Congrats to Rebecca Uliasz Feminist Art Award Winner!

See post dated Friday, April 19, 2013 for details concerning this award. Congrats again Becca!

How Cool is This? Amazing unknown photographer from the 1950s

Is a children's nanny:

http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/02/18/found-at-auction-the-unseen-photographs-of-a-legend-that-never-was/

OWS marks anniversary of Kent State shootings

On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard gunned down Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Knox Schroeder, and Sandra Scheuer during an anti-war protest at Kent State University.

http://www.facebook.com/OccupyWallSt1

Appropriating appropriation

The plot thickens....

Skateboard company famous for appropriating famous artist styles sues others for "appropriation":

http://www.complex.com/art-design/2013/05/barbara-kruger-responds-to-supremes-lawsuit-a-ridiculous-clusterfk-of-totally-uncool-jokers

Powerful Dove Videos

Powerful Dove Videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk




Even though I basically wrote out in detailed description about this video, I think everyone should look at it, especially art students because I think that this artist in this video is amazing. When looking at the Dove effect advertising video you provided, I immediately thought about this video and how it relates to what we view as being real. A lot of the women in this video didn't have makeup on and maybe that's why they described themselves as not being as attractive as they really were and that's a crucial part of the Dove make-up ad you provided. The make-up and the Photoshop is what we see up on the billboards that makes beauty a standard. Both of these Dove videos in conjunction show how women everywhere sell themselves short of their own beauty due to the overpowering edited beauty that's placed everywhere everyday.

The Great Gatsby in the news

http://today.uconn.edu/uconn-reads/2013/05/02/gatsby-in-the-news/

The Dove Effect

What if there was a that law required companies to state if their images have been altered, photoshopped etc? How come cereal boxes have to state "enlarged to show texture" but cosmetic companies dont have to state "eyes enlarged and skin retouched(... to show...beauty?)" I can't help thinking this, but I guess it wouldn't really work, because it can be argued that all photography is "altered." We can talk for days about how self image is a huge problem in the United States and many young girls aren't aware that many of these photographs are retouched which only contributes to this problem. I think the solution lies in exactly what dove is doing, exposing the problem and dispersing the information to society in short clips like these.

If the Copy Is an Artwork, Then What's The Original?

Where is the line between appropriation and copy? Richard prince dances around this line with his work, creating dynamic visuals with borrowed imagery. What strikes me most about Richard Prince is the way he assembles his images. The appropriated image is scaled and distorted. Does this act of alteration create something new? As the author described in the article, Jim Krantz was the original photographer of the Marlboro shoot. His reaction to seeing his image at the Guggenheim was one of surprise, which eventually turned to anger as the success of Prince's pieces rose. I feel Krantz has a right to be annoyed at someone else gaining fame and fortune through one of his own images. Prince uses advertisements to create art and commentary, that is his medium. It is true that someone else had to create said advertisement, but one must presume they were compensated at the time of creation and these images could therefore be considered public domain. The last line of the article was very thought provoking, where Krantz asked if italicizing Moby Dick makes the book his, which it doesn't. I do see a difference however in Prince's alteration and re-contextualizing of predisposed images versus Krantz's example of appropriating a best-selling book.

The European Avant-garde

This passage questions the definition of surrealism. When first introduced as a type of art in the early 1900's, surrealism was based off of theories from Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalysis. Freud put great emphasis on the relevance of dreams and unconscious desires to the human mind. He believed that peoples internal urges hinted at their true needs and provided an explanation for different behaviors. The art world followed in this path due to the unconscious decisions that are made in creating art and the contribution that one's minds eye makes to work rather than it simply being fully intentional. Man Ray explained that "he painted that which cannot be photographed and photographed that which cannot be painted." I think this idea emphasizes the difference between and the uniqueness of each medium and that there is a specific time in which an artist will need to use both techniques, but they can be used together in order to fully grasp concepts of the world and convey meaning in them through art. Surrealism can be defined by Andre Breton as "a desire to deepen the foundation of the real; to bring about an ever clearer and at the same time ever more passionate consciousness of the world perceived by the sense." This quote illustrates the idea that surrealism allowed the artist to show their deeper experiences of the world and allow more freedom for manipulating photographs as well as facading their meaning.

