My inspiration : Alexandr Rodchenko

Looking back, I think Rodchenko stuck in my memory for a few reasons - more obviously my interest in history and admiration for Soviet propaganda.  Another reason  is my nostalgic memories of my grandfather,who was interested in Rodchenko's work and kept various newspaper cuts and small collage posters in his personal album.

  

Rodchenko’s Early 20th Century design remains current as it still inspires a lot of the modern design. Franz Ferdinand’s You Could Have It So Much Better album and the Take Me Out single art work were both heavily influenced by Rodchenko. Saks Fifth Avenue ad campaign from spring 2009 is also drawing on the bold graphic design and propaganda spirit of Rochenko’s work. I reckon his bold lively style will never age. Who knows where we will we see it next.
riginally focused on painting and graphic design, when Rodchenko started photographing, it was opposed to a painterly aesthetic. Wishing to postpone recognition, he often shot his subjects from unusual angles. His photographs are said to eliminate unnecessary detail and emphasize a dynamic diagonal composition. This is exhibited in the picture to the left. I find the dynamic lines evident in his work very influential and will probably try to recreate these in my photography project. I particularly like his style of portraiture, here are some of his best known works.

One of my cut and paste collage pieces.  This one in particular is inspired by Alexander Rodchenko.

Reading:
http://www.copernicusfilms.com/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3671028/Alexander-Rodchenko-A-man-who-took-life-lying-down.htmlhttp://danyanovikov.narod.ru/rofo/rodlogos.html

Emil Otto Hoppe:Society, Studio, Street

Recently visited E.O Hoppe portrait exhibition in National Portrait Gallery. It was really good but I think I preferred the Ida Kar one that was opposite. Both are well worth a look!
The exhibition runs utill 30 of May and if you're a student you will get a discount and pay £9 instead of £12.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.O._Hopp%C3%A9
http://www.npg.org.uk:8080/hoppe/exhibition.html

Never thought that I would write a blog..its getting exciting )))

The perception of the photograph

  Unusual vision and perception of the constantly changing world - a business card of people who watch the world and want to share their vision with others. It seems to me that such people are the real artists in the broadest sense. Artist - a state of mind which can not be just a spectator. The desire to improvise, in conjunction with the technical knowledge allows you to create works that live their own lives. These works give rise to emotions, forcing the viewer to get used to what he saw and to live through a story written by the photographic language.

Once Ansel Adams the creator of the zone system  said the following sentence: "There is nothing worse than a  sharp image with a fuzzy concept. " Thought that the author wants to convey is always paramount. And the techniques used and the laws of the image should only help to identify this point for the viewer. Photo may not exist for the sake of photography. It must awake the viewer, forcing him to empathize with the author, along with the heroes of the picture. It needs to be always kept in mind that knowledge of technical concepts and techniques - is only the first step on the road to good photography. And at the end of the path there must be the emotions  to be willing to develop the theme, the desire to see what's behind the scenes. So the first thing everyone need for photography is to see and feel.

Inspiration : hard to find

Perhaps for creative person there is nothing more important than the inspiration. The presence of inspiration - inspires, the lack of it - makes fall into a creative crisis and depression. Is it possible to make sure that the inspiration wont  leave? How to find ideas for creativity?

Each photographer has his own way of inspiration, his recipe for creativity. Here I show you the most common: 
1. View the work of other photographers, classic photographs. Inspection of the most popular photos at various photo websites. Analysis of the success of a photo, search for "raisin" and try to create similar effects.
2. Return to the creativity of great artists, poets, filmmakers, and architects. Photo creations on any of the greats.
3. Photo on a given topic, quotation, participation in thematic photo contests, flash mobs.
4. Nature walks, deep thinking,turning inward ( but not for long ) :)
And another tip, which I always keep in my mind: look around, feel the life and do not forget to keep your hand on a camera. Luck comes suddenly and you can miss good shots very easily.
And do not be discouraged if inspiration suddenly left you a while - it will come back. In the meantime, you can relax and sort out  your feelings, thoughts and ... dont forget to clean your room ))))).
Hope you all having  good Ester holidays ))

Paul Graham : "Photography is easy, photography is difficult".

Photo-eye description: "Paul Graham's first book, self-published in 1983, documents The Great North Road that runs the length of England 400 miles from London to Edinburgh. The route has been in use since Roman times and was once the busiest motorway in the country with an active roadside economy of shops, cafes, hotels. In the 1950s it was supplanted by the newly constructed M1 a speedier and smoother motorway for an England moving slickly into a modernity of effeciency and consumerism. Along the A1, the business and people were left to decline into grimy obscurity. Graham's subdued color photos are a mournful document of a grey nowhere land in a country moving too fast to stop for a cup of tea. Photographed with a large format camera 1981 to 1982"

British photographer Paul Graham  is  dealing with conceptual photography for  about 30 years, looking at the streets of the world stories about human relationships, emptiness, loneliness and quiet. You can view his best shots of his career hung in the form of a retrospective exhibition in one of the most influential galleries of London - Whitechapel Gallery.
"My principal sources were Chekhov’s short stories, and the critical essays around those. A lot of people have tried to understand why this writing works so well, since in the stories there’s not much happening. They’re dealing with the simple, everyday things—in one of them a woman is combing her hair for six pages, remembering that night at the theatre; in another a school teacher is coming home in a cart dreaming of meeting the landowner, who does ride past and they exchange a few pleasantries, but nothing more. But there’s something magical about how perfectly described they are, the transparency of what’s happening, without guff or show, simply described, with nothing proscribed."

