Seminar on Charlotte Cotton
In our seminar this week, we were given different chapters from Charlotte Cotton's "The Photograph as Contemporary Art". As I was not present for this seminar due to illness, I decided to choose a couple of pages that I found interesting.. Each page had one photographer, one of their images and a small section of text explaining what the work was about, and where their inspiration came from. I chose to look at the work of Gregory Crewdson. Crewdson states that almost all of his work are produced through memory of his childhood. "His images are a mix of the bizarre and the disturbing, yet are also highly camp and entertaining."
Crewdson worked on a film set to produce his Twilight series, where he documented the home life of a number of models. The amount of effort and time that is put into each individual image is incredible. Each scene is planned and prepared to perfection so that the message is conveyed clearly and simply.
Some see Crewdson's work as strange or even disturbing, but each image uses beautiful colour and detail to really show the beauty of the model. The messages behind his images can be difficult to interpret, but I think this really adds to the personality of Crewdson as a photographer. For example, in this particular image, it makes the viewer ask 'why would the girl be standing alone, naked , in front of a mirror?' The answer could be as simple as the fact that she was getting dressed, however, it also brings about the metaphor of loneliness or self-consciousness. This would be one of my favourite images by Crewdson because of the way the model is in the centre of the frame and the eye is drawn directly to her body.
Secondly, I really liked the work of Thomas Demand. Demand uses the presence of random objects in his images. He starts his construction process with a photograph of an architectural place; then he builds a simplified model of the place in his studio using paper and card. He often leaves pieces of the wall uncovered to show that it was only a reconstruction of the place.
I think that the lack of models in his scenes gives the images a sense of eeriness and discomfort. The scenes almost look abandoned and haunting because there are no people in the specific place. However, I do really like these images because I like the simplicity of the composition and the scene itself. Although the simplicity of the images shines through, I think that if I were to take these images again, I would use more colour and contrast throughout the image.
Crewdson worked on a film set to produce his Twilight series, where he documented the home life of a number of models. The amount of effort and time that is put into each individual image is incredible. Each scene is planned and prepared to perfection so that the message is conveyed clearly and simply.
Some see Crewdson's work as strange or even disturbing, but each image uses beautiful colour and detail to really show the beauty of the model. The messages behind his images can be difficult to interpret, but I think this really adds to the personality of Crewdson as a photographer. For example, in this particular image, it makes the viewer ask 'why would the girl be standing alone, naked , in front of a mirror?' The answer could be as simple as the fact that she was getting dressed, however, it also brings about the metaphor of loneliness or self-consciousness. This would be one of my favourite images by Crewdson because of the way the model is in the centre of the frame and the eye is drawn directly to her body.
Secondly, I really liked the work of Thomas Demand. Demand uses the presence of random objects in his images. He starts his construction process with a photograph of an architectural place; then he builds a simplified model of the place in his studio using paper and card. He often leaves pieces of the wall uncovered to show that it was only a reconstruction of the place.
I think that the lack of models in his scenes gives the images a sense of eeriness and discomfort. The scenes almost look abandoned and haunting because there are no people in the specific place. However, I do really like these images because I like the simplicity of the composition and the scene itself. Although the simplicity of the images shines through, I think that if I were to take these images again, I would use more colour and contrast throughout the image.
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