Thursday Entry: Liminality

"Demand's photographs capture moments that refer to a greater event, a before and after. An abyss might me concealed behind each door and every blind window. Demand's sites evoke scenes and stories in our imagination..."
-Susanne Gaensheimer

Gaensheimer, S. (2002). "Second-Hand Experience".
Thomas Demand, 70-74.

Susanne Gaensheimer's essay, which accompanies a collection of Thomas Demand's artwork, expresses the the essence of the artist's photography, and also ties in to issues pertaining to my own work. Demand, whose final product is not unlike that of James Casebere, photographs a constructed model based upon a charged, pre-existing image. The viewer is thus several degrees removed from the actual scene-which is itself a representation. Demand gives us a specific view of each scene and every object within the photos are essential to its interpretation. Various parts in the compositions lead the viewer towards estimations of the location's significance. We are caught in between moments in his fabricated scenes; as the aforementioned quotation makes clear, the viewer can sense the importance of what has just occurred or will still come. Perhaps it is the overall stillness that pervades in his photographs that suggests a disruption is imminent. The artificiality of the scene lends to the tension as well; the artist must have recreated these scenes for some reason.

This essay has helped to elucidate some of the issues that I have been working out with my own photography. It eloquently addresses the need to envision what has occurred in the scenes that Demand presents us and speaks about the layers of recreation that he plays with.

Thursday Entry: Impermanence

"Photographing spontaneously, (Maxine Henryson) has an instinctive perception of the fleeting moment"
-Mario Kramer

Kramer, M. (2007) "The Visible Time"
Red Leaves and Golden Curtains, vi-vii.

This essay examines the qualities of Maxine Henryson's photographic body of work. The artist creates her colorful abstract images by setting her camera for a long exposure and adjusting the focus while the picture is being taken; the resulting images evoke distant recollections and sensations-strong impressions of past visitations and events. Composition is important to the artist despite the blurred product, and some of her locations are identifiable, but only just. Interiors and exteriors are obscurred with varying degrees of blur; leaving some photographs more discernible. Henryson is prone to travel in search of locations across the sea, shooting most often in Asia and Europe. The author notes that the sense of timelessness in her photographs is furthered by the absence of contemporary technology and advertising. Just like in a dream, it is difficult to place when events take place. Not every element in her images is blurred to the same amount; there are clearer areas in the picture, allowing the viewer's eye to wander about the scene, wondering the significance of the revealed portion, in comparison to the unfocused sections.

I am particularly interested in Henryson's practice of excluding modern cars and technology. It takes away from the effectiveness of a scene to recognize a cell phone or certain new car, and instantly dates the image. The pervasive feeling of obfuscation in these images is clear; you are near an object or in a location yet are not quite able to find all the details that you desire.

Thursday Entry: Impact

"A photograph is both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence"
-Susan Sontag

Sontag, S. (1977) "In Plato's Cave".
On Photography, 3-24.

This essay, the first in Susan Sontag's classic collection, extols the benefits of the still image over motion pictures. She sights the influence and power of the photograph, writing about one image in particular, the Vietnamese girl, stripped of her clothing and running away from a napalm attack during the Vietnam war. Sontag opines that the hours of destruction in Vietnam aired on American television in the 1970s were not nearly as effective and memorable as that single still image of the girl. The critic writes, "Television is a stream of underselected images, each of which cancels its predecessor". With photography, the artist pays closer attention to the composition and details, distilling what could be an entire narrative down to a single frame. In many cases, there are too many images in film to really appreciate the individual shots. Sontag appreciates the tangibility of photographs, whereas film needs to projected through a machine and cannot be physically interacted with to the same extent. She sees photographs as a unique moment in time; more accessible and considered than motion pictures.

While I am a great admirer of film and would love to experiment more with the medium, I do agree with Sontag. Photography can be extremely potent, when handled correctly. As with several artists I am inspired by, I aim to use the medium to relay an entire story, recounted through the visuals, without relying on text or audio.

Thursday Entry: Personification

"The rooms that she generates through her photographs of models are not only the rooms of their former occupants...they are also the artist's own rooms"
-Maren Lubbke-Tidow

Lubbke-Tidow, M. (2007) "Spatial Sense"
Anna Lehmann-Brauns: Sun in an Empty Room, 59-61.



The essay published along with Anna Lehmann-Brauns' series, Sun in an Empty Room looks back at her early student work in order to appreciate her current photographs. Author Maren Lubbke-Tidow relates that Anna's student work was much different than that of her peers in Germany; while others were focusing on conceptual documentary self-portraits, she created miniature model interiors, which stood in for people in her life. She injected each constructed space with a personality and christened each image with a person's name as a title. Anna drew from her own experiences with these individuals, the memories she has of them to fashion her interiors. It is more evident in some images (for instance the boy's bedroom titled, "Sebastian") why she decided to title them after an individual. One photograph displays a vibrant red bathroom complete with a tub bubbling over, curiously named "Mamma". Many of her photos go beyond just the owners' own living space and ask just what it is that we remember of someone. The author can relate to the more obscure spaces, commenting that the smell of a certain brand of soap instantly evokes memories of summers with her grandparents. These rooms function as spaces within the artist's mind, revealing intimate recollections of the people in her life.

When working on my series of interiors, I try to find elements that elicit strong memories for me. I attempt to give life to these areas with objects that I introduce to the scene, or with those that I come across that are already in place. The quality of the lighting, in addition to the physical elements in the photographs help me place my own stamp on the locations.

Thursday Entry: Activation

"It is only through activating the space of the spectator that the space of the photograph begins to take shape"
-Michael Tarantino

Tarantino, M. (1999) "Haunted Houses".
James Casebere: Asylum, 104-115.

Author Michael Tarantino's five part article is a thorough and lucid examination of James Casebere's Asylum series. The series of photographs under consideration is of models of interiors, devoid of people, and featuring blank white walls and careful lighting. The author notes that Casebere's imagery is subtle enough to suggest a narrative and not impose one. The photos are curious and allow the viewer to cull information from various elements. In more than one image, the window in the scene is not letting in enough light to sufficiently illuminate the space, yet the interior is awash with light. Tarantino finds oddities like that to be part of the artist's plan to activate the viewer into giving the work a second look. He sights Casebere's variation of angle and distance between the viewer and the subject as further strategies to gain the appropriate attention that the work demands. There are four photographs depicting the entrance-ways to neighboring tunnels that actively pull in the audience because of their disparate framing (two are vertical and two are horizontal) and the variation of the point of view.

In my most recent individual meeting with Paul, the two of us discussed my need to adopt different points of view, and the distance between the viewer and the object(s) of interest in my photographs. Casebere is very subtle in this regard; his images pull you in and you do not often find yourself questioning the vantage point. I find myself more immersed now in Casebere's work having read Tarantino's article.

Thursday Entry: Subjectivity

"We have long since lost our faith in photography's capacity to show untempered reality. Indeed, it is the very opposite that fascinates us today: the subjective vision of seeing how somebody else sees the world around us, which challenges, awes and inspires"
-Christian Eggenberger

Eggenberger,C. (2004)"Introduction".
Photo Suisse, 11-15.

Critic Christian Eggenberger notes the importance and extreme variety of vision exhibited by Switzerland's photographers. Switzerland boasts a great wealth of talent, which may be a result of its mottled cultural make-up. It is the personality brought to the work by each individual artist that cannot be duplicated, despite similar subject matter. The author writes that native artists Balthasar Burkhard and Thomas Fletcher both work with mountains as a concept, but each man has a unique vision and goes about his photography in a different manner. The former envisions the image before arriving on location, while the latter needs to be on the sight and figures out what he is making after it has been captured on film. Every artist is shaped by personal experiences, which have a way of appearing in their work. As an artist, it is terribly difficult to ignore certain compositions and themes relevant to your own interests.

This collection has introduced me to two artists who have similar concerns, but whose work can clearly be differentiated from the others. Both Katrin Freisager and Olivier Christinat have played with the female form and neutral backgrouds in their imagery, but each one has effectively put their own spin on the subject matter. Katrin's work is more playful and at times dark, while Olivier's can be more deadpan, and focuses more on the power of the model's gaze.

Thursday Entry: Fiction

"Now that we know that photography is capable of deception we may be saddened, hardened, made wiser or more cynical, but at the same time we are freed, able to consider it as more than just a recording medium"
-Luc Sante

Sante, L. (1997) "Science and Fiction"
Making it Real, 8-9.

