Idea 8: Dolls

Dolls

The definition of doll is:

–noun

1. a small figure representing a baby or other human being, esp. for use as a child's toy.

2. Slang. a. a pretty but expressionless or unintelligent woman.

b. a girl or woman, esp. one who is considered attractive.

c. a boy or man who is considered attractive.

d. (sometimes initial capital letter ) an affectionate or familiar term of address (sometimes offensive when used to strangers, casual acquaintances, subordinates, etc., esp. by a male to a female).

3. Informal. a generous or helpful person: You're a doll for lending me your car.

Dolls represent human beings.  Archaeological digs have found remnants of dolls showing that dolls have existed since the beginning of mankind. Most recently in my work, I have become interested in making the figures (me) in my photographs give the impression of being a doll. Because I am working in a small scale setting (doll house) I figured it would be most interesting if I became visible as a doll with in the doll house.  I am attracted to dolls because of their stillness and how peaceful they appear. Most dolls are designed as toys.  Children play with dolls stimulating their imagination and role playing allowing them the freedom to create their own unique stories. Dolls began as toys but were often also used in religious ceremonies, as well as in folk art cultures.  Today many dolls can be acknowledged as art.

Works Cited

Dictionary.com 20 October 2010. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/doll>.

Wikipedia. Doll. 20 October 2010.  18 October 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doll>. 

Artist Post 7: Ruud Van Empel

Ruud Van Empel

Ruud Van Empel born in 1958, in Breda, The Netherlands graduated in 1981, from his hometown school, the Academy of Fine Arts St. Joost.  Empel began his career as a designer but focused mostly on film and photography.  Empel takes and collects pictures of models, leaves, flowers, plants, etc putting them in a database.  Empel when editing his photographs (mostly in Photoshop) uses these images that he collects to produce superior collage encouraged photos.  According to Empel in reference to his work “Coincidence is very important in making collages, I photograph all kinds of things, just following my fascinations, later these photo’s happen to come together in one collage. Sometimes it takes years for a photo to get into my collages, lots of photo’s I take never get in.”  (Interview)

Empel describing his work states, "I use one model's forehead, then another one's nose, then I add on light to the nose and the pupils in the eyes. I'm just mixing, mixing, mixing. Even the upper and lower lips are separate montages." He is creating a mosaic of facial features to craft a unique imaginary individual. (Paris)

Empel enhances images making them appear dreamlike and painterly.  The characters in Empel’s photographs display as doll like characters.  I am interested in Empel’s work, the way Empel edits his models giving the impression that they are doll like and fragile.  In my work I want to try and expand on this idea of making myself appear more delicate and doll like by editing and exaggerating certain features. 

Rudd van Empel’s work often consists of young children in tropical forest settings.  Empel finds leaves and flowers intriguing and captivating because of this he places his models in these tropical like settings.  Empel has produced a new kind of collage photography.

Empel’s work negatively scrutinized in the past for how dark the children (African Children) are in his compositions challenges this inquiry.  Empel states, "When people think of childhood innocence they automatically think of a white girl with pale skin, which is strange because all children - whether they're black or white - are the same. And in Christianity, the colour black is often used to express something negative. The devil is black; death is black. I wanted to challenge these conventional perceptions and show that a black child can also represent beauty."  (Ruud Van Empel)

Ruud Van Empel, Generation #1 2010, Panorama Works

Cibachrome 49 x 130 inches

Ruud Van Empel, World #1 2005

Cibachrome, 41.34 x 59.06 inches

Ruud Van Empel, Untitled #1, 2004

Cibachrome, 33.11 x 46.81 inches

Ruud Van Empel, Brothers & Sisters #3, 2010

Cibachrome 47 x 47 inches

Book: Ruud van Empel Photoworks. January 2009. Published by PhotoWorks.  Amsterdam text by Maartje van den Heuvel. 

Current Exhibits:

Flatland Gallery, Utrecht, The Netherlands, Solo Exhibition “Wonder” October 30- December, 2010. 

Paris Bejing PhotoGallery, Bejing, China, Solo Exhibition December 11, 2010- February 1, 2011. 

Interview: http://web.ruudvanempel.nl/publications-press/reviews/320-foggy-grizzly-interview-with-ruud-van-empel-2006.html

Samson, Anna.  Galerie Rabouan- Moussion Paris Review. http://web.ruudvanempel.nl/publications-press/reviews/245-exhibitions.html

Ruud Van Empel. 16 October 2010.  2010. <http://web.ruudvanempel.nl/home.html>.

Ruud Van Empel.  16 October 2010.  14 May 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruud_van_Empel>. 

Competition Entry #1

I entered the Photographer's Forum magazine competition. Here's proof and the images i entered. 

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

Artist Post 6: Bill Owens

Bill Owens

Bill Owens was born in 1938, in San Jose, California. Owens was born near the end of the Great Depression and right about the time suburbs started to spring up and become popular.  Owens studied and graduated in 1963 from the Industrial Arts at the University of Chico in California.  Later Owens married and joined the Peace Corps with his wife and both taught English at villages in Jamaica and India.  While abroad teaching Owens became interested in photography after having the opportunity to watch a photographer document Peace Corps work.  This led Owens to buy a camera; he began documenting the villages as well.  Owens later became a photo editor for the San Francisco State Daily Gator.  In 1968, Owens became interested in photography as a source for social commentary after documenting student movements at Berkley and San Francisco.  After World War II, houses began to be mass produced creating miniature towns, “… by 1980 more than 60 million Americans had moved from the cities to the suburbs.” (Zanfi)  Owens would document the development, the architecture, and the people who lived in these suburbs.  Owens photographs simple everyday lives of American middle class. Owens received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1976. 

