Activity 14 - Writing
I have chosen Edward Weston because whilst researching his images for activity 6 I was truly inspired by his images. I found his images to be breathtakingly beautiful. I was in awe that someone could make a vegetable look sexy.
His images not only tell us about the object, they also have a feeling of true beauty. The reasons we like certain shapes and forms are not really understood but his images are pleasing. The curves of a body or the voluptuous curves and shimmering surface of the shell are so striking; we can gaze at them for ages and really appreciate their beauty.
As part of the F64 club, he and his fellow practitioners were dedicated to their style of ‘Straight photography’. They had a passionate commitment to the lens
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Rigorously considered compositions, and impeccably wrought contact prints in the service of Modernism.
A craftsman with a camera, Weston wed machine-age aesthetics with vernacular subjects, pursuing Modernism as a way of seeing rather than through things seen.” (Abbott 2005:5)
One of the reasons I love going back and using film is because if forces you to slow down the process, use the camera and think more carefully about what you are photographing. That’s just using a film SLR, by using a medium format it slows you down even more. This is why I find straight photography so inspiring, although I love digital photography and its capabilities I fell in love with photography with black and white film and an old SLR.
Thankfully I can switch back and forth from the two forms easily and do so often.
Bibliography
Fig 1. edward-weston.com 2016, E Weston, Nude, 1925. (online image) Available at http://edward-weston.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Nude-1925-40N.jpg. Accessed on 05 January
The lovers of sounds and sights, I replied, are, as I conceive, fond of fine tones and colours and forms and all the artificial products that are made out of them, but their mind is incapable of seeing or loving absolute beauty. And he who, having a sense of beautiful things has no sense of absolute beauty, or who, if another lead him to a knowledge of that beauty, is unable to follow — of such an one I ask, Is he awake or in a dream only?
Fuss and Barthes, they share an interest in photography, they share an interest in the foundation and principles of photography, moreover they share an interest in photography that is deeply personal. Fuss takes the camera out of photography. Barthes takes photography out of art. Both men want to get to the essence of what a photograph is, one by thinking and writing about it, and one by doing it. In this paper I will show how Adam Fuss’ work matches up with and demonstrates the ideas of Barthes’ in Camera Lucida.
Peter Gasar one of the great Swiss photographers demonstrates a photolytic style that sits amongst the leagues of the best landscape photographers in history, such as Galen Rowell and Ansel Adams. He has an ability to create amazing intricate photos out of nothing. The only thing I wish he had was a firmer grip on the subjects he
..., the broader feel of the scene. He wants us to take in the entirety of the painting but have a moment to catch the individual scenes within it, like the couple dancing, the man in the corner rolling his cigar, or the women in the front talking to the man. We do get places where our eyes can rest, but in general your eye takes in the swirl of modern life and pleasure.
The Greek’s images also possessed two important ideas that brought the soul of the artist and subject to the surface while still capturing the passion and action of the movement and story: noble simplicity and quiet grandeur. Greek images contained faces that were full of expression but were also balanced because they were not overcome by pain or passion because they still had nobility of soul which creates a sense of tranquility even in the midst of rage, fervor, or desire.
Though most works of art have some underlying, deeper meaning attached to them, our first impression of their significance comes through our initial visual interpretation. When we first view a painting or a statue or other piece of art, we notice first the visual details – its size, its medium, its color, and its condition, for example – before we begin to ponder its greater significance. Indeed, these visual clues are just as important as any other interpretation or meaning of a work, for they allow us to understand just what that deeper meaning is. The expression on a statue’s face tells us the emotion and message that the artist is trying to convey. Its color, too, can provide clues: darker or lighter colors can play a role in how we judge a piece of art. The type of lines used in a piece can send different messages. A sculpture, for example, may have been carved with hard, rough lines or it may have been carved with smoother, more flowing lines that portray a kind of gentleness.
Some of Sontag’s comments relate to Barthes and Benjamin. Modernism was a term that they used to alter and hide the social and nature uses of photography. Sontag relates to Barthes by how photography is always most often a representation of something. That of which has to do with ethics. Along with how photography is growing and becoming more industrial with technology.
Irving Penn has always strived for the best presentation of his work, he has become a master printer, revitalizing the platinum-palladium process as well as working with new techniques. The combination of innovative photography and meticulous printing has made Irving Penn one of the most significant photographers of the twentieth century.
When looking at the influence of the reign of Queen Victoria it is almost impossible not to look at the birth of photography. In a book written by Getty Museum Curator Anne Lyden, Victoria’s influence on photography is looked at intently, from her first time encounter with the new technology to her famous Diamond Jubilee portrait. Victoria was able to use this new technology from a young age in a way that it would take years to become main-stream. That photography was not just an artistic medium but was an instrument of propaganda. (Lyden, 2014)
I addition, the painter ability to convince portrays fabric of different types of the marks to make him a great painter. In a dimensional work of art, texture gives a visual sense of how an object depicted would feel in real life if touche...
subject’s action. Many works of his time period were sculptures that were meant to be
This analogy may sound somewhat biased, but it is a statement of truth. Shooting film takes patience because you only have so many rolls of film to edit and splice together before you run out. With digital film, you can shoot as much as you want or as little as you want; it doesn’t matter because you can always just go back to edit and add everything in the scene like lighting, animation, background, colors, you name it. Digital film is all about creating the hyper real.
Leonardo Da Vinci was an amazing artist, and has created some of the most known creations of the renaissance.One of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous pieces is the Mona Lisa because of the different aspects that it portrays. Leonardo strengthened the effect by creating an astonishing sense of the textures of things seen. Using his legendary sfumato, he achieved the appearance of flesh in such delicacy, as Vasari said, that any artist would tremble and be amazed. (Paul Barolsky, 15) The Mona Lisa’s smile embodies the inner tranquility of her animo or soul. Such
Many believed that Modernist works were not “art” because they did not always look like real life. But what is “real life”? A new outlook on reality was taken by Modernists. What is true for one person at one time is not true for another person at a different time. Experimentation with perspective and truth was not confined to the canvas; it influenced literary circles as well.
At an essential human level there is recognition of beauty and creation, as Plotinus believed. There is potential for subjectivity in art and personal preference, but the principles of universality and the ability to incite emotion set apart fine art. Beauty, in the traditional concept, is irrelevant to fine art. What is beautiful changes and is subjective, so the artist does not have to capture what is beautiful in the traditional sense, but rather an idea or concept that possesses merit. Art may not be beautiful but can still possess meaning, such as Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” Though the subject itself may not be objectively pretty, capturing the expression and mystery makes the painting itself valuable and meaningful. Beauty in fine art is not a matter of the physical image as much as the expression, message, or emotion it incites. For that reason, beauty can be frightening or sad, as well as happy and peaceful. In fine art, the artist seeks not to capture the beauty of an object or item, but the feeling that viewing this brings. This is the concept of experiencing what the artist feels and thinks, beyond the physical work