Thursday 14 March 2013

Visit to the Institute of Contemporary Arts

Juergen Teller

On the 13th March 2013 I travelled to the Institute of Contemporary Arts, in London to observe the Juergen Teller's gallery; 'Woo!' As I entered the gallery I noticed three pictures straight away;

I noticed these pictures due to their positioning and large scale in the first room of the gallery. My initial response to the pictures wasn't shock, but I would say I was quite surprised at the content displayed in the pictures. The pictures seemed very intimate in more than one way; the fact that the model (Vivienne Westwood) has allowed Juergen Teller to photograph her without any clothes on presents an intimate relationship between them  both. Also, the display can also be seen as intimate to the public due to the explicit nature of the images. However, the scale of the images takes away the intimacy of the display as they are so large so that we notice them.  

I believe that all of the photos displayed in Jeurgen's gallery were very personal as the photos display a sort of hidden meaning behind the model used, which is what I think was the purpose of his exhibition. (This relates to theme; Cover and Obscure). As he has mentioned in a video that he didn't want to be restrained, or involved with any dress code shows that he wanted to portray very personal photos. 

I like the way Juergen Teller has thought about the display and scale of the photos within the gallery; the large scale of the photos that should be kept hidden/covert are exposed which shows that Jeurgen Teller has brought the covert and obscure out in the obvious. 



Man Ray

This is one of Man Rays photos that was displayed in the National Portrait Gallery that I visited. 


Man Ray was a modernist artist from America, born on August 27 1890 and died on November 18 1976 and took this photo in 1929. He spent most of his career in Paris and took part in the Dada and Surrealist movements. Although he produced work using a variety of media, he considered himself a painter. He was well known for his 'avant-garde' photography as well as his fashion and art photography. He is also known for his photograms which he personally named 'Rayographs'. This is a technique that I have been inspired by to use for my final outcome. 














Tuesday 12 March 2013

Initial Ideas

Idea 1:
Using Hans Peter Feldmann and his photo collections as an inspiration, I will use this theme as one of my initial ideas. I will explore this theme in two different ways using different 'ideas' of obscurity and covertness. I intend on using footwear for my first idea where I will take photos of different trainers at different angles. This will relate to the theme of covert and obscure as the footwear belongs to someone but looking at the photo we are unaware of who it belongs to, therefore the owner is hidden. Another idea that I will use is taking pictures of facial features; mouths and eyes only, rather than the whole face. This will make the model seem covert and obscured as the rest of her body will be unseen and left unknown, while only a section of their faces will be revealed.

Inspiration photos:


Collage made by Hans Peter Feldmann



















Idea 2:
Keith Piper and his 'Go West Young Man' has inspired me to explore the theme: Quest To Find Truth using my mother. Throughout this project he has created collages using photos revealing the truth behind something. I will use his ideas to take pictures of my mum doing certain things (cooking and reading), and modelling with specific possessions of her own (jewellery) to reveal the kind of person she is. Using these pictures I will create a collage. 


Inspiration photo:
Image created by Keith Piper












Idea 3:
Using Sannah Kvist's theme of 'All I Own' I will use my sister as a model and take pictures of her surrounded by her belongings to visually reveal the person that she is. I can develop this idea using specific objects that my sister owns to make photograms. I think that creating photograms would be a better way to develop a final outcome compared to my first idea using this theme. This is because a photogram of someones belongings can seem obscure as the technique allows the object to look abstract and keeps the person covert.

Inspiration photo: