'I ' l l b e y o u r m i r r o r'

S e m e s t e r A P h o t o g r a p h y

'G l a m o u r'

S e m e s t e r A P h o t o g r a p h y

S c a r e d

The blank pages

Of my diary

That I haven't touched

Ssince you left me

The closed blinds

In my home

See no light of day

Dust gathers

On my stereo

Cos I can't bare

To hear the radio

The piano sits

In a shaded space

With a picture

Of your face

I'm scared

To face another day

Cos the fear in me

Just won't go away

In an instant

You were gone

And I'm scared

Coffee stains

On your favorite book

Remind me of you

So I can't even look

The magazines

You left on the floor

You won't need

Them anymore

A towel left

Hangin on the wall

No sign of wet foosteps

In the hall

There's no smell

Of your sweet cologne

I'm lying here alone

I'm scared

To face another day

Cos the fear in me

Just won't go away

In an instant

You were gone

And now I'm scared

I'm scared

To face another day

Cos the fear in me

Just won't go away

In an instant

You were gone

Now I'm scared

In an instant

You were gone

And I'm scared

- Duffy

D a v i d   S i m s

' T h e   B e a t '

David Sims is another one of my favourite Fashion Photographers, if you haven't guessed from all my blogs so far Fashion Photography is probably my biggest interest. Just like Mario Testino, Nick Knight and Patrick Demarchelier, David Sims sits among my favourite photographers in the Fashion Industry. And what better way to finish my 12 blogs than with one of my favourite campaigns directed and shot by him for the Burberry 'The Beat' Fragrance made in the Summer of London 2007. 

For me David Sims is a brilliant photographer anyway (and I've included some of his other work below) but my favourite work I've ever seen him do was shooting the campaign for Burberry, the idea of 'The Beat' fragrance was to get younger and more youthful people interested in what is usually a very old and gone brand, and he didn't disappoint. He made the campaign fast and edgy with harsh lighting and quick movement, conveying a youthful and updated look to the brand of Burberry, consequently along with the campaign, the model and all the media advertising 'The Beat' was one of the biggest selling Fragrances of 2007, making it a complete success and I think when you look at the shoot and the end results it's very obvious why.

S e m i o t i c s

R o l a n d   B a r t h e s

Semiotics, also called semiology or semiotic studies, is the study of sign processes, both individually and also grouped together in systems of symbols. It includes the study of how meaning is constructed and understood in humans. Semiotics are included in everything and are considered vital in communication.

Semiotics can be very important also in the world of Art, in Photographic pieces different symbols and different images can give the various viewers totally different feelings towards a piece of Art.

Roland Barthes born in 12 November 1915 and died in 25 March 1980, Roland Barthes's wrote the semiotic book Mythologies, the book centered around the idea of interrogating various pieces of cultural material to expose (to society) how society used them to assert its values upon others. In The Fashion industry Roland Barthes showed how this abuse of signs could easily be translated into words and showed how the industry were using Semiotics to in pact on their customers. In this work he explained how in the fashion industry any word could be transformed with idealistic emphasis. For example Barthes pointed out, if trends in fashion say that a ‘blouse’ is ideal for a certain situation or event, this idea is immediately accepted as truth, even though the actual sign could just as easily be changed with any other item in the Fashion Industry for example a ‘shirt’, ‘vest’ or any other fashion item. 

N i c k   K n i g h t  

T h e   N o m i n e e s 

For the 2007 CFDA Awards, America’s most prestigious fashion awards ceremony, world famous fashion photographer Nick Knight was asked to make a film and shoot a photo shoot featuring the nominees for the Best Womenswear Designer category, a list that included Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler and Oscar de la Renta. 

On Friday 20 April before the actual awards SHOWstudio (Nick Knights own photographic company) broadcasted the making of the film from a London-based studio, starring model of the moment Agyness Deyn who wore creations from each designer’s last two seasons’ collections. The finished film was later shown on the SHOWstudio website and was featured at the CFDA awards ceremony in June that year.

It's one of my favourite films using photography, and as a fan of Nick Knight I always like his work but this one in particular I think is fantastic, his choice of model (Agyness Deyn) and the way he uses the lighting and her movents along with the shadows to show off the collections is amazing. 

M o d e r n i s m  /  P o s t m o d e r n i s m 

Postmodernism, like modernism, follows most of these same basic principles, rejecting boundaries between totally different forms of art and throwing away rigid genre distinctions set way back in the day and instead emphasizing a new way of thinking and working, often using irony and playfulness to create artistic pieces.

Postmodernism Art favors being more free that past Art, instead of figures and objects sitting for portraits or oil based landscapes, Postmodernism created a new way of thinking and making art, artists were allowed to be a lot freer and the basic rules of Art were thrown into the rubbish bin, Jackson Pollock is an example of an Artist who instead of working in a standard basic way, use the rules of Postmodernism to create their work in a positive way.

