'Image makers, image takers' Chapter one: ART.

In this blog post I will analyse a chapter from, 'image makers, image takers' and create a link to the work in which I am doing and want to explore. I decided to analyse the first chapter on the section 'art'.

The first interview for this chapter was with Thomas Demand.

In his work he is often inspired by political events and including pre-existing ideas from other images into his work. He creates a structure and then documents it with his large format camera. He stated that he creates a structural piece and a photographic piece so to express his formal idea clearly. He said, 'all I can show you are the thing's necessary to demonstrate the thought that led me to this picture.' In his images he evokes tension and creates contextual symbolisms through the imagery. In his work he tries to push the boundaries of photography. He stated that photography is about turning your formal ideas into something more, and that 'the longer you look into something the more complex your understanding becomes'. Photography should create the audience to ask questions and think about the context behind the image and not just if its pretty. However, there is always lots of different opinions that can be retrieved from an image. Each audience member will have a different contextual understanding to each image. But, there should be an overall theme and idea that each person can come to an conclusion about.

I think this is an interesting way to look at imagery as I think it is important for a photograph to display contextual meanings and for each person to get something different out of it. In my work at the moment I want to explore the overall contextual idea of feminism and equality. However, I want each image to create different meanings and emotions for each viewer.

Thomas stated that he is interested in Matisse's work and writings due to the fact that he wanted to 'achieve something fairly ugly to overcome the academy's idea of beauty'. His work was not about creating a perfect picture, but more about creating the perfect meaning and the perfect aesthetic to the image to trigger the response you want from the audience. The objects in each of the images themselves suggests a certain context and creates a different feeling and meaning for each audience member.

I want to display this in my work through exploring the idea of the reconstructed beauty that is contrasted with the stereotypes that women face on the idea of conventional beauty. I want to create beauty in my images in a contrasted and contextual way, from the norm, that creates meaning for the audience.

The second interview in this chapter was with Boris Mikhailov.

He was first driven by the political landscape effecting his homeland, demonstrating a satirical criticism of his home in Ukraine in the 1970's-80's. He felt that photography was a way that he could 'express himself as a citizen' and a 'human being'. In my imagery I want to explore a satirical and ironic approach, which creates a dichotomy in the images between what the images represent and what they display. This helps to capture the audiences attention through exploring a serious and important context through a more colourful and aesthetically pleasing light, so to please the audience.

Boris said that the government at that time took and destroyed his images because they 'found a naked women' amongst them. Due to this he argued it was 'important for me to express myself on a political level' and that his 'negative or ironic' images explored a 'social critique'. In his images he wanted to explore what was real around him in his life, in turn creating identity through that.

I want to explore this in my photography so that each of my images display the contextual factors that are important to me and in my life, in an interesting and ironic way. So to create an interesting impact for the audience.

For each of his images he questions 'what does this mean?' to make sure that each image is more than 'a pretty picture' and something that questions things in society, and creates impact through the work for the audience. Because I want to explore feminism, it is a large and important social context, that has to be dealt with carefully and in a way that evokes change and opinions from the audience. He argued that 'you have to look around you and think, what is life about?'. If you explore this in your images you will create interesting and insightful images for the audiences to enjoy.