Choosing just one person that influences me is not an easy task. Artists like Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon, Salvador Dali, Barbara Kruger, The Starn Twins, and Roy Lichtenstein all influence me on a regular basis. However, for the sake of this assignment, I would have to say that Sally Mann is a very big influence on my Artistic life.
Lately I feel that my work is moving slightly toward a feminist idea and I feel that Sally Mann has this slight bend of feminism that I am moving toward. I find the fact that she is a mother, photographing the everyday going-ons of her family and children, in a very artistic way, very interesting. I love the way her photographs seem to show the beauty in the everyday. I also enjoy the fact that, although at first glace her photos may seem like snapshots into her life, the more you study and look at her images, they seem staged, like her children are acting for the camera. This is something that I have tried to incorporate into my work as well, putting on a show or acting for the camera that is, with less success I personally believe.
Also, as a photographer who has really only done analog, I have the utmost respect for her print quality. I know that she is a professional so her print quality should be amazing, but it still amazes me how colorful she can make black and white photography. Her work shows me that there's really no need for color in photography.
Ok, I guess that that's enough of my blabbing, here are some of Sally Mann's photos that I really have been drawn to...
Oh, and I seem to not completely understand this blogging nonsense, I can't figure out how to put text under the images, so I will just let you know that...
The first image is titled The New Mothers and is from 1989,
The second image is titled Gorjus and is from 1989,
And The third image is titled Candy Cigarette and is from 1989.
They are all part of Immediate Family.
1 comment:
based on your comments, i'd like to suggest that you check out a few more artists you may or may not have heard about. gregory crewdson works with very staged narratives, less seemingly banal than mann's. also, philip lorca dicorcia's older work, especially images with his brother, all very snapshot aesthetic, but very much staged. you may also want to go to the library and watch the art 21: dvds.
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