Andy Warhol

I'm going to begin by saying I've never liked Andy Warhol. I've never gone out of my way to look at his work, yet he's one of those artists who is unavoidable. We've all seen the Campbell's soup can, we've all seen his print of Marilyn Monroe, and we all know that his work is known as pop-art.

What I didn't know is that while creating my print-type repeated self portrait image, I was blatantly ripping off Warhol. I had definitely seen the Marilyn Monroe picture beforehand and acknowledged some influence there, but I do not recall having ever seen THIS version where Warhol has used my favored 3x3 presentation format. Perhaps it was stowed in my subconscious, perhaps I'd never seen it before, either way, the similarities are undeniable. .

Just when I though my copycat predicament couldn't get any worse, I discovered that Warhol has also created an image that looks like the second version of my work (which in this case I'd DEFINITELY not seen prior to creating my copycat version!)

I guess the most important thing for me here is to acknowledge the differences (however subtle they are) and analyze the similarities, all whilst trying to get over the fact that I accidentally created a piece of art based on an artist I've never liked (although now I understand his work a lot better I'm beginning to take a shine to that time traveling, idea stealing twerp).

One of the main differences between Warhol's work and my own, is that I do not consider my work pop-art. Although it looks the same on the surface, my images was not taken from the media or popular culture, but was simply the product of one of my school projects. The themes remain similar though. It is said that Warhol's images deal with "sex, money, power, success and failure" which are all key elements in the images I have produced, as I am dealing with the idea of power, money & success and the pressure on modern women to use sex in order to attain these ideals.

Ellliott Erwitt

My latest fascination is with this famous french photographer following a visit to the Dunedin Public Library and the discovery of one of his books titled simply "Snaps".

He grew up and studied in America and quickly became a renowned advertising and documentary photographer. He is known for his black and white candid shots of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings -- the master of the "indecisive moment".

You've got to check it out to understand. The guy's a genius.
My current favourites...

1955, Colorado

1954, Wyoming

Angela Strassheim

This isn't related directly to my project, but I stumbled upon a great photo blog today and thought this post was really cool.




This is from a series called "Evidence" by Angela Strassheim. For this project Strassheim researched the locations of violent and horrific crimes, then approached the new land owners and tenants asking if she could uncover the history of their residence.
She used a substance called the "Blue Star" solution to activate the physical memory of blood through its contact with remaining proteins on the walls. Her long exposure photographs reveal the blood as "a lurid glow".

Margi Geerlinks (Netherlands)

Rachel kindly sent me links to 3 artists relating to my ideas. This one caught my attention in particular...

Margi's work deals with human image and idealism. Her images depict construction and reconstruction of the body in order to achieve ideal beauty.
In the below image "Gepetto" a man is constructing a 'perfect' woman, just as makeup artists, photographers and photo manipulators engineer perfect women for media images.


Her image "Mirror" relates directly to my mini project, as she has used photoshop to create an image of an old woman restoring her youth with a makeup pad.
This image made me think of how I could present the original photo of myself next to the heavily altered image, or even merge the two so that the ideal and the real is split right down the middle.

There is a sadness to all of her images as all her subjects hold a certain shallowness and disregard for inherent human beauty. Their achievements are unnatural, unnecessary, and seemingly only to impress other people.