What is taken for granted today was revelatory and even scandalous during its inception. Author Luc Sante compares contemporary tableaux photographers to the ancient creators of fiction, as well as the filmmakers who made a Victorian audience believe that a steaming train may just plow its way through the screen and wreak havoc upon movie-goers. When photography was in its infancy, it was seen as the medium to deliver the absolute truth; it appeared to be an impartial mirror, capturing an event in perfect detail. Photographers soon began to realize the power inherent in the medium and exploited its believeabilty. Civil War photographer Alexander Gardener seemed to have unsurpassed luck when it came to finding compelling images of the war. Audiences in the 1860s would have been shocked to learn of Gardener's photographic slights of hand. To produce such stirring images of our fallen countrymen, the artist actually moved the dead bodies around the battlefields to create better compositions. He placed rifles on unarmed men and even turned their tortured faces towards the camera, all under the guise of documentary photography. Artists such as Gardener lead the way for photographers such as Gregory Crewdson, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, and Sandy Skoglund, by allowing them to distort what is presented to the viewer.

Fiction has always been my reason for not giving up the ghost. I could not help but concoct ghost stories and legends while growing up in antique houses. I can remember my small bedroom in Connecticut being illuminated at night by the light from the glowing sign out in front of the town's funeral home, which was conveniently located directly across the street. On one occasion, I peered out my window in hopes of seeing the first snowfall of the season, and was instead met with a grim glimpse of a late-night hearse delivery. I call upon my bizarre and unfortunate experiences from childhood and adolescence when creating my narrative series.

Thursday Entry: The Fantastic

"Recording media bear witness to the continued existence of the dead where the human eye and ear cannot"
-Pamela Thurschwell

Thurschwell, P. (2003) "Refusing to Give Up the Ghost".
The Disembodied Spirit, 21-30.

Thurschwells' article serves as a prologue to a collection of photographs, which toured galleries under the name The Disembodied Spirit. Her article, as well as the exhibit, explores the connection between the supernatural, in particular, ghosts, and visual media. Ghosts as subject matter appear as often in contemporary photography and cinema as in imagery created during the peak of Spiritualism in England and America during the mid to late 19th century. There is an indelible link between the need for the supernatural during the age of Spiritualism and in current times. Spirit photography was seen by some as a guaranty of an afterlife, which was a great reassurance to many who viewed those early photographs; not only were their loved ones still around, or so it appeared on film, but they could be comforted by the knowledge that their own existence would not come to a halt once they perished. Movies, much like spirit photography promise immortality as well. A loved one can live on through video footage for as long as the medium exists. Thurschwell examines contemporary films dealing with ghosts, such as The Sixth Sense and The Others to support her claim that recording media can provide proof of the supernatural; it is through photographs and audio recordings of spirits in these two films that their respective protagonists accept their own mortality.

The link between the supernatural and photography is one that has intrigued me for years. The sensitivity of the media has been exploited to create many famous hoaxes, but I still believe that film does possess an elusive quality that can record supernatural activity. Many of my staged photographs are built around ghost stories or are shot in locations that are believed to be haunted; this atmosphere, even if it is just in my mind, helps me to better visualize the abstract nature of the absent subject in my work.

Thursday Entry: Relations

"They are mostly...my own creations. It is almost as if I am writing little narratives about life using my family and friends as characters to illustrate certain realities of experience"
-Jessica Todd Harper

McNear, S.A. (2007) "Interview with Jessica Todd Harper".
Interior Exposure, 1-6.

Photographer Jessica Todd Harper's body of work straddles the line between family portraits and tableaux. In each image, she uses members of her family, often surrounded by the ephemera of home, to tell a story, illustrate tensions, or investigate their personalities. Just as it is hard to classify Harper's photographs, it is difficult to tell which scenes are spontaneous and which have been carefully orchestrated. Familiar faces come in and out of the frame, and the viewer understands the relationships between certain figures over the breadth of the series. The images in this book show the growth of a family over seven years, children grow to their prime, and elderly figures fall out of focus as the years progress. Nearly every image is an interior shot, illuminated by the glow of a nearby window or open doorway. Posture and positioning of the figures is key. The artist's younger sister, Becky grows more self-assured and comfortable before the camera, and Harper's attraction and physical relationship with her husband Chris are evident through their positioning. The artist makes sure to leave objects strewn about her interiors, because each element evokes memories for the family.

Although it may not be as evident in my work as it is in Harper's, I often base photos around experiences with my family. My entire series of tableaux was sparked by a snapshot taken during a family vacation. In this now notorious photo, my father scolds my younger brother while my mother and I stand watching. My body blocks the main action, yet there are enough clues for the viewer to glean what might be occurring. My brothers and father also make several appearances in my images, often disguised or slightly out of focus to hide the frequency of their cameos.

Thursday Entry: Transformation

"By the time we reached the vet's office the dog had transformed into a beautiful cocker spaniel. I looked at him and said, "'You don't look so bad. I think I'll keep you."'
-Jeff Jacobson


Jacobson, J. (2006) "Untitled".
Melting Point, pages 15, 40-41, 74-75.

In brief recollections, photographer Jeff Jacobson reflects on the transitional and formative moments in his life, which form the conceptual core behind his brilliant series of photographs. His photographs often feature amalgamations of images caused by reflections in glass and alterations in perspective. He writes about the process of melting; an older form is distorted and gives birth to a new form. The artist re-examines traumatic moments in his life, and is able to glean a sense of meaning and comfort from them. With candid lucidity he recalls the last words his father spoke to him: "Jeff, you're a nice boy, now leave me alone". Writing about this experience, he is able to reinterpret his pronouncement as a blessing. Jacobson's father, who was suffering from cancer, knew his son's good intentions as he encouraged him to get better, yet he was at peace with the inevitability of his death. Like the photographs he created in the book, the meaning of his father's last words transformed over time.

Jacobson's imagery is vibrant and enigmatic. Deep, unusual colors pour into the frame and lead the viewer's mind wandering. Despite the dramatic feel of his photographs, there is an underlying element of humor in many images. Ancient skeletons, which are featured in multiple images are both grim and absurd.Transformation is one of the key elements of my own work. An unseen act is able to throw a group of onlookers into a state of confused chaos.

Thursday Entry: Saturation

"What makes his photographs of nonevents especially meaningful is his use of color to convey the 'feel' of a particular place. He emphasizes hues that soak the scene or resonate in a critical way, virtually creating effects of sound, silence, smell, temperature, pressure - sensations that black and white photography has yet to evoke"
-Sean Callahan

Werski, T. (1999) "The Tender - Cruel Camera".
The Hasselblad Award 1998: William Eggleston, 4-11.

Author Thomas Werski defends the work of William Eggleston and states that his artwork established color photography as a recognized medium in the article, The Tender - Cruel Camera. Before Eggleston was given the opportunity to present his photographs at the Museum of Modern Art in 1976, only black and white photography was considered "serious", that is to say professional and worthy of critical attention. This said show, which was simlply titled, "Color Photographs", was curated by John Szarkowski, and was berated upon its opening. Eggleston's intensified colors were seen as aggressive and his choice of subject matter confounded critics; many believed that the images on display were haphazardly taken by an amateur photographer, due to their off-kilter angles and mundane subjects. The artist believed in, what he called the "democratic camera", a way of taking pictures in which every object is considered worthy of depiction. He showed ordinary objects in new, unusual ways, and enhanced his images, both aesthetically and psychologically, with a dye-transfer technique to achieve rich colors.

My work owes a great deal to the early color photographers. I try to pay attention to all of the different colors in the images, so that the picture can be interpreted correctly. My color palette usually remains subdued with a few bright elements. When I am making my color tableaux, I ask the models posing in them to come wearing neutral colors, so that I have a base to work up from. I do not want colors in the image to compete unintentionally. I find it most interesting to have at least one deep, saturated color in each image.

Thursday Entry: Suspension

This indeterminate, frozen duration corresponds well to the reflective engrossed nature the characters in her works usually present"
-Alberto Martin

Martin, A. (2001) "Strata of Appearance"
Florence Paradeis, 50-52.

Author Alberto Martin examines the phototgraphy and films of artist Florence Paradeis in his essay, "Strata of Appearance". Paradeis truly exploits photography's ability to suspend action, as the figures in her scenes are caught immersed in their own thoughts. In one half of her dyptych, "Tete a Tete", a female figure pours out a glass of red wine, while beneath the table, a man reaches for a fallen fork. The flow of the wine is suspended as is the man, as he gazes at the dirtied utensil; his introspective stare suggests that he has just been transported to another place. His hand is outstretched but his mind prevents him from completeing the action he set out to perform. Martin writes that Paradeis' photos show gestures that lead to "an interior sphere". It is with an obsessive glance that the heroine in "La cuisinere" attempts to wrap a raw chicken in aluminum foil. Just like in the previous dyptych, the figure in this scene is caught up in her own thoughts sparked by the mundane action of covering a chicken in foil.

Paradeis' work sat with me for a while before I could appreciate it. It was not until I saw the "Tete a Tete" pictures that I began to realize just what the artist was articulating. I love the photographic depiction of suspension and have tried to bring that to my own series. It is the in-between moments, the hesitation between states, that really causes me to pay attention to what is being shown. The figures in my current work are trapped in a similar state between ignorance and full knowledge of what is before them.

Thursday Entry: Unity

"This type of constructive dialogue, carried by a spirit of togetherness, is quite uncommon amongst larger groups of successful artists"
-Rupert Pfab

Phab, R. (2005) "Paradigm and Discourse: The Helsinki School of Photography".
The Helsinki School, 219-222.

Art Historian Rupert Phab's essay illustrates the connections and shared themes interwoven through the artwork of the Helsinki School in Finland. This group of artists were all taught at the University of Arts and Design Helsinki, and share common sensibilities, such as an acute awareness of historical paintings, a robust knowledge and ability to comment on contemporary international art, a sense of reflection on the medium of photography, and a unified mood of contemplation and melancholy. Artist Elina Brotherus demonstrates her appreciation for art history with her series of self-portraits set in disparate landscapes. Brotherus places herself in dynamic natural surroundings and integrates her form, whether naked or clothed, into the composition. Her photographs reference the work of painter Caspar David Friedrich in addition to numerous other artists who have worked with the nude figure in a landscape. Jorma Puranen refers to both art history and the medium of photography with his series of reproductions. By photographing famous oil paintings on display in museums with harsh lighting reflecting off of their surfaces, Puranen comments on the limitations of photographic reproduction and reality. The artists of the Helsinki school are also known for their conceptual, narrative photography and their reluctance to document society in a straight manner.

Unity can be as important within a group of artists from the same school as it is within an artist's own body of work. I have endeavored to allow my concepts to evolve and grow with time. What I have found myself most interested in, the absent subject and liminality, has been present in some form or another throughout my photography. It is fascinating to see how a basic concept can take on different, sometimes divergent, shapes over time.

Thursday Entry: Artifice

"This is not a pipe"
-Henri Magritte

Laakso, H. (2006) "Restless Ways of Worldmaking".
Reality in the Making, 6-7.

The work of artist Ville Lenkkeri is, according to critic Harri Laakso, related to an endless stream of museum-goers passing by an exhibit. Lenkkeri photographs the very type of scene that one would observe in a museum, real life interacting with staged dioramas. These two separate worlds meet unnervingly in Lenkkeri's body of work. Visitors lean against glass cases containing miniatures, and in some images, actually enter the dioramas. Her work is upfront about what is real and what is not. The viewer can easily discern the artificiality of the wax dummies, miniature battlefronts, and taxidermied elephants and lions. Laasko claims that some type of artificiality is always present in this medium,"photography never gives us what it shows". Reality is never truly reflected in a photograph. In a way, these dioramas, like photography itself, are like a memory; the event is represented, but not in an exact, unbiased manner.

Theatricality and a suspension of disbelief are key elements of my own work. I prefer to stage a scene and select gestures and props, rather than just capture an event as it unfolds. The unusual, harsh lighting that I introduce into environments signals a shift from the real world into an enhanced, dramatized tableau. Unlike Ville Lenkkeri, whose work shows a division between what is real and what is false, my photographs are complete works of fiction.

Thursday Entry: Transience

"Don't let me disappear"
-J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

Cruz, A. (2003) "Afterword".
Don't Let Me Disappear, 80-81.

