Harvard Exercise - Blog Task 7.

1) Use the text you have been given by Liz Wells Photography: A Critical Introduction.

Imagine you have used the Wells book for your essay. Now, write out a bibliographic entry as it were to appear in the bibliography of your own essay.

The order it should be: Author (surname first), edition number if applicable (in brackets), date of publication (in brackets) Title (in Italics), City of publication, publisher.

Wells Liz, (2nd edition) 2000, Photography: A Critical introduction, London, Routledge.

Warner Marion, Mary (3rd edition) 2010, 'Photography: A Cultural History', London, Lawrence King.

2) Now take a section from Wells' text and write a quote as if it were to appear in your essay, using Harvard conventions.

As Liz Wells says 'Thus, in post modernity, it may be that the Photography has no referent in the wider world and can be understood or critiqued only in terms of its own internal aesthetic organization'. (Wells, 2000).

Surrealism - Blog Task 6.

Surrealism began from the 1920's to the 1930's, during this time we were at a high point of Modernism.

- It is a movement based in Paris.
- Andre Breton published Surrealist Manifesto' in 1924.
- It is the interest in Irrational and the concern of the truth above Realism.
- Surrealism is influenced by Freud's theory of the 'unconscious'.
- The interpretation of dreams(1899).

Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)


-Conscious Mind - Everyday thoughts, decisions, feelings observations, needed for the human to function.

-Unconscious Mind - Places where you store 'unacceptable thoughts', wishes, desires, traumatic memories, represses, painful emotions.

- Uncovering these thoughts through psychoanalysis, freeing patients from the symptoms. Hypnosis, meditation, analysis of dreams. Random word association - Language Freudian slip.

Key Features of Surrealism Photography. 
Themes/Subjects.                                                                     Visual Language.


- The female nude representing sex.                                           - Photo-montage.
- The unconscious.                                                                   - Strange juxtapositions of the everyday.
- The body vs the mind.                                                             - Symbolic use of objects. 
- Ordinary/ extraordinary.                                                           - Black + white.
                                                                                               - Solarisation/ Brulage.   

Brassai (1899 - 1984)

- Involuntary sculpture 1933.
- Paris at night Photography.
-Unconsciously looking at normal objects turned into what appears like something else. Record of persons actions.
- 'Paris by night' -  Brassai collection of images from 1933. This book is the celebration of the edges of Photography.
- The ordinary next to the extraordinary - Brassai hangs out in late night bars, people - gels moments of extraordinary next to ordinary.

Other Surrealist Photographers:
-Man Ray                                  - Paul Ubac
- Lee Miller                                - Henri Cartier Bresson
- Andre Kertesz                         - Hans Beller
- Claude Canum                         - Maurice Tabard

Constructivism, Bauhaus and Dada - Blog Task 5.

Constructivism, Bauhaus and Dada - (1919 - 1933).

Constructivism - An artistic and architectural movement that emphasizes art as a practice for social purposes. This movement is reflected in Architecture, Graphic and Industrial design, Theatre, Film, Dance, Fashion and to some extent Music.

Alexander Rodchenko (1891 - 1956) - Artist, Painter, Sculptor, Photographer, Graphic Designer, Teacher. In 1921 he exhibits 3 'monochrome' paintings and declares 'the end of painting'. He is one of the most famous and successful pioneers of Constructivism.

- In his paintings, the experimental spirit is dominant and noticeable. It began simple, with simple shapes and primary colours, then the paintings started to get complicated with the use of different shapes and a lot of colour combinations, and it was surely constructive. Left and right, images below:

 

.   Above Left:Non-Objective Composition 1917-1918.  Above Right: Dance, an Objectless Composition 1915.

Since the beginning of the 1920s, Rodchenko began to take a huge interest in photography. He believed that things will get more interesting if one looked at it from many points of view and with different perspectives  like we can see in On the Fire-escape 1927. He took this photograph from a very unexpected angel of the stairs so we could see the amusing perspective.

-  The photomontage of the Constructivists was very different from the Dadaists’ who created this technique. The Constructivists applied their style of the vertical, horizontal and diagonal arrangements in the photomontage technique.

Below: On The Fire Escape, 1927.                                                                

    

- Rodechenko also designed Film Posters, magazine and book  covers. He worked on Commercial and Propaganda posters as a 'social agent' in order to support the soviet state. He also designed advertising posters and bookmarks.