Free day Tuesday 29th November Deconstructing Environment Photographers

Rut Blees Luxemburg:

This Photographers work has been discussed on numerous occasions on the course so far and the three images to deconstruct were: Lovesong (liebeslied) 1997; Folly 2003: Piccadilly's Peccadilloes 2007.

Lovesong (Liebeslied) 1997

Folly 2003

Piccadilