Final Critique Blog Post

Elina Brotherus -

Elina Brotherus

"Photography reflects reality not through what it shows but through the tension between what it shows and what it is"

Most of Brotherus' work is largely conceptual. She works within what she calls "themes and variations" ("The New Painting," for example), but tries to split theme up with photographs of a different theme so as not to seem too monotonous. Each theme has it's own concept behind it.

Self Portraits

False Memories II
From the series "Das Madchen sprach von Liebe" (The girl spoke of Love)

In the beginning of her career, Brotherus tried to express through her photographs her personal experiences in a way that is universal and can be felt by everyone. In her work the emotion is staged, but we know it is staged. We begin to explore our emotions by exploring the relationship between what happens in real life and what is acted out in the photograph.
Without meaning to, she mostly focused on dark emotions. Photography helped her explore and consequently get over these emotions.

Love Bites I

Love Bites III
Brotherus thought that by capturing her emotions in what was going on in her everyday life that other people would relate. She is interested in the fact that humans all go through the same intense emotions in life.

Suites françaises 2

At this point Brotherus began to leave the autobiographical style for something a little less personal. Suites francaises 2 was inspired by something Brotherus was going through (having to learn a new language), but extended further than just her experiences to a broader theme. These photographs represent feelings of being an outsider. She also addresses the issue of communication and the human habit of putting names to everything.

Happy at last?

In this image we get a sense that Brotherus is confined by the limits of her ability to speak the language. She is even confined to defining herself by the one thing she knows how to say about herself.

This image is similar to the last in the feeling of confinement. There are a lot of things in the image but only a couple of words that can be used to describe what is going on. It is also significant that one of the sticky notes is covering her face. Again, she is saying that, to the outside world, she is only as much as she can convey to others about herself.

The New Painting

Her most recent work is almost devoid of anything personal to her. She has started to explore what a photograph really is and if it can really reflect on life. One of these series is called "The New Painting." The images in this series are meant to relate to famous paintings. She tries express that simple life has always been a subject of art because it is beautiful.

Personnage dans un paysage

This photograph is modeled after Paul Cezanne's "Bathers." Everything about the photo (from the color scheme to the subject matter) is very simple, yet altogether the photo draws strong emotions of tranquility. Brotherus is always concerned with classical elements of light, color, composition, and representation of the human figure, but she uses these as tools to express the concepts behind her work.

Femme Dans A Baignoire
modeled after Pierre Bonnard's "Bathrooms"

Baigneuse, Orage Montant
modeled after the goddess Venus

Model Studies

Like stated before, Brotherus is very interested in the classical elements that make up a photograph. Recently she has focused on the human figure and the interaction of a human figure with it's surroundings, how the lighting changes it, and how it can be interpreted in many different ways. She has devoted a series to the study of these elements.

Model Study 15

The colors, lines, and lighting all work together with the shape of the body in this image to give a natural and organic feel to the photograph. It focuses on the ability for a body to be beautiful purely from an aesthetic point of view. There is no objectifying of the body, instead we are forced to focus on color, texture, shape, and line of the form showing that the body can be a piece of artwork. She purposely took this from an odd angle because she did not want it to be a portrait.

Model Study 5

Again, this photo is more about how the body fits in the environment rather than it being an actual portrait of a particular person. I think that Brotherus did an amazing job matching the lighting on the skin to the tones in the rest of the room. Instead of taking emotion directly from what the subject is feeling, we get the emotion from the cues we can read in the artistic elements used in the photo.

Interesting Artists

The first couple are photographers I found while researching my project. The rest are photographers I have been following a while and I thought other people might like.

Luis Mallo

Sharon Lockhart


Aaron Ruell

Sannah Kvist


Debe Hale


Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison

WIP #4 - Artist Statement help?

So I have sort of hit a wall in finding models willing to participate in this project. This week I will be going to Gainesville to get more "models." Also, I am posting my artist statement in this post because I think it needs some work. If you guys have any suggestions I would REALLY REALLY love some help! Thanks!