While postmodernism seems very much like modernism in these ways, it differs from modernism in its attitude toward a lot of these trends. Many modernist works try to achieve something by trying to change the world in some way, meaning is important in Modernism, most artists using the Modernism approach find they are trying to create meaning out of the world in a productive manor. Postmodernism, in contrast, doesn't think about the world in anyway, but rather celebrates that. The world is meaningless? Let's not pretend that art can make meaning then, let's just play with nonsense and enjoy it. 

L  a  d  y    G  a  g  a  

A   M o d e r n   D a y   W a r h o l ? 

I'm a huge fan of Lady Gaga's and to most people I speak to they think she's just an attention seeking Popstar, however I feel if you look deeper you begin to see a woman who isn't interested in becoming a Popstar she's interested in becoming a world Icon. 

" W a r h o l   w o u l d   h a v e   L o v e d   Y o u " 

On her last visit to London she upped the pace and began Photographing the Paparazzi while they photographed her using the idea of irony and playing with the idea of 'Fame' again like Warhol did all his life, she also mentioned in the video below, using the power of imagery and photography, she began carrying around a single purple tea cup and saucer everywhere she went, until the media finally picked up on this and started producing articles on the subject. She also makes all of her music video's very graphic and artistic including photography, art and the essense of Warhol, the withdrawn/banned video of 'Love Game',  withdrawn from certain countries because of it being 'far too explicit', I have included a version of the song below, and could not use the official video due to Youtube restrictions.

 The Guardian - Go to 3:49  in the Video above to view the quote 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lady Gaga - Love Game

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lady Gaga - Paparazzi

F e m i n i s m 

  •  n o u n   t h e   a d v o c a c y   o f   w o m e n ’ s   r i g h t s   o n   t h e   g r o u n d s   o f   s e x u a l   e q u a l i t y .

  —   D E R I V A T I V E S   f e m i n i s t   n o u n   &   a d j e c t i v e  

When I started this blog just a few minutes ago, I wasn't sure how to write about Feminism because I never really got the grasp of the subject/idea in the seminar, it's a very flimsy idea to me that I know very little about, and every time I think about it I remember a quote from the Guardian which I've included below. 

 “ They don’t see the wood for the trees and everything has to be viewed from this feminist point of view. I know women have suffered and I think it’s great that people stand up for women’s rights but the problem with feminists is that they somehow consider women to be superior beings. And in the end, they just want to be men anyway. They want to do men’s work. ” 

-Vivienne Westwood for the Guardian 2008

C i n d y   S h e r m a n 

Cindy Sherman for me is the only Feminist photographer who's work I like, I can see what she's getting at and I can see what she's trying to convey, a lot of her photographs feature her in the kitchen cooking and getting ready for 'her' man all things that woman only used to be known for and I can see how her work represents Feminism and for me I think that's fantastic, I can see how she changed views in photography and how simple things like using herself as the model and setting up these scenarios make her so famous in the Photography world, I really like her feminist work.  

 S a m   T a y l o r   W o o d 

" C r y i n g   M e n "

Hayden Christiansen

 

Benicio Del Torro

Daniel Craig

Dustin Hoffman

Ed Harris 

Forest Whitaker

Gabriel Bryne

Kris Krisofferson

Laurence Fishburne

Robbin Williams

Sean Penn

Ben Stiller

Sam Taylor Wood recruited all of the Hollywood hunks including world famous actors Jude Law, Robert Downey, Jr. and Laurence Fishburne for her new exhibition 'Crying Men'.

Taylor-Wood explained in an interview near the exhibition opening, "Some of the men cried before I even finished loading the camera, but others found it really difficult. People can decide for themselves which they think are the authentic tears and which they think are fake. It's about the idea of taking these big, masculine men and showing a different side". 

I personally love this work by Sam Taylor Wood, I love her idea of turning things on it's head. In the male dominated world of which we live in (still may I add) heterosexual men are expected to be so strong and never show signs of weakness especially in the presence of other woman. However it can't be denied that even the strongest of men have their weakness' and soft spots and sometimes yes they do actually cry, so lets they're human just like the rest of mankind. I am a huge fan of photographs that have the simplicity yet power to capture beauty and all other powerful striking emotions, and really that is what Taylor Wood produced in these images, and I think they're fantastic. My favourite image is of Hayden Christiansen, to see a young heterosexual man crying I feel is incredibly beautiful, and you can tell they're real tears, and that for me makes the photograph even more incredible.  

R o b e r t    M a p p l e t h o r p e  

N u d e    M a l e s    &    F e m a l e s 

P o r t r a i t s 

Robert Mapplethorpe born 1946 in Long Island America, grew up and attended the Pratt institute in Brooklyn, he produced a large amount of work during his time there, including painting, sculptures and some mediums of photography. His first work included tearing images and font from magazines and making them into pieces of art, he was greatly inspired by Andy Warhol and has a passion for following Warhol's work, he was one of Warhol's greatest admirers and in the end got the opportunity to photograph him.

