Project 2 – ‘Layered, complex and mysterious…’

Photographers reviewed:

 

www.prixpictet.com/portfolios/consumption-shortlist/michael-schmidt/
[accessed 24.03.18]

Michael Schmidt’s project – Lebensmittel (Foods) – 

The images on their own didn’t make much sense until I translated the title which is ‘Foods’.  It is a series of 10 images which have a connection to the food we eat.  the majority of the images are black and white with just two being in colour.  The lighting is very defused and almost clinical with no dark blacks or white whites.

I think he may have deliberately taken his images this way so as not to put his feelings into the images, allowing the viewer to make there own conclusions. 

translation: The photographer Michael Schmidt will be exhibiting at the Gropius-Bau in Berlin in his exhibition “Michael Schmidt. Lebensmittel” on January 11, 2013. For his most recent long-term project, the artist photographed the production of food in salmon farms, bread factories, slaughterhouses and vegetable farms. Photo: Maurizio Gambarini / dpa)

Michael Schmidt

In this article Michael Schmidt is described as a contemporary photographer, with is analytical style.  From this I take that they mean that the images are not ‘painterly’ Personally I think they work as a series together, but individually I don’t really like them as individual pieces.  some of his earlier work is

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/01/interview-sally-mann-the-touch-of-an-angel-2010.html [accessed 19.03.018]

http://sallymann.com/selected-works/southern-landscapes

In contrast to Michael Schmidt, Sally Mann’s images in Southern Landscapes are full of dark and light almost macabre.  Alot of her subjects seem to be around decay and deep contrasts and soft lighting seem to add to the feeling of the image. 

Her images are all feel very intimate and she explores some very deep emotions around sex and death.  She says in her interview for ASX that quite often the project finds her, rather than her starting with it all mapped out, a bit like a writer to doesn’t know the ending when he starts to write.

Tacita Dean’s short film on the ‘green ray’ at http://vimeo.com/38026163 [accessed 18.03.2018 – interesting

https://www.nga.gov/404status.html [accessed 19.03.18 – page not found]

Golden, R, 1999, 20th Century Photography, Carlton, London

Le Quai, I’lle de la Cite (1925) – Eugene Atget

Atget’s images were largely seen as ‘functional illustrations’ of life in Paris, until he sold them to a lot of the painters of the time. It wasn’t until after his death that people recognised the artistry in the images themselves.

In the image above, Arget has used the early morning light to create a serene and mysterious look to his image.  When look at his images i was reminded of the glass plates made Nicolas Laboire now and remembered how much better the glass plates look than the printed images, I would like to seen these on their original plates.