Obviously had some cropping issues with the one below, but only when converting it to jpeg. For some reason it didn't want to save as a jpeg so I had to mess with it and this is how it turned out. It doesn't look like this printed out.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

The relationship between a photographer and a human subject is a unique one in portraiture. When photographed, a subject subconsciously gives off clues about who they are as a person. A photograph can say as much about a person as having a conversation with them. When a subject lets someone photograph them, they give them access into their personal lives. But you can also see influence of the photographer in the photograph: in the style, in the subject matter, and in any decisions the photographer made. So while the photograph is a portrait of the person being photographed, the photographer has a say in how the information about the person gets interpreted. The viewer also brings their own predisposed ideas when viewing the photo. The way they interpret the photo is dependant upon their past experiences. What someone gets out of the portrait is a combination of what the photographer, subject, and viewer put into it. Everyone involved in the process exposes themselves to the scrutiny of others viewing the photograph.

I set the subjects up in their own bedroom. This way you can read from the photograph the level of comfort the person feels at having their personal life invaded. The rest of the components are purposely kept the same from portrait to portrait so that it is easy to compare and contrast from one to the next without distractions. The photographs are purposely set up to resemble passport pictures or other commonplace headshots in order to represent the regularity of the invasion of photography in our lives. The photographs are meant to be invasive portraits of the subject, photographer, and viewer.

Book Quiz

The work that most interested me in the book was the portraiture that was a combination of a controlled setting and the unintentional reactions to the settings by the "models." The artists that used this technique are spread throughout the book and their work can be interpreted to have different meanings.

Shizuka Yokomizo

Yokomizo sent letters to random people and told them to be standing in front of their window at a certain time. She went to their house at that time and took a picture of them through the window. Although the same approach was used for all of the pictures, the subjects in the photos make them very different. In fact, by using the same approach for all of the subjects, it makes it easier to compare and contrast the differences between the people. What is really interesting about these images is that they were taken at night, which means that the people could not see the photographer, but could only see themselves while they looked through the window, so the viewer sees the subject as they are responding to themselves. I am interested in this set of photos because it is a kind of portraiture where the surroundings and the the emotion are all natural and so we get a real glimpse of who the person is rather than what they want to look like or what the photographer is trying to make them look like.


Jitka Hanzlova
Hanzlova did a series of portraits where she stopped people in the street and asked to take their pictures. Again, the subjects knew they were being photographed, but in this case they had no time to prepare. We see each individual's reaction to being photographed by the stranger. Since the same treatment is used in all of these photos, the viewer can compare and contrast to learn things about the subjects in the pictures.

Hellen Van Meene
Helen Van Meene's portraits are a little different because the setting is completely set up by the photographer. The only thing not premeditated in the photo is the response of the subject. The surroundings elicit a natural reaction from the subject which Van Meene captures. The reaction of the subject is the main focus of the photos. We can read a lot about the person through the emotions they are emitting. Usually Van Meene tries to capture the awkward and/or emotional state of adolescent girls which is usually a natural response to having a picture taken anyways.

The thing that most interests me about these portraits is the relationship between photographer, model, and viewer. The fact that the subjects know a picture is being taken makes them interesting because each person reacts to this differently. Having your picture taken is a somewhat invasive thing. You know the viewer will be scrutnizing everything about you. The photographer can manipulate things in the photo, but the personality of the subject will always be a part of the photo. The point of view of the photographer will also always be apparent in photographs. The viewer also brings their own set of personal experiences to interpreting the photograph. Portraits are very personal and so they can draw strong emotions from the photographer, model and viewer easily.

Critique

Wedding Photography

So I just got some photos finished from the last wedding I shot so I thought I'd post some here so if anyone is interested they can take a looksie...
I have done a couple of weddings as a back-up photographer for a friend who has been doing weddings for a while now. It's not exactly what I would call "art", but there is some amount of creativity involved and it's a lucrative job for anyone interested in photography.

You can see the rest here.

