Further artist research

Sam Taylor-Woods

Born in 1967, a photographer, conceptual artist and film maker, Sam Taylor-Wood has led an interesting life to say the least. When she was nine, her family was abandoned by her biker father, and her mother decided to move them all to a commune in Sussex. She’s well known for her interest in John Lennon, having recently directed a film about his youth called ‘Nowhere boy’. In collaboration with Henry Bond, another photographer, she also recreated the famous photograph of Yoko and Lennon taken only hours before his untimely death:

The above photo, while an exact reflection of their positions in the original photo, seems to show a reversal in the male-female roles. You can see a dependency in Lennon's position for Yoko, almost reflecting the opinion of Albert Goldman that Lennon regarded Ono as an "almost magical being" who could solve all his problems, (however according to Goldman this was a "grand delusion", as Ono regularly cheated on Lennon with "gigolos").

Sam Taylor-Wood, as well as dabbling in photography to great effect, has done some incredible film work, most notably among them filming a fruit set (revered as one of the art world's most used still life) as it began to decay.

At first I thought the pen was there to contrast with the fruit visually, so while the fruit decays the pen remains still, in the same place, showing how the scene is the work of time. But I think on further reflection it has a deeper meaning in terms of contrast. The pen represents the ability to write, to note down knowledge. It is an invention invented by humans to record, while the fruit is representative of life, and how it eventually decays. It could be interpreted as how even as we grow old and die, we retain our knowledge, and it is left behind for others, as evidence of our existence when we are truly gone.

Sam Taylor-Wood also did a very interesting video for her exhibition, where she filmed David Beckham asleep:

It's simple, it's just a man sleeping, barely moving, occasionally twitching, shifting position, but always essentially the same, and yet it's got a subtle impact. David Beckham is someone we've all heard of, someone we know quite well from the papers, we know about his football career, his marriage to Victoria Beckham, his family and this is looking at him from an entirely different angle. He looks almost innocent in sleep, like we could reach out and touch him, which might be what Taylor-Woods was going for. It's very similar to a project done by Andy Warhol in the 60's, when he filmed a man sleeping for six hours and called it "Sleep".

Andy Warhol

Born in 1982, Warhol was a leading figure in the Pop Art movement as a painter, printmaker and film maker. When he was young he suffered chorea, and as a result of his treatment developed a phobia of hospitals and doctors. This affected his relationships at school as he was often at home bedridden, and during this time he would listen to the radio, put up pictures of movie stars around his room and draw, a period of time Warhol felt contributed significantly to his later fame and fortune.

On the third of June he was shot by Valerie Solanas and barely escaped with his life, which had a profound effect on him and his art. Talking about his near death he said "Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like watching television – you don't feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it's all television."


It could very well be this mentality that gave life to his film work, one of which was a film of his close friend John Giorni asleep for five hours and twenty minutes. Warhol put something real, something we all relate to onto a screen which often hosts the fictional, the dramatic, the entertaining and emotional, and I think this is particularly linked back to his mentality on being shot and how it was like watching television. Looking at it from another angle however, it could simply be mocking television unrealness, it's need for the exciting and dramatic, and he went on to do other similar features, like his film 'Eat' which ran for 45 minutes and was of a man eatting a mushroom.

My experiments:

In response to the video work done by Sam Taylor-Woods and Andy Warhol, I have done a short film I call 'Brushing my Teeth' which plays for over five minutes. I also experimented on the footage using windows media player with different settings. For something so ordinary, I think it's strangely fascinating. Like with Taylor-Wood's sleeping David Beckham, and Warhol's 'sleep' and 'eat', I think there's something in it which is hard to explain. A simpleness with hidden complexities. Just looking back at my video, it's strange to think that what I do every night without even thinking about has such steps, such stages.

Brushing my teeth (original, without audio)

Brushing my teeth (film grain effect)

Brushing my teeth (different video effects)

The above video is mainly experimenting with the video effects available on windows media player, it's interesting to see how they change and contort the impact of the original footage.For instance the section with water colour I find particularly interesting, because it's nearly impossible to tell what's happening. The different effects give the video new personalities in a way.

I also did a stop motion video of the ritual of preparing for bed. Again I used windows movie maker, but I think if I were to do something like it again, I would use flash, as it was very long and painstaking process on window movie maker.

(Note, the audio used belongs to its respective owners and not me. I would also like to add this video was not created for commercial purposes, it is simply art for an art based photography exam)

I think the use of music in the background gives it a more upbeat flow, which in use with the stop motion creates a lively and interesting beat which I think gives more personality and life to the overall video. The low quality of the video is a bit of a disadvantage, but it would have taken three hours to save in high quality (due to the huge amount of high quality photographs taken) with no guarantee of actually working, so I turned the quality option down. However, I think it works well regardless.

screenshots of the process on windows movie maker:

Initial artist research

I've decided to start my research by looking at Gregory Crewdon, an American photography best known for his elaborately set up scenes exploring composition and colour, and seeking out the tensions between the familiar and the strange. He's a photography, but he doesn't use a camera, not in the sense of just whipping one out and snapping an opportunity that presents itself. Instead Crewdon has a completely difference method of taking photos, in which he produces the photos himself, either on location or using a sound stage. With location he hunts around potential areas for inspiration and then begins a huge process with his production team, often taking five weeks just to produce one photograph. While he has more freedom with a sound stage, he is often most inspired by actually being on location.

I love the contrast between them, where safe, secure reality meats the unusual, the strange, and the paranormal. I think they're beautiful and brilliant. I like the mystery enfolded in a single shot, if you look at the composition of the photo above for instance, you've got questions fresh in your mind, who is the woman? Is she dead? Alive? Why? The sense of it being real, and yet not real makes me think back to working on my fairy tale project.

