the photograph as contemporary art

by Charlotte Cotton

a response to Chapter 7

Appropriately title, "Revived and Remade", Cotton introduces the chapter with one of the most prominent artists of the past century, Cindy Sherman. Photographers that reconstruct or take on a character, either by representing existing people or the narrative idea of a person, dominate the first couple pages, highlighting the artists role and possible physical involvement in the construction of photographs. These pages ask the question of what is constructed in photography, subject matter, process, history; all of which are address accurately and altered (posed or faked) in the chapter. My favorite section of this chapter addresses old photographic techniques such as daguerreotype and photogram used in contemporary ways by presently living artist. I think this is a great way of incorporating history into photography; found images such as newspaper  and magazine clippings also have the ability to take on this role, albeit more modern, by removing it from its original and placing it in contemporary art. All of which substantiates the idea and physicality of construction as a key element to contemporary photography.

for Thursday September 26, 2013

The Self Portrait

A Self Portrait Portrait

Not A Self Portrait Portrait

the photograph as contemporary art

by Charlotte Cotton

a response to Chapter 1

Discussing primarily conceptual photography, Cotton titles this first chapter "If This Is Art", in order to argue the many facets photography takes without differentiating between photography as fine art or other. Using examples of artist that use unconventional or even unknown methods in order to capture images, Cotton seems to say that effort or a conscious lack of effort with a camera creates a work or series of art. I think this is a great first chapter to a book on contemporary photography, teaching that a conceptual thought process is whatever the artist makes it to be is a great lesson. I also appreciate the lack of distinction between art that is grotesque, political, documentary, provoked, prompted, etc. in highlighting all that conceptual photography can be.

Project #3: The Self Portrait; proposal

Part 1: The Self Portrait Portrait
I want to photograph myself in a surrounding comparable to one I feel most comfortable, considering I'm at school I say comparable instead of the place I feel most comfortable. This place will most likely be somewhere in nature, possibly a golf course or park, maybe even on a swing. I think nudes are the best representation of a person and considering I have never photographed a nude self portrait I think I'll experiment now. I will most likely be obscured by some sort of sheer fabric considering I prefer to make the statement, "I can show you myself but you will never know me how I know me" and the two parts of this project will be more like a series if I do.
Part 2: Not A Self Portrait Portrait

In whichever place in nature I decide to take my "self portrait portrait" I will rephotograph it in as much the same style using the sheer fabric that covered me and arranging it into a figurative structure. This will most likely mean that both figures will be somehow on the ground.

for Friday September 13, 2013

response to Practices of Looking

This article begins with a seemingly all-encompassing take on the meaning of looking. The writer explains how the sight of a visual as well as written text merely represent an object but are not yet the object, how visuals are both subjective and objective. The article is a theoretical look on what it means to take a photograph or create and image, be it documentary or not, and how all images are constructed even without intention. I think the title of this article, "Practices of Looking: Images, Power and Politics", provides the best explanation of what the article aims to express, that all sight and depictions of sight in the form of visuals influence and comment on life and the world at large.

Project #2

Monochrome

Analogous (warm)

Isolated

Dominant

the photograph as contemporary art

by Charlotte Cotton

a response to the Introduction

Highlighting eight different genres within the medium of photography, Cotton designates a chapter to each one, even though she later states that photographic art does not necessarily fit into a particular category, but multiple. Beginning this book with photographs taken primarily after 1960, Cotton focuses on two forerunners of colour photography, William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, and provides a brief history of the acknowledgement of their work and its transformative affect on the art form. Assuming her readers possess a basic knowledge on the history of early photography in black and white, she jumps right into contemporary art, deciphering what photographs mean, their focal point or lack thereof, relationships, documentary, staged pieces or copy-cats, etc. Cotton's introduction proposes a book to address them all.

This is a MDF craved relief print that I created a little less than a year ago in an Intermediate Printmaking course. The idea for this piece arose situationally, my maternal grandparents (whom inspire not only my visual but literary creativity) had decided to move away from the only home I'd ever know them to live in; and therefore I chose to create something that represented them, their former home and my connection to both. The main component of the composition is a leaf-filled tree with a swing, which is located on the 15 acre property that belonged to my grandparents; this is one of my favorite places on their property. The carving patterns that I incorporated into this piece were inspired by Endi Poskovic artworks.
Works that I have created more recently have been on MDF as well as Aspen, copper and zinc plates. I prefer to continue working in the medium of printmaking but I do want to expand my knowledge of the medium. One artist that I have been looking into, Robin McCloskey, uses a photo-etching technique that I want to learn and incorporate into copper etchings. I love the way that she layers the images and plates used in her pieces and uses multiple printmaking techniques to create one piece. Her use of color, incorporation of patterns that blend into the background and the composition of her pieces all inspire me. The piece below is entitled "Ocean City".