Amanda Cruz considers artist Slater Bradley's series, don't let me disappear an intimate look at the young artist's relationships, his vulnerability, and the fleetingness of life. This series, which includes photographs taken from 1997 to 2003 features several key motifs including hot-air balloons, beached whales, and butterfly catchers. The beached whales are shot in the same warm, romantic light as the rising balloons, and stand at opposite ends of the spectrum from eachother. While both suggest transient moments, the whales' remaining hours of life and the balloon's inflation, one is a sign of defeat and the other triumph. Cruz notes Bradley's comparison of the dying whales to Icarus, who ventured too far and was felled by the sun. Vulnerability and precariousness are shown in the artist's self portraits. In both of the images of himself, he is in hospital garb, shown after a procedure to correct his breathing; he too is fragile and alone. The rest of the images in his series are of personal relationships. The photos of friends and love interests are imbued with the same feeling of transience when grouped along with the aforementioned work. Smiling eyes meet the camera lens, but will soon look away.
Hopefully, that same sense of impermanence lingers in the series I am creating. People are caught in transition from ignorance to knowledge as they begin to react to what is around them. Their gestures, as well as their opinions, are not fully formed. Bradley's photos of dying whales are macabre and beautiful for similar reasons. Bystanders collect around the beached whales but are unable to assist; they just watch the mammals' last moments pass.

Thursday Entry: Gesture

"Gesture, or a visual communication using physical material, can be an autonomous language,a supplement to various other languages, or a medium"
-Lia Markey
The University of Chicago

Dykstra, J. (2006) "Eyes Wide Open".
Angela Strassheim Left Behind, 1-2.

Critic Jean Dykstra's essay looks at the intricate gestures and glances that Angela Strassheim's photography depends on. The author selects a sample of the artist's work from her series "Left Behind", and analyzes it with particular attention to posture and the photographer's youth. One striking example of effective body language is in the image Untitled (McDonald's). In the picture, a young family is seated at the fast-food restaurant, with their hands linked in prayer. The image is interrupted by one of the girls in the family; her's is the only head unbowed. By raising her head and looking in the opposite direction, the teenage girl's gesture suggests dissension and becomes the focus of the photo. A simple adjustment of posture in an image, such as in this tableau, can lead the viewer in numerous directions. Dykstra cites another instance of the importance of gesture in a photograph of a father and son before a bathroom mirror. The father combs the young boy's hair and links eyes with him through the mirror. A great deal of significance is placed upon the gesture of the father's free hand. Placed upon the boy's shoulder, it is both firm and gentle; it shows authority and love at the same time. Their relationship could be inferred by the simple placement of the father's hand.
My current series of photos also depends on gesture. In these tableaux, an event has just occurred and people gather around as witnesses. Their gestures are crucial because they should look spontaneous and unresolved. The body language should mirror the spectators' lack of information and their curiosity.

Thursday Entry: Atmosphere

"the color red attracts and repels. Red is always mesmerizing "
-Anne Varichon

Elms, A. (2005) "Then it's time to unsimplify you...".
Carl Michael Von Hausswolff: Red Empty(Chicago 2003), 1-5.


Anthony Elms' article clarifies Von Hausswolff's series Red Empty (Chicago 2003) and likens it to the film High Plains Drifter. The artist's palette of deep black shadows and saturated reds greatly adds tension to urban structures that would ordinarily go unnoticed. The buildings in this series are classified as in-betweens: "currently negative space, they are not quite ruins". Each structure, whether it be a church or a decaying house, has been highlighted for a particular reason in deep red. The eye is drawn in to these spaces, and the bold, primal color imposes many associations on to the buildings. Red's associations are myriad, and the viewer is given the opportunity to construct narratives with each image. Elms compares this series to the plot of Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter, in that the titular character forces the population of a western town to literally paint all the buildings red, in order to expose corruption and sordid activities. In this way, the townspeople can all share in the guilt, and depravity that leaves no one clean.
Rarely have I seen a series in which each image shares the same atmosphere and tension. Von Hausswolff's sustained sense of drama and unease is something to marvel at. Elms was correct in pointing out the effectiveness of the color red; it is never subtle and can be interpreted in so many different ways. The artist's skillful creation and perpetuation of the sense of atmosphere is something I look to improve on with my own photographs.

