Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
As with the last one (see Wooden Form) I liked the curves and the textures of the wood. In that case the curves of the wood were mirrored by the shadow cast on the walls. In this case the curved form is literally “mirrored” by its own reflection.
Gregory Crewdson’s photographs almost always project solitude and intimacy, even if his images take a team to organize. The subject of one of his images looks back at the experience. Source: Alone, in a Crowd, With Gregory Crewdson – The New York Times
I’m not quite sure what to think about Gregory Crewsdon’s work and suspect that these large canvases need to be seen in their full glory to really appreciate them. Small images on the web may not do it. The NY Times article mentioned above refers to a recent (Jan-March, 2016) exhibition of his work at the Gagosian Gallery. I meant to go into New York City to see it, but typically for me never found the time to go. Ah well – another time.
Below two reviews, from Australia, of an exhibition of Crewsdon’s work in 2012, the first one negative and the second one positive.
Photographer Gregory Crewdson at The Centre for Contemporary Photography in Fitzroy. Photo: Joe Armao. Source: Sydney Morning Herald
American painters like Edward Hopper and the photorealist Richard Estes in their mysterious stasis.In painting, if you want to make something look brighter or mistier or on fire, you just toss in appropriate colours while building your volumes and edges. But in photography, you have to bring in lights and fog machines and incendiaries; and even then, the effects often look phoney. Crewdson is a master of directorial fakery, creating memorably unnatural-looking photographs that seem wilfully inauthentic.
I wish I could say the images are atmospheric. But the pictures are stilted and airless. You feel that if the wind were to blow, it would only be because someone was instructed to plug in a fan.
The human subjects in Beneath the roses strike me as lifeless, perhaps because of long exposures, during which everyone is ordered to stand still. The scenes mostly have a tragic air with incomplete narratives; but because of the contrived lighting, atmosphere and paralytic acting, they’re enigmatic in a goofy way. By suggesting some profound condition which is only staged as artifice, the work unwittingly strays into the burlesque.
Crewdson’s dramas seem both obvious and obscure. If you only saw one, you’d think it’s very clever and symbolically meaningful. But seeing a dozen weakens the intrigue, because the action in one picture looks more arbitrary than in the last.
Source: In a Lonely Place review, Sydney Morning Herald
© Gregory Crewdson. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
After the excoriating, unreasonably subjective diatribe by Robert Nelson in The Age newspaper (“Unreal stills, unmoving images” Wednesday October 17 2012) I hope this piece of writing will offer greater insight into the work of this internationally renowned artist. With some reservations, I like Crewsdon’s work, I like it a lot – as do the crowds of people flocking to the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Fitzroy to see the exhibition. Never have I seen so many people at the CCP looking at contemporary photography before and that can only be a good thing.
It’s now Friday and it’s rained every day since last Sunday and out of frustration and boredom I’ve taken refuge in taking pictures of objects around the house.
This VW Beetle was a birthday (Last week, April 30) present from our friend Ken. He knew that our old Toyota Camry had given up the ghost a year or so ago and I suppose he found it amusing to provide this as a replacement (to be fair he did give me a bottle of 15 year old Tobermory single malt scotch too). It also came with a challenge. He told me that there is something wrong with the model and left it to me to find out what.
I know very little about cars, but nonetheless I spent a few days browsing the internet and looking at pictures/plans of VW Beetles hoping that inspiration would strike me. I did notice that the rear view mirror and side mirror(s) were missing, but when I mentioned that to Ken he dismissed it as trivial. No, he had discovered something much more serious. I kept looking, but finding nothing, eventually gave up. Ken’s response was:
I can almost feel your pain! And inflicting pain was never my intent! Turn the model over and fix your gaze between the front wheels. There’s a suggestion of an engine and a gear box. Now, what do we/you know about where the engine/gearbox is on a Beetle? At the back!
Wow! Is that what those squiggles were? I’d never have spotted that in a million years.
I took a few pictures of the model today and the one above was the one I preferred. I like the way that almost nothing is in focus and the car seems to just disappear into the background.
UPDATE: A recent article on The Online Photographer (A Clarification of the Vivian Maier Case) sheds more light on what’s going on here.
After a lifetime of taking photos this poor woman died in virtual poverty – unable to pay for the storage locker where these photographs were eventually found. It’s pretty clear that she didn’t want to share them with others or she would probably have done so during her lifetime. Then after her death the sharks start to circle. The “money grabbers” seem now to have reached a agreement to share the spoils – Hurray!
The messy legal battle surrounding the life’s work of nanny and amateur street photographer Vivian Maier may finally be coming to a close in less than a week.In case the legal snafu has gotten so complicated you simply stopped following it, here’s a not-so-quick refresher: in 2007, 26-year-old John Maloof bought a box of 30,000 negatives from an estate sale for $400; his collection later grew to over 100,000 images. These images—the life’s work of then-unknown amateur street photographer and nanny Vivian Maier—took the world by storm, being hailed by some as some of the greatest street photography of the 20th century.But not long after Maloof unveiled the collection and the story took on a life of its own, a legal battle began over who really owns the images and whether or not it was legal for Maloof to sell and publicize the images before he obtained the rights, which he later did from one of Maier’s first cousin once removed. There’s even a question of whether that cousin is the rightful heir to the Maier estate.
Source: Petapixel: The Messy Legal Battle Over Vivian Maier’s Work May Soon Be Over
I liked the curves and the textures of the wood – and the shadow cast on the wall.