American Formalism & Photography History

Wells 257-76, 279-81

In today’s art world, it is difficult to exclude any type of creative process as a form of art. My freshman year of college, I took an aesthetics of art course where we discussed the definition of art. It is difficult when you think about it to define exactly what makes a painting, photograph, sculpture, etc. an art form. One could say that anything someone creates is art, but what if they made it unintentionally? It is very interesting to think back to the nineteenth century when people were debating the importance of art in the world, especially with the new medium of photography. Clement Greensburg thought that in order for photography to be considered art it must tell a story. However, there are many photographs we have learned about in class that leave the viewer making up their own purpose of the image or meaning behind it. The pages also describe the many styles of photography in the past and the way in which photography has transformed as a medium in order to fit into the art world. 

Photo-Secession: Process and the Hand of Man

Wells, Thinking about photography, pg. 11-17, 257-71

I found this reading very interesting, especially after returning to the passage after having an entire semester studying the history of photography. When I first read these pages from Wells in the beginning of the semester, I thought the information about the acceptance of photography as an art form in the nineteenth century and the relationship between painting and photography was a fascinating thought, but I did not fully understand the challenge artist's such as the three I am studying for my paper, Stieglitz, Strand and Lange faced when producing their work. I also did not fully grasp how photographers mimicked painterly styles in order to have their work accepted as an art form. Steve Edwards points out that in today’s world, we cannot imagine life without photography. Later in the writing, Van Deren Coke describes the advantages photography provided to painting, such as allowing the painter to have photographic images to serve as notes rather than sketches. A quote that I think directly relates to my thesis in my paper and explains the relevance of photography in the art world is, “…the same object represented by different photographers will produce different pictorial results and this invariably not only because the one man uses different lenses and chemicals than the other but because there is something different in each man’s mind which somehow gets communicated to his fingers’ ends and thence to his pictures.” (Harker 1988:46).

Annette Kuhn -Remembrance Response

In this article Annette Kuhn talks about family photography, and the memories that come stem from images. In the beginning of the article Kuhn discusses how photographs are evidence, and they can "be material for interpretation." This poses the photograph as a short of problem or riddle to be solved. I think that this is an interesting take on how a family photograph can have multiple meanings based on each members personal opinion. Kuhn discusses this possibility of multiple meanings in a photograph of a herself as a child. The image was taken by her father but she notes that on the back of the image her mother wrote a caption, possibly "to force others' memories into line with her own." It is also a way for the mother to insert herself into this moment. The captions also work to form a sort of family drama, especially when the daughter edits the caption.

The idea that the meaning of a photograph can be interpreted in many different ways reminds me of the phrase "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder," (the meaning is in the eyes of the beholder as well). I also enjoy how Kuhn notes that photographs of the past deal a great deal with the future, "family photographs may affect to show us the past, but what we do with them - how we use them - is really about today, not yesterday." Which makes sense when relating to the idea that we are shaped by our pasts.

Richard Prince: New York Times

    After reading this article I understand the type of work that Richard  Prince is trying to create, but I don't exactly agree with it. In class we discussed how using someone else's image can send a different message by the artists gender or title, but I still feel unconvinced that it should be appreciated as much as the original artist. The article stated that one of Richard Prince's photographs sold for over one million dollars setting a record. It does take talent to blow up an image without pixelation, but to have that kind of compensation for something that isn't his idea. The creativity behind the images is what is truly valuable and I feel like he is jeopardizing that. Prince says" I just want some recognition and understanding." This may be true, but you don't see him donating some of the money he sells his photographs for to the original artist.

