Annie Leibovitz

Being a huge Johnny Depp fan I was quite excited to see an image of him appear during Friday’s discourse lesson. The image was taken by Annie Leibovitz, a photographer renown for her beautiful images of the famous including The Rolling Stones, The Queen and a range of actors and actresses.

Leibovitz researches her work well and also uses a lot of equipment whilst taking her images on location. With the pictures of the Queen, she had many ideas some of which were not allowed because the Queen decided against them. The image of her outside is an example of this where Leibovitz had to create this post shooting. She regularly creates a relationship with her subjects and later goes back to shoot. I think this is shown in her images as the sitter seems so relaxed and it is almost natural for them to be doing what they are in the shot.

The image of Johnny Depp is him in a bed, half naked with a cigarette. For someone who is regularly photographed if at a film premiere or snapped by paparazzi, this is completely different type of image. As the viewer I almost feel I am pressing upon his privacy because he is lying in a bed without looking at the camera and is not fully clothed. I do think it is a striking image apart from him being a very attractive man but it is looking at the link between nudity and the celebrity. It makes me think that he is just a man who happens to do a job that makes him famous but until he donned the role of Captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp was relatively unknown, where now he is one of the most famous actors in the world. Leibovitz states that this is what she see they are just people not thinking about how famous they are.

Annie Leibovitz has completed a couple of shoots with Johnny Depp and her images all have the same quality. She has created portraits for the new Pirates of the Caribbean film and all of her images host a kind of mystical feel to them. The image of Depp on the bed works well in black and white, almost classically and as there isn’t any strong light sources the image is quite soft, he truely epitomises the sense of calm and being relaxed from his body positioning and facial expression. Ive researched into some of her other works and it shows how she has created a relationship with them, she is definitely one of my favourite photographers.

Annie Leibovitz at Work, 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Leibovitz

http://thedisneyblog.com/2011/04/18/annie-leibovitz-captures-johnny-depp-as-captain-jack-sparrow/

http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f78/vanity-fair-january-2011-johnny-depp-annie-leibovitz-117829.html

Real Men Do Cry

As a child I grew up in a family where my father was a strong role model. He was a proud and confident man who has influenced my now adult part of my life. He was the bread winner of the family whilst my mother looked stayed at home and looked after my brother and I and still corrects me to this day when I don’t pronounce my t’s and glares at me for swearing. I remember at one point when I was younger thinking why is it so uncomfortable when I saw him crying after initially fearing that something had gone horribly wrong which is why he was weeping. I’m not sure why my brain jumped to this conclusion because he is only human and he does have feelings, stress and problems so why can’t he cry. Is it really just a woman thing or does it show loss of control for a man and vulnerability?

 It’s a shame we stereotype that real men don’t cry as it means they’re weak but sometimes I think crying does make you feel better at times. I asked a group of the people I work with when they last cried. Some of the women said from a day to two weeks ago whereas the men hadn’t cried for some time, up to two years ago. The time difference correlated with the gender as we would expect, that the men hadn’t cried for a longer time than the women. When I am watching a film or TV program when a man cries I always think oh dear this is bad for this guy to be crying and if you think about it, it’s strange to do so.

Sam Taylor Wood has taken this idea and turned it into a photograph collection. She has taken photos of well known men whilst they are crying. These include Dustin Hoffman, Woody Harrelson, Laurence Fishburne and more. Some of the images were staged making themselves cry whereas others were caught in the moment. When I initially looked at the images, I empathised with the subject and tried to work out why they may be crying which links back to when I was younger with my dad but then I realised I didn’t have to do this, I could just look at the pictures for what they were of a man and crying and they are beautiful. I was watching a film with Woody Harrelson in it recently called Zombieland, it is an amusing take on what would happen if the world had been overtaken by zombies but Harrelson’s character is far from one that would cry. He plays the typical macho protagonist of the film, quite happy to kill the diseased inhabitants but this image contradicts that.  

Taylor Wood uses such soft lighting which halos the men in some of the pictures and I do personally think they look vulnerable because it’s not something the viewer is used to. Saying this, there is a quality about these images which draws you in makes you want to investigate, to find out what has occurred and console them to make them smile again. It shows you that these men, famous as they are, are in fact just men and have emotions and struggles to deal with in their own lives and these images make them look a little more human.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fridge.gr/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Woody-Harrelson-Crying-Men-by-Sam-Taylor-

http://www.whitecube.com/artists/taylorwood/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Taylor-Wood

Robert Frank

Frank spent time travelling across 48 states in the USA taking photos to understand why it was promoted as the land of the free. Jack Kerouac stated the photographs that followed had never been seen before and so ‘for this he would definitely be hailed as a great artist in his field’. (Jack Kerouac, The Americans, 1958, page 7)

Frank has been born to wealthy parents in 1924 and lived under threat during World War Two because of his Jewish heritage. He was very rebellious as a child and later travelled Europe and then onto America. He wanted to see what was happening in the US because the media had always promoted it as the land of the free.