 Paul Graham's Exhibition will run in Whitechapel Gallery from 20 April- 19 June so don't miss it )))

Reading :
http://www.americansuburbx.com/2009/07/theory-paul-graham-photography-is-easy.html
 http://photo-muse.blogspot.com/2007/09/paul-grahams-chekhov.html
http://www.paulgrahamarchive.com/a1.html#a
http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/paul-graham-photographs-1981-2006

Nan Goldin:" I photograph only those who I love"

Nan Goldin  is over fifty, is massive, tattered, untidy, or colored, or reddish, with a puffy face. She appears less and less on her own photographs, but its presence does not seem to have less. Goldin – is an epic photographer, her  saga makes it to the material, limited almost exclusively to its "extensive family": friends, lovers, drinking buddies, drug dealers, fellow travelers, which entered into her orbit in the 70's and gradually drop out of it due to AIDS , overdose, alcoholism, anorexia and other cult ills of this generation.
This family was much more real than her real family, which she lost at that moment when her 18-year-old sister committed suicide, while 11-year-old Nan has received a warning from the psychiatrist's that she will end the same. In the 14 years she has run away from home. She took her camera at 18. At 19 she understood that psychiatrist had made ​​a mistake and she is already one year older than her sister.  At 25 she moves from Boston, where she graduated from university in New York, where she will begin her still unfinished photo diary.

She is one of my favourite photographers.   

I love her style, her themes, her colors, her framing. The other day I was trying to find out what camera she uses to photograph, and thanks to this interview, which is pretty good, I found out.
http://www.thirteen.org/reelny/previous_seasons/reelnewyork2/i-goldin.html :: check this out

Nan Goldin - Clemens, Jens and Nicolas laughing at Le Pulp. Paris. 1999
72.00 xI 04.00 x 4.50 cm Matthew Marks Gallery

Nan Goldin - Valerie and Bruno in bed with blue blanket. Paris. 2001
72.00 xI 04.00 x 4.50 cm. Matthew Marks Gallery

Nan Goldin - C. Z and Max on the beach. Truro. MA. 1976. 104.00 x 72.00 x 4.50 cm Matthew Marks Gallery

Robert Frank

“My photographs are not planned or composed in advance, and I do not anticipate that the onlooker will share my viewpoint. » -Robert Frank

... nothing, it would seem remarkable way - just some the scenery of life - why are they so fascinating? The most ordinary things. No events. These pictures do not make that instant impression, which taught us many other photographers. Pictures of Robert Frank's are not locked into rigid frames of meaning, they cannot tell, they have no straightness, only a subtle and profound sense. As if after a quick change of events, experiences at one time to think and slow to realize that all that means is ...

And that’s why  they are amazing, not created, like other works of art, requiring a fantasy of creator. Robert Frank takes something that everyone can see...

Reading :

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/frank_robert.html
http://www.robert-h-frank.com/
Robert Frank: The Americans, by Robert Frank, Jack Kerouac,2008

The ideas of ​​modernism or subjectivism in photography

Subjective image is not often met with understanding among the general public - if you do not take into account the special inevitably existing category of the public, focused mainly on the capture of fashionable trends in art, regardless of their content.  Usually, If the exterior is beautiful and mystical coloring of  new pictorialism resonates with romantic mood of the audience, than these peculiar "subjective" photography techniques as a deliberate imbalance in the composition, the neglect of "significant" objects in favor of the photographic rubbish, and become the talk of the among the nations blur, grain, shake, over-contrasts, etc. - are a constant target of ridicule of the public. And not only unsophisticated audience, but many professional photographers are absolutely adamant that the only reason for the birth of "subjective- concept  Masterpieces" is the inability of authors to take" beautiful " pictures.

Despite the apparent relationship of these two directions, criticism, treat them very differently: Pictorialism - the most condescending, benevolent, and to Subjectivism - sharply negative, the latter being a constant sharp criticism for a departure from reality, that is - the loss of the very essence of photography, and as a consequence – unphotogenity . Thus, the subjectivist picture refuses to actually be a “right photo”.

At the same time, analysis of trends in contemporary photography in the light of trends in art in general suggests that these trends are neither dead-end branches, or manifestations of the general process of "death of modern art photography. " On the contrary - their appearance is a natural result of the development of art in general.

And here are some great imgaes which, to my opinion, create the "atmosphere of modernism".

                             Trent Parke,Dream Life album,2001

                           Sally Mann, Deep South album,2005

                              Georgy Panhasov,India, 1998 

Reading:

http://www.gagosian.com/artists/sally-mann/
http://www.in-public.com/TrentParke

Literary Modernism and Photoigraphy, ed. by Paul Hansom (p. 22-36 )