AH = Andrew Hooper
JB = Jonathan Blaustin
AH - How did you become interested in photography
JB - I grabbed a camera before embarking on a big road trip across the US. The rest is history.
AH - Are you a modernist or a postmodernist
JB - I incorporate ideas from both Modernism and Post-Modernism, but don't think that either philosophy
is particularly relevant anymore. I think it's time for a new name for our techno-globalized, interconnected 21st C world. Right
now, I'd go with Post-human.
AH - Was there a Marxist element to your project or was it just a dislike of cheap food
JB - Neither. Definitely not Marxist, as I read the man's work in college, and don't particularly agree with his ideas. And while I admit that I don't like cheap, nasty fast food, I do understand that some people can't afford healthy calories and still feed their family.
AH - Do you think the simplicity of your photos makes portraits your subject matter better
JB - Yes.
AH - How important is the idea of class in your work
JB - Somewhat important, particularly as class is an under-discussed subject in the US.
AH - Do you support a more localised idea about food production (i.e. buying food that was grown locally)
JB - Absolutely. It's a great system on many levels.
AH - Was the look of your work more about function than aesthetic style or beauty
JB - Both. It served both conceptual and aesthetic purposes.
AH - Was it hard to get the project displayed/exhibited
JB - Not really. The photos debuted in a museum, then went to a gallery, and blew up on the Internet the following year. Securing gallery relationships can be tricky, but just getting photos up on a wall is kind of easy, I've found. When in doubt, DIY.
Saturday 18 June 2011
Monday 13 June 2011
Herefordshire
I've entered the Herefordshire fringe competition, open here. The top prize for the competition is £2000 plus the opportunity to undertake a socially engaging project within Herefordshire.
I sent in five pictures from my documentary project I did about stone house. All the photos were of rubbish that people had left in the area. They show a grim but beautiful portrayal of a mostly suburban area, revealing things about the choices that we make every day and what they tell about us.
I sent in five pictures from my documentary project I did about stone house. All the photos were of rubbish that people had left in the area. They show a grim but beautiful portrayal of a mostly suburban area, revealing things about the choices that we make every day and what they tell about us.
Sunday 6 March 2011
Hidden City Exhibition
YAY my first exhibition.
Ok so it was only one picture and i didn't make any money but still its a start. My photo was part of an exhibition run by a group called Part Exchange, the title of the exhibition was "the hidden city" and it was held at the barbicain theater.
My photo was the one of the car under a sheet in the first picture, there where more people exhibiting but i don't have pictures of there work.
Ok so it was only one picture and i didn't make any money but still its a start. My photo was part of an exhibition run by a group called Part Exchange, the title of the exhibition was "the hidden city" and it was held at the barbicain theater.
My photo was the one of the car under a sheet in the first picture, there where more people exhibiting but i don't have pictures of there work.
Tuesday 15 February 2011
Thursday 10 February 2011
First Trip to Stonehouse
I am currently doing a project with a group called part exchange called hidden city. I am going to be photographing the Stonehouse area of Plymouth. This is some of the results from my first shoot.
Tuesday 8 February 2011
The Will to Knowledge
"The Will to Knowledge" is the first book in Michael Foucault's series of the "history of sexuality". In it he looks into the idea that sex was repressed, and finds that in contrast to idea of complete silence on the subject there was an explosion of people talking about it obsessively.
He looks at the western practice of the Confession, the idea that you should reveal and confess every thought and desire, that you should continually search yourself for evidence of deviants.
He then examines how this was then taken up by the emerging field of psychology, which the categorised it and reinforced the idea of the pervert.
He describes this medicalisation of sex as creating a form of power knowledge, power created by knowledge, that became the main argument for repressing sexuality. He final state explicitly that sexuality is a social construction and that what we think as normal or natural is made purely by society.
He said that that their where 4 technologies of power used to create and control sexuality.
