Artists usually look for difficult subjects and big words to divagate, using complex forms of communication. Sometimes underrated places or objects are carrying more content than overcomplicated forms of expression. The answer for envoluted question can be just on your ‘doorstep’.
I looked at photographers who use simplicity and forms which may seem to be for some overlooked, boring and obvious situations. They present the subject matter in a new interesting way, revealing a difficult subject in an approachable manner.
I personally find this kind of photography interesting and inspiring. It makes me aware that the beauty of art comes from us through noticing the space around us. Transforming our thoughts into art can be a process of appreciating what is around us. We can use something very mundane, for example dirty plates to create pieces of art putting it into right context. Everything and nothing can mean something.
Richard Wentworth ‘Making do and getting by’
Wentworth documents the everyday; he looks for banal objects for his photographs, and misplaced them from their original purpose. He also presents uncanny situations that often go unnoticed. This form of photography creates new narratives to convert an ordinary situation into something remarkable.
“Which work are you most proud of?
Making Do and Getting By, my photograph series [of everyday objects], because it can’t be controlled, tidied up and framed.”
Martin Rosswog
For some artists our household objects and surroundings are a source of inspiration.The interior of the house is telling the story about the people who live within.Martin Rosswog’s body of work “Inside Houses” is an ethnological documentation of domestic existence. He shows empty spaces with traces of past human habitation.Photographs present a magic life of colour, shape and texture in the simplicity of domestic objects.
The images reveal home-dwellers, their personalities and habits. Simple objects can convey a powerful message about its possessor.By the looking at the images we have the impression we have penetrated a very intimate space. It’s reminiscent for me of the quote “my home is my castle”.
Dinner For One by Martina Mullaney
Martina Mullaney is an Irish artist living and working in London. Dinner for One is a series of photographic images that address loneliness through the decline of the daily evening meal. Her simple images are full of meaning, for some described as snapshots but does it really matter? They convey the powerful message using realistic form of expression we all can identify with.
Stella Kalaw’s Family Spaces.
Stella Kalaw’s is a Filipino who has lived in the U.S for the last 10 years. Through her work she decided to present how Filipino diaspora has altered the landscape of families and the relationships that bind.
She photographed her family house in the Philippines showing the homely rooms with familiar daily objects. She let us enter her private space to be a witness of her personal exploration of the space.
“I’ve been apart from my family for over a decade and I wanted to do a project that speaks of my longing to be close to them. I did not want my family to be in the photographs because I wanted to emphasize their absence. So, during a visit to my brother in Prague, I suddenly thought of this idea of a floor plan where I would photograph each of their personal space and juxtapose them together as if they belonged in one home. Building the visual narrative was quite a slow process. I only see my family once or twice a year and those are the only opportunities to photograph their homes.”
Laura Letinky
Letinsky is a photographer whose interests have been located in still photography for fifteen years.
“I realized that still lifes were a vehicle to explore the tension between the small and minute and larger social structures.”
She photographs food and the remnants of domestic interactions with food. She focuses on what may appear “less important”. I find her work very interesting. I appreciate her work for not being straightforward and that leaves the space for our own interpretation.
She pays attention to every single detail creating images where subject matter comes almost in a form of sculpture. Her sophisticated play with everything the photograph can offer, shape, texture, colour, connection to the space transfers this very pragmatic situation into a thoughtful creation of nonsense.
“I began to think about the idea of leftovers. It became important for me on a number of levels, because it has to do with what you do after the promise, when you realize the promise is not possible. This is fundamental to any utopian notion–the promise and its demise. You can’t have utopia without its loss.”
From Laura Letinsky artist statement
“But instead of the traditional allure of a meal awaiting an unseen viewer’s consumption, Letinsky photographs the remains of the table so as to investigate the precarious relationships between ripeness and decay, delicacy and awkwardness, control and haphazardness, waste and plenitude, pleasure and sustenance. What is looked at is “after the fact,” what (ma)lingers, what persists, and by inference, what is gone.”
References:
Barnett, L., (2013). Richard Wentworth, sculptor – portrait of the artist. [online]. 11th June 2013. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jun/11/richard-wentworth-sculptor-portrait-artist [Accessed on 26th January 2015 at 16.42].
Source. Photographic review. (1998). Portfolio Archive – Martina Mullaney. Issue 17. [online]. Available from: http://www.source.ie/archive/issue17/Martina_Mullaney_page_15_08_53_10-02-12.php [Accessed on 26th January 2015 at 17.25].
An Interview with Stella Kalaw. [online]. 25th March 2009. Available from: http://blackmanray.com/2009/03/an-interview-with-stella-kalaw/ [Accessed on 26th January 2015 at 19.05].
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