Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Ahh, halloween is just around the corner, and what better artist to discuss than Ralph Eugene Meatyard. First of all, what I want to know, is how did this poor man's family genealogy gift him.. or curse him.. with such a last name? Meatyard? Really? That sounds like a name made up in a bad fiction novel.. Alas, there it is, real, not in a fiction novel. Maybe his name determined the kind of photography and art he would be destined for. One can only speculate.

Robert Eugene Meatyard, has a series of photographs that consist of people with mask, often doing very normal things.

The children are not doing anything special.. They are simply sitting, with mask on. Yet the un natural look the mask give the children does not scare me. It just makes me laugh. The simple act of putting on a mask makes the children ( and in other images, adults ) just look silly. I wonder if it is just because in American culture, this is something we are accustomed to seeing. Every year, Halloween rolls around and millions of children and adults dress up, often sporting similar faces. If this was taken to a different culture... Would this be scary? Should it be? I'm not sure, but either way, from the knowledge and exposure to this holiday, I get a sense of playfulness with these images.

Seeing the more developed human form wearing mask, adds an additional sense of play. I also enjoy the small detail in this photo, of the slingshot, a child's play toy in the boys back pocket. The difference between this photo and the others too, is the change to color. For some reason adding the element of color to this series also adds a lighter feel to the image. I'm also not sure if this is because film photography specifically black and white is done so little now, that any time it is done, I am programmed to believe there was more artistic intention behind it.. This seems like almost a silly notion, but so often that is how we view film photography especially black and white. It's serious, it's educated, informed. What a load of trash that is. To think that a work of art has less meaning because of it's medium is nonsense. Yet, that is exactly what I got upon seeing the difference from black and white to color. The image still appears to be film.. Just colored film.

This photograph is one of my two favorite ones from this series. My first reaction was, "Aw, how cute the monster couple is in lovvveeeee ". And then I laughed. The adults wearing these mask make me happy. I guess it is because these mask do give a sense of play to me. So to see the two adults wearing them and exchanging signs of affection, leave me to believe they are being goofy with one another. Enjoying each others company in a childlike fashion. Being a child is healthy. It's exciting when childhood creeps into our all too serious adult role.

I enjoy many of his photo's.. But this series just seems appropriate for the season. Enjoy the weather, play in it, and enjoy art in all of it's forms. Be light in heart.

Bruce Davidson's Photography

Bruce Davidson's photography, is a recent discovery of mine. I do not know a lot about any of his work with the exception of the photo series he did on the civil rights movement. However, while googling imagines this man took, the same feeling was evoked in me over and over and over again.

What feeling or feelings do these photo's evoke in you? To me.. Almost every photo I viewed ( these are just a few examples ) I felt ISOLATION. Complete and total isolation. Even the photographs with families.. There was still an overpowering feel of this emotion, this prison. I say prison, because I do not get a sense that the subjects in these photo's enjoy the isolation. It is unwelcome, but present.

This is an image of a family.. But something about their stance, their separation from the other houses, the contrast in the image,and the somewhat make shift home they seem to live in oppose to the buildings behind them... is.... sad. The children have such a frozen expression. A painful expression on such a small figure. The parents with more practice of faking an emotion both have slight smiles.. Unconvincing smiles at that.

I wonder if the artist had empathy for these subjects, and wanted to reach out to them and was touched by their situations.. And therefore choose to photograph them.. Or, did Bruce not choose to photograph them.. Did they perhaps choose him? Was he a man of tortured isolation to the point that his subjects choose him without his consent? Without his knowledge of the connection he has with them? The lighting in his photographs pulls this emotion out even more. The image of the man up against the wall by a messy bed, is a wonderful example of the dark lighting with bright contrast highlights. It pushes and pulls.. The way these photographs push and pull on my head. I almost can not stand to look at them. Naturally as humans, we want to turn away from things that upset us. His work upsets me. It is done so wonderfully that the feeling of isolation jumps out. I almost feel like it is chasing me from the picture. Kind of like the horror films that have an image come out of the TV and attack.. That is exactly what I feel when I look at these. The isolation is coming for me in these images and I instinctively want to run away. But like a deer in headlights... I can not leave them, I have just spent an unknown amount of time gawking at these pictures.

Maggie Taylor

Maggie Taylor is an artist I thoroughly enjoy. Her work plays along the side of fantasy, and is very similar to some of the work I originally intended to do this semester. Although I have changed my path, I have every bit of interest to fulfill the project next semester. The series of work from her that I am most familiar with is her Gentleman series.

This photo is called Garden ( 2005 ) I use to have this photo as my profile wall photo on myspace for ages. The image intrigues me. Visually it it has a sense of symmetry , and peace. Initially anyway.. Then when you actually see it for what it is, humans stuck into the ground head first it is unsettling. It can be interpreted multiple ways. Are they humans growing? Or are they dead? That common phrase, "Head in the ground" that is said of people who have lost all sense of themselves comes to mind.. The perfect stillness that they obvious have, a rigid stiff, dead presence, that would allow a bird to feel comfortable enough to sit there.. With no threat. The vivid colors on the foreground separate the background from the foreground with an eerie feeling when the images become focused on what they are, and not what they appear to be at first glance, a plant, a tree.. I get a feeling of early morning or late evening with a haze, I can almost feel the intense moisture that would be present in an environment like that..

This photo is called Twilight Swim ( 2004 ). This photo is disturbing, but slightly comical at the same time. On one hand, the girl is looking straight ahead at us, in a very confrontational way. But, her eyes seem distant. She looks like she has lost all sense.. Perhaps she has gone mad. She is swimming around with sharks in the evening light, alone, which could also be a sign of delusion for any normal person. The small detail in this photo that makes it go from frightening to humorous is the fish underwater, small in scale to the rest of the photo.. With shark fins attached to it. That one small detail makes you reassess the entire photo. She still comes across as crazy to me.. But in a different sense. The two fish she has wrapped around her neck are similar to the one in the water with the fins on it. Almost as though she is out there creating a scene for herself to marvel at. Not concerned about anyone watching or interfering. Or perhaps she does this in the evening and watches people scatter in the day time at they process these tiny fish as real potential for danger due to the attached fins. Her work has the fantasy feeling that makes my mind race with possibilities. The fact that they do have a magical or supernatural element, gives my imagination permission to wander with all sorts of angles to approach the image.

This piece is called Just Looking. The colors in this image draw me in before anything else. The way they are blended in at the top corners and around the square behind the creature, look like metal rusting or being corroded. And then to the right side in the middle behind the girl and beside the elevator, the brilliant small portion of blue. And of course the dominating black all over the creature. This black on such an unknown creature seems sinister. The sense of exposure from the stance of the human on display makes me uneasier for the poor girl. But, as far as the over all composition or message of the photo.. I have no take. Perhaps I am not suppose to have any idea what is going on. Perhaps the only thing I am suppose to receive from this photo is the sense of confusion it evokes in me. The slight tilt of the head I naturally slouch into when I look at it. I kind of enjoy the disorientation it creates in me. Almost allows me to believe in things beyond my own understanding and grasp.

This one I found off a google search under Maggie Taylor's name. I could almost swear that is is from her Almost Alice series, although I did not see it on her website under any category. This is identical to most of her work, so I feel fairly confident in citing it this way.

This image makes me think of Alice in Wonderland of course, because of the overgrown girl, the key in her hand, and the tiny door way opening to a garden.. However this image also speaks to me as a telling lesson of life. So often what we want is so close, but impossible to reach from where we are, the dispositions in life that we have. I feel sorry for the girl, because she is being teased with what she wants to much to be a part of, and she has no plan of how to join it.. How to get through the door and out into the beautiful garden that awaits, instead of the cramped dark and shabby room she stands in. It's moving in a peculiar way.

