Submission

One of my images I submitted to the "Lipstick and Rouge" show got accepted. 

Artist Post 12: Julia Fullerton- Batten

Julia Fullerton-Batten

Julia Fullerton Batten was born in Bremen, Germany in 1970.  Fullerton-Batten attended Berkshire College of Art and Design, assisted for five years and then began to develop her own photographic style.  Fullerton-Batten was later signed up with a German agent and began receiving jobs that way boosting her into her professional career. Fullerton- Batten has received numerous awards including Communication Arts, Association of Photographers Awards (AOP), PDN/Nikon Self-Promo, and more. Julia is inspired by everyday life, art and cinema.   Julia Fullerton-Batten currently lives in London. 

Fullerton-Batten plays with scale especially in her “Teenage Stories Series.”  Julia Fullerton- Batten creates scenes (models) and photographs girls interacting with the scenes. Fullerton-Batten seems to enjoy the difference of scale between humans and the models she creates.  Fullerton-Batten said in reference to her project “Teenage Stories,” “The girls I photograph in these miniature villages interact with them much like children interact with their real surroundings, living inside their own dreams and fantasies rather than living in a specific house on a specific street. In their minds they can be giants moving through our world whilst always remaining separate to it, cocooned in their own dream like existence.”

Fullerton-Batten stated in reference to her work, “As soon as I saw the first of the miniature village I knew it was the perfect backdrop for this series. The strangeness of these environments perfectly echoes the strangeness I feel when I raid my own memories looking for events that I can turn into pictures.” Julia Fullerton Batten’s work interests me because of her use of models that she creates but also I appreciate the overall environment that she creates within each photograph.  

Julia Fullerton Batten’s work has a very distinct style.  Fullerton-Batten’s photographs often contain muted tones, with expressionless models, and very unique clothing chosen for her models, often uniforms.  Fullerton-Batten also uses flash when taking photographs however she often uses the flash to create shadows going in the wrong direction, making her final image slightly awkward.  Fullerton-Batten stated, “I like the light in my pictures to appear that it’s coming from the wrong place… “People who don’t really understand photography look at the pictures and think ‘there’s something a bit weird about that, but I don’t know what it is.’”

Julia Fullerton- Batten, Marbles, 2005

C-Print 16" x 20"

Julia Fullerton- Batten, Book, 2005

C-Print 16" x 20"

Julia Fullerton- Batten, Broken Eggs, 2005

C Print 16" x 20"

Julia Fullerton- Batten, Reflection in Water, 2005

C-Print 16"x 20"

Interview:  http://www.influxinsights.com/blog/article/891/influx-interview-photographer-julia-fullerton-batten.html

And http://www.valeriehersleven.com/pdfs/press/20.pdf

Works Cited

Julia Fullerton- Batten 21, November 2010. <http://www.juliafullerton-batten.com/>.

Farrell, Ian.  The Photography of the Month: Julia Fullerton- Batten.  February 2006.  21 November 2010.  <http://www.valeriehersleven.com/pdfs/press/20.pdf>.

InFlux. Interview with Julia Fullerton- Batten. 21 November 2010. <http://www.influxinsights.com/blog/article/891/influx-interview-photographer-julia-fullerton-batten.html>.

Idea 12: Wonderland

Wonderland

Recently, I watched the remake of Alice and Wonderland starring Johnny Depp, I hadn’t seen this movie (Alice and Wonderland) in years and quite frankly did not remember the storyline.  One of the first scenes in the movie is of Alice trying to enter this ‘wonderland’ and she drinks a liquid to shrink down enough to fit through the door.  To Alice’s dismay she left the key on the table and as a result had to eat a mini cake to grow tall again.  I did not remember any of this shrinking and scale play in this movie but as an adult now watching this film it interests me. 

Alice and Wonderland defines as

–adjective

resembling a dream or fantasy; unreal: an Alice-in-Wonderland world of incompleted projects and wishful thinking

Overall, I found this movie interesting.  It was interesting to see a variety of scale play normal, to large, to small, to smaller, to normal again.  It reassured me in that with my project I don’t necessarily need to be the same scale in all of my pictures. 

Artist Lecture- Alexandre Singh

Alexandre Singh

Guest lecture Alexandre Singh is an artist and performer.  I found Singh’s work to be very interesting and compelling.   Singh’s work appears to be derived mostly from novels, stories, myths, and history.  Singh seems to relate much of his work to math and old logic, which I found intriguing.  What I enjoyed most about Singh’s lecture is how he displayed his transition from one idea or theory to the next.  Singh stated that his work is “never finalized” which I found fascinating because one can see how his more could continue on because Singh’s topics, ideas, and theories can continue.  When Singh described his piece, “Assembly Instructions” to us (the audience), and explained how each section of the work displayed a different topic it made me wonder it I could see the same connections that he makes through his work.  Now after hearing Singh explain how his ideas and concepts come about, how his projects are displayed makes more sense to me.

Singh did not seem to answer my questions during his lecture.  However, I found one of the questions he answered after his lecture to be very appealing.  A member of the audience asked about the audience’s role in his work and how he expects them to respond to his artwork.  Singh replied, “If you want people to drink the poison you have to put a lot of sugar on the spoon.”  Singh also stated that he makes his artwork for himself and that it is an added bonus if we understand it however he tries to give us all the information for the audience to understand it on their own.

Overall, I found Singh to be interesting and refreshing for giving a different pace of lecture.

