PAINTED PHOTOGRAPHY

Jeff Bark’s photography likens the traditions of the old masters style of painting, photographing on a studio set of enormous proportions he pays meticulous attention to detail. It is more about removing light, than adding it. Bark explains, “When I am ready to photograph my subject, there is practically not much light coming from strobes. I use long exposures and that is what gives the effect of a painting. It looks as if the light is illuminating from the subject rather than onto it.” Bark’s use of light and shadow are created manually and not digitally. Whether saturated in mute color, or rich with the blue hues of the moonlight, Bark’s work draws out the volatile beauty of his subjects and settings in juxtaposition as a visual inspiration from past art movements.

documentary: Jeff Bark, Between painting and photography

ADOLESCENCE

Ryan McGinley knows from adolescence. As the chronicler of (usually naked) misspent youth, the 32-year-old photographer has made a not-insignificant career out of capturing and exalting this most evanescent of states. It's so diverse yet it stays true to his style. 

http://ryanmcginley.com/

MANIFESTATION OF IMAGINATION

 

The camera, originally used to capture and document reality, has evolved into a tool which aids in the physical manifestation of imagination. In her latest series, "The City," Lori Nix fabricates environments based off elements found in a city that has eroded with time. The viewer may mistake these scenes as reality until they realize that what they're seeing is slightly too amazing to be true.

http://www.lorinix.net/the_city/index.html

COMPLEXITIES & CONTRADICTIONS

 

Over the last fifty years, David Goldblatt has documented the complexities and contradictions of South African society. His photographs capture the social and moral value systems that governed the tumultuous history of his country’s segregationist policies and continue to influence its changing political landscape. Goldblatt began photographing professionally in the early 1960s, focusing on the effects of the National Party’s legislation of apartheid. In Goldblatt’s images we can see a universal sense of people’s aspirations, making do with their abnormal situation in as normal a way as possible. People go about their daily lives, trying to preserve a sense of decency amid terrible hardship.

http://contemporaryartlinks.blogspot.com/search/label/Photography

BROKE DOWN TABOOS

Some years ago I visited an exhibition of Helmut Newton in Berlin, a collection of photographs that impressed me. Following his death in January 2004, Helmut Newton’s position as one of the world’s most celebrated and distinguished fashion photographers is assured. For many, however, he was much more than that. His controversial and innovative portraiture broke down taboos, documenting and shaping society’s changing attitudes to sex and female empowerment.

http://www.helmutnewton.com/

SOMEDAYS

Wang Ningde is one of my favorite contemporary photographers in China. Perhaps not surprisingly, he spends most of his time as a photojournalist. These are from his "Somedays" series, which has gotten play abroad. See the Goedhuis Contemporary on him, and this SF Camerawork piece.

magazine: Eyemazing #4 2011

NAIL BITER

Working across a range of media, Cuban-American artist Anthony Goicolea is concerned with issues of the body, beauty, chaos and the perverse. In Goicolea’s video Nail Biter (2002), a young boy sits in bed in a darkened cabin in the middle of the woods, nervously biting his nails. As he chews, they continue to grow at an abnormal rate. His repetitive motions are compulsive, exaggerated as the pace quickens and hundreds of nail shards accumulate around him. The boy’s frenetic actions are accompanied by a soundtrack comprised of an amplified heartbeat, owls and other woodland noises which combine to mimic the effect of a metronome. As the video progresses the tension mounts, and a seemingly everyday, nervous habit unfolds into a sinister portrait. 

film: Nail Biter,  Anthony Goicolea