Andreas Meichsner- "The beauty of serious work"

Andreas Meichsner

Andreas's project called The Beauty of Serious Work Presents product testing by the German Association for technical inspections. The company called TUV us responsible for certifying the safety, performance, and quality of consumer goods and technical equipment. Andrea's work allows for the asking of questions more than it explains what tests they are doing. His idea is to raise awareness to the expectation for high product standards in our society.

To me this is a almost comical look at uses and interactions with everyday objects in ways that we would not expect to see them. This abstract photo peeked my curiosity, to imagine the reasons for these tests and what questions were asked in order to create these tests. The visual narrative displayed by Andrea's work allows a new way of looking at objects we use everyday. The men in the photo appear serious as the title of the work suggests but knowing myself I could imagine the inner kid of each man delighted at the idea of standing on a white couch with their shoes on.

Nan Goldin: "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency" - Michelle Mangan

Nan Goldin

Since the 1960's, Goldin started by taking intensely personal pictures of her loved ones. By 1979, she presented her first collection of photographs of a New York night club - which, after years, eventually evolved into a slide show she named The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. This collection is comprised of over 900 photographs, and is accompanied by heartbreaking musical soundtrack. The snapshots in this ongoing project depict drug use, violent, aggressive couples, and unforgettable, personal moments.

This photo caught my eye because it does not romanticize love, in the way pop culture  generally does. The image catches the painful reality that sometimes happens after having (maybe loveless) sex. It bothers me to see that the man shows no affection towards the woman, while she seems to be longing for attention. Even though it's hard to admit, plenty of women have been in this situation, and this photograph could feel extremely personal to oneself.

Andrew Phelps- "Higley"

Andrew Phelps

Andrew Phelps is an American photographer who has lived in Europe since the 90's. He travels back and forth between the Austrian Alps and the deserts of Arizona. In his collection photos, "Higley", he shows us how urban development is becoming an ever-increasing sprawl. Our farmland plays the price for our consumerism.

This is important set of photos because it doesn't just apply to Higley in Arizona. I can say that to a lesser degree the same thing is happening in my hometown. In Northern Virginia, new stores are created every year. Slowly, expanding into nearby farm land. As a society, we must ask how this may affect us. We are sacrificing  our arable land for easier access to walmarts, target's, and shopping malls. How much growth is too much growth? Will we find out the answer to that question before it's too late?

MARTIN SORRONDEGUY - Caitlin

Martin Sorrondeguy

Since the 1980's Martin Sorrondeguy has been documenting punk music scenes—including U.S., Mexico, Japan, South America, Australia, and Europe—through pictures. While on tour and at shows, Sorrondeguy captures the intersection of gender, culture, and music. His work focuses on people, music, and art that the purposefully avoids mainstream attention. 

I like his work because it shows the changes that punk has gone through since he began taking pictures, as well as differences between specific cities' music scenes. In order to take photographs at punk shows, Sorrondeguy often must put his camera at risk by being a part of the violent audience.

Aaron Hobson - Carley Winiesdorffer

Aaron Hobson

Known as "the cinemascapist," Aaron Hobson utilizes wide shots, similar to those of film and television, in order to instill narrative into his work. Hobson works to single out basic human emotions in his photographs, and aims to create a story or plot in his cinemascapes with unknown outcomes to allow viewers the opportunity to fill in the blanks, diving as far into the narrative and emotion of the work as they so choose.

The cinematic aesthetic of his work really drew me in. The photographs themselves are printed very large, like the viewer's own personal cinema screen and allows you to immerse yourself in the scene. I enjoy that his scenes are full of detail but still vague enough that as a viewer, I can imagine my own story in order to understand and continue the narrative that has been presented to me. It's the 'choose-your-own-adventure' game of the photography world.

