Final

Personal Project #3

Artist #6

 
Artist: Joyce Neimanas
Series: Untitled
Year: 1983

Joyce Neimanas works in a variety of different mediums. Her subjects are sometimes either absurd or inane, ranging from pig ears to women browsing magazines. While I was interested in the train of thought behind her "male nude" series, which involved an odd fascination with the loincloth, I found this collage more aesthetically appealing. I have always been interested in Polaroid collages. The subject matter appears to be a woman in a plaster cast—which is somewhat intriguing. Unfortunately, I could not find a larger size image, even after perusing her website and the Art Institute's website.

Artist #5

Artist: Uta Barth
Date: 1997
Title: In Passing

Uta Barth is a minimalist photographer who makes great use of light and focus in her work. Most of her pictures are warm in tone and feature little to objects within the frame of her composition. They're often soft and elicit a strange variety of emotion—in my opinion, mostly sentimental longing. She captures an environment, rather than a landscape or a subject.

Personal Project 2

Artist #4

Artist: Todd Hido
Date: 2008
Title: A Road Divided

Todd Hido has always been one of my favorite photographers. Use of natural strange color and eerie  quietness are predominant in most of his photographs. He's very good at setting mood and tone and giving somewhat normal places his "feel."

I was also surprised to find that Raymond Carver's publisher requested for his photographs to be used on the covers of his books. In a way, his photographs could be described as snap shots because they are taken so quickly with little preparation, but they seem "fuller."

Artist #3

Artist: Judy Linn/Robert Mapplethorpe
Date: 1960-70
Title: Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith

Robert Mapplethorpe is known for his large black and white portraits, often of nude males. He's known for eliciting controversy with the homo-eroticism and blatant view into the world of BDSM in his work. Disregarding the vast array of metaphors and imagery in his portraits, his photos are often clean and clear cut with their composition.

For me, it was hard to pick between Mapplethorpe and Chuck Close, mostly because I'm a fan of large clean black and white portraits. However, the culture behind the former's is so interesting (and I've already done a project on Close), I was forced to pick him.

Personal Project 1

Artist #2

Artist: Nikki Lee
Date: 2003
Title: Part (3)

Nikki Lee's photographs follow in style of Cindy Sherman's, but she brings a more modern, gritty, contemporary feel to her work. I found it interesting that there is a documentary on the real Nikki vs the fake Nikki—and that even the real Nikki is not unveiled in the movie. Lee says that she is not truly Korean-American in the sense of being immersed in this culture, which makes it even more interesting that her photos paint an entirely different image.

This series, Parts, almost reminds me of Back to the Future by Irina Werning, in how it takes a moment and shows it in a completely different light.

Artist #1

Artist: Joel-Peter Witkin
Date: Unknown
Title: Anti-Christ

Composition wise, the photo is rather simple. It's edited to look older than it actually is. The subject matter, however, is what makes the photo interesting and highly controversial. On the left is a somewhat deformed fetus and on the right is a majorly deformed fetus next to a Picasso painting. Witkin's photos, as a whole, are probably the most controversial and exploitive I've seen, even more so than those taken by Richard Prince and Gary Gross.

I wish I could figure out the point or meaning to this photo, but I'm oddly intrigued by it nonetheless. I suppose it's the macabre-ness of. Like a car crash, it's hard to look away.

I feel like Roger Ballen was almost inspired by his style. He directed this music video for the South African group, Die Antwood:

Tech Assignment #1

 Shallow Depth of Field

   

Wide depth of field 

 

Slow Shutter Speed

Fast Shutter Speed