Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Idea 7: Iconic

Iconic

 –adjective
1. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of an icon.
2. Art . (of statues, portraits, etc.) executed according to a convention or tradition.

Throughout history, various religious cultures[1] have been inspired or supplemented by concrete images, whether in two dimensions or three.

While looking back on my most recent artist post I noticed that I used the word iconic to describe the family photos that Bill Owens took.  I began thinking what the word iconic means.  Iconic is tradition and convention; I am representing the idea of creating traditional images.  One doesn’t set out to make an iconic image however after taking an image they may become iconic.  A photograph becomes iconic by being a recognizable image.  The word icon often refers to religious characters, however with a more modern reference “icon” can represent a person, symbol, or an image, which exemplify another meaning or story. 

In my work, I’d like to think that these photographs I am creating are not iconic but that the situations and ideas behind them are in fact iconic.  Because the images I am creating are familiar repeating images my audience has seen in the past they appear to be iconic. 
              
                                                                         Iconic image
VJ Day, The Kiss, 1945 Alfred Eisensaedt



 Works Cited

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

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/iconic

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