Double Exposure photographs

Looking at the work from the Photorealism movement, I love Richard Estes paintings and the reflections in the windows. Using my practise, photography, I have taken some photographs of shop fronts and windows and double exposured them with another image taken at random. There is a layer of three images in the photograph, what is through the window, the reflection in the window and then the photograph taken on top.

I noticed a recurring theme throughout my photographs of brand, consumerism and advertising therefore I will be looking more into this subject.

I am happy with the result of the photographs, the bright colours and the confusion of the many layers. If you look closer in the photograph, other objects stand out that you would not necessarily have noticed for example, road signs and people walking in the background.

Next, I am going to practise developing photographs in the dark room and experimenting with different images.

Gillian Wearing

Gillian Wearing is an English photographer and video artist who describes her working method as 'editing life'. Using photography and video to record confessions of ordinary people, her work explores the difference between public and private life.


Signs that Say What You Want Them to Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You to Say (1992–3) was made by approaching people on the streets of London, asking them to write their thoughts on a card and then taking a photograph of them with the card. Their private lives were given a revealing exposure, for example a policeman holds up a card saying, 'Help!'. There is an interesting mix of random thoughts across the series of photographs. Wearing challenges social stereotypes and assumptions, giving individuals the platform for self-expression.


Wearing helps the viewer to connect with the person in the photograph, giving them an idea of what they are like, for example, their views, opinions and beliefs. After viewing the photographs, I walked away thinking about the different people and what their thoughts were. One example is a photograph of a businessman in a suit holding up the sign, 'I'm desperate'. What is it that this man needed? What happened to him after the picture was taken? I like these photographs because of Wearing's use of public interaction, stripping away their privacy and exposing their intimate thoughts.



Gillian Wearing
Signs that Say What You Want Them to Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You to Say
'I signed on and the would not give me nothing' 1992-93




Gillian Wearing
Signs that Say What You Want Them to Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You to Say
'Everything is connected in life the point is to know it and understand it' 1992-93





Gillian Wearing
Signs that Say What You Want Them to Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You to Say
'Work towards world peace' 1992-93



Gillian Wearing
Signs that Say What You Want Them to Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You to Say
'Help' 1992-93

Gillian Wearing

Signs that Say What You Want Them to Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You to Say

'I'm Desperate' 1992-93

Liverpool Tate

Liverpool Biennial, the largest contemporary visual arts event in the UK. The theme this year is 'Touched' which, not only explores the idea of the emotionally affects of works of art but also the physical contacts with works of art.

Eva Kot'atkova

Stories from the Living Room 2010

Kot'atkova investigates into personal space, everyday actions and situations, and the relationship between people and their surroundings. She is interested in how we are affected by the experiences of childhood, for example, educational institutions, with their rules, policies and physical restrictions. Her project for Liverpool Tate Gallery brings together people from Liverpool at different stages of life whose experiences and personal histories have been informed by a variety of social environments. School children and adults met separately and together so that they could share and record their life stories. The children are shown being filmed, retelling the adults life story. It is interested to hear what the children remember, the facts that seem important to them and how they interpret the adults life story.

Jenny Holzer

Famous for her short statements known as 'Truisms', Holzer devised nearly 300 slogans which play on commonly held truths or clichés. They were initially infiltrated into the public arena by stickers, T'shirts and posters. It was only later on that she began to use electronic displays. Her practise has rivalled ignorance and violence with humour, kindness and moral courage.


Examples of the 'truisms' :


‘a man can't know what it's like to be a mother’,

‘men are not monogamous by nature’,

‘money creates taste’,

‘a lot of professionals are crackpots’,

‘enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anyway’,

‘freedom is a luxury not a necessity’,

‘don't place too much trust in experts’.


Often the work presents both explicit content and minimalist aesthetics that make profound statements about the world of advertising and consumer society today. The slogans mimic advertising slogans through objects commonly used in advertising for example electric billboards, coffee mugs, posters. Holzer questions what our eyes can see and what we cannot see in the media. Do consumers today actually have any control over the information that is provided to them?