1. The use of contraception to control population, either by arguing that we need more or less people
2. The hysteria of women, how’s mind is constantly on sex
3. The creation of the perverse (the homosexual, the paedophile, the zoophile)
4. The idea of the masturbating child
His work has been a significant cultural and academic text and has been a major influence in queer theory. I am currently reading his second book, “The use of Pleasure” and have already brought his third book.
He looks at the western practice of the Confession, the idea that you should reveal and confess every thought and desire, that you should continually search yourself for evidence of deviants.
He then examines how this was then taken up by the emerging field of psychology, which the categorised it and reinforced the idea of the pervert.
He describes this medicalisation of sex as creating a form of power knowledge, power created by knowledge, that became the main argument for repressing sexuality. He final state explicitly that sexuality is a social construction and that what we think as normal or natural is made purely by society.
He said that that their where 4 technologies of power used to create and control sexuality.
1. The use of contraception to control population, either by arguing that we need more or less people
2. The hysteria of women, how’s mind is constantly on sex
3. The creation of the perverse (the homosexual, the paedophile, the zoophile)
4. The idea of the masturbating child
His work has been a significant cultural and academic text and has been a major influence in queer theory. I am currently reading his second book, “The use of Pleasure” and have already brought his third book.
Monday 31 January 2011
Iain McKell and the subcultures
McKell grow up in a hotel in Weymouth and managed to get a job as photographer taking pictures of tourists. Capturing everything from photographers with monkeys to girls with “kiss me quick” hats on, McKell managed to discovered the essential British seaside holiday ten years before Martin Parr’s “New Brighton”. The book “home town dream” is full of the kitsch eccentricity complete with nostalgic 70’s fashion and facial hair.
There is also an element of voyeurism in his work, whether it young girls changing on the beach or photographing people in cars looking out with binoculars, that would make even Weegee proud.
He site one of his influences as the American photographer Diana Arbus, for instance this photo of a child in a Batman mask and swimming trunks has a unmistakable similarity. The mask hides his identity and makes his head look disproportionally large whilst his barely clothed body gives him an innocent fragile look.
There is also a large amount of violence in some of those photos, as he interacts on the various punk and skin head groups that were at large at the time. Stating that whilst he was behind the camera he felt invisible.
This series ultimately show him growing up into a young man mixed up in the various sub cultures and his love of music, women and horrible lens flare.
His latest series is of what McKell calls “the new gypsies”, people how are not descended from Roma but chose to live that lifestyle. They where an offshoot of the new age travellers how abandoned their buses and took up horse drawn carriages.
He spent just under a decade photographing them, originally planning to stay a mere three months on the project. This gave him the time period to get to understand this unknown and undiscovered tribe.
Capturing a group of people who live the hippy lifestyle instead of just preaching about it, they are at once connected to nature and disconnected from conventional society. He also states firmly that it is not a romantic life style but a practical one.
He concentrates on photographing people as it is evidently them who define the life, humanising this align subject instead of focusing on the dramatic differences in their modes of being. By doing this he has managed to break down the barriers to this strange group, the most notable example is when he took the super model Kate Moss to meet them, doing a fashion shoot in the midst of the camp. Thus he does what he does best, bringing this extraordinary subculture into the ordinary mundane world.
There is also an element of voyeurism in his work, whether it young girls changing on the beach or photographing people in cars looking out with binoculars, that would make even Weegee proud.
He site one of his influences as the American photographer Diana Arbus, for instance this photo of a child in a Batman mask and swimming trunks has a unmistakable similarity. The mask hides his identity and makes his head look disproportionally large whilst his barely clothed body gives him an innocent fragile look.
There is also a large amount of violence in some of those photos, as he interacts on the various punk and skin head groups that were at large at the time. Stating that whilst he was behind the camera he felt invisible.
This series ultimately show him growing up into a young man mixed up in the various sub cultures and his love of music, women and horrible lens flare.
His latest series is of what McKell calls “the new gypsies”, people how are not descended from Roma but chose to live that lifestyle. They where an offshoot of the new age travellers how abandoned their buses and took up horse drawn carriages.
He spent just under a decade photographing them, originally planning to stay a mere three months on the project. This gave him the time period to get to understand this unknown and undiscovered tribe.
