lighting of the photographs encourages the viewer to judge the subjects, within the portraits, based purely on physical appearance, an irony considering the the work sets out to challenge this trend. The series is successful in highlighting the ill health of a society obsessed with physical appearance. I left the exhibition with a disgust for the superficiality of society and almost a sense of despair.



In almost stark contrast Olivia Martin McGuire's work 'Sleepers' is a series that captures subjects transitioning into the uninhibited realm of the unconscious. The production quality of the works was achieved through the use of a medium format camera, allowing the artist to produce large scale prints which maintain fine detail with crisp accuracy. All images of the 'Sleepers' were shot in the artists studio on the same bed, adorned with pale yellow sheets, allowing a sense of unity throughout the series. Due to the large scale, sense of vulnerability and the sheer lack of inhibition of the subjects, the works are intensely intimate.

On Show At Stills Gallery - Pat Brassington

Stills gallery in Sydney is committed to exhibiting Australian contemporary photographic work. Their current exhibition is a selection of works from female artist Pat Brassington's recent series 'A Perfect Day'. A distinctive theme within Brassington's oeuvre is her beguiling surrealistic imagery. The colour palette within the series makes reference to a kind of post apocalyptic scenario, with a theatrical staging of figures which evokes both the unconscious and the absurd.

A work that particularly stood out for me was titled 'Rub Your Eyes', and featured a girl lying face down on the grass, swamped by her mountainous skirt. While this scenario generates a sense of familiarity, it simultaneously raises uncertainty with bleached and acrid tones making the landscape an unknown entity, counteracting connections of nature with the idyllic.

Brassington pushes the limits of photography as a medium, challenging the notion that a photograph captures a snippet of reality.

Re-View Review

The NGV established their first separate curatorial department of photography in 1967, with the current permanent collection standing at over 15, 000 photographs of which 3, 000 are by international artists (NGV, 2010). The recent photography exhibition at the NGV, 'Re-View', showcases 170 years of photography as a fine art and celebrates the 40th anniversary of the NGV's acquisition of it's collection. The exhibition reveals the progression of styles and techniques for capturing, developing and producing a photographic image.

As an exhibition 'Re-View' was relatively small, showcasing largely international artists. The exhibition looks at each decade from 1840 onwards, revealing remarkable images that have been influential in photographic history and the establishment of the medium as a unique art form. The common muse within the exhibition, which transcended all decades, was human perception and the projection of perceived or factual reality. Portraits were particularly prevalent within the exhibition, often providing a psychological insight into the personality and temperament of the sitter, allowing the viewer to be engaged in the stranger's reality. Despite ourphotography course being entirely digital, the progression of image qualities and finish resolutions through the decades particularly interested me.


Reference:
NGV, 2010 'Re-View', viewed 30th March 2010
http://ngv.vic.gov.au/review/

The World Around Me

Inspired by this weeks lecture that examined Cartier-Bresson and Lee Freidlander, I was intent on capturing moments from everyday life using the convenience of my digital camera. On Saturday morning I made my way to the Victoria Markets for food shopping. The array of fruit and vegetables provided a visually interesting backdrop for the bustle of people and the exchange of goods. From the photographs I have uploaded I particularly like one where the man is purchasing a pumpkin. Unaware that I was photographing either of them I was able to capture an ordinary moment in time. I also was quite pleased with the compositional elements in the photograph.

First Experimentation With An SLR

Given a list of 12 words to inspire and spark interest in the world around us we were all sent out with a camera each for experimentation. Having never used an SLR, my main focus was composition with limited experiment with manual function. I would, however, like to become more familiar with the manual function of a digital SLR. The photos attached to this blog entry are those which I felt were most successful during the session.

Jill Greenberg and the Developement of Portrait Photography

Greenberg's photographic curiosity is centered in portraiture, a genre which was established with the advent of the camera. Greenberg is a prime example of an artists who has a 'personal vision that is readily identifiable'. While portrait photography of the early 19th century was highly formal, structured and emotionally austere, Greenberg explores the intense emotion and the true identity of her subjects.

Greenberg is known as 'the manipulator', combining harsh lighting in the capture stage with heavy digital editing in Photoshop. Greenberg told Digital Photo Pro that she uses 'a lot of masking, apply colour curves, dodge and burn. It's all done by hand, like painting.' These techniques could be interesting for my own experiment in digitally manipulating photographs in Photoshop.

Greenberg's work is often clouded by controversy, particularly her 'End Times' series in 2006 which featured hyper real, stylized portraits of toddlers. The toddlers were captured in moments of intense emotion, through controversial methods such as offering the child candy and then taking it away, which some deemed unethical. Greenberg, however intended it as a post modern political comment, stating; 'The first little boy I shot, Liam, suddenly became hysterically upset. It reminded me of helplessness and anger I felt towards the current political and social situation. I made me think of my outrage at our false reason for going to war in Iraq and the scandalous way the conflict was sold to the American people'.

The Perpetual Debate - What Is Art?!

Discussions in the workshop brought to light the difficulty of producing ‘fine art photography’ in a climate that has essentially commercialised and made readily available the camera to a mass market. Having never studied photography before, I found myself daunted by the prospect of establishing something unique and distinctly ‘ME’. What could I possible do, that is radically different to anyone else?

I viewed segments from the second series of ‘The Genius of Photography’, which provided a great quote to sum up my quandary:

‘The dilemma and the strength of photography is that it’s the easiest medium in which to be competent, but the hardest medium in which to have a personal vision that is readily identifiable.’

The visual arts has always been a passion of mine, largely practising the in the fields of mixed media painting, drawing, and graphic art I additionally found this comparative quote interesting:

‘There are no accidental masterpieces in painting, but there are accidental masterpieces in photography.’

I think this quote reveals the spontaneity of the medium and therefore the challenge.