In 1982, she blazed the slogans across a giant advertising billboard in Times Square, New York. The Truisms are deliberately challenging, presenting a spectrum of contradictory opinions. She wanted to sharpen peoples awareness of the 'usual baloney they are fed' in daily life.

Holzer has displayed the truth for everyone to see. It is there in black and white. Showing the truth in public spaces, how do people cope and react to it? Can people handle the truth or have we become a world that is based on lies and mistrust?


Truisms 1984

Metal, plastic and electronic components object, 169 x 1539 x 162 mm
sculpture

John Burgerman

I noticed John Burgerman's work when I was looking through the cards in the Whitworth Art Gallery gift shop. There was a birthday card that had the outline of a picture on the front of it. With the card there was crayons so you could colour in the front of the card. I thought this was a really creative idea so I researched more into the artist.

Burgerman makes vibrant, eye catching doodles of shapes and monster-like characters, all crammed on top of one another until they create a screaming mass of energy. His artworks are very unique and colourful. Using a variety of media such as drawing, painting, print, animation, large scale murals and toy designs, his art still retains a hand-made hand-drawn quality.

He encourages adults to give in to their inner child and colour in the doodles, recently adding colour in wallpaper to his list of products.

Live painting on walls and on people. The public are invited to help paint in the Jon Burgerman doodles on the walls and to also paint each other. Interactive art pieces that encourage the viewer to take part.

Whitworth Art Gallery - Walls are Talking Wallpaper Exhibition

The wallpapers displayed in this exhibition reflect patterns of gender and sexuality. Some of them were made for commercial purposes and saleable use, for example, Barbie and Batman for children or sexy girls for adults. Often, produced in quantity, cashing in on popular visual themes, these papers reflect the character of contemporary consumption.

Barbie late 1990s
Machine-printed
Manufactured by Vymura plc

Ballet and Barbie, blend of the ultimate in girlish and feminine stereotyping. Combined to show a gendered, cultural idea of physical perfection. Girls like to go to ballet class, inspired by this image. Tiny, fairy sized girls on the image; small is seen as being a trait of feminism. This is stereotyping girls, they should be small and thin. This is an example of the current impact of popular imagery on the body image of young women. This ideal image of thin being perfection can result into girls not accepting their natural physic therefore result in eating disorders. Body image has become even more important over the years, being seen in the media and advertising.

Wallpaper c. 1980s

Surface machine-printed on paper-backed foil

Different shots of Marilyn Monroe, with the names of the films in which she appeared. Most of the roles she was an overtly sexy ‘dumb blonde’ – An image or character she embraced and struggled to shake off during her acting career. The wallpaper is a mechandise which reproduced her image. Like ‘Gibson Girls’ drawings of late nineteenth century, Marilyn represented an American beauty ideal which was, and still is, reproduced the world over.

Montague of images of Marilyn, advertising her films and different roles she has played.

Harry G Cadney

Superstar c. 1974

Hand screen-printed on paper-backed foil

Manufactured by Cadney & Wall for John Oliver Ltd

Explicitly echos Andy Warhols icon depiction of Marilyn Monroe. Pop artists took inspiration from the mass of images in consumer culture, their art often imitating cheaper media. Wallpaper imitated Art, Warhols depiction of the star is reflected back in popular print form in ‘Superstar’. Her face is printed on foil, creating a mirror for the viewer to see their own faces reflected with her image, one that has come to encapsulate an ideal of feminine beauty. Known as the epitome of beauty, everyone knew who she was, with her glamorous style and iconic figure.

Silver foil, she loved to live in the spotlight, foil is used as a metaphor for the bright, shiny lights of Hollywood. Even her death was very public. This image is used repeatedly, even now years later it can be seen. The image still has the same effect on people.

Man United Wallpaper

Merchandise, people buying into the brand. Not just a football team but also a consumer product known worldwide. Showing all the greatest players, epitome of masculinity, fit healthy physic. Boys idolise and want to be them. Aspire to play for a top world known football club when they are older. Masculine colours, red and white.

