LECTURE 24/05/2013

This week we're thinking about the history of Photography....

Andreas Gurski:

• Talks about globalization, urban, rural not just panorama …. Has to have layers
• Landscapes combined with human beings
• i.e. Landscape with cable car
• Bahrain 1, 2005 (another example as below)

• Vertical images
• Alters background + composition
• Combines several details
• Fashion, advertising, art, documentaries, categories from 21^st Century did not exist in the 21^st century
• 19^th century techniques used in 21^st century

Further Research from the lecture....

"Andreas Gursky (German, b.1955) is a photographer best known for his colorful, bold, large-format depictions of contemporary life. Gursky was born in Leipzig, Germany, and grew up in Düsseldorf, where his father worked as a commercial photographer. In his early 20s, he studied photography at the Folkwang School, West Germany’s leading establishment for professional photographers. His early, unadorned compositions are heavily influenced by his years at Folkwang, where the curriculum was largely focused on the straight-shot techniques of photojournalism. In the early 1980s, Gursky studied under the internationally recognized photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher (German, 1931–2007; German, b.1934) at the State Art Academy. During his years at the academy, Gursky was heavily influenced by the conceptual aesthetic philosophy of the Bechers, as well as his fellow students Sigmar Polke (German, 1941–2010) and Gerhard Richter (German, b.1932).

His early work was first considered to be an extension of the Becher aesthetic, but became recognized as uniquely ‘Gursky’ as he moved away from their teachings, producing large-scale color photographs with an almost manic documentation of detail. His mature work developed rapidly after 1990, as he began to focus on scenes and places representing the international sentiment of contemporary society. Excessive detail became a hallmark of his contemporary idiom, evident in photographs such as 99 Cent and the May Day series. Today his work continues to depict scenes occurring in immediately recognizable urban spaces, ranging from department stores and hotels to the German Parliament and the Chicago Board of Trade." http://www.artnet.com/artists/andreas-gursky/

Amsterdam, Em Arena II, 2000

I love the angle of this photograph, the texture of the grass is vibrant. I like how it's an angle of a scocer/football field which we wouldn't normally view! Eye-level and TV, show very different angles to this one.

Untitled XV. 2005

I love the concept of this image, although I have no idea what to make of it, on first glance it seemed like a half cropped field, but looking closer I am confused by all the randoms objects scattered accross the image...