Art in the age of Terrorism

Reading the article by Karen Randell sparked a memory of my own. Looking back on 9/11 I can visually see the towers falling and the repeated images and film that played on during that day as well as the rest of the week. I was in 5th grade and still young to understand but still have never forgotten what those images are in my head. As Randell says about the Michael Moore film where he plays the sound first then the image and the impact it has on us, is interesting to me. As they once you loose your sight your other senses become heightened and I feel like in this sense it does. The sounds can not be forgotten and is a powerful tool. With photography we rely very much on our eyes and what the photographer wants us to see, but when we see nothing and hear it we create our own image in our head. As if we were our photographers. I think that is important to hold onto especially with news castings and social media its hard to differentiate the real from the "real". 

Lee MIller : Illuminations

    I found this reading about Lee Miller's time in the military fascinating considering she went from being a model to an extremely different career as a photographer for the military. I believe we discussed in class how Lee Miller was able to photograph such gruesome scenes because she used the camera as a shield to separate her from the action. After reading this passage it is obvious that she was very close to the live action of the war. The way she talks about the war it almost seems that she was a solider. Being a women in this position must have felt out of place to some degree. At one point the soldiers asked her to grab bottle of wine for them and the way she talked about this it seemed like she constantly was asked to do tasks like this from soldiers. Having had such a traumatic childhood I feel like it would be hard to be around mostly men all the time. Most of the reading however, was of battle tactics and live action. It seemed more like a war movie then about photography in the context of a war. Ultimately I feel her photography was so successful because she didn't take the events that happened in the war personally and just focused on creating excellent photography.

Speaking the Unspeakable: Invisibility and Trauma after 9/11

In Art in the Age of Terrorism Speaking the Unspeakable: Invisibility and Trauma after 9/11 I was interested in Randell's notion of the displacement of trauma in Hollywood. More specifically, when Randell discusses how Spider Man 2 engaged issues surrounding the attack on New York. The author explained this idea of displacement by stating that the event is scripted into the film under fantasy pretenses. It is this placement in the fantasy world that seemingly mitigates the viewers anxiety regarding the issue. The act is extended by taking ordinary people and turning the hero spotlight onto them. These films are aimed at strengthening the idea that the average, real person has the capability to conduct heroism. This act also reinforces one's pride in their country and culture, which Randell discusses when talking about the citizens standing up for Spiderman in Spiderman 2.

Surveillance : Candid Street Photo After 9/11

I read the post titled 'Candid Street Photo After 9/11'. It was not necessarily something that I paid a lot of thought to, whether or not people mind being photographed in public. Candid photography is a beautiful form of photography. It intends to capture moments in their origin, sometimes expressive of raw emotion.

It is important to remember that not everyone equally enjoys having their picture taken and as the photographer, one should be mindful of personal space. As the title implies, the content seems to be driven at how to remain candid and complementary whilst photographing a given subject. The author of the article lists select guidelines as to how to appear as though you are not a threat and are instead intrigued by a particular moment, which I found interesting. These tips are especially useful in the post 9/11 society as people are more vigilant and tend to be more on the look out for something suspicious. This post even addresses proper attire and equipment for street photography in effort to disuade conspicuity.

Nan Goldin

After reading the Nan Goldin piece in Illuminations, I feel as though her work cannot be fully appreciated without understanding the bond that Goldin had with her friends and models. Goldin's explanation of the infatuation that first drew her to take photographs of drag queens is what makes the work emotional and interesting. Pairing the photographs with Goldin's remarks on "gender euphoria" and creating a "third gender" via dressing in drag make the photographs impossible to dismiss, as they have clearly captured something that until Goldin's infatuation, mainstream photography had dismissed. Where others saw freaks or societal pariahs, Goldin saw beauty and possibility, and was able to glorify their lifestyle through her work. Perhaps most impressively is the extent to which Goldin immersed herself in her friends' world to create the work. Although she was initially an outsider, Goldin was able to gain the trust of an entire group of people, and captured an intimacy that cannot be faked.