UEL DV1101- Biography- Philip Lorcia diCorcia

'It might be said that twilight is a muddled form of clarity. The warm glow that suffuses the ' golden hour' in Los Angeles acts to filter the grim realities, the outright lies, the self-deceptions, which allow Hollywood, and by extension, America to flourish. 'Twilight' provides the rose-coloured glasses that make it possible to see out but not see in.'

Philip Lorcia diCorcia is an American photographer and at a first glance hes work looks very similar to Gregory Crewdon's work, however there is alot behind the photograph giving it alot of meaning. Philip-Lorca diCorcia made the Hollywood series (also known as The Hustlers) in an area of Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, frequented by male prostitutes and drug addicts.The photographs are a mixture of documentary and fantasy. Having set up the scene for each picture, diCorcia would find a man on the street and offer to pay him to appear in the photograph. The sitter's name, place of birth and the amount paid form each title, making every peice original.


References : http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/photography/past_exhns/twilight/diCorcia/index.html

UEL DV1101- Biography- Stephen Shore

UEL DV1101- Biography- Taryn Simon

Taryn Simon is an American Fine Art photographer, allot her work is based around how particular issues are perceived in the American culture. In allot of her photographs she asks the viewers their opinions, if they think a story is right or wrong it all depends on your values and beliefs as a human. She documents extreme and diverse subjects from; science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security, and religion. Her subject matter is always the darker side of the American society. In the photograph above is a tiger that is the the result of selective inbreeding to artificially create the genetic conditions that lead to white fur, ice-blue eyes and a pink nose. As a result of inbreeding, Kenny is mentally retarded and has significant physical limitations. Due to his deep-set nose, he has difficulty breathing and closing his jaw. This shows what lengths people are willing to go through to create an animal for entertainment purposes to gain money. She is questioning the animals rights and the people that decided upon the selective breeding. Of course she is a beautiful creature.. But at what price?

References : http://www.tarynsimon.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taryn_Simon http://www.gagosian.com/artists/taryn-simon/

UEL DV1101- Topic Defined By Me- Anna Fox

I had never heard of Anna Fox’s work until I went to the Photographers Gallerys and saw some of her work. She was one of the photographers who was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010. Fox is considered part of the new wave of British colour documentary photographers that emerged in the 1980s, much similar to Martin Parr’s. The set of work which amazed me and was by far my favorite part of the day was titled ‘My Mother’s Cupboard and My Father’s Words’ which she created in 1999. From far away the images are barely seen and the font used is so very small you can only read and then truly appreciate it if you go up very closely and intimately with the work. On one side was a pretty photograph of her mother’s tidy cupboards and on the other side was a very nasty spiteful quote from her father in very famine calligraphic writing, such as ‘I’ll cut your bum off and serves it in slices, like raw ham’.It is such a great contrast which shows their claustrophobic relationship. It was designed and a miniature limited addition book.

http://www.annafox.co.uk/arc/11.html

http://www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?pid=374

UEL DV1101- Topic Defined By Me-Martin Parr

Martin Parr is one of my favourite British photographers. He mainly works within the documentary style of photography and is most famously known for he’s critical observations of the British society that we live in, particularly tourism, family, relationships and food. What I love about he’s work is he’s saturated photographs so bright and colourful you would think they would be about wonderful happy things, however really most of he’s work uses semiotics very carefully in representing iconic British symbols, almost making fun of how such a simple think like a cream cake or fish and chips can be so amazingly iconic to Britain and our culture, making us see things that have seemed so familiar to us in a completely new way. He’s work is extremely exaggerated and at times may be extremely entertaining and then others can feel hard hitting as we may see a part of ourselves or past times in he’s photographs, how we live and present ourselves to others. There are 3 main topic areas that Martin Parr seems to stay contained in which are; leisure, consumption and communication of which he examines the national characteristics of how we do these day to day tasks.