Monday ARTIST // AGAN HARAHAP

From the artist's Deviant Art: http://TOYIB.deviantart.com/art/Neuschwanstein-1945-139274187



From the artist's Deviant Art: http://TOYIB.deviantart.com/art/MATS-Terminal-Washington-1959-143027359

http://melmanandthehippo.blogspot.com/
ARTIST BLOG ABOVE

Harahap's Superhero series has recently gained attention spreading first throughout the blogs and most recently being recognized by such news and entertainment outlets the likes of the Telegraph and the Metro Herald. While this series has gained attention for the artist it seems that it is a minor note in the larger body of work he is currently producing. Taking famous images from WWII and other news events up through the 60's and 70's, Harahap uses his sharp photoshopping skills to insert common and easily identifiable comic book figures into world events. The majority of the works center around moments of conflict, and in my interpretation offer a commentary on how the real life participants have since been portrayed. I am interested in somewhat of a reverse in my own work. rather than creating visuals in which super-heros are superimposed on happenings i would like to identify where reality is glossed over into the land of the action narrative and raise questions about why and who is being propped up in the lead roles occupied in the Harahap's work by the likes of Superman, Spiderman and Batman.

THursday Idea blog

In developing my concept for this semester's work i've been considering the role of reporters and the narratives applied to the major network reporters in haiti. In my past work i feel that I concentrated on events that were closer to home, in the case of the ash project I covered the topic of mass trauma through the lens of media where that trauma happened to the american public. In looking toward haiti i do not feel that i can take the same approach. For the most part the american population has not directly experienced the events of the disaster in haiti. Looking beyond haiti toward the general mythos of the foreign correspondent, I believe it is fair to say that the narratives built around the coverage of disasters abroad has continued over time to prop up the correspondent as a super hero like figure. What i am suggesting here is that in the coverage of events like the haiti earthquake and the coverage of the Tsunami not long ago as well as other international incidents is taken in only through the lens of the major media networks and in forming ratings grabbing narrative packages around the stories presented, networks continue to push their major correspondents the likes Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta to new heights at the center of their ongoing coverage. I am seeking to find a visual form that connects these larger than life characters and their often pristine presentation to the bleak realities of the destruction that surrounds them. Through this contrast i hope to raise questions in the viewers mind about the authenticity of the coverage, and the motives in creating such narratives amidst the already powerful human drama that is a disaster.

Monday ARTIST // Jill Greenberg

from the artist website

art also made by Jill Greenberg
(source: http://www.lifelounge.com/resources/IMGDETAIL/jill_greenberg_manipulates_john-mccain_detail-1.jpg)

A major commercial photographer, Jill Greenberg's work also explores political content and a general feeling of unrest. While her stylize work is instantly recognizable, the concepts of her series are not always apparent. Other than the many slick covers shot for the likes of The Atlantic (shown above), Time Magazine, and the New Yorker, her recent personal work has focused on frustrations with politics and politicians. Her series End Times, a sequence of images of toddlers crying, expresses the artists frustration with the late Bush Administration. In a more recent controversy the photos shown above were taken during the same photo shoot, but the latter edited in post for the demonic look. What i appreciate about her work is her ability to create images that are perfectly t home on the cover of magazines. For me Greenberg's work belongs to the trade publication medium the high lit images translate to the trade gloss perfectly.

Alec Soth Lecture

Joshua, Angola State Prison, Louisiana 2002
(source: http://www.alecsoth.com/Mississippi-new/pages/frameset.html)

Born 1969, Minneapolis, Minnesota

In searching for new ways to authentically create works of photography Alec Soth employs a method of storytelling that may be next direction in photography. It was absolutely inspiring for me to see the embrace of such adventurous methods and the obvious joy taken by Soth in pursuit of his art. Focusing heavily on the expansion of William Eggleston's concept of the Democratic Forest (the idea that all subjects may be photographed and considered with equal weight) into that of the Democratic Jungle, Soth seeks to find a meaningful way to approach photography in the current image saturated environment. While his past work is connected with loose themes that developed over the course of many and repeated road trips, his more recent works focus on bringing together the art of storytelling and the art of photography. Series like "the most beautiful woman in georgia" or "the loneliest man in Missouri" take a on the literary tone of great road novels placing him in often strange situations while in search of his subjects. Soth's approach to the process of photography is one i might very well explore and if not in active practice his views and comments on the purpose of photography and documentation will stay with me for a long time.

MONDAY ARTIST // TARYN SIMON

http://www.ted.com/talks/taryn_simon_photographs_secret_sites.html
Above link to Taryn Simon's TED talk.

http://www.ted.com/speakers/taryn_simon.html
Short Artist bio and back ground on the work being present.

I absolutely love the work of Taryn Simon. Her conceptual backing is extremely strong and well thought out. In expert fashion the images themselves appear just as complete as the thoughts that support each subject's selection.

"Simon shows the things that are integral to America's foundation, mythology and daily functioning, but remain inaccessible or unknown to a public audience."(from the artists bio, link above)

What makes the conceptual backing of her work so interesting to me is that it functions to reveal the conflict between the public and private while exploring the mythology of American culture as well as teasing out the relationship of the broad culture to often uncomfortable realities. In presentation the work is accompanied by text, SImon explains:

"A big part of the work that is sort of absent in this context is text, so I create these two poles. Every image is accompanied with a very detailed factual text and what i'm most interested in is the invisible space between text and its accompanying image. And how the images is transformed by the text and the text by the image. So at best the image is meant to float away into abstraction and multiple truths and fantasy. And the text functions as this cruel anchor that nails it to the ground. "
-transcribed from the video (link at top)

I am considering the ways in which i might be able to attempt to construct a similar relationship between the images i will create for this semester. In exploring the visual language of the media coverage of the crisis in Haiti it may be advantages to anchor the constructed images with transcriptions of related reports and commentary from the popular media's reporting.

link to artist's website
http://www.tarynsimon.com/#

SPRING SEMESTER BEGINS HERE

SPRING SEMESTER BEGINS HERE

Grad App- U Arts