The images in Frank’s book The Americans were taken between 1955 and 1956 when the world was trying to change after the Second World War. Frank was greatly influenced by people around him and his images from this period focus on patriotism, racism, dividing of the classes and everyday culture. His images also show how technology was changing and a lot of them feature jukeboxes. I think all of his images are extremely powerful and I like the way he doesn’t always focus on the obvious. In one of his images at Hollywood film premiere, the star is blurred and he captures the people’s faces and expressions from behind her. It shows how we, as consumers look at celebrity and follow them when it doesn’t really affect our own life and this image shows this. I also like how he looked at how people were deliberately separated such as the image of people on the bus where the blacks and whites are separate and the woman in the front almost looks indignant that she has to share the bus at all.

I also like the image of the black woman holding the white baby. Instantly it makes us think of that she is the child’s nanny and that is fifty years after Franks images were taken. Frank was disappointed at the lack of spirituality in America and how religion wasn’t really seen. He was however impressed at the number of people in the cities, compare his Paris photo of the Arc Du Triomphe to any image now of any major city to see a change. Some of his photos show the super highways, empty of cars but these new roads linking the people all together over this vast expanse of land.

Frank looked at a range of things in the country, he photographed the American flag to symbolise their patriotism. I was shocked when working in America a couple of years ago when I dropped the American flag and they made me burn it because it was disrespectful. At the time I thought they were insane but it shows how they feel about their country. Many people have the misconception and stereotypes about the Americans but I do think, looking back that it is uplifting that they are proud to be an American and of living in this country. I was shocked to find that hardly any of the children I worked with had a passport. They said they do not need to leave their state or country as it has everything they needed and they didn’t desire to go anywhere else. This was extremely strange to me as I was abroad for four months at the time and enjoying every minute of it.

The Americas, Robert Frank, 1958

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/frankinfo.shtm

http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp

Feminism

It is said that in reference to semiotics, everything about us represents something. Throughout history the photograph has influenced how women are portrayed, it can show us how gender is represented. An example of this is Annie Sprinkle, an American performance artist and a post porn modernist who is confident in herself who quite freely shows off her body. The images of her may not be what we today see as the womanly form because of the stick thin women surrounding the media but once the curvy figure was how women used to look and it shows to just look at any paintings from the past. Sprinkle states that glamour shoots are extremely hard work, standing in ridiculous heels, being strapped in or laced up in your outfit which pinches or sucks everything in so you look ‘beautiful’ for the camera.

The female form has been used in advertising for years, the media consistently saying to us as consumers this is sexy, this is how you should look. I saw a Coke can with a woman from the 50’s on the side of it enjoying Coke possibly for its ‘classic taste’. Men and women have been constantly divided throughout history because of stereotyping like not being able to vote or apply for certain jobs but then the Suffragettes stood up for women’s rights to make it equal. This does not just apply to reality but in film, women’s roles have changed so much from the typical damsel in distress to the femme fatale and women in many modern films taking charge. Actresses such as Marilyn Munroe and Laura Mulvey show that behind the perfectly coiffed hair, the dazzling smile and beautiful appearance that not everything is as it seems.

The Guerrilla Girls do exactly what Hollywood doesn’t. They create art to educate on the way women’s bodies are portrayed. On their website it states, ‘The Guerrilla Girls, reinventing the F word – feminism’. They began campaigning because they went to an art gallery and realised that hardly any of the exhibitors were women and then later did some more research and found that most of the influential art galleries hardly had work from any female artists. They decided to put a stop to this and campaigned creating imagery keeping anonymous but just using masks to hide their identities. Their work is done with humour and tries to provoke a response by showing discrimination. On their website they state that they are feminist masked avengers and expose sexism, racism, corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture. I think the work they are doing is good and is obviously successful as they go all over the world campaigning for women’s rights. I love the loud colours they use and the sarcastic language to really draw attention. I think it is also interesting how they use names of old female artists instead of their own to keep their anonymity. Hopefully their continuous hard work will make a difference in the future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_Girls

http://www.guerrillagirls.com/

http://www.guerrillagirls.com/interview/index.shtml

http://anniesprinkle.org/

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.carnaval.com/sf/Anatomy_of_a_Pin-Up_Photo-Annie-Sprinkle.jpg

Modernism/Post Modernism

It is expected for things to upgrade, develop and change through time, it is the way of moving forward. People argue that this is for better or worse, for example transport evolving has made it so we are better connected, we can go to new places and experience different cultures.  Technology updating has meant that daily tasks are easier and quicker but some may argue that all types of modernisation causes struggle.

