It pisses you off when you find a artist doing the same work as you or a peer that sees your work and tries to do the same or similar work that you are doing without crediting you, right? What about a really good photographer with the same name as you, that has the domain name that you want? Beat that... I have known about Chris Mueller for quite a while now, but have pushed him aside and tried not to think about the guy. Similar to Mary's friend Alfredo or most traditional artists, Chris stages most of the work that he does. But he does it with a little of a twist.
Most of the work that he does is commissioned work, meaning that the guy gets paid from companies like Fortune, ESPN, General Electric, or Field & Stream for some of his photography sessions. However when I look at a lot of the personal work that Chris Mueller has done I can see how his commissioned work has rubbed off on some of his personal work and ideas. I am not really sure if these smoking pictures are commissioned or not (probably are), but lets just say they are not. If you look at a common theme to his projects you can see this repeating trend of "real life" situations. I find it fascinating how he can take this common occurrence that is typically normal like a person smoking in their car, flossing their teeth, or spending time with their daughter (he did that one for TIME) and make it look so staged. Not only that, but it puts us in a place where we normally are NOT. Or are we? haha. I guess in the smoking photos we could be a passenger. But in the flossing photographs we are a mirror. Have you ever been a mirror? I know most of his work is boring commissioned stuff, but I just get a nice little kick out of what he is able to do with some of the quarks of life. And his name pisses me off.
So, is there anything that is "normal" or an every day thing that happens in your life that could make a nice body of work?
It pisses you off when you find a artist doing the same work as you or a peer that sees your work and tries to do the same or similar work that you are doing without crediting you, right? What about a really good photographer with the same name as you, that has the domain name that you want? Beat that... I have known about Chris Mueller for quite a while now, but have pushed him aside and tried not to think about the guy. Similar to Mary's friend Alfredo or most traditional artists, Chris stages most of the work that he does. But he does it with a little of a twist.
Most of the work that he does is commissioned work, meaning that the guy gets paid from companies like Fortune, ESPN, General Electric, or Field & Stream for some of his photography sessions. However when I look at a lot of the personal work that Chris Mueller has done I can see how his commissioned work has rubbed off on some of his personal work and ideas. I am not really sure if these smoking pictures are commissioned or not (probably are), but lets just say they are not. If you look at a common theme to his projects you can see this repeating trend of "real life" situations. I find it fascinating how he can take this common occurrence that is typically normal like a person smoking in their car, flossing their teeth, or spending time with their daughter (he did that one for TIME) and make it look so staged. Not only that, but it puts us in a place where we normally are NOT. Or are we? haha. I guess in the smoking photos we could be a passenger. But in the flossing photographs we are a mirror. Have you ever been a mirror? I know most of his work is boring commissioned stuff, but I just get a nice little kick out of what he is able to do with some of the quarks of life. And his name pisses me off. 
So, is there anything that is "normal" or an every day thing that happens in your life that could make a nice body of work?
3 comments:
Haha, I love that I can feel the angst as you typed your response, however it is pretty upsetting that he nabbed the domain name... he should have consulted with you first. DUH.
I think it affects me more when I know someone is getting paid for something, and it makes me feel like they only completed their works because of the money. However I also need to look at it as something they could have passion for. I enjoy peeking in on the normality of other people's lives. It makes me think of Shizuka Yokomizo's "Stranger" series where he wrote letters to ask people to be at their windows at certain times. The difference between actually spying and both Mueller and Yokomizo's work is that I feel like I have permission to look.
I am curious though as to why all of these are taken "at night" and not during the day. I think it may be due to having a dramatic sense of lighting.
Oh the forcefullness, I am sure you are writing this paragraph... This guy definitly reminds me of Alfredo with his staged photography. It may not be the photography that we shoot, but I think it is intriguing how much we would want to shoot like this if we could. I am not saying that we can't. But this is a much different way of shooting then any of us have shot. I think we shoot in a much more organic way then this composed, with studio lighting, effect. I know we have have used studio lighting, but I still think ALL the technical aspects are completely foreign to us. Maybe one day we will sit down and decide to conquer studio lighting and all of these skills, but at this point, I think we sit back to some degree and have a sense of jealousy to these people.
I "like" his pictures...this person who has stolen your domain name, Chris. Obviously I have a negative bias towards because of this. It is going to be hard to "like" his images because he has stolen this dear thing to your heart, which is the internet domain name...damn it! However, I think he has something going for him, and this sense of dramatic lighting and strong editing. I think the fact that they are taken at night, does add to the dramatic effect of this lighting. I don't think they would have been as strong without it being this time of the day.
Chris, (or anyone really) check out this guy:
http://www.roderikhenderson.com/
Especially
Transvoid & Island
Common settings, unusual photos.
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