Capturing a group of people who live the hippy lifestyle instead of just preaching about it, they are at once connected to nature and disconnected from conventional society. He also states firmly that it is not a romantic life style but a practical one.
He concentrates on photographing people as it is evidently them who define the life, humanising this align subject instead of focusing on the dramatic differences in their modes of being. By doing this he has managed to break down the barriers to this strange group, the most notable example is when he took the super model Kate Moss to meet them, doing a fashion shoot in the midst of the camp. Thus he does what he does best, bringing this extraordinary subculture into the ordinary mundane world.
Friday 28 January 2011
Eadweard Muybridge was famed as being the first person to create moving images but his influence has fallen far more into the realm of artist than film directors. He managed to create landscapes that where as technically accomplished and aesthetically pleasing as Ansel Adams, pioneering the way for photography as a serious art form.
These landscapes are a mix of the untouched romantic view of nature, the vast uninhabited tundra of Alaska and the mountains of the Yosemite national park.
Contrasting with his is his documentation of the modernisation of America, the building of the railway and the people, mainly Chinese labours, how built them.
It is also worth noting his inclusion of the indigenous population of America, in part this was due to their exoticism, and part propaganda against them. But it is not true to say he did not respect them, for instance he used the Native American names in some of his landscapes.
The focus of the exhibition was on his study of animals in motion, pictures of horses or people walking with a grid as a background. He showed movement from a scientific and objective point that is reminiscent of the Bechers photos of water towers. His subjects were depicted naked in an attempt to show them naturalistically and for their use as anatomical pictures for artist and physicians, but at the time the general public almost certainly viewed it as pornographic whatever Muybridge’s intention were.
Unfortunately these images were not as objective as Muybridge believed, he frequently showed the men doing athletic activities such as boxing and women doing less strenuous tasks such as bathing. This gender discrimination raises the question of the photographer’s ability to record objectively
Muybridge was a genius at marketing but what he sold most successfully was not his prints but the idea of the observational nature of photography. His early work was clearly modernist whilst his studies of animals in motion was evidently postmodern
Muybridge's work has influenced many artists, from Francis Bacon to the Becher school of photography. He was also a pioneer in make moving images and was highly technically accomplished and played a part in the emergence of both photography and cinematography.
His landscapes clearly inspired people like Ansel Adams whilst his studies of animals in motion could be seen reflected in the work of more modern artist. The question that remains hardest to answer is, is he a good modern artist?
These landscapes are a mix of the untouched romantic view of nature, the vast uninhabited tundra of Alaska and the mountains of the Yosemite national park.
Contrasting with his is his documentation of the modernisation of America, the building of the railway and the people, mainly Chinese labours, how built them.
It is also worth noting his inclusion of the indigenous population of America, in part this was due to their exoticism, and part propaganda against them. But it is not true to say he did not respect them, for instance he used the Native American names in some of his landscapes.
The focus of the exhibition was on his study of animals in motion, pictures of horses or people walking with a grid as a background. He showed movement from a scientific and objective point that is reminiscent of the Bechers photos of water towers. His subjects were depicted naked in an attempt to show them naturalistically and for their use as anatomical pictures for artist and physicians, but at the time the general public almost certainly viewed it as pornographic whatever Muybridge’s intention were.
Unfortunately these images were not as objective as Muybridge believed, he frequently showed the men doing athletic activities such as boxing and women doing less strenuous tasks such as bathing. This gender discrimination raises the question of the photographer’s ability to record objectively
Muybridge was a genius at marketing but what he sold most successfully was not his prints but the idea of the observational nature of photography. His early work was clearly modernist whilst his studies of animals in motion was evidently postmodern
Muybridge's work has influenced many artists, from Francis Bacon to the Becher school of photography. He was also a pioneer in make moving images and was highly technically accomplished and played a part in the emergence of both photography and cinematography.
His landscapes clearly inspired people like Ansel Adams whilst his studies of animals in motion could be seen reflected in the work of more modern artist. The question that remains hardest to answer is, is he a good modern artist?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)