George Hurrell

In response to last class,
I want to make up for my lack of 'name dropping.'
There are plenty of artists who I draw great inspiration from.
Most of which are not contemporary.
The biggest influence since I can remember is George Hurrell.
I always admired the way he lit his portraits.
Everything was very controlled.
I feel like I take to this style of photography too,
because I am most comfortable in a control/leadership role.
Everything in Hurrell's photographs is completely flawless. But it's unknown to me whether it was of his doing or the studio's. I know there would be actresses & actors with freckles or moles & they would completely erase them on photographs/film.
I like that idea too, the manipulation of imagery to such an extreme extent that these actors are always characters in the eye of the public. But when the public see's them away from the camera, they are always disappointed. I guess I can't say it was the photographers who created the characters, it was the studios- but it was the photographers who made their characters look larger than life.

Contemporary Artist

Contemporary Art. It seems a lot these days, the glamour and delicacy of yester year is seen as a trite reminder of the naivety we used to experience in it's art. With few expeceptions, in the main stream art industry today, much of that quality that was experienced at the turn of the 20th century is lost; when photography was finally being seen as an art and when artists practicing in wet mediums started realizing their work didn't have to be photo realisitic. Also, take into consideration the times in which these ideas were starting to revolutionize, the time in which the population wanted escapism from reality more than ever. This is when people wanted to dream- a chance to escape the reality that they experience everytime they leave their doorstep.

Concept. Concept exsists in everything even if it is not intentional. People find meaning in everything, especially because it's our nature to want to relate everything to ourselves. It's widely understood that almost anyone these days can take an amazing photograph, or paint their heart out in Photoshop and get some semblance of what is considered a "good" digital painting. However, the quality in all of this is quite deteriorated from the care that was once important. Why can an "artist" get away with making a concept whose means of presentation
lacks technique and quality.

There is one artist I follow consistantly, whose photographs are of superb quality, whose concepts are not hidden. However, it tends to be that once you see one of this artist's peices, than you've seen fifty. When photographing in such a manner as he does, so comfortably, it is hard to remember that you are capable of outdoing what you did before. Even still, he takes the careful consideration of every corner of every photograph he creates. Nothing seems forgotten or 'half-assed.' Everything is there for a purpose and put their meticulously to complete the entirety of the dream.