Artist - David LaChapelle

                                                         http://www.lachapellestudio.com/

David LaChapelle has been photographing his work since the 1980's. He attended the North Carolina School of Arts, Art Students League, and School of Visual Arts. Soon after he began working Interview Magazine. Since then, LaChapelle has been photographing celebrities and ad campaigns that shock and strike the viewer. Outside of his commercial work, LaChapelle has had work in many galleries such as Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Jablonka Galerie, the Robilant + Voena Gallery, and Maruani & Noirhomme.

I am fascinated by the work of David LaChapelle. His use of vivid, nearly surreal colours is something that I strive for in my work. I am also a big fan of his skewed/exagerated reality. With the subject matter I am working with in my senior portfolio assignment it is easy for me to find inspiration from LaChapelle's work. I am not looking to create such extreme images, but I do like the feel/mood that he has and the aesthetic properties that his work possesses.

(on his work)

"initially distinguished by his campy fixation with white-trash culture, LaChapelle is also known for his groundbreaking use of computer manipulation and futuristic fashion shoots and for placing hollywood celebrities"

Design Boom. September 2001. Web. http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/lachapelle.html

(on his use of colour in his work)

"When I look back I can see when I switched to color; it really was exactly the time that I realized that I did not have HIV… It was almost as if a weight was lifted off of me, because I had seen my first boyfriend die of AIDS when I was 19 years old and he was 24. So for many years I thought that I was going to die the same way. Everything was in black and white because there was, for me at the time, no access to color and I felt very seriously about things at that time. My early pictures from then are black and white; they’re moody and dark, and I did this for six years."

Mercurio, Gianni. American Suburb X. November 2008. Web.          

           http://www.americansuburbx.com/2009/02/theory-conversation-with-david.html

http://www.fredtorres.com/

Idea 9/22 - Relationships

I am finding that the root of what most of my memories are coming from really stem from my relationships with other people. In fact, even with the added aspect of memory distortion/ false memory and surreal aspects, I still find myself reliving the relationships I had/have with the people involved in said "memory". I've started thinking "why is this an important event?", "why is this person important?", and most of all "why do we remember these things years later?". As human beings it is only natural for us to want to build relationships with the people around us, and when we remember an event we often think of the people we were with when it happened. Wether it is traumatic, exciting, etc. for whatever reason we feel closer to the people we experienced something important with.

Artist - Alex Prager

http://www.alexprager.com/

Alex Prager was born in 1979 in Los Angeles, California where she still resides today. She has been in several group and solo exhibitions to show her work. In April of 2007 she was publish in Polyester, and in 2005 her work was published in the book The Book of Disquiet: A Story of the Seven Deadly Sins. Some of her awards include the IPA award and Lucie award in 2009 and also the London Photographic Award in 2006.

I find Alex Pragers work to be very inspiring to what I am trying to accomplish. Her images possess movement and the ability to almost walk right off of the page, which is something I am always trying to do with my work. I attribute this feel to come from her dynamic lighting style. The lighting she uses creates and cuts through space, so that what was once a flat photograph is now a three dimensional box. I also feel that Alex Pragers slight surreal feel through mundane activities is also something I strive to accomplish in my work. Much like I said about Alison Brady, I often find myself looking at Alex Pragers work as inspiration for where I want to go in my work.

"Customarily, Alex uses wigs, wardrobes, and props, reminiscent of the 1960s, and some are quick to attribute Alfred Hitchcock, Guy Bourdin, and Cindy Sherman to her aesthetic. More rewarding, however, is examining the influences she has affirmed: photographers like William Eggleston, Mitch Epstein, Brassaï, Helmut Newton, and Jeff Wall, and painters like Lucian Freud, Manet, Balthus, and John Currin."

Tung, Tommy. Juxtapoz Magazine. 17 November 2009. Web. http://www.juxtapoz.com/Features/alex-prager-enjoys-a-month-long-week-end

(on her photographs)

"They all start out premeditated, but once I get on the set, all plans can go out the window. It really just depends on the moment. It’s pretty rare that I come back with the shot that I had in mind before I started, even though sometimes I’ll plan out a single picture for months, or sometimes I’ll think of it on the same day I shoot it"

Zavos, Alison. Feature Shoot. 13 July 2008. Web. http://www.featureshoot.com/tag/alex-prager-interview/

M+B Gallery http://www.mbart.com/

Visiting Artist - Wafaa Bilal

Wafaa Bilal is an artist orignating from Iraq, who has relocated to the United States. His controversial work and political views have forced him out of his own country, and often causes complications with his new life in the U.S. Most of Bilals recent work has been in response to the death of his brother and father, and the hardships of the Iraqi citizens. He creates work that revolves around issues of the American occupation in Iraq. His work "Shoot an Iraqi" allowed viewers to log online and shoot him at anytime for 31 days straight. Despite many complications, Bilals site took off and allowed two significant things. One he allowed the viewer to participate in the narrative of his piece and two he crossed over from artist in a gallery to artist in peoples homes across America. The other highly influential piece of work that Bilal has done was his video game "Virtual Jihadi". I found it fascinating that he took a video game that was shared both with American officials and Terrorist alike (the only difference were the characters in the game) and created an inspiring and thought provoking piece that was to show the faults in terrorism of all kinds. Even though the main focus of the game was anti-terrorism, he was unable to show his work due to the controversial nature. This resulted in the rally of "Art is not Terrorism".

As an artist and a person, I am incredibly inspired by the work and work ethic of Wafaa Bilal. His work itself if thought provoking and compelling. He breaks the boundaries of what is acceptable in a post 9-11 country and pushes people out of their comfort zones. I feel that if people could learn to look past the initial title or review of his work they would find that he is making a profound statement on humanity itself . I am also fascinated by his will to not give up on his art. It can be so easy sometimes to get discouraged and give up when someone tells you that you can't do something, but Wafaa Bilal has taken the opposite approach. It seems that no matter how many "you can't do that's" he gets, he still continues to try to get his work out and seen by the world.

Overall I was highly impressed by Wafaa Bilal, the person and the artist. I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to hear him speak and become exposed to his work.

idea 9/15 - memory

The main focus of my work this semester will have to do with memory and memory distortion. As individual beings, we each have individual experiences. This allows for innacuracies in our recollection. Perception changes from angle, to age, and even culture. I am interested in how I remember things that shape the person I am and how they relate to the memories of other people. Of course my memories are specifically my own and can in no way be experienced by another person exactly as I experienced it.

Koriat, Asher. Toward a Psychology of Memory Accuracy. http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/~bwhitlow/Courses/Learning/humanmemory.pdf%3E%20Annual Annual Reviews. 2000.

Summary

This article approaches the idea of memory distortion, false memory, and memory illusions. It delves into the psychological part of memory and really breaks down the science. What really intrigues me is the psychology behind memory psychophysics. "Memory psychophysics (see Algom 1992) embodies the view of memory as the perception of the past, bringing perceptual issues and techniques to bear on the study of memory."(490). This discusses the act of creating a memory and perceiving it as an actualy event. This is especially interesting as we often view memory as fact as it appears so real to us.
Quotes

"The same psychophysical transformation that operates on the sensory input to produce a perceptual representation is reapplied to the perceptual representation to produce the memorial estimates (but see Radvansky et al 1995 for alternative accounts)." (490)

"People’s ability to monitor their own memories is not just of intrinsic interest; it is also a critical component of the strategic regulation of memory accuracy...  showed that monitoring and control processes operating during memory reporting can have a substantial effect on the accuracy of the reported information."(515)

Alison Brady - Photographer

http://www.alisonbrady.com/

Alison Brady is an artist originating from Cleveland, Ohio but is now working and living in New York. She has a MFA in Photography Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, New York. She has shown work in many group and solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally. She also has work in many private collections such as that of Sir Elton John's. Currently she has work up in a show at ADA Gallery (Richmond, VA).

I first stumbled upon Alison Brady's work in 2008 and was fascinated by the subconcious emotions, fears and desires that present themselve in her work. Like Mark Jenkins, she intrigues me with the sense of dream like or surreal situations that arrive in each scene. When I view her work I imagine that I'm looking at someones nightmare or twisted dream or maybe even a severely mixed up memory of twisted reality. I am totally infatuated with Bradys work and often find myself searching her new and old photographs for inspiration when I hit a block.

On her work:

"The strong formal contrasts - rough carpet on smooth steps, dark hair against pale skin - subsume any implied noirish narrative. The same holds true for more engaging images in which Brady deforms her idealized figures."

Harris, Jane. Time Out New York: Art Review. New York. June 2007. Print.

"... seem to pick up where the sweetly kinky set up images of Jimmy DeSana (1949-1990) left off; not a bad place to start."

Smith, Roberta. The New York Times. New York. June 2006. Print.