Thursday Idea blog // what wasn't working

As titled this post is about what isn't working at this point. I think it's entirely helpful to hone down what wasn't working in forming how to move forward. The immediate problems with the above images are that two of the three have characters (billy mays and sarah palin ) that are far too recognizable. The third image falls down by attempting to go toward religious imagery simply for the sake of playing off of it with a jesus skateboarder (a person who sacrifices their safety for the sake of others entertainment) and pursues it without actually getting far enough to make it work.

Monday ARTIST // El Greco

These two images as well as many other paintings by El Greco feel like they help me be confident in my decisions with my current photographs. the crisp clear blue skies overhead in his paints depicting saints and other topics such as a view of Toledo(as pictured above in the second painting) while not placed within the frame for the same reason are just as striking. In his time El Greco's bright colors and other elements of style were completely out of step with his contemporaries. While representing old ideas and continuing to work with characters and stories well explored by other's El Greco managed to bring new life to them through his painting styles.

Monday ARTIST // Rene Magritte

the above in order of appearance: The Great War on Facades (1964), Man in the Bowler Hat (1964), The Son of Man (1964)

From all i've read about Rene Magritte i've gathered that when looking at his paintings there are no concrete answers about their meaning. The mystery and the pleasure derived from sorting out that mystery is a key element of any of his works. He changes out objects, and creates pairings that are not easily interpretable. Sometimes he uses very basic pairings as in "the son of man" pictured above. A human figure, an apple, the title itself; delving into religion and religious imagery without really wanting to talk about it. It acts as the initial grab at the audience, the first clues that when immediately applied, make sense then begin to fall apart as you begin a process of deciphering the contents of the image. What he wants is for the viewer to experience that process, and while I am choosing specific characters and archetypes and they are being chosen for some basic relationships, I wish to consider possible connections but not work to make them any more obvious.

Thursday Idea blog // Magritte and other odds and ends

I think this is a good time to further flesh out what i'm doing with this project.

From Magritte by Jacques Meuris

"His painting choice was based, from the very beginning of his definitively surrealist period, on an observation whose actual implications were not understood until later: namely that by the most faithful reproductions of objects, things -- including people-- and all that we see around us in everyday life, one can force the beholders of these images to question their own condition. There is one proviso, however: it is necessary for these objects and things to be combined in some unexpected, or in other words, unaccustomed, manner.

My project and its working mode are directly inspired by the above statement. Realizing that what i was most interested in about the super hero figure reporter figure was the relationship to it and why it existed or continued to be perpetuated. That it sold media that it was a tool to sell advertising and the product that is the commercial character of the figure in question. While I at the time of this writing am still struggling with what complimentary figure can be placed with the hero reporter, i have gone on to find other relationships that function in the same way. Or rather, by pairing other characters, archetypes and recognizable figures in uncommon instances, i feel that i can engage the viewer to seek out what the relationship between the two subjects might be (based on their own experiences and ideas ) and then to look at their relationship to those ideas. Where they came from, how they were formed , why they make those connections. While this is a serious aim I believe that there is an inherent element of humor to the project. I would further suggest that this is a positive thing, that by taking a road in image making that is less harsh than my usual presentation, that the viewer might find it easier to engage the work. I feel that it is important to me to also attempt to bring the viewer a feeling of playfulness. I do not intend to make fun of the subjects of my photographs but I consciously choose to go about their creation and presentation in a manner that could easily be found funny or that the viewer might draw a sense of amusement from.