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Richard Misrach
Misrach focuses his photographic work on how society and nature interact: sometimes in harmony and sometimes in chaos. His serene beach landscapes present tiny, anonymous humans, lounging peacefully near a vast and engulfing ocean. His land scenes, however, show man's creations, larger in size and more jarring to the eye. While his beach scenes show nature as the predominant force, clearly in control, his land scenes show mankind's attempt to take over nature, overwhelming the scene with lifeless structures and objects.
While my work doesn't deal much with humans and nature, it does deal with humans and the enviroments they chose for themselves. My work is about human to human and human to sturcture interaction, which speaks similarly to what Misrach does.
http://www.edelmangallery.com/misrach.htm
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/misrachinfo.shtm
http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/exhibition/beach
Do Ho Suh
A brilliant sculptor/painter/craftsman, Do Ho Suh explores the idea of community. In most of that work, the community he shows us is relative to power structure, and often depicts power attempting to overtake the community. His work touches on recent power struggles in Communist China, such as in one piece where he created an impassable barrier made up of tiny, brightly colored, human figures. Another, in which giant feet step on their own shadow of tiny men shows the losing battle between the community, what has been created for the community, and what now creates the community. Do Ho Suh struggles to find the balance between individualtiy, community, and anonymity; something I am also questioning.
Do Ho Suh is represented by Lehmann Maupin. His page is at:
http://www.lehmannmaupin.com/#/artists/do-ho-suh/
Solitary
"Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxoriuosly immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your won presence, rather than of the abscence of others..." -Alice Koller, author.
If I had read this quote prior to starting this project, it would have been the inspiration for starting this project! One of the main aspects of each photo that I enjoy most is the fact that none of these people are affected in a negative way by their solitude. Instead, they go on with daily life, enjoying hobbies and completing tasks. They are none the wiser.
Solitude is often seen in such a negative light. "Hipsters" are considered the people who go out and socialize the most, inmates are put into solitary confinement if they act up, and people are expected to be married by they are thirty. God forbid they become an old woman with a dozen cats. Although we are social creatures by definition, solitude can be positive. What happens when no one else exists?
Inane
Adjective
1. lacking sense: inane questions. 2. empty; void.
Noun
1. something that is empty or void, especially the void of infinite space.
My current project is focused around spaces void of normal human activity. The space creates a sense of awkwardness. Although this awkwardness is apparent to the viewer, the subjects of the photographs seem unaware of it, carrying on with "business as usual" as if the scene were bustling with activity.
This also makes the scene unreal; there is no reason for these people to be acting as they are at that moment in time. This hopefully will provoke questions within the viewer. My work is in part to examine one's individuality, what and who we are without the influence of our community and our society. Am I who I say I am without the people around me? Do they help define me? Who would I become without them? These are some of the questions I want my work to bring up.
Lajos Geenen
Geenen questions the belief in the reality of the photograph. We have often discussed the association between photography and the real world, which is what sets photography apart from other arts. Whenever an artist wants to show the viewer that something has happened, or that something was created, they turn to photography, whether they are sculptors, painters, performance artists or photographer by definition. In journalism, a strict code of ethics binds photographers and, by publishing a photographer, the media stands by its truth. Geenen's work asks how real the imagery is. Each element in his work did, technically, happen, but it is doubtful that it would have happened without him forcing it. Does this make the photograph any less real? Were these elements even in the same place at the same time? Geenen often asks these unanswerable questions.
Geenen has his own website (http://www.lajos.nu/) and can also be researched here:
http://www.artnet.com/Galleries/Artists_detail.asp?G=&gid=613&which=&aid=424415248&ViewArtistBy=online&rta=http://www.artnet.com
Tableau
Adjective
-1. A work in which narrative has been distilled into a single image.
-2. A preconceived narrative created through a composition of props, gestures, and the style of the work of art.
Although this is a very generic term in photography, I take it to mean purposeful storytelling. In my work, I strive mental dialogues, where the viewer can't just look at the image for it's beauty or composition. I want something in the scene to provoke a narrative, while leaving something out of the scene so as not to follow a stereotypical narrative. Without tableau, I believe photography can too easily fall into being strictly documentary. With tableau, the viewer is left to question reality.
Society
"Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals." -Oscar Wilde
I happen to agree with this statement. I realize that this quote states something very similar to what I said about "culture", but to me they are two very different things. Your society you can escape, your culture you can't. Within the society I live in, there are so many different cultures that I couldn't name them all even if I had a world atlas. Society to me is governmental. It is the ruling presence over everyone in a specific location. It is divided up into social class instead of race or religion.As a result of this division, it encourages judgment and assumption much like culture does. It is for this reason that it affects my work. The viewer is forced to make several assumptions about the people in my work, not just questions like "Are they crazy?". Instead, the viewer automatically and subconsciously dissects the models image, breaking them down into range, gender, beauty, apparel, etc. This will always affect the work I make, even if I were to silhouette everyone.
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