Modernism / Postmodernism

The invention of photography was part of the process of modernization of the means of production that took place during the Industrial Revolution. Photography is a modern form of image making, contributing to the development of modernism.

MODERNISM

Modernism is in its broadest definition is modern thought, character, or practice. More specially, the terms describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The term surrounds the activities and output of those who felt the traditional forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life.

E.G

Lola Álvarez Bravo is a photographer, photojournalist, portraitist and street photographer, a widely recognized as Mexico’s first major female photographer and a pioneering figure in the rise of modernist photography. She was a profound humanist who used the camera to chronicle the people and places of her beloved country over a remarkable six-decade career. Diverse in subject and technique, Álvarez Bravo was a photojournalist, portraitist and street photographer. Her best-known portraits, and ultimately the work for which she gained international recognition are those of her colleague and friend Frida Kahlo.

POSTMODERNISM

Postmodernism is a tendency in contemporary culture characterized by the rejection of objective truth and global cultural narrative, comes from its rejection of the Modern scientific mentality of objectivity and progress associated with the enlightenment. It emphasizes the role of language, power relations, and motivations in particular it attacks the use of sharp classifications such as male versus female, straight versus gay, white versus black, and imperial versus colonial. Postmodernism has influenced many cultural fields including literary criticism, linguistics, architecture, visual arts and music.

E.G

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and film director of ‘Office Killer’ who is best known for her conceptual portraits. Many art critics have seen Sherman's work as an indicator of a postmodern approach, an image that stands alone with no reference to anything "real" outside the image that validates it as an image (the indexical function), photographing herself in a ranges of costumes. Sherman’s work can generally tell us that the subject has become simply an image or simulacrum that lacks any depth, and yet can mediate between interior and exterior spaces breaking down the subject- object boundary, also the subject is fragmented and has become hybrid in its gender and material makeup, being in transition between man and woman and between ‘fake’ plastic mannequins, ‘real’ bodies and mutated cyborg flesh which are the main things about the mediation of subjectivity in postmodern culture.

From this comparison between modernism and postmodernism, the distinction between modes thought is clear, the two creates a modern-postmodern dichotomy that undermines the very principles. The overview clearly exposes shortfalls in the postmodernism critique of modernism. These movements, Modernism and Postmodernism are understood as cultural projects or as a set of perspective.

REFERENCE:

• Books: 'Modern Art' by David Cottington'; 'Modernism/Postmodernism' by Peter Brooken; 'Practising postmodernism, reading modernism' by Roy Boyne and Ali Rattans; 'The Museum of Modern Art', 'Retrospective' and 'The incomplete Untitled Film Still' by Cindy Sherman

Feminism

Feminism refers to political, cultural and economic movements aimed at establishing greater rights and legal protections for women, includes some of the sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference, it is also a movement that campaigns for women’s rights and interests.

Feminism has changed traditional perspectives on a wide range of areas in human life, from culture to law; feminist activists have campaigned for women’s legal rights such as rights of contract, property rights and voting rights. They have struggled to protect women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment and rape, on economic matters feminists have advocated for workplace rights including maternity leave and equal pay, against others forms of gender specific discrimination against women.

NANCY COTT

Nancy Cott defines feminism as the belief in the importance of gender equality, invalidating the idea of gender hierarchy as a socially constructed concept.

GLORIA STEINEM

Gloria Steinem an American feminist, writer, journalist, social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader and media spokeswoman for the Women’s Liberation Movement in the late 1960s and 1970s.

PABLO PICASSO

Pablo Picasso is a Spanish painter, draughtsman and sculptor. He is well known for his promiscuity and erotic paintings of women, his image as a womaniser is as famous as his work. During his life, Pablo had donated works and money to a host of women's campaign groups, his new exhibition title 'Peace and Freedom' will portray the artists as a staunch supporter of the woman's movement.

REFERENCE:

• Books: 'Heritage of Herown' and 'Public Vows' by Nancy Cott; 'Los Grandes' by Pablo Picasso
• http://www.biography.com/articles/Gloria-Steinem-9493491
• http://video.answers.com/Q/gloria_steinem_-_profile_171003465

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of sign processes or signification and communication like signs and symbols. The study of the social, cultural and historical processes through which sign such as photographs acquire and circulate meaning, it is a useful critical approach with which to challenge simplistic beliefs in the realism of the photographic image and as a critique of humanist and modernist concepts of artistic expression which place the photographer in a central position, where the work’s success is measured against the author’s intentions, and understanding these intentions means understanding meaning the work. In this view, meaning is created by individuals and communicated using a transparent language.

In semiotics a sign is something that stands for something, to someone in some capacity. It may be understood as a discrete unit that includes words, images, gestures, scents, tastes, textures, sounds. Essentially all of the ways in which information can be communicated as a message by any sentient, reasoning mind to another.

The image on the top shows an example of the use of semiotics, a perfume’s advertising of the celebrity Beyonce Knowledges which is her first launched signature perfume named ‘HEAT’. The name of the perfume matches the singer because connotes sensuality, a word often associated with Beyonce; the colours shown on the perfume contrasts with Beyonce’s dress, background and title that is red, red a colour that symbolizes love and passion also danger but in this situation the semiotics refers the danger in a seductive way, e.g. ‘Catch the fever’. Tones of red and gold were used for the over all look of the design, selected to reflect the title ‘HEAT’ that sign fire and heat, but as well as for the Singer’s personality, style and look, like sexy, lovely, passionate, sultry, glamorous and hot.