I don't have a whole lot more to say about this set except if you wouldn't mind posing for one of my pictures let me know because I'm going to need as many models as I can get for this project.

Gorgeous Georges

Georges Rousse

Georges Rousse started out painting murals on walls in abandoned buildings, mostly murals of people. He then moved into painting abstractions of space in abandoned buildings. After painting the building he then photographs the space. The result is a photograph that is kind of an optical illusion, where you cannot tell the difference between what is really in the space and what he painted to look like it's in the space.
The interesting thing about Rousse's work is that although most of the work takes place while he is preparing a place to be photographed, he considers the final piece of artwork to be the photograph of the installation, not the actual installation. This is partly to do with the fact that Rousse uses the framing of the photograph very deliberately to help with the spacial illusion. In each of his photographs there are three important elements: the circle, the frame, and the field. The circle is the space in the picture he has manipulated. The frame is the part of the picture that he kept the same as when he found it. The field is the way he frames the space in the camera. Each of these elements are important in creating the mood and the illusion in the photograph.

In each photograph Rousse creates a new "reality" that is not normally visible. Rousse relates this to a sort of spirituality of spaces, or the existence of things that we cannot see with the naked eye. His photographs of the people painted in abandoned buildings suggest a "spark of light" that was there and still exists there if we pay attention to the details of the abandoned space. In other photographs he shows that some of the original uses for the abandoned building are still there, even though people seem to have deemed it no longer usable. He uses this concept as a symbol of hope for situations that are seemingly hopeless and says "There are always ways of terminating or changing a situation, even the most negative ones."
In Rousse's photographs we see new life in spaces that were at one time abandoned as useless.

soissens 2004
The perspective in this picture makes it seem even more surreal. The concept of this picture is not as abstract as some of the other ones that are more colorful, but the fact that we are floating in midair along with the big black dot gives us the feeling of irrationality while still being subtle enough to not seem completely unrealistic.

martinique 1990
To me this picture says that the world is a canvas.

les mesnuls 2005
I like the use of the mirror in this image. The mirror acts as a sort of portal into a world that is completely unlike the world we live in.

iena 2000
In this photo Rousse used light to distort the scene. This is interesting to me because it is something that you could actually come across in everyday life. I have seen scenes that have been distorted and are hard to make out because of the strange lighting.

geneve 1984
This image is one of Rousse's more abstract works. It is hard to see what is going on even in the parts of the picture that are the original space. The whole photograph reads more as an abstract idea than his other photos.

Easton 2004
This is one of Rousse's images in which he uses mirrors to distort reality. It differs from his other images in mood. This image is clean and modern and doesn't have the abandoned feeling of the other images.

cologne 2002
This picture is humorous to me. It seems like the idea was that someone was making a building and decided to abandon the project and just scratched it out like a little kid would scratch out a drawing that he didn't like. It creates a sense that someone just gave up on the building. It does not create the "hopeful" mood that some of his other works do. It is kind of the opposite.

charles jourdan 1983

This is one of Rousse's early works. The "spiritual" theme that Rousse talks about is really evident in his early works. This image is striking to me because the "frame" gives an eerie derelict feeling, and the imagery in the painting gives off the same feeling of disaster. The image of the ocean as being desolate is mirrored in the desolate feeling of the frame.

Casablanca 2003
In this particular image Rousse painted the area to get it to look like there was a block of color in the room. To me this image demonstrates the importance of having the "frame" portion of the picture. The fact that the frame is recognizable and mundane almost makes it seem believable that there is a block of color in the middle of it. The contrast of real and unreal seems like it could actually exist.

Argentan 1997
This image is a part of Rousse's series of pictures where he cut holes through walls and manipulated whatever was behind the wall. This particular image is interesting to me because it makes me think of what it would be like to be able to see through the walls of an apartment into the next apartment. It toys with the fact that you really have no idea what is going on on the other side of the wall when you are in your apartment. The contrast between the starkness and realism of the foreground contrasts with the colorful fantasy of the background just as your imagination of what is on the other side of the wall might be a little more fantastical than reality.