 Bill Owens is known for taking photographs of suburbs.   In Owens book, “Suburbia” he documented everyday lives of people and would also document specific holiday events such as, 4^th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, etc.  I find that my work to some extent relates to Owens, in my project I am playing on this idea of storytelling. Also, I am interested in how American families participate in holiday events.  I am trying to show how oddly similar photographs can be, and how people do play roles in life, which can be captured through a picture.  Owens said in relation to people enjoying his work, “People can identify with a little girl’s messy room (“Responsibility”), there’s an immediate identification. You can’t avoid being part of the middle class. People want that home, it’s freestanding, they have a back yard, a lawn, their own sense of privacy.”

Bill Owens, 1970-1972, Responsibility

"I wanted Christina to learn some responsibility for cleaning her room, 

but it didn't work."

These original iconic American family photos that Owens seemed to take inspire my project that I am currently working on.  I appreciate Owens work for the fact that he was genuinely interested in making the suburbs appear appealing to people who otherwise consider the suburbs as boring.  Owens stated in an interview, “Most people look at the suburbs as “ticky tacky” little houses and say that there’s no culture, and then they go back to the city. I’m not interested in the city, I’m interested in the middle class…I was interested in making the suburbs a better place to live.”

Bill Owens, 1970-1972, Chinese Food

"Because we live in the suburbs we don't eat too much Chinese food.

It's not available in the supermarkets so on Saturday we eat hot dog."

Bill Owens, 1970-1972, Richie

"I don't feel that Richie playing with guns will have a negative effect on his

personality. (He already wants to be a policeman.)"

Bill Owens, 1970-1972, Watching the traffic go by

"Our house is built with the living room in the back, so in the evenings we sit out front 

of the garage and watch the traffic go by."

Bill Owens, 1970-1972, Christmas?

"We really enjoy getting together with our friends to drink and dance.

It's a wild party and we're having a great time."

Bill Owens, 1971, Rake Leaves

"My dad thinks it's a good idea to take all the leaves off the tree and

rake up the yard. I think he's crazy. 

Book: Bill Owens Photographs.  Introduction: A.M. Holmes editor: Claudia Zanfi

Interview with Bill Owens and Art a gogo

<http://www.artagogo.com/interview/owensinterview/owensinterview.htm>.

Bill Owens most recent art exhibition I found was at the James Cohan Gallery.  In their New York gallery on June 26 - August 1, 2008.

http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/bill-owens/exhibitions/

Works Cited

Lang, Doug. Photographer, Brew Master, Publisher: Bill Owens. Comes Full Circle.  Art a GoGo. 2000.  6 October 2010.

<http://www.artagogo.com/interview/owensinterview/owensinterview.htm>.

Bill Owens (photographer).  Wikipedia. 30 September 2010.  6 September 2010.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Owens_(photographer)>.

Bill Owens.  6 October 2010. <http://www.billowens.com/>.

Zanfi, Claudia. Bill Owens Photographs.  Damiani 2007.  

Idea 6: Acting

Actors

–noun

1.

a person who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, television broadcasts, etc.

2.

a person who does something; participant.

According to wikipedia:

Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play.

Acting is storytelling.  My thoughts for this project originate with the idea of storytelling and the roles people play in their lives and how everyone can be described or matched to a specific character. I ask my models to pose in specific situations reenacting a character they have seen or a roll they actually participated in or played in real life.  I found it interesting that when I explain to someone who is posing what I want him or her to do for me they respond as “Oh, yeah I used to do this all the time when I was small.” This is comforting to me that they have indeed engaged in these roles before.  I don’t want people to deduce that I am assuming everyone has the same style photographs and that all families behave the same way.  However, I am trying to show how oddly similar photographs can be, and how people do play roles in life and that it can be shown through a picture.  




Works cited


Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/acting 


Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting

Artist lecture- Julika Rudelius

Questions and response

1.) Do you feel disturbed or offended by what you discover from your work?

2.) How do you choose your subjects based on your themes for your videos, and do you let your subjects know what the theme is before filming them in these situations?

 Julika Rudelius

Guest lecture Julika Rudelius is a documentary filmmaker and photographer.  I found Rudelius’s work to be very compelling and motivating. Rudelius’s technique for getting her subjects to confess (tell all) to the video camera was intriguing.  Rudelius would get her subjects to wear an earpiece as a result making it easier to direct them and ask questions as they communicate with the camera.  Then again, I was slightly disappointed when discovering that Rudelius directs her models body language.  What attracts me most to Rudelius and her work is how she plans and manipulates her subjects so delicately prior to capturing the essence of her creation.  Rudelius comes up with an idea and will plan it for months making sure she has the right people, background, and dialogue set up for each project.

Rudelius seemed to answer both of my questions during her lecture. I value how Rudelius finds her models for each specific topic that she works on. Rudelius noted that she would study areas (parties, events, political, etc) and people based on the particular project she was working on at the time.  For instance Rudelius found well to do Hampton’s women in her piece “Forever” which consisted of women, poolside sharing their ideas on happiness.  Rudelius went to the Hampton’s and would hang outside of parties and events until she could meet potential subjects for her films.  Rudelius more or less answered my other question; Rudelius stated in the beginning of her lecture, “ I get triggered by anger and discomfort.”  I value how Rudelius will create her projects relating to things that occur in her personal life and things that interest her in general.

Overall, I really enjoyed Julika Rudelius’s lecture.