Photography Exhibitions in Berlin

The C/O Gallery in Berlin is holding two photography exhibitions at the moment. The first is Bruce Davidson - Subway and the second is Arnold Newman - Masterclass.

Bruce Davidson - Subway
17 March to 20 May 2012

Bruce Davidson who was born in America was best known as a respectable and influential documentary photographer. He presented his work with images taken at New York subway in 1980. Davidson wanted to show the subway has like graffiti, mugging, dirt, noisy crowds etc. Davidson talks about public transport being a nightmare when he boards a train from a station full of musicians, homeless people, tourists and business people and also gangs on the train so davidson took images of what subway trains and stations contains the kind of people who travel around New York. I think the New York subway can relate to the London Underground as the tube to can have the kind of people like businessmen and musicians and sometimes there can be trouble.


Arnold Newman - Masterclass
3 March to 20 May 2012

Arnold Newman was born in New York City in 1918 and over the past 50 years he became one of the most renowned portrait photographer. His most recognisable work is his images of artists, musicians and presidents like Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, Harry S. Truman, Ansel Adams and Andy Warhol. The exhibition called Masterclass talks about Newman taking images of celebrities, Newman photographed numerous famous people but hated the idea of celebrity when it was devoid of achievement. He was only interested in what, not who, people were.

Bibliography

http://www.co-berlin.info/program/exhibitions/2012/bruce-davidson.html

http://www.co-berlin.info/program/exhibitions/2012/arnold-newman.html

http://www.edelmangallery.com/davidsonshow5.htm

http://www.areaofdesign.com/americanicons/newman.htm

Modernism/Postmodernism

According to some theorists, the 20th century can be divided into two distinct periods; one characterised by the modernism movement and the other by postmodernism. Modernism in the late 1800s was followed by Postmodernism after world war two. This blog tells the difference between Modernism and Postmodernism.

Modernism


Modernism began in the 1890s and lasted till 1945. Modernism in everyday terms 'modern' is often used to refer to contemporary design, media or forms of social organisation (as in 'the modern family'). Modernism describes a collection of cultural movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in art, architecture, literature, music and applied arts.

Modernism in photography was mainly used for portraits or landscapes found in history, like this image above showing what the history of photography how it was during modernism.

Postmodernism


Postmodernism began after world war two, especially after 1968. Literally 'after the modern', the postmodern represents a critique of the limitations of modernism with its emphasis upon progress and, in the case of the arts, upon the materiality of the medium of communication. At the time of postmodernism, thing were changing even in photography, in postmodernism photography has now become a form of art. Theorists believe that postmodernism was a response to modernism and hence consider them as two aspects of the same movement.

With Cindy Sherman's work, it show both modernism and postmodernism as her black and white stills relates to hollywood movie like theme as it were before postmodernism.

Bibliography

Wells L., 2009, Photography A Critical Introduction, 4th Edition, Oxon, Routledge, p348-349

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/214493.html

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman who was born in America in 1954 is known as one of the most influential artists in contemporary art. She studied art at Buffalo State College until she graduated in 1976 and moved to New York City. Photography is what made her known for her series called the 'Untitled Film Stills' (1978-1980) showing black and white images of her dressed up in many designs and appearances.

All of Sherman's work is based on women's styles used in movies, fashion, soap operas, etc. and has been going on since the 70s. Her film stills is now being used in colour and is still going to the present. The stills are mainly self portraits where Cindy uses different styles of herself with hairstyles, clothes, props and make-up. My favourite images (above) showing black and white stills of one woman disguising as many different women is what I like about Cindy Sherman's work where she can relate to many womens ways by dressing up.

Right now her latest stills relates to the present day with colour and style. Her work is starting to develop from her early stills as the style is changing. from her black and white hollywood style to her fake tan mini skirt style. I like how from the beginning of the series started to the present day where the design of the images change in time in a way we see photography change.

Bibliography

Bright S., 2006, Art Photography Now, Thames & Hudson

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1170

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/aipe/cindy_sherman.htm

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/cindy-sherman-1938/text-artist-biography

Semiotics

Semiotics or semiology is a study of signs and symbols that was first introduced in 1916 by swiss linguist Ferninard de Saussure which was then developed even further by John Barthes (France) and C.S. Peirce (USA). Semiotics can be used or interpreted. Semiotics is to help us understand ways of seeing things around us and in reality. Semiotics can be anything from vehicles to clothing to food to music and semiotics is also mentioned in newspaper articles, television, magazine, books etc.

Semiotics is heard in music, smelt or tasted in food and seen in photographs, in photography semiotics can help us read from an image as the image shows evidence of what is happening in the image.

Signs

Signs are everywhere they can be anything and semiotics can make them understandable. Signs works in two areas: signifier and signified, signifier is the object and signified is what the object represented for example, an apple is the signifier (the apple means food) that can be signified as health, knowledge, temptation.

The painting above by Lucas Cranach (1472-1553) shows Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden standing next to the Tree of Knowledge where Satan disguising as the serpent uses the apple to tempt Eve. In the painting you see the serpent in the tree and you think the snake means animal where the snake is signified as evil and is actually the devil taking the form of the serpent.

Icons

An icon is used to represent areas for example a magnifying glass is an icon for searching, a musical note is an icon for music, a gun is an icon for violence or war etc.

Bibliography

Wells L., 2009, Photography A Critical Introduction, 4th edition, Oxon, Routledge, p350.

Hall S., 2007, This Means This This Means That a user's guide to semiotics, Laurence King

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html

Robert Frank

Robert Frank born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1924 is one of the most influential photographers in history. At the age of 22 he became a professional industrial photographer then a fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar magazine in the 1940s. In 1947 he emigrated to America where he began developing images for The Americans series which is his most notable for. During his time working on the series, he travelled across the states from New York City to Chicago to New Orleans to Los Angeles taking photos of the kind of things that represents the US like the people who live here, the places they have, the vehicles they use etc.

Trolley - New Orleans 1956

During his travels he photographed cowboys, long roads, coffins, jukeboxes, diners, rodeos, factory workers, transexuals, african-americans, buildings, farmyards, the american flag and the list goes on. during the time in the 1950s there were different times in the states where black people were referred to as "Negros" rather then africans or foreigners and the community was split apart from the white community and the black community, from this image (shown above) showing what seems to be a bus where the white people were sitting in the front and the black people were sitting in the back as well as the image (shown below) showing factory working split in the middle of an assembly line where the white people are on the left and the black people are on the right. The top image was used as a front cover on the Robert Frank book called The Americans which shows images of america in the 1950s during his travel around the states. The book was based on post-war events after the second world war in a time where the United States was changing in the mid 20th century. The book was published in 1958 in france and a year later in America. 

Robert Frank was presenting his work in the book from the beginning of his journey to the end showing the culture of America in the 1950s at the time of jukeboxes, the change in music, fashion and hollywood stars. I think Robert Frank wanted to show us what Americas was like at that time and how much has changed since then.

Bibliography 

Well L., 2009, Photography: A Critical Introduction, 4th edition., Oxon, Routledge, p103 and 272

http://www.biography.com/people/robert-frank-9301000

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/frank/about.shtm

http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Robert-Frank.html