Duane Michals (1932 – ) is a photographer who breaks from popular norms. In a time where photos were used to supplement journalistic pieces, Michals instead used photos to construct and express narratives. He is best known for his narrative photography, which features photos and handwritten captions, which serve to amplify and contextualize the meaning of the image. I experienced this firsthand when I visited his Morgan Library exhibit with Alex earlier in the semester. Below are two interesting self-portraits:
I enjoyed the playfulness of this photo and think it’s indicative of Michals’ creativity. Rather than capturing just the silhouette of the duck shadow, Michals intentionally includes the almost silly positioning of his body that creates the shadow. Perhaps it’s a testament to how much work goes into making art.
This is a classic example of Michals’ narrative photography. I have a soft spot for double exposures; I think it’s a great way to tell an inventive story. It is unclear whether the angel is actually a man named Pete, but he doesn’t seem to be Michals (the man on the right).
For our second major assignment in ARS 281, we visited the Greenhouse on Stony Brook campus to capture some still life photos. To gain inspiration, we were asked to research and take a look at the work of several famous photographers who tended to focus on still life and landscape photography and write about one of them. I chose Ansel Adams because I was impressed by his ability to capture the nuances of landscapes in black and white. At first glance, the decision to capture photos in black and white seems like it would be limiting. After all, color adds another dimension to photos, which allows for a greater range of expression. People have long affiliated colors with certain emotions:
However, when color is removed from a photograph, the viewer tends to focus on other aspects of the shot: composition, angles, texture, lights and shadow. I love the way Ansel is able to capture the nuance of light in his photos. Below are a couple of examples:
Our first Introduction to Photography Assignment was to deliver a Pecha Kucha (pronounced Pi-chá Ki-chá), a 20 slide x 20 second presentation on a photographer of our choosing. I chose Alexander Rodchenko, who is an incredibly influential photographer (among other artistic endeavors). His work really challenges us to view our subjects from every angle in order to have a proper understanding of what we are taking photos of. A summary of his life and work is included below, as well as my presentation:
Alexander Rodchenko was born in 1891 in Saint Petersburg, Russia to a family of laborers. Influenced by art magazines during his childhood, he decided that he wanted to become an artist. Little did Rodchenko know that he would be one of the most versatile artists of his time and one of the founders of the Constructivist movement. Alexander attended the Kazan Art School in 1910 and later Moscow’s Stroganov Institute in 1915 where he studied graphic design. While studying in Kazan, his artistic style was perceived to be traditional. In Moscow, however, he was heavily influenced by the developing Constructivist movement, which caused his artwork to take steps towards abstraction.
During the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Russia’s avant-garde wanted to break free from traditional “autonomous” art and create art that was reflective of the radically changing times. What emerged was Constructivism, which favored art as a practice for social purposes. These ideas were reaffirmed by Rodchenko’s entry in the ‘5 x 5 = 25’ exhibit in 1921, where he declared easel painting to be dead with his triptych “Pure Red Color”, “Pure Yellow Color”, and “Pure Blue Color”. Instead, Rodchenko adopted photomontage and photography, arguing that the mediums were mechanical and objective, and therefore socially progressive. In 1923, Rodchenko teamed up with Constructivist theorists to design the magazine “Left Front of Arts” (LEF). The magazine was originally designed in photo montage and then photography. After not being satisfied with already existing photos for his photomontages, Rodchenko began taking photos himself.
His portraits of friends and family were his first experiments in photography (Figure 1). Soon, Rodchenko began to develop a unique style that was characterized by strange perspectives, diagonals, and geometric shapes. He refused to take photos from the “navel”, instead advocating that “One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again.” The Pioneer Girl (Figure 2), The Driver, and the Courier Girl are examples of his jarring perspectives.
Figure 2: Pioneer Girl
After Stalin came to power in 1931, Russian photography was forced to be centered around social realism, which attempted to build national pride by glorifying large sporting events and demonstrations. Rodchenko is not too happy with this, and instead focused on exposing the realities of life in the increasingly threatening Communist society. He is ultimately forced to abandon his preferred style for propaganda-like work. Nonetheless, Rodchenko continued to pursue the creation and exhibition of art until his death in 1956. He left his mark across countless mediums spanning multiple artistic movements. Just like his photography, Rodchenko himself was incredibly dynamic, so much so that researching him was dizzying. His treatment of art as constructive and insistence that we look at subjects more completely have left lasting impacts on the artists who have followed him.
Welcome! You’ve arrived at my photography blog, either by chance or with intention. If it’s the latter, I am quite flattered. This humble corner of the interweb is a sandbox for my first experiments in photography. I’ll share my thoughts, musings, analysis (and some photos of course).