I can see connections in his work to Edward Hopper, an american artist born in 1882. He was influenced alot by his trips to Europe in much the same way as Crewdon was influenced by locations he came across in his wonderings '[America] seemed awfully crude and raw when I got back. It took me ten years to get over Europe.' Hopper's work definately walks on the side of mystery, like a snapshot of an event or memory we can only guess at or try to interpret. The most obvious difference with Crewdon's work is that Hopper used paint, while Crewdon uses photography, but you can argue that both put in an equal amount of hard work, Crewdon with setting up the production of the photo and Hopper with painting. There are definitely similarities in theme and composure, both looking at people in fairly ordinary circumstances with a twist.

'The man's the work. Something doesn't come out of nothing.'


Further artist research:

René Magritte

A Belgian surreal artist, born in 1898, his Mother committed suicide in a river when he was 13 years old. Several of his artworks are credited to have been influenced by her death, featuring clothes over people's heads and faces, as she supposedly had her dress covering her face when her body was taken from the water. Magritte is most renowned for his witty, humorous work and optical illusions using paint.

He began as an impressionist artist, studying at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and his early paintings dictate this style, however, he found the instructions he was given dull and tedious, and he felt overall uninspired. He joined the surrealist group after his first exhibition in 1927 proved a failure, introduced to the movement by his friend André Breton, and it was with surrealism that he art truly flourished.

My experiments

For my experimental photos, I decided to try Magritte's style of uring clothes over people's faces, but instead of using paint, using my camera and props around me. The photos are therefore staged, in a similar way to both Crewdson and Hopper's method of setting up a scene, but not quite on the same massive scale of production:

I like the last two photos best as they put me most in mind of Crewdson's work, where he's used lighting to great effect in creating atmosphere. I think the lighting in these photos is extremely effective in lighting up the scenes, and despite the facial features being covered, there is real emotion in the figures' postures, a closeness and bond that is illustrated through body language, that's something that really interests me about them, and reflects on Magritte's own cloth work, like the painting further above with the two covered faces kissing. It's the suggestion of emotion beneath the covered features which give the photos their contextual value. The top two however lack the right lighting, and don't bring out the covered face so much, although I think they're still interesting contextually.

Imagination and mystery

This is my second photography blog, for my photography exam, which will make up 40% of my final grade. The theme for this year's paper is 'Imagination and Mystery'. To start it of nicely, I've done two mind maps on both imagination and mystery:

Also throughout the week, I've been taking photos which I think are relevant to the theme of imagination and mystery as a visual brainstorm, to help me think up ideas for my final project. I have supplemented them with some older photos to give more variety, particularly with different seasons and environments:

I like this photo because of the contrasts. You've got the paler, calmer skies contrasting with the darker, more sinister road and skyline. The lines in the sky projected from the airplanes I like for leading the eye across the sky, giving a sense of wonder perhaps, wondering where they could be going.

I really like this photo, it looks reminisicent of a painting, with the soft pallet colours and the swirls of water in the puddles. What makes it appeal most as a mystery photo is the small figure in the distance, lit up against a small area of light forest green. The bareness of the trees also offer an almost sinister touch. Compositionally, the road leads the eye to the figure.

The greatest impact in the this photo is the lighting, the eerie orange light that strongly affects it's surroundings and lights up the dark silhouette of the girl in the centre, walking away from the camera. The empty road and apparent night time scene makes the viewer question her motives in being out so late.

'Joker' feel from Batman to this photo. Brings to mind yin and yang, the dark and good side to everyone, with one side shrouded completely in darkness and the other in a sharp light. The composition of the hand curled menacingly and the hint of a mad smile adds to the tension, and the overall darkness contributes to the creeping sense of danger.

This photo is appealing to the eye, the light draws your eyes with an almost holy aura, with the blurred fence hedge giving a sense of movement. Perhaps the viewer wonders where the camera is going, what it's destination could be.

I love the dark silhouette of the trees against the nighttime sky. It gives a sense of being trapped, with the posture of the trees swaying in the unmoving image like there's a high wind, a theory supported by the leaf flying through the sky. Very mysterious.

The blue tint and the blurred cars give feeling to this image. It tells a story, a boy waiting at a bus stop in the snow, but the snow ridged across the bottom, being taken from a car window, adds a mysterious sinsister nature. Being followed, stalked, watched, it has an uncomfortable context once you look deep enough.

Again, another sinister message, the open door offering a lone figure the opportunity to depart the white, pure world, into a world of danger, of uncertainty. I think the figure works well blurred, standing against the soft white snow. However it could be completely innocent, that's the mystery, since we have nothing else to go on than what's in the photo.

This photo is particularly interesting because the wildlife frames the stark whiteness of the centre. It offers a whole new view point, but again it could be very sinister. The snow again offers a pureness, sheltered from the darkness, but being watched, observed. The figure appears as an innocent victim.

The light coming through the door window lights up the scene, gives contrast and shape to the darker aspects of the photo, like the arms. Contextually it looks like the figure if putting the latch on the door, why? What does she want to be protected from?

Not so much a sense of mystery as previous photos. There's no real story to it that can be seen, perhaps the contrast of old with new? The cobwebs in the corner suggest an unkept, aging scenery left to waste away, while the frost represents newness and purity. Perhaps the mystery is these two factors meeting, and what the photo's motive truly is.

Contextually you wonder where the road is taking you, and certainly the road leads the eye to the dark silhouette of the trees in a nice way. The contrast of dark and light is visually pleasing, and there is a element of mystery about the scene which is overall compelling.