REFERENCE:

• Book: 'Semiotics' and 'Photography Adverting'
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEgxTKUP_WI
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLaQJ_Kr0UM
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76lPciEip3A

Nick Brandt

Nick Brandt was born and raised in London a british contemporary photographer who studied film and painting at St Martins School of Art but he now lives in Topanga, California.

Brandt started photographing in December 2000 in East Africa, beginning the body of work that is his signature matter and style. His first book is titled ‘On this Earth’ which were published in October 2005, he has had numerous of exhibition between 2004 and 2006 including London, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, Hamburg, Santa Fe, Sydney, Melbourne and San Francisco; and his second new book was exhibited in September 2009 at Atlas Gallery.

His passion is taking black and white photographs of wild animals surrounded in their natural habitat in Eastern Africa and capturing their dramatic single moment in action, using a telephoto lens and printed in an Archival Pigment Ink. He studied step by step with the view of the camera by taken pictures and froze each moment it could that the conclusion is to attract viewer’s eyes and make them believe that the animals does have feelings. Its is very interesting and incredible how powerful these photographs are both landscape, also printed in black and white, no color but have tone and has the same content which is relationship, unit and love.

Brandt photographs inspired me for the fact that the photographs is the lovely emotion that the animals transmits into the image, a feeling candidness that demonstrates the good side of nature being which creates a story within the image.

REFERENCE:

• Exhibition: 'Keep The World Wild' at Hoopers Gallery
• Book: 'On this Earth' and 'A Shadows Falls'
• http://www.nickbrandt.com

Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman was born on Denver, Colorado, April 3rd in 1958. She is an American Photographer, best known for taking black and white film nude pictures of herself portrait and friends which studied and influential of late 20th Century photographers. Who suicide in New York, 19 January on her’s 22 years old.

Woodman started taking pictures when she was barely thirteen and in less than a decade created a body of work that has now secured her reputation as one of the most original American Artists of 1970s. Spent the most of her childhood in Italy in the Florentine countryside, where she lived in an old farm with her parents who were also artists and her older brother as well later became an associate professor of electronic art.

She created a number or of artis’ books, such as ‘Portrait of a Reputation’, ‘Quaderno dei Dettati e dei Temi’, ‘Angels’ Calendar Notebook and ‘Some Disordered Interior Geometries’, however the only book that was published during her life time was ‘Some Disordered Interior Geometries’ released in January 1981 shortly before she committed her own death, the book contains 24 pages in length and is based upon selected pages from an Italian geometry exercise book were had attached 16 photographs with handwriting and white correction fluid on the pages. Woodman used of a black and white 21’4 inch square format, were she produced blurred images by camera movement and long exposure times, merging with their surroundings.

Francesca Woodman was very passionate for her work, creative, imaginative also very ambitious. She influenced me with the beauty and intelligence clearly visible in her photographs, the female body as a central theme which is a landscape for her reflections on materiality and presence.

REFERENCE:

• Book: Francesca Woodman

Robert Frank

Robert Frank was born in November 9, in 1924 in Zurich Switzerland. He is ones of the world’s most influential and prominent photographer in America photography and film, for more then fifty years he has broken the rules of photography and film making, challenging boundaries between the still life and the moving image.

Frank emigrated to United States in 1947 and secured a job in New York City as a Fashion Photographer for Harper’s Bazar; married to the Artist Mary Lockspeipeiser and had two children, Andrea and Paolo, thereafter they separated and he married to Sculptor June and moved to the Community of Mabou in Canada. Frank’s

subsequent work has dealt with the impact of the loss of both his daughter Andrea that was killed in a plane crash and his son Paolo who was first hospitalized and diagnosed with Schizophrenia.

Frank’s latest work from the book ‘ The Americans’ he divided the book into four chapters or parts, each one beginning with a photograph of flag and each one which addresses for the difference aspects of American Culture. He created narratives out of constructed images and of images incorporating words and multiple frames distorted on the negative, some blurred autofocus form and mostly dark images with bright lights which makes a strong contrast that is very magnificent and masterpiece work.

REFERENCE

• Book: The Americans
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHtRZBDOgag&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAMrrrFmayY&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DwjvOR4YL4&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uARK9oesck&feature=related

Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore was born on October 8, 1947 in New York City, who is an American photographer known for his deadpan images of banal scenes and objects in the United States and for his pioneering use of colour in art photography.

He was interested in photography from an early age, self-taught. At age six his uncle gave him a photographic kit, thereafter in 1973 he began use a 35mm camera and started his colour photographs; at fourteen sold three prints to Edward Eteichen the director of the Museum of Modern Art; left a Manhattan prep School during twelfth grade and spent 1965 through 1969 documentary Andy Warhol’s factory; and in 1971 he became the second living photographer to have a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The book titled ‘Uncommon Places’ is very useful with a astonish images. Shore used a 8x10 film large format a way that gives the ability for viewers to see how much details as the camera can record which is superb, and the purpose he used it is that he discovered that was a technical means in photography of communicating what the world looks like in the state of awareness, in that awareness of really looking at of the everyday world; and he goes as far in the space as he can paying attention and choosing advantage point that it stands and articulates the space.

Shore is fascinated of how people live, the architecture and interested in how those different houses look like. The images are very clear and have very long tonal range also great image dynamic but he never crops it because he challenges himself playing game in certain rules and in certain boundaries that for him makes more interesting to know that the decision that he makes when he takes a picture are the decisions that he has to live with.

REFERENCE

• Book: Uncommon Places
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m5flmLiEDA
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAQkrUB1sLM&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8kuBc27VO8&feature=related