Photo/Sculpture Mediums and Methods

 Instant collage in photography is a process of instant assemblage.

"A MINER'S HOME"

A Miner's Home, Vicinity Morgantown, West Virginia, by Walker Evans,
1935, photograph

Walker Evans ((1903-1975) was an American photographer. Walker Evans worked during the Great Depression era.  Living in that time was the reason behind his work and by documenting the struggles of that time he achieved his goal of making pictures that were "literate, authoritative, and transcendent".  Evans typically displays American visual reality in his work, capturing moments as they come; just as they are.  This piece is called A Miner's Home by Evans done in 1935, and is an excellent example of instant collage.  A collage is defined as a work that includes different objects, materials, or pictures all put together. The photo depicts the era with the shoe-less, ragged clothes child and minimal furnishings. Evans would frequently incorporate posters and signs into his work of the times.  In 1973 Evans began using a Polaroid camera, which he used its innovative technology to achieve his style of photograhy. 

* * * * * *

Portrait photography or portraiture is photograph of a person or group of people that displays the expression, personality, and mood of the subject. Likes other types of portraiture, the focus of the photograph is usually on the person's face, although the entire body and background or context may be included.  

"PETE TOWNSEND"

Pete Townsend, by Annie Leibovitz, 1980, photograph

Annie Leibovitz, born 1949 in Waterbury, Connecticut is an American photographer. While studying painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, she took night classes in photography, where she found her real passion. In 1973 she became the chief photographer for Rolling Stone magazine. Pete Townsend is a portraiture done in 1980 by Leibovitz. The photo is very expressive and shows the somber mood of Townsend, as blood is streaming from his fingers. Leibovitz is considered one of America's best portrait photographers, who developed her trademark with the use of bold colors and poses. Leibovitz has photographed for dozens of magazines and continues to be in high demand today.  

                                 * * * * * *

Manipulated photography is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create and illusion or deception after the original photographing took place. 

"HAND HOLDING LIPS & NUDE"

Hand Holding Lips & Nude, by Jerry Uelsmann, 1972, photograph

Jerry N. Uelsmann, born 1934 in Detroit, Michigan is an American photographer.  Uelsmann's interest in photography started at the age of 14.  Uelsmann believed that through photography he could exist outside of himself, to live in a world captured through the lens. Uelsmann used his imagination and used photo-montage as a means to share his images with viewers. Uelsmann is a master printer, producing composite photographs with multiple negatives and extensive darkroom work.  He uses dozens of enlargers at a time to produce his final works.  Uelsmann frequently includes more than one focal point, using negatives as one focal point and the background as another.  Hand Holding Lips & Nude is a perfect example of Uelsmann's manipulated photography.  The first picture would have been of a hand; the second a negative of a nude woman; and the third a negative of a woman's lips. Uelsmann's works are not meant to depict a familiar object, but to allow the viewer to transcend the frames and take them through the unfathomable.  Uelsmann believes he touches his viewers on a personal and emotional level.  Formally, Uelsmann composes his works in black and white, with complements of grays and mid-tones.  

* * * * * *

Carving is the removal of material (as wood, ivory or stone) via chipping, gouging or hammering in order to create a desired figure or design. 

"DYING SLAVE"

Dying Slave, by Michelangelo, 1513-1515, marble, for the Tomb
of Pope Julius II

Michelangelo (1475-1564) is regarded as the most famous artist of the Italian Renaissance and a master at carving.  Michelangelo's loved quarried marble and his reverence for the stone lies at the heart of his chosen art form of sculpture. He sought to prove that devotion to the integrity of the stone block is the foundation which great sculpture is created. Dying Slave is no exception.  Dying Slave took about two years to complete and was meant for the tomb of Julius II, but was not included because of the lack of space. Michelangelo visualized the figure as imprisoned in the huge block of marble and only removing the excess marble that could set him free.  

Michelangelo's precise carving is evident in the photo above.  Note the detail of the figures hair, ear, etc.  Far from dying, the figure seems to be relaxed, arched back, extended left arm and relaxed stomach. Michelangelo's artistic mastery has endured for centuries and his name is famous to all. 

* * * * * *

Modeling in sculpture is the shaping of a form in some plastic materials such as clay or plaster; to create the illusion of a three dimensional form.

"JOHN WITH ART"

John With Art, by Robert Arneson, 1964,
Stoneware with glaze

Robert Arneson (1930-1992) was an American artist.  Arneson is famous for taking modern contemporary items and re-imagining them in clay form. Arneson was encouraged by his father at a young age to draw and as a teenager drew cartoons for a local newspaper. He studied art education but became interested in ceramics. Arneson was influenced by the expressionist work of Californian Peter Voulkos, who studied Picasso's works in clay. The influence stimulated Arneson to be adventurous and break through established sculptural boundaries.  He rejected decorative items and began creating non-functional clay pieces. John With Art is an example of modeling.  Arneson has modeled a ceramic toilet, attributed to sexual anatomy to the flush handle, the seat, and the opening of the bowl, put fingernails on one end of the horseshoe seat, and completed the piece with a pile of ceramic excrement inside, spelling "art" (see insert below).   John With Art is inscribed with scatological jokes.  

Arneson aimed a biting satire at the abstract expressionist aspiration of letting everything within the artist spill out freely in the work.  Arneson's work has come to be known as "Funk Art". In the early 1980s Arneson became ill with liver cancer, at that time his work became more somber in tone.  

* * * * * *

Earth Art is an art movement in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked.  It is also an art form that is created in nature using natural materials, such as rocks, twigs, etc. 

"BROKEN PEBBLES SCRATCHED"

Broken Pebbles Scratched, by Andy Goldsworthy, 1985, stones
scratched with another tone

Andy Goldsworthy, born in 1956 is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist. Goldsworthy produces site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings.  As a boy, Goldsworthy worked as a farm hand. He has linked the repetitive quality of farm tasks to making sculpture. Goldsworthy's art often includes brightly colored flowers, twigs, stones,mud, snow, and icicles.  Goldsworthy believes it is brave to use those objects because he cannot edit the materials, they are nature as a whole. Often in his works, he uses only his bare hands, teeth and found tools to prepare and arrange the materials.  Broken Pebbles is an example of earth art.  There are 34 strategically places broken pebbles formed in a spiral, with each pebble broken in half; and each half of the pebbles have been scratched white with another pebble. Goldsworthy realizes a maximal effect. Goldsworthy embodies the beauty of the act of creation of the art. Often the beauty is not only in the final piece, but rather the beauty of its creation.