Mapplethorpe first began shooting in Polaroid soon after leaving the Pratt Institute, he never considered himself a photographer however loved using his own images in his painting and other pieces he put together.“I never liked photography,” he is quoted as saying when previously questioned “Not for the sake of photography. I like the object. I like the photographs when you hold them in your hand.” His first set of polaroid photographs were purely self portraits with the occasional portrait of his close friends. 

He later acquired a large format Camera and again photographed himself and his friends, often Mapplethorpe's friends were from an outrageous scene, he photographed Socialites, Porn Stars, S&M Underground members and music composers. He had a very varied and distinctive way of photographing people. His photographs were very erotic and homo-erotic based, that created shock in the art world, the images were seen as crude and distasteful however they were made in the most poetic and beautiful way, as far as technical ability Mapplethorpe was a master, and that I feel comes across so obviously. 

I honestly feel when looking at his work that he has a deeper connection to photography than just taking the photo, or taking it for money or for fame, he took those photographs because he loves photography on every level, and I can really appreciate that, I'm a huge, huge fan of his work and I feel I will be a fan for many years to come. 

J u e r g e n   T e l l e r

V i c t o r i a   B e c k h a m   f o r  M a r c   J a c o b s 

S p r i n g / S u m m e r   2 0 0 8 

Juergen Teller is a german born, world renowned Fashion Photographer, who is now based in England. He began his career in photography by building his way up the social ladder, photographing famous celebrities such as Kate Moss and Linda Evangelista. Until eventually he began working for fashion magazines such as i-D and The Face.

My favourite piece of Teller's work in the past was the Victoria Beckham for Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2008 campaign, in which VB was put in various different situations such as climbing out of bags and boxes and also posing as a mannequin/doll. The idea behind this work was actually taken from the french fashion photographer Guy Boudin, who photographed models in a raw/crude yet fashionable taste, the meaning behind Boudin and Tellers work was to mock in these photographs, the idea you can become exactly what you're wearing and also the idea you can buy a new you. The concept is based more on art than on fashion, giving it a deeper and more profound meaning, he uses his 35mm point and shoot camera, to mock Marc Jacobs, to mock Victoria Beckham, to mock to the viewer and more importantly to mock Fashion itself. 

When these campaign shots were first introduced to the pages of magazines such as Vogue etc world wide, a lot of people questioned Teller, Jacobs and Beckham for their almost crazy perception on the campaign, a lot of people also mocked it, however because of their ignorance to not looking any deeper into the campaign they missed a fantastic set shots, and more importantly missed the point of the campaign completely. I personally love these shots, and I think I will continue to be a fan of Juergen Teller's work for many years to come.

N a n   G o l d i n

Nan Goldin born in Washington, USA, later moved to Boston to attend a nearby high school in the leafy suburbs of Lexington. Her life would have been considered pretty normal up until her sister committed suicide in 1965, from then on Goldin made it her number one priority to photograph every precious moment in her life so that she would never forget them, for some her camera was considered 'the eye that did not forget'.

With some of her friends Goldin then continued to delve into the world around her, contacting members of the gay/lesbian/transvestite community in Boston and documenting their lives in different ways, her first solo work stemmed from these contacts and propelled her after finishing University into moving to New York and continuing your documentary work on the gay and transvestite community. 

Once Goldin moved to New York in the late 1970's/early 1980's her photographic work really began to take shape, no moment too graphic, no moment too raw was to be missed, and it was this limitless approach to photography that really made Goldin's work stand out. The viewer of Goldin's work gets an intimate look into the private lives of the most exciting and wild characters in New York city at the time. Nan Goldin presented the every day life of her friends under the title 'The Ballad of Sexual Dependency'.

Nan Goldin presents her work through slideshows and organizes (and re-organizes ) according to her mood and emotions she is feeling towards the photographs she has taken. The main themes of her work in my opinion seem to be love, gender and sexuality, her work often features sexual acts and very graphic images, these however only make her work more fantastic as she photographed the reality of New York city in such a beautiful yet honest way. After drug issues in 1988 and the death of many of her close friends due to Aids, Goldin began to photograph again in her lifes own rhythm and produced various different other pieces of photography. 

I purposely chose Goldin to look at from the biography topics, I feel she has had the most interesting and diverse life, and her photography shows that in so many ways, I love the way she captured the reality and honesty of New York city's Gay and Transvestite life, much like diCorcia's work she has a way of bringing out the beauty in the not so pleasant truth. In particular I liked her photographs of Gay and transexual men which I found incredibly beautiful, something I feel other members of my course let pass them by because of their childish ignorance towards the gay and transexual community.