Tuesday, March 10, 2009

x006 . Thomas Struth

Thomas Struth

x005 . Andrew Bush

Andrew Bush
Prop Portraits 1999-2000

"Bush has worked in a variety of formats, subjects, and mediums for more than twenty years with a concentration on the theme of identity as defined by possessions."

"The Prop Portraits series, shown in 2000, was shot with his usual large format camera in the flea markets of Los Angeles. Produced as large-scale Epson color prints, his subjects were selected from the market crowd and shot posed before a semitransparent scrim holding the objects they selected. These people are thereby situated temporarily in a private space, their purchases or props becoming a trophy of their identity and passage through life."













pigment prints on Somerset paper
16 x 11" editions of 20
45 x 34" editions of 6

x004 . Brian Ulrich

Copia
Brian Ulrich

COPIA
Plenty, a plentiful supply: now chiefly in L. phrase copia verborum abundance of words, a copious vocabulary. Cf. COPY n. 1c.
I. a. Plenty, abundance, a copious quantity.
b. Fullness, plentitude. Obs.
c. esp. of language: Copiousness, abundance, fullness, richness.
copy of words : = L. copia verborum. Obs.
II. A transcript of reproduction of an original.

"In 2001 citizens were encouraged to take to the malls to boost the U.S. economy through shopping, thereby equating consumerism with patriotism. The Copia project, a direct response to that advice, is a long-term photographic examination of the peculiarities and complexities of the consumer-dominated culture in which we live. Through large scale photographs taken within both the big-box retail stores and the thrift shops that house our recycled goods, Copia explores not only the everyday activities of shopping, but the economic, cultural, social, and political implications of commercialism and the roles we play in self-destruction, over-consumption, and as targets of marketing and advertising. By scrutinizing these rituals and their environments, I hope that viewers will evaluate the increasing complexities of the modern world and their own role within it."

"Copia is composed of several chapters, currently Retail, Thrift, and Backrooms. These further document notions of social class, excess, and corporate ideologies. By combining photographs taken candidly with a medium-format film camera outfitted with a waist-level viewfinder, and studied compositions taken with a large format camera in thrift shops, I can capture lost excitement and overwhelmed, subsumed moments. The large-scale prints allow the viewer to stop and notice with a distanced perspective familiar places and things. Over time these images take on new meaning, ones anthropological and historical of an affluent society at the dawn of the 21st century. What we buy and what we use up becomes the evidence of our experience of this time."

x003 . Martin Parr

"Leisure, consumption and communication are the concepts that this British photographer has been researching for several decades now on his worldwide travels. In the process, he examines national characteristics and international phenomena to find out how valid they are as symbols that will help future generations to understand our cultural peculiarities. Parr enables us to see things that have seemed familiar to us in a completely new way. In this way he creates his own image of society, which allows us to combine an analysis of the visible signs of globalisation with unusual visual experiences. In his photos, Parr juxtaposes specific images with universal ones without resolving the contradictions. Individual characteristics are accepted and eccentricities are treasured."

"Martin Parr sensitises our subconscious and once we've seen his photographs, we keep on discovering these images over and over again in our daily lives and recognising ourselves within them."

Thomas Welski

Luxury
Martin Parr

"This series of photographs shows the different ways people display their wealth."

"Traditionally the portrayal of poverty has been the domain of the "concerned photographer", but I photograph wealth in the same spirit. When the new emerging middle classes demand and receive the luxury goods that so many of us take for granted, it will put considerable pressure on the world's resources. We are seeing the first manifestations of this: soaring oil prices brought on in part by exceptional demand from China and India; food prices escalating as crops are diverted into biofuels."

"When the photographs are exhibited these things are not always stated, but I am happy to share the ultimate political motive behind the new body of work."