Thursday Entry: Composition

" The sensitive eye of artist and viewer tests every picture for balance, a judgment usually rendered naturally by everyone, with or without knowledge of artistic laws"
-Henry Rankin Poore

Beyn, A. (2005) "People's feet only go where their eyes have already been".
Stefan Panhans: Womit wird eigentlich vergoldet bei einem Walduberfall frag ich mich gerade, 106-111.

Ariane Beyn's essay on photographer Stefan Panhans sheds light on the artist's concerns within each image. Beyn compares Panhans' series of young saleswomen, gallery workers, and waitresses to Vermeer's studies of women caught at work in the artist's studio. The composition is of paramount importance in this work. Because of the artist's dedication to composition, Beyn writes that the photographs fall, "somewhere between the staged and the spontaneous". At first glance, these images seem impromptu photographic records of women at work. When examined further, it becomes clear that the photographer has shot these images from an exterior view, behind a wall of glass. Panhans uses the sheet of glass to his advantage, often lining up reflections on the barrier with the subject. In one particular photo, a young woman is seen resting on couch in a department store. The window which separates the foreground from the background is reflecting a red vehicle in such a way that the model appears to be inside it. His fusion of street photography and narrative portraits successfully creates an air of timelessness.

That sense of timelessness is what initially attracted my attention. I find certain images in this series to be reminiscent of Edward Hopper's paintings of women in New York City interiors. Both artists share a similar sense of composition. There is a strong sense in this work, as well as in Hopper's, of uninvited spectatorship, due to the artist's spatial separation from the model.

Thursday Entry: Discourse

"...while photographers were involved with photographic form, artists in revolt against abstract and minimalist art became enamored of photography for its content"
-Andy Grundberg

Galassi, P. (1995) "Photography Is a Foreign Language".
Contemporaries: A Photography Series: Philip-Lorca diCorcia, 5-14.

Peter Galassi examines the artistic climate surrounding Philip-Lorca diCorcia while he was in school, and shortly thereafter. DiCorcia was influenced greatly by the photographic movements of the 1970s and 1980s and found success when he was able to skillfully blend popular styles to suit his own vision. The language of conceptual, Postmodernist photography was spreading throughout the country, and the young artist admired the innovative ideas of Larry Sultan and Cindy Sherman. In addition to the burgeoning wave of conceptual art, diCorcia was exposed to traditional documentary photography through Tod Papageorge, one of his instructers at Yale. In 1990, diCorcia used documentary techniques and cinematic lighting deftly in his Hollywood Series. His approach was similar to that of a documentarian, yet the lighting and ambiguous narratives in the series adhere to the directorial mode of photography.
DiCorcia explores numerous locations in his series, yet the lighting remains consistent throughout. I admire the bold, artificial lighting that he introduces into his tableaux, and strive to link my photographic series together through dramatic lighting.

Thursday Entry: Ambiguity

"The attributes of liminality or of liminal personae are necessarily ambiguous, since this condition and these persons elude or slip through the network of classifications that normally locate states and positions in cultural space"
-Victor Turner, from The Ritual Process

Slemmons, R. (2006) "The Self Seen Double".
MP3: Kelli Connell, 48-51.

When Rod Slemmons first saw the work of Kelli Connell, he was immediately intrigued and confused by the two characters who populate every scene. The body of work in which these characters appear is a series of personal vignettes dealing with relationships. What stands out as odd, is that the two female protagonists evolve throughout the work. In some images, the women, who are both played by the same model, appear to be identical, while in others, one takes on more masculine attributes. Slemmons relates that their relationship can alternately be both homosexual and heterosexual, plural and singular. The sense of ambiguity in the photographs enables the figures to be seen as individuals, or different facets of the same being.
The author compares the subtlety of Connell's manipulated images to plays of Tennessee Williams. He sees the relationship between the two figures similar to the ambiguous relationships found in Williams' plays.
The images that I consider most remarkable in Connell's series, are the ones that hint at events preceding the moment captured on film, those which have the viewer concoct narratives. The ambiguity extends beyond the relationship between the figures and fills the entire scenario. It seems as if entire years have led up to the moments caught between the women in the photos. I strive to provide enough information in my own images, for viewers to construct their own stories.