Alexandre Singh, Assembly Instructions (Tangential Magick), detail

Artist Questions: Alexandre Singh

Your work seems to be created with great precision and diligence, planning extensively for each project, taking extensive notes on each project.  Do you plan everything, from your concept to how your work will be displayed before you start a project?

Assembly Instructions, installation view

In your piece “Assembly instructions,” an installation of over 120 works that were mapped out on the gallery walls all expanding from one thought. Your work has been described as collage work however it is not a traditional collage form.  How did you connect all these pictures to this word and how long did it take you to decide how to display this project?

Artist Lecture- Sally Mann

Sally Mann’s lecture at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was very intriguing and informative. Mann’s lecture was different than the VCU artist lectures I have been too, in that there were a series of questions asked to Sally Mann and she would respond to each one.  This however allowed Mann to discuss a larger variety of her work.  Mann during her lecture was very modest Sally mentioned that she enjoys hearing how much people enjoy her work, because in Lexington, VA everyone knows her as her husband’s wife. 

Sally Mann made interesting comments, “that one should never put out a body of finished work until you are one third of your way through a new body of work” Mann stated that artists should follow by this rule so that they will not be emotionally attached to the work by the time it gets reviewed.  In regards to trying not to be emotionally attached to her work, Mann said, she tried to photograph her father after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor however she was not brave enough to do it.  I thought this was interesting because like Sally my father too has had medical issues in the past and could never imagine recording it through photography because it is so personal. 

Sally Mann seemed to answer both of my questions during her lecture.  Mann with her new work exhibited at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, “The Flesh and The Spirit” contains some color photographs, Mann commented that, “she pairs the scene to the medium, if it’s appropriate she will use any medium.”  Mann’s new work, “The Flesh and The Spirit,” includes ambrotypes and gelatin-silver prints made from wet plate negatives.  Mann used these different techniques pushing the limits making the theme of her work appear to be more vulnerable.   Regarding Mann's new photographs of her and her husband she remarked that her husband was very brave to let her photograph him, the work is based on a women’s perspective photographing a man.   Sally Mann’s lecture was overall very captivating. 

Artist Post 11: Sonja Braas

Sonja Braas

Sonja Braas was born in Siegen, Germany in 1968. Braas graduated from the University of Dortmund in 1997, receiving a degree in visual communication and photography.  While attending the University of Dortmund, Braas received the Fullbright Grant in 1995, which allowed Braas to study photography abroad at the School of Visual Arts in New York.  Braas has received many awards over the years including the Kodak prize for Young Artists, the Focus prize, the Otto Steiner Prize and more. In addition, Braas has her work published in many publications Braas’ most well known publication is, “Forces.”   Braas currently lives and works in New York as well as Germany.

At a first glance Sonja Braas’ images appear to be beautiful, perfect photographs of natural catastrophes.  As one examines Braas’ work it becomes relevant that the majority of these images would be very difficult to take in the suggested conditions.  How does Sonja get so close to photograph that volcano? Sonja Braas in fact constructs extraordinary models of natural catastrophes and then photographs them.  Braas in her series, “You Are Here,” consists of photographs of both natural and artificial landscapes.  Braas would photograph zoological gardens (man made gardens) and real (natural) landscapes and merge the two photographs together making it hard for the viewer to tell what is natural and what is not.  The photographs from this series, “You Are Here” appear very surreal due to this process.  Braas tries to show with her work that no nature is independent of subjective perception (Sonja).   Sonja stated in relation to her work,  “We actually only encounter exotic landscapes at the zoo or at botanical gardens.”  (Sonja)

Tom introduced me to Sonja Braas’ work and like most of Braas’ viewers I did not realize her photographs were of models she created.  Sonja Braas’ work attracts me because of its obscurity and diligence. “Sonja Braas offers us photographs of models of volcanoes and tornados that she herself constructed with extraordinary precision as a basis for ideal and perfect images that simulate natural events.” (Manipulating Reality)  Generally, I am attracted to how subtle Braas work is and its realistic impression.

Interview: I could not find an interview with Sonja Braas 

• I could only find one quote by Sonja Braas (I included a quote regarding Sonja’s work)

Most Recent Gallery Exhibition: Gallery Claude & Fabian Walter, in Zurich Switzerland, in 2009.

Forces, #01, 2002 Sonja Braas

67" x 59" C- Print

The Quiet of Dissolution, Tornado, 2005, Sonja Braas

73" x 55" C-Print

The Quiet of Dissolution, Storm, 2006, Sonja Braas

73" x 59" C-Print

You Are Here, #18, Sonja Braas

38" x 30" C-Print

You Are Here, #30, Sonja Braas

38" x 30" C-Print

Works Cited

Manipulating Reality.  Strozzina. 12 November 2010. 17 January 2010?. <http://www.strozzina.org/manipulatingreality/e_braas.php#content>.

Sonja Braas.  Deutsche Borse Group.  12 November 2010.  <http://deutsche-boerse.com/dbag/dispatch/en/kir/gdb_navigation/about_us/30_Art_Collection/40_artists/11_braas>.

Sonja Braas.  12 November 2010. <http://www.sonjabraas.com/>.

Sonja Braas. Galerie Tanit: The Artists. 12 November 2010. <http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.galerietanit.com/bios/braas/braas_bio.htm&ei=VNbcTLXuMYL58Aav5IjgBQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCEQ7gEwAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsonja%2Bbraas%2Bbio%26hl%3Den%26prmd%3Do >.