RO5

Still life with breast. 2001. Joel-Peter Witkin.

Alexander McQueen 2001 Asylum 

Sanitarium. 1983. Joel-Peter Witkin

Joel-Peter Witkin, born 1939 in Brooklyn in New York.  Mr. Witkin's work resembles that of early Dagguerreotypes.  Generally speaking, his work is dark and macabre in nature. His work has extensive use of still life and high contrast. A large part of his photographs have heavy production, both post and pre. The production consists of either preparing corpses or adding effects to the seen, these sorts of production are done before hand. Post-produciton can consist of Mr. Witkin using the scratch technique during developing or a method known as hands in the chemical technique to achieve a certain look.  He said that his "design sense"is based on a tramatic accident he had as a child. Simply put, a young girl was in a car accident in his very front yard, where the child died from decapitation. I would imagine my outlook would be crappy too. Random fact: his photograph "Sanitarium" inspired the final presentation of Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer 2001 collection.

Follow Me. Wang Qingsong. 2003

Wang Qingsong is a highly political and concept driven artist.  This particular photograph was inspired by books meant to teach English to Chinese citizens. It's also a colmination of his ideas about China moving towards a more "open" direction.  Wang Qingsong was born in 1966 in the Heilongjiang Province of China and currently works and lives through Beijing, China. According to his own website, he doesn't not have many accolades or awards. However,  I chose this photograph because it's so strong, it says so much literally and figuratively, you can get lost in the photo, it's subtle yet brash, overdone yet understated. I really like it.

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RA04

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RA03

 

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