Photo II - Week 5

My first photograph this week is by E.J Bellocq. I think what I found most interesting about it is its calm quiet nature. Bellocq was known for photographing many prostitutes and allowed them to dress how the wanted and to be seen how they wanted to appear. Many of his photographs have the same calm quiet that can be seen here while others appear much more matter of fact. While the subject matter is simple it is portrayed in a way that brings much more interest and reveals a side of these women that most people never really saw. To see more of his work you can visit ARTstor which is where I found this photograph.

During critique this week Ron had told me that it looked like I had photographed with Meatyard in mind and so I decided to go and search for what he was seeing. While I came across a large amount of masks and blurred arms I found this particular photo my favorite. I thought that it depicted the emotion of the child well. After photographing children for a while I have come to recognize that face quite well. However it was the childs use of the props that made the photograph for me as well as his feet. The way he pokes the doll with the flag and looks away and crosses his feet read boredom and childhood so clearly. It just feels genuine. To see more of Meatyards work you can visit ARTstor which is where I found this image as well.

My final photograph this week is by Tierney Gearon. It is part of her series titled Explosure in which she double exposes her film in camera and then prints them straight with no retouching. Tierney is a recently discovered artist (discovered in 2001 for her series "I Am A Camera") who has now produced 3 exhibitions, Explosion being the most recent. What attracted me to this photograph was its double negative quality. While I am not exposing my negatives twice this week I am hoping to achieve a similar look in my work. To see more of her work you can visit her website here.