Photographs and Paintings

Hockney on Photography

 

British painter and photographer David Hockney was able to successfully merge the emotions of both the photographer and their subject. He set out to have an intertwining of both, rather than the normal disconnect between the two. He wanted to take away in his words “the window effect” when looking at a photograph thus making the subject more interesting to the audience. Hockney was able to take a series of pictures and rearrange them to make an art piece, utilizing his background as a painter first. Hockney would envision the final product of his creations while he was taking the pictures. Upon creating his first of many photographic collages, he used a grid like system with Polaroid’s. You would see the entire “scene” laid out for you in a series of shots put together to make a whole.

Many of Hockney’s photographic compositions of things such as an older woman, or a guitar and fruit were put together in such a way that it mimicked cubism. The unique thing regarding these pieces is that people, who wouldn’t ever look at an actual cubist painting and connect with it, are able to do so with his photographs. He identified with the fact that cubism was meant to identify perceptions of reality not reality in itself and Hockney set out to do the same thing with his works.

 

He started to progress beyond the Polaroid camera and was able to advance his skill by using the 35 mm camera. This allowed him to advance his subject matter as well as the perception he wanted to communicate with the audience. He took the Grand Canyon, where almost all of the tourists find amazement by looking down into it and, created a whole new perception of looking at it. He created a way for his photographs to portray looking INTO the Grand Canyon, not down it. The use of the 35 mm camera posed the obstacle of Hockney having to remember the pictures that he took. The Polaroid camera gave him almost instant access to his photographs, but the 35 mm camera made him rely heavily on his memory.

 

At the end of the documentary, Hockney reveals that he is losing his hearing and equates the hearing loss silence with visual silence of his photographs. It shows how deeply he connects to his pieces and how much they mean to him. He looks at the pictures and is able to recount the silence of nature of his subjects as he took them and created his masterpieces. Photographs for Hockney speak to the eyes, not the ears.

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Andy Warhol: Images of an Image

I chose this video because I never understood why Warhol images were so coveted and I wanted to learn more about this phenomena. I thought maybe by the end of the video I would maybe be a fan or at least have a better appreciation for who he was and what he contributed to not only the artworld but society as a whole. Without even liking his pieces, it is known that Andy Warhol is KNOWN and his works bring in major money even now. It struck me to learn that some of his subject matter were things such as race riots, the landing on the moon, and the cultural revolution in China and not just soup cans and Marilyn Monroe.

My first impression of Warhol was that he had a child-like essence to him. He seemed to be relatively soft spoken and had a sort of glimmer in his eye when he was talking about his pieces. I have to admit it was a little off putting at first, his child like demeanor was slightly creepy to me. But learning that he was a commercial journalist made me understand more as to why he chose a lot of the subject matter that he did. It was what he was exposed to. Just as a writer often writes of what they know, Warhol did the same thing. He was involved with Vogue magazine so suddenly his paintings of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor didnt seem so far fetched to me anymore. He was just simply creating pictures that was representative of the culture at that time. (Although I still despise the soup can paintings), I do have a better understanding as to why it was done.  It's amazing that his multiple silk screen paintings of Marilyn Monroe is what catipulted him into fame. He had a love for movies and actors and that came across in his artwork. Each of his series was inspired by an event happening in the world around him. The death of John F. Kennedy sparked his series on his wife Jacquelynn Kennedy.

His technique was to crop an image that was already available, and then repeat it many different times, each image having a different color variation. It was during this time he moved into a loft with ALUMINUM covered wall and ceilings!!!, which I find utterly amazing, and he called this his factory. It was his studio and his place to hold parties where many of New York artists would go. It was for lack of a better phrasing, the hip place to be. No matter what he did to his photographs, he left features that were recognizable so that the audience could connect with its subject matter. I still don't connect with a lot of his pieces but I do find him to be a very fascinating man who led a fascinating life and was able to capture pop culture unlike anyone then or anyone now.