Andrea Giacobbe

Recently I've been looking at the work of Italian photographer and film maker Andrea Giacobbe.

Residing in Los Angeles Giacobbe is known predominantly for his portrait and editorial work, as well as art installations and his work in film and video.

The main thing that strikes me about his work is his strong use of surreal imagery to make a social comment, an area that has begun to interest me a great deal recently.

In the images below, taken from an editorial piece for Dazed and Confused in 2000, Giacobbe uses a highly stylised concept to ask questions based on reality. 

The "God" figure has a plastic almost autonomous face, juxtaposed against the face of "Humanity" a tempestuous looking young girl with demonic horns. These images are shot in a very contemporary  style , I  particularly enjoy how he has the name tags in the style given out at a seminar.

This image, to me, is of God contemplating the start of of his "greatest" creation. Again the use of the ape costume mask is a deft touch adding a surreal yet satirical twist on the image.

Chess. The tactical struggle between god and humanity. Really love the use of the monkeys looking on as an audience in the television. Also having the young girl smoking a cigar is a very satirical touch, as obviously she shouldn't be doing this, and perhaps Giacobbe is using this to question mans own responsibility.

This Final image shows god and humanity on a long empty road, the look on the girls face perhaps comments that she's not entirely pleased with this situation?

Overall this is a style of work I would like to investigate further, whether it be in the same style or a different one I haven't quite decided as of yet and will need further research.

I look at this image...

and think it is quite possibly the future of Last of the Summer Wine...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_PVysa7cIk&feature=related

Benoit Paillé

Lewis showed me a really good site called the Behance network, and in particular the work of Benoit Paillé, a French Canadian photographer.

I was looking for a different take on street portraiture for the summer book project as that was one of my original ideas for the book project.

The lighting that he uses to create vibrant yet very softly saturated colours for his portraits is a style I would quite like to emulate.

Also his use of composition creates a mood within the images using very sparse scenery.

One of his series Undernight does, in my opinion, clearly references the surreal imagery created by Gregory Crewdson, following the staged surrealist form. Much like Crewdson's work it ask's the viewer to consider a range of possible scenario's as to why the subjects find themselves in such seemingly bizzare or strange positions, yet does not necessarily give finite answers.

This is an area I am very keen to look at in my own work so as to push myself conceptually as opposed to just reacting to what is presented before me.

Most of Paillé's work can be viewed here.

http://www.behance.net/Benoitp

" I'm as angry as hell and I ain't gonna take this any more"

oookay, this isn't going to be TOO much of a rant.... Probably.

I'm going to talk about something that's really bugging me in my work.

Confrontation.

Everything that I've done so far has been a little too easy, a little too nice.

I want my imagery to have an edge... I want it to ask questions... I want it to take the comfort zone and throw it into a massive furnace labelled BALLS...

So how do I achieve this... I am after all, a pretty laid back reasonable human being...  perhaps, with a penchant for asking questions... aren't we all?

I'm old.. yes.. but I still have a fire in my belly... I still want to tell the world how it is.... or how I see it?

When I was younger I wanted to make an impact..I wanted to to be somebody...the dream?..... validation through what I do.

As I got older and had a little bit of the shit kicked out of me, I started to understand how things worked... you have to fight.. which is not to say necessarily go looking for trouble... but don't take everything that your told.

We work... or want to work in a visual and descriptive led world... is the pinnacle of what we can achieve the x factor? or Twilight or the only way is essex?... to my mind bland and very ordinary... possibly easy targets? but still relying on a very stagnant and repetitive commercial concept....

I should be looking much further afield... at the work of the risk takers.. the big thinkers... those that don't want to follow the mould... that want to ask questions...

I feel my imagery should be so much more than just a pretty picture of a flower... or possibly a beautiful location... or this years hot pop star/ actress, or god forbid, reality TV star, looking cool.... it should ask why that is the norm?... it should look at those not deemed worthy of so called adulation.. people... or at the very least challenge those that are, and what makes them seem so worthy of it....

anyway to finish.... we didn't get to be at the top of the food chain to be so bloody bland...

This post was brought to you today by me watching this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgOWTM5R2DA

An interesting post from Flak Photo

Here's a link to a recent post by Flak photo regarding the future of Photobooks, which may be of interest as it's a project that we're all concerned with right now.

In it the writers ask the question of whether modern technology, and I get the feeling they aim a lot of that at the ipad, has and will change the way photographers present their work for viewing across multi platform media.

http://storify.com/flakphoto/looking-for-ipad-photo-publications

Okay

So I've not really hit the Blogging that hard over the summer as I've been doing other things and kind of let my Photography slide somewhat.

That changes now...

An interesting article and idea.

Picked this up from the BJP website.

An interesting article on how to self fund a book or exhibition without as much investment from outside sources.

http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2074592/funding-webers-interrogations