Her work is so close to my heart because it inspires the childhood imagination I carry around, that many of us carry around, that we suppress in our adult lives. Oddly enough, there is a quote from Alice in Wonderland that deals with this perfectly. Alice says, " One can't believe impossible things". The queen replies, " I dare say you haven't had much practice". I love this line because it goes to show us that we block out our imagination, or possibilities because of mental walls we put up ourselves against ourselves. It's lovely really.

Her images may not have words, but they speak loudly to me.

Duane Michals

Duane Michals is a photographer that I really admire. I admire him for more than just his photography, even though that is initially what drew me in.

Duane Michals does various different forms of photography, and they all have a sense of grace to them.

There is just this tranquil sense about the photographs.

In every photograph, there is a certain sense of intimacy, one that I can not even grasp because a lot of his subjects were just passing people. He has a unique eye for new angles with every photo.

Photos from above are done often, but something about the angles of the girls pulls your eye in. Makes you stop to reconsider the form their bodies are shifted in.

One quote from him that mirrors this is found in the book: The portraits of album. He says, " Each person should be a different solution. The photographer should approach each sitting as if he had never taken a portrait before". This concept, this idea, is very evident throughout his work. Another line he speaks is, " I always look mean when photographed, yet I am much nicer than my face. I am not just this chin, these wrinkles, this nose. Do not be deceived by my face". I believe that insights like this reveal the very core of his photographs and the way he approaches his work. He tends to photograph people in their environment.

This last one really moves me. I can not even begin to explain why or how. I hate that all of these photos I had to scan from the various books I've read on him this last week.. But in the real photograph there is a tiny bottle on the bed. Something about the way the light hits the man... The strange position of the bottle in the center of the photo and isolated on the bed.. The way the sheets look worn in.. But not pulled back.. The gaze in the man's eye. There are so many possible answers for what this photograph could mean. It leaves one questioning.. And at the same time it does not feel staged at all.. I'm not sure if it was or not but given the typical nature of his photographs and his photographs in this particular series I would argue that it is not. If it is not, what kind of moment, have we been allowed to view through this image? I don't know.. So many thoughts.. So many questions.. Such a sense of grace.

Another reason I love his work, is because I can relate to a lot of this thoughts and emotions easily. Some of his quotes are so telling of how I feel, of how I think.. Put into more eloquent writing.

This is a quote I will leave on, "As I age, while I still have time, I yearn to know now, more than ever, my true self, that random and illusive thing decorated with personality. We believe ourselves to be this kaleidoscope of passions and distractions. We are a brilliant and unknown moment,suspended between memory and anticipation, anxious in our uncertainties, and doomed to fade with our consciousness. How can such a mystery be photographed? What is left for us but amazement? "

I truly believe that art of any kind, can push one to know themselves better. I spend an increased amount of time alone as I grow older, and with less and less distractions when possible, because I understand the value of knowing who I am. I am inspired by his work because I feel that in his work, he did just that. He discovered his passions. His interest. His being. His purpose.

Jerry Uelsmann

Jerry Uelsmann is one of my favorite photographers. He does his work by hand, which takes great skill. This type of printing takes a lot of pre-planning and thought. In addition the ideas behind the work takes a great deal of trial and error and visual planning. I really respect his work and I love the fantasy nature of the photo's that he creates. He was well ahead of his time when he did these and every body of work I've seen has managed to inspire me. One of the projects I want to work on this semester was partially inspired by his work. I want to do fairytale/ dream realm with familiar stories. I want to take the film print and make digital backgrounds to fade through into them. I want to do this by hand to preserve the texture between the two mediums and to add texture by using a process that will slightly fog the digital to give more of a dream state. And in trying to plan for my own project.. I can account for how difficult his work is. They move me. They make my mind wander and imagine.. That is what I want my particular project this year to do.