Into the light : Khalik Allah - Ayad

Khalik Allah

 

What really got me to see this artist photography was his name Khalik Allah. But whats more interesting is his photography. I truly find it intriguing how he could be able to take those photo of people in the streets night. He managed to be accepted in that what I presumed a dangerous area because most of the photos he take were portraits of homeless, gang and prostitution individual people. Personally, I would find it hard just to go outside in the night alone. Other than that, Khalik Allah didn't just made friends in that area he composed a storyline of what happens in one of those individuals night, a beauty within the darkness I would describe it.

I went on his website and read a lot of people's comments surprised on how this artist managed to pull off such photo with such calmness and intensive tension within photos. Each photo is descriptive story behind it. A fine artist that worth to be noticed.

Jean-Louis Tornato - Ariana Pescara

Jean-Louis Tornato

Everything written about Jean-Louis Tornato is in French, so it is a little hard for me to find information. But I know from my research that he mainly takes pictures of people sleeping. He uses a special night vision camera to photograph single people as well as couples while they are sleeping. This series of photos, however takes place in different parts of Asia. He took many pictures of natural landscapes and in this series the pictures at the beginning are bright and happy landscape photos with very bright almost neon colors. As the series goes on the photos get darker and this is the last one in the series. It is not only dark because it is a night photo, but it is a photo of a cemetery which gives it even more of a dark connotation.

I was drawn to this photo because I love the colors. I also love the sense of darkness and gloom that it has. To me it almost looks like someone is parked in front of this scene with their headlights on to visit a deceased relative. I also like how the blackness of night is almost like a frame for the bright greens and oranges in the picture.

Jean Depara- Anne-Sophie Attoungbre

Jean Depara

Jean Depara (1928-1997) was an Angolan-born photographer who spent most of his life in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. In 1954, Depara was made official photographer for the Zairian singer Franco and for the National Assembly of Democratic Republic of Congo.
Depara was known for his active presence on the social scene of Kinshasa.
What I like about Jean Depara is his choice to represent Kinshasa in a way that differ from most photographs of Africa at this time. He deliberately chose to represent the festive and joyful moments of the like there rather than the the sad ones, which, to me, is also a way to celebrate the true face of this continent.

Artist Post - Aidan Beckman

In his book The Pond, John Gossage juxtaposes nature and litter to create quiet, thoughtful landscapes that highlight man's impact on the earth. From shots of assorted litter to a house shrouded in greenery, many of the photos in The Pond are far from bleak, despite their complete desaturation.

I enjoyed how these photos highlight the persistence of nature's beauty, despite the carelessness of man. They also seem to hint that the Earth is not yet too far gone, and that our negative impacts may yet fade, or be reversed, in the same way that they slowly set into the environment.

Sibylle Fendt - Jon Faulconer 

Sibylle Fendt is a photographic artist who explores a person's inner self and mental health through photographs.  In this particular project, she explores a couple in their daily lives. The woman in the portraits had been diagnosed with dementia and Fendt tries to capture the woman's daily struggles through photographs. 

I found Sibylle Fendt very interesting because her images are so crisp and absolutely beautiful.  I really enjoy how she tries to show a person’s mental health and inner self through photographs and I think she shows this very well.  I really like how she shows the woman happy in most pictures even though she has dementia and while it is extremely difficult and almost impossible to show someone's mental health in a photograph, I think Sibylle Fendt does this as best as possible.  

DEMO Artist Post - Your name

Brian Ulrich

Brian Ulrich is a photographic artist exploring the bottom reaches, the crumbs, of consumer society.  That which we desire must go somewhere after its use is discarded.  Here, in his thrift store images, he traces upwards the route such items take.

I am very interested in how our desire for stuff has a negative impact on the most impoverished amongst us for want is replaced with need and the monetary spoils of a poor persons low wage is then directed back upward to those who first made the product, then sold the product, then bought it back cheaply, only to be resold, are now contributing to a cycle of poverty.

WELCOME SUMMER 2014 STUDENTS!!!

Welcome to the Summer, 2014 incarnation of the VCU Digital Photography blog.  A blog overview and specific instructions to follow!