Sunday Post 9-28-08

David LaChapelle

David LaChapelle was born in Fairfield, Connecticut on March 11, 1963. He attended North Carolina School of the Arts and School of Visual Arts in NYC. His first professional job offer came from Andy Warhol who saw him working as a bus boy at Studio 54. He has published four books of his photographs and directed films, such as short films that played during an Elton John show and Rize, a documentary about a dance movement through South Central Los Angeles. He’s directed several advertisements for clients ranging from Tommy Hilfiger to Burger King.

His work has been described as “surrealist, grotesque, shocking, and ironic.” Many of his works involve celebrities such as Drew Barrymore and Marilyn Manson. The colors are usually bright and almost garish, and the scenes he creates are out of this world.






Interview
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/lachapelle.html

Gallery:
http://www.tonyshafrazigallery.com/

Website:
http://www.davidlachapelle.com/home.html

Thursday Post 9-25-08

Portrait

“Most of our modern portrait painters are doomed to absolute oblivion. They never paint what they see. They paint what the public sees, and the public never sees anything.”
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet and dramatist.
http://en.proverbia.net/citastema.asp?tematica=920

Birt, Michael; Greer, Fergus. Portaits: The World’s Top Photographers and the Stories Behind Their Greatest Images. RotoVision: East Sussex, 2003.

Part of the series of “greatest hits” books which feature the world’s greatest professionals in a specific line of work, this book puts in-depth interviews which share the tips, secrets, and anecdotes of the those who are considered the world’s greatest portrait photographers, alongside some of their greatest photographs. This list of artists includes Richard Avedon, Annie Liebowitz, Irving Penn, Terry Richardson, and David LaChappelle. The author, Fergus Greer, has done photography for books, editorials, and advertisements. His clientele includes Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine.

The word “portrait” relates to my work because each image that I create revolves around the person and they’re tattoo. Some tattoos lend themselves to act more as symbols than involve the person in a portrait, but there are definitely others, that inevitably lead to a the creation of a portrait. Whether that portrait depicts a reality in their life, or their “spirit” as Paul would say, they are most definitely portraits.

Sunday Post 9-21-08

Douglas Menuez

Douglas Menuez started out shooting for newspapers in 1978. He managed to get an internship at the Washington Post and from there worked his way into assignments for Time, Newsweek, Fortune, People, Life, and many others publications, both national and international. He has covered stories ranging from Ethiopian famine and AIDS to SuperBowls and the Olympics. In 1987 he began to specialize in black-and-white photojournalism, and he covered the rise of Silicon Valley with unprecedented access. He’s photographed many celebrities and public figures such as Robert Redford and Mother Theresa, as well as homeless Americans and Ugandan orphans.

Douglas Menuez’s work is so prolific it’s hard to nail down any specific style. From perusing his portfolio I can’t help but notice that there’s a trend in the way he depicts eyes; often they peek out from behind something, and they’re gaze not only captures the mood but also guides ours. A lot of his work feels very “in the moment”, as if he just happened to capture the perfect split second of a scene while strolling by. He definitely shows a preference for black and white, though his color work is usually quite striking. There seems to be a sense of humor throughout.






Interview
http://www.doubleexposure.com/Schaefer_Menuez.shtml

Representation
http://www.stocklandmartel.com/main.aspx

Website
http://www.menuez.com/

Breitz Lecture

When Breitz displayed the picture of the first gallery installation, with the hanging TVs, I could not help but think about how much I wanted to color correct that picture. She was talking about how beautiful the space was and the photo she showed of the installation was not displaying that. Then as she played the videos for us, I wanted to blow my brains out. If I had come near a room with all of those playing loudly at the same time, I would have run away screaming. If that's the effect she wanted her artwork to have, then she succeeded thoroughly with that piece. The next work, with the break down of the love songs I thought was a pretty interesting idea, and they definitely had a humorous effect, however I thought the editing of the 80's video was a little off. The mothers' piece was not what I was expecting at all, and I was really curious to see the piece with the fathers. I thought it was almost like cheating though, to use Susan Sorandon and Julia Roberts since they were both in the same movie. The Michael Jackson piece was by far my favorite. The contrast between the girl in the pink shirt that looked terrified, and stood stark still the whole song and some of the other more flamboyant dancers was great. I was surprised to see none of them broke out in the Thriller dance with the arms swinging back and forth in that weird zombie dance-move that Michael does in the video. With this artist I definitely had a bad first impression but ended up liking her in the end.

