Deadpan Photography and Claire Beckett

Ever since History of Photography last semester I have been interested in deadpan photography.

dead·pan   [ded-pan] Show IPA adjective, adverb, verb,-panned, -pan·ning, noun
–adjective
1. marked by or accomplished with a careful pretense of seriousness or calm detachment; impassive or expressionless: deadpan humor.
2. displaying no emotional or personal involvement: a deadpan style.

In seeing what my project was last semester I have become familiar with this type of style. I came upon this blog post by KEENPRESS Media that I thought was an interesting read. I disagree with their stance on deadpan, but I feel that there are a lot of people who feel the same way. Judging by the comments left on the post 5 out of 6 agree that deadpan is (for lack of better words) boring and lifeless. I would argue that this sort of style opens the door for the work to be interpreted with any emotion the viewer decides. Claire Beckett's work is considered deadpan imagery, and I feel that it exudes strong emotions. After all, the viewer will never leave thinking exactly what you want them to think or feel. Why not leave it up to them?

Alfredo Altamirano

This is actually a friend of mine who I have been following for awhile. He was an exchange student from Mexico and is now in Paris as a photographer. His pictures are much more staged and don't have much to think about, but they do jump out to me. It is always good to see a friend or a fellow student excel at what they like to do. Do you think that staged photography is as successful, as ambiguous photography? The photography that makes us question all elements involved in the photos or the ones we already know the answers to...?

Here is his website. I couldn't pull any of the actual pictures off the Internet.

http://www.alfredoaltamirano.com/

Quote that Shane e-mailed us...

More profoundly and at times negatively, the way art is experienced has changed. Conceptual Art has encouraged the assumption that every object, every picture, even every abstract painting tells a story – that it carries within it some kind of narrative, meaning or “subtext.” Equally ingrained is the more limiting expectation that all this meaning is primarily intellectual and easily reduced to language, that art as an entity is completely explainable. We owe to conceptualism years of one-lined artworks in all media – the “I get it” school of esthetic experience. This condition has caused a permanent confusion of content with subject matter, to the continuing detriment of both content and form. Too often, art that lacks an explicit subject is thought to be without content and dismissed.

Roberta Smith, The New York Times

I'd like to hear what people feel about this quote, it sounds like it would foster some good discussion.

Ideas

This is some work I have shot in the past week...It is some new ideas, continuing with the distortion aspect that I started last semester, and also with my underwater pictures. I am going to continue with that this weekend, but at the same time, I wanted to try something different to keep seeing what I could come up with. So I would love to hear your thoughts...

Matt Dallos

Matt Dallos, Park Forest Village.

I thought it would be a good thing to post about one of my inspirations for the project I am doing right now. This way you can explore more of his photos and read his statement again.

But pause and give each word meaning: Park. Forest. Village. Each holds a specific view of our culture's definition of nature. Mashed together it reveals one of our problems: we want it all.

I did some research on De Pere and I didn't find as strong of a connection, but I am still in the process, and I think I am uncovering what I was meant to. I went into this project with one thing on my mind "Shoot the houses that interest you". I thought by starting out with something simple I could grow more, and that's exactly what happened. Shooting for this series has been so different than my other projects. I am a very emotionally charged person, so it was different going into it a different way. While I can associate certain emotions with my images now, I can also remove myself from having those emotions. I realized this during critique this morning, hearing what others felt from my compositions that I didn't notice. I left critique with a lot of possibilities, yay!

Jacki mentioned in one of her previous posts not to settle, and while I have chosen to pursue this longer, I have this weird floaty feeling where I haven't really put my foot down on my ideas. It feels really odd, because I usually do that, but I can breathe more just having the option to go anywhere I want to go with this. It's a different feeling, but a good different. So Jacki, I appreciate your thoughts on that.

recents

These are some of my recent photographs. They look like crap on here for some reason, but I'll figure that out another time. So far I am feeling a little more comfortable with my idea behind my lighting than I did when I began this project. Since I do not feel like I have a good enough grasp on studio lighting nor do I have access to a soft box, I have been getting comfortable with unnatural lighting. I like it because it gives the picture a nice glow rather than a forced light or sunlight. I am still trying to figure out my subject matter. I know why I am shooting these, I just am still in my process of figuring out how to show it. Let me know how facial portraits impact you guys, how cropped off heads impact you, or collar bone area effectiveness. Gracias.

Lately