Initially the world began to change in the 16^th to 18^th centuries with steam engines, factories, industrialisation, mass communication and more which over the years that has caused wars continuing today as the people revolt against these changes. Marx recognised that there were many bad points about modernisation such as the increasing sense of want and have,’ I must have the newest phones, I want this summer trends’ and machinery replacing human labour means people are starving and in poverty. Nietzsche believed that Christian ideals are being destroyed as we develop, that God is dead. Futurists on the other hand argue that we should dismiss the past and embrace today and tomorrow. So what is the solution and what has this done to the art world?

Much like these views, art has separated itself out. The post modernists mix everything together using past and present for inspiration. They integrate everything together to create something new whereas the modernist photographer would work almost rigidly looking at form, angles and technology. This has happened with music; Jimi Hendrix was ahead of his time and created music using feedback and wah-wah pedals which hadn’t been done before. Rock music also developed from the blues so taking something from the past and creating something new. Architecture has also undergone radical transformations where buildings now look less at function but more at colour and design.

Post modernism is more playful, light hearted and follows popular culture. Compare Ed Westons work with William Eggleston, both of their works can be perceived to beautiful but are completely different. Weston looks at form and composition whereas Eggleston uses colour and strange objects and ideas to create his work. The work of Ed Ruscha in his collection 34 parking lots looks at society and how cars change our landscapes for better or worse. Ruscha looks at how the oil leaks are like traces of us, ghostly memories left to show where we once parked our cars. I think there are many problems with moving forward so quickly but things can work together I write as I listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan on my iPod, contradictory to the futurists I think the past does influence us every day, we just need to ensure we use it positively and learn from it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Ruscha

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/6224022/Ed-Ruscha-interview.html

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&xhr=t&q=ed+weston&cp=9&pf=p&sclient=psy&source=hp&aq=0&aqi=&aql=&oq=ed+weston&pbx=1&fp=a9b9aa294c8c9b68

http://www.edward-weston.com/

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/that-eggleston-photograph/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nietzsche

http://www.egglestontrust.com/

http://www.jimihendrix.com/uk/home

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism

Semiotics

I first heard the term semiotics whilst studying media at A level. It was loosely used and described but I can still remember my tutor explaining to me how it was the study of signs.

Semiotics is the study of how these signs communicate with us and when this was first explained to me it was presented as a prop in a film scene. These signs all have a connotation, a meaning referring to something other than what is initially apparent; it may lead us to search deeper within an image to find what else is trying to be said. Signs may differ between cultures, they may have other words for objects represented or a sign from the image may mean something different to us, it is how we interpret these items. An example of this is Darmi Halake Gilo by Fazal Sheikh 1992-93. Some people may see her as a woman who is poor, made to pose in the baron lands in Africa but if you look closer you could begin to think well she is wearing jewellery, this doesn’t happen to be an everyday commodity and could symbolise wealth.  As said in Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes, ‘With regard to the heterogeneity of good photographs, all we can say is that the object speaks; it induces us, vaguely, to think.”

Semiotics can be broken down into the signifier and the signified, the physical form and then what it is referencing to, for example a top hat is just a hat but it could mean wealth from a certain time in history. The Vanities of Human Life by Harmen Steenwyck is a good example, we see a skull, an oil lamp, a recorder, a book etc which actually symbolise death, wealth, love of music, knowledge etc. Semiotics has been used via a range of media and invites the viewer to think hard about what the artist is truely trying to say to us.

http://www.fazalsheikh.org/

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/harmen-steenwyck-still-life-an-allegory-of-the-vanities-of-human-life

(Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, 1980, page38)

John Stezaker

I recently visited the Whitechapel Gallery and was introduced to the work of John Stezaker. I had heard his name before but never took the time to look at what he had created. He takes old film stills of particularly unknown actors, postcards or book illustrations and collages them which completely changes the meaning of the image. He cuts away parts or places new images over the top to achieve his new desired outcome. His work uses the uncanny in his work, we as the viewer are constantly trying to search for a face and imagine it how it should be.

As previously stated, I had never seen his work before and was impressed how the images worked so well. The Marriage series was one of my favourite. Some of the pictures met so effectively and others changed the face so it was twisted and grotesque portrait. I did think that there was something very mesmerising of this work and stood and stared trying to imagine the whole faces without the added sections.

His famous mask series fused postcards of waterfalls, caves or cliffs with a person’s face. I stopped to again to peer deeper into the images and try and see any facial features. In the end it decided I didn’t need to try and take these images apart but to just look and enjoy.

My favourite piece by him was the upside down reflection of the woman and man in the piano, I think because this was so simple that it was so successful. I turned my head to view it up the right way and then thought I actually preferred it how Stezaker had planned for us to view it. He has taken the normal and made it abnormal but we can still relate somehow to it which is what fascinated me.

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/john_stezaker.htm

Whitechapel Gallery, John Stezaker exhibition

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/john-stezaker

http://framescourer.blogspot.com/2011/03/john-stezaker-at-whitechapel-gallery.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stezaker