Thursday Post 9/18/08

Culture

“Analysis of the deviant aspects of tattooing is forsaken in these discussions, since the (tribal) groups studied share understandings of tattoos as symbols of culture, identity, and group pride...or what Brain [sic] called ‘putting on a new skin, a cultural, as opposed to a natural skin.’”
Atkinson, Michael. Tattooed: The Sociogenesis of Body Art. Buffalo: University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2003.


Rubin, Arnold. Marks of Civilization. Los Angeles: Diane Publishing Co., 1988.

This collection of essays was collected and edited in the heat of the North American tattoo renaissance and has been considered one of the most comprehensive formal exhibitions on tattooing in tribal cultures. The purpose of this project was to inform Westerners about the persistence of this practice from a global-historical perspective. Based on UCLA’s “Art of the Body” symposium, which drew professionals in anthropology, art history, sociology, medicine, and folklore. The symposium intended to act as a global survey of permanent modifications of the structure and surface of the human body for aesthetic reasons. Eleven of the twelve papers from this symposium were combined with six later papers to create this book.
Arnold Rubin has a Bachelors in Architecture and a Ph.D. in Art History. He has held positions as Lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts at Indiana University and Associate Professor at UCLA. He was one of the first to investigate the relationship between tattoos and art, culture, psychology, sociology, and history.

This is relevant to my work not only because the process and experience of getting tattooed is a very cultural thing, but I am also using the tattoos as symbols to comment on different aspects of our culture. The idea of having a “cultural skin” is definitely taken into account in my work.

Sunday Post 9/14/08

Dale Rio

Dale Rio earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Smith College, double majoring in Studio Art and Russian Literature. She then moved on to get her Masters of Fine Art majoring in Photography with a minor in Printmaking. Her clientele stretch around the world, including; Illicit Clothing Company in Auckland, New Zealand; Marquis Magazine in Germany; Epitaph Records in Los Angeles; International Tattoo Magazine in NYC; and many others. She is also the co-owner of Black Graves Media, and both the co-owner and editor of Blood and Thunder Magazine along with Shimmy Magazine.

Dale Rio’s art ranges from gaudy, big-breasted, burlesque-style women to the serene traditions of Japan. The images retain an otherworldly quality, leaving the viewer detached from the scene despite the sometimes very in-your-face imagery. Put them all together they flow as if from a very bizarre dream where you travel from a brothel that melts into the monotony of every day scenes, to Japan; from an abandoned ghost town on to a rock show at a carnival. Tattooed people often appear in her work, though many of them are not featured on her website.







Interview:
http://www.alarmpress.com/1206/columns/weekly-burlesque-interview-with-photographer-and-publisher-dale-rio/

Gallery:
http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/dale_rio_tattoo_gallery.htm

Website:
http://www.dalerio.com/

Thursday Post 9/11/08

Topic word: Symbol

Quote:
The whole visible universe is but a storehouse of images and signs to which the imagination will give a relative place and value; it is a sort of pasture which the imagination must digest and transform.
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Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) French poet.
http://en.proverbia.net/citastema.asp?tematica=1186

Reading material:
Ayer, L. K.; Bolton, Gambier Govenar, Alan; Gupte, B. A.; Joshi, O. P. Anthropology of
Symbols. RBSA Publishers: Jaipur, 1992.

O. P. Joshi, who is the editor of this book and wrote the first chapter, “Tattooing and Tattoers A Socio-cultural Analysis”, which is the chapter that deals the most with symbolism, is a social Anthropologist who specializes in the Sociology of Art. He has also written Art and Aesthetics in Tribes of Gujarat. The purpose of this book was to organize twelve papers that were written for a symposium on “Human Body Decoration”. The scholars who participated inspired O. P. Joshi to organize their works into a book, and they all came to the conclusion that symbolism was a significant factor in body decoration and alteration.


Relation to my work:
In modern times there are a plethora of reasons people get tattoos, but almost anyone with a tattoo can tell you some sort of meaning behind the image or words. Sometimes this meaning is post-rationalized, but it has meaning none-the-less. I plan to use the tattoos of others’ as symbols to create metaphors, statements, and/or stories with my work by juxtaposing them with specific backgrounds. Whether it is based on the meaning created by the wearer of the tattoo, or meaning perceived by me, they’re symbolism will be emphasized.




Third Eye tattoo which is a symbol for seeing beyond reality or enlightenment

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