Eleanor Callahan, Photographic Muse, Dies at 95

This event seemed both sad and appropriate/timely to the class content. While the model/subject seems to naturally command the photo frame visually, her recollection of the poses she strikes as actually being those of the artist's (pre)vision of his composition seemed particularly relevant to some of the class discussion. Quote: “I never initiated any of the poses myself,” she said in a 2006 interview with the curator Julian Cox. “Everything, photographically, was purely from Harry.”

Human Perception through Photography

Uta Barth is a German photographer who lives in Los Angeles. I was introduced about this photographer through a classmate in Abstract/Representation class while we were exchanging our inspirations. The signature quality from her photographs is the blurring by focusing the camera. It is interesting because it shows qualities of both painting and photography. Barth's subject matter is very conventional but she executes this theme in different and 'modernism' approach.

I thought her photographs were very relevant to this class because the ambience of Barth's photographs were very applicable to the theme of Pictorialism and Modernism. During Week four, where we compare/contrasted various photographers' Flatiron Building photographs, we discussed how each photographs have its own unique ambience. Her works can be seen as the contemporary version of Pictorialism. Also, it is interesting that her photographs have Modernism's general qualities and photographic strategies.


This photograph titled "Field 8" is an example of Uta Barth's photographs. Her photograph has the element of abstracting and cropping techniques.

Knowing only through a photograph...

So I while wildly unrelated, I came across these two quotes this week and thought they were timely in regards to some of the issues we have been discussing in class.

The first came from the populist entertainment magazine EW (I know, high literature indeed...) and the actress Michelle Williams, who was being interviewed in conjunction with her Oscar nominated performance of Marilyn Monroe. She states: "As a teenager, I didn't relate to Marilyn Monroe as an actress. I just related to her as a photograph."

The second quote came from the essay "Georgia O'Keefe and Photography," in our required text Shared Intelligence. Reflecting back on her work with Stieglitz, O'Keefe stated:

"Stieglitz's photographs...were different. I was always amazed to find out what I looked like. You see, I'd never known what I looked like or thought about it much. I was amazed to find my face was lean, and structured. I'd always thought it was round."

I thought both in their own ways tapped into what we expect a photograph to tell us and what it conveys or perhaps leaves out about the subject. Do we know anything about Marilyn Monroe after looking at a photograph or even an Andy Warhol print of her? Why would O'Keefe see a different version of herself in a photograph than her reflection in a mirror? Would a painted portrait give us something different? I don't know if I have any satisfying answers to the questions these quotes generate, but I thought they might be some interesting food for thought!

M.

Street-3D-illusion

Street-3D-illusion is a trompe-l’œil chalk drawing or painting on walls and streets. It creates a realistic 3d view out of a 2d painting at a certain perspective.
This street 3D illusion seemed to show an interesting relationship between painting and photography.
The artists would have collected or saw an image (photography) that would be interesting to put in the middle of the street. After the artists paints or draw on walls or streets, the audience would take photos of the painting since it is a very unexpected and interesting setting.

People would also pose themselves in the artwork and take a photograph.
I brought this Street-3D-illusion up because the repeating act of photographing and painting seemed interesting.

Also it was interesting to see how people tend to like or have a habit of recording their experience, visual experience, and things that are visually pleasing and interesting.

The photographs that are taken from an appropriate angle, at a point where the illusion happens the most is also being competed. Painting back into Photography.

artists :Edgar Muller, Julian Beever