Spice Girls wallpaper

Same as Man United wallpaper however aimed at girls. The reasoning is mirrored, advertising, brand, merchandise. Girls idolise, want to be like the Spice Girls. All have their own favourite Spice Girl who they imitate or aspire to be. It was a major craze in the late 1990s. Merchandise included everything from wallpaper, to birthday cakes or alarm clocks. The same in culture today with girl bands such as The Saturdays and Girls Aloud.

During the Summer I have been researching into the art movement of Photorealism. Developed in the United States of America in the late 1960s, early 1970s, photorealism is a genre of paintings based on a photograph. The paintings cannot exist without the photograph. Change and movement must be frozen in time which is then accurately represented by the artist. Once the image is developed, the image is transferred onto canvas either by projecting the image

or using the grid technique. The first generation of American photorealists includes painters such as Richard Estes, Ralph Goings, Chuck Close, Charles Bell, Audrey Flack and Don Eddy.

I love the Photorealist movement because the paintings look so similar to photographs due to the
intricate delicate painting from the artists. At first glance, the viewer believes it to be a photograph, however at a closer inspection it is a painting. Although the movement is primarily associated with painting, Duane Hanson and John DeAndrea are sculptors associated with photorealism for their painted, life-like sculptors of average people that were complete with simulated hair and real clothes.

Duane Hanson
Tourists II, 1988
Fiberglass and mixed media, with accesories life size


Chuck Close "I am going for a level of perfection that is only mine... most of the pleasure is in getting the last little
piece perfect."
Chuck Close paints portraits of himself, family and friends, produced at a very large scale. Beginning with a photograph of a face, he uses the grid technique to copy the photograph onto canvas. Putting a grid on top of the photograph and the canvas, he copies it cell by cell. However, in 1988 Close had a spinal artery collapse, relying on a wheelchair ever since. Remarkably, he still manages to paint, using a paintbrush strapped to his wrist. He creates large port
raits in low resolution grid squares created by an assistant. The image is made up of minute multicoloured dots so that the viewers attention fluctuates between the surface pattern and overall picture.

Chuck Close
Self-portrait, 1997
Oil on canvas 102 x 84 inchs

Chuck Close
Big Self-Portrait, 1967-68
Acrylic on canvas 273 x 212 cm

Audrey Flack

Flack's compositions were based on photographs taken from news documentaries, focusing on public figures for example Roosevelt, Kennedy and Hitler. The 'Farb Family Portrait' (shown below) is Flacks first photorealist painting. She took a slide of her subject, projected it onto the canvas, and painted over the projected image. An airbrush was used which allowed her to achieve a surface of near photographic clarity.






Audrey Flack
Marilyn, 1977

Audrey Flack

Chanel, 1974

Richard Estes

My favourite photorealist artist, his paintings consist of reflective, clean inanimate city and geometric landscapes. Regarded as one of the founders of the moevement. In 1967, Estes began to paint shop fronts and buildings with glass windows, more importantly the reflected image shown on these windows. The paintings are based on colour photographs he would take, which traps the evanescent nature of the reflections, changing throughout the day due to the time of the day or weather conditions.






Richard Estes
Telephone Booths, 1968
Oil on Canvas



Richard Estes
Bus Reflections, 1974
Oil on Canvas

Don Eddy - New Shoes for 'H'

Use of colour in the painting is very bold, bright colours in the shop front for example, red, blue, yellow and orange, contrasting with the dull street colours. The artist has used acrylic paint on canvas. Taking photographs throughout the day to refer back to during his time painting the image. The work has been carried out over a period of time to ensure the reflection was composed correctly. The painting is of a shoe shop front with the reflection, shown in the window. It was observed directly, every detail of the reflection being added. The immediate image of the shoe shop front is calm however the reflection reveals a more busy crowded feel.

Don Eddy
New Shoes for 'H', 1973-74
Acrylic on Canvas
44 x 48 in.

Charles Bell

An american photorealist. The subject matter is depicted in a scale as much as ten times its life size. The colours are very clear and very vibrant, being achieved using oil paint. His work is noted not only for the glass-like surface but also for the significance in scale.


Charles Bell
Gumballs and Peanuts
16 x 20 in.