40s in colour

 

Through the magic of stumble I came across these amazing photos from the library of congress photostream on flickr. They're all original slides from the late 30s and 40s.  The colours are so beautiful, and that ends my tutor's complaints that slides were only used in the 60s and 70s.  I may try to reproduce some of these photos next week in a new shoot, although I am unsure about copyright infringement. I will try a few just for my personal use and then I can produce my own versions of this style of image. I'm really excited to show my tutors, and definitely start doing the shoot.  If I can get anything that looks like the photo above I'll be extremely pleased.  It's funny how inspiration can come when you're not looking for it!

Inspiration

See this here

I've been looking at Gillian Wearing's work album and it's definitely given me a fresh view on my work. She reproduced six portraits from her family album, but they are in fact all her dressed up, using prosthetics and make up. I LOVE IT. They look really realistic, and it definitely took me a while to see that she was actually the model. I had a pretty successful tutorial with John, nothing really was said that was any different, but it cleared up a few things. I've decided explore two paths of inquiry to see what works out, and which method of display enhances my work and the meanings I want to portray. Firstly I'm going to do another shoot of vintage style images, but include some of the subtle nods to modernity and the falsity of the image. Sort of a cross between these two:

Things like shorter skirts, haristyles, slightly 'wrong' clothing, maybe some clues in the backgrounds. This will make the idea of unreliability of memory and historical retelling, and the blurred line between fact and fiction. Hopefully. Then I'll frame these in a normal gallery display similar to Wearing's possibly.
I'm also going to continue with my slide show. I like this due to the inherent history within slides themselves, and the hypnotic effect of the slide show. It also speaks of family albums immediately too. I'll either take more slide films, or get some of my new images put onto slides. Then fill the carousel, maybe on a timer? Then I can see which of the two methods will help enhance my work and make it most successful.

bah

Turns out the internet is useless. why can't every artist have their own website? i think it rather strange that they don't. with everything listed that they have ever produced. and images, or at least where to find them. i need to find some relevant artists, sometimes it feels like my tutors haven't got a clue...

Where to go?

I'm struggling at the minute to work out where to go with my work. The stress of third year is getting to me, as is my neurosis! Hopefully some sort of clarity will come, as all my ideas are buzzing round my head but none seem that great at the moment! I really need to simplify the work, waaay too much going on, but can't decide between making it into a more simple installation or pursuing the photographic / curatorial side of it. It's definitely a split personality at the moment. Weirdly all I want to do at the moment is go back to painting and taking photos. Oil paint seems so much more exciting than wallpaper and love letters! It's been a while since I felt like that...maybe uni has changed my work for the worse? Who knows but I've got to carry on with this now. Think I just need a tutorial, I love the little details in there, and it definitely has atmosphere, but the wide view is just awful at the moment. Obviously this was just a taster for my assessment, the real deal would be a proper little room. Quite glad I didn't do that now as I may have been even more despondant after my distinctly average assessment...

The new frontier.

I've decided to start a blog to try to keep all my thoughts and work in order, especially as I'm so useless at keeping up with sketchbooks. Hopefully I will update this a little more regularly! Plus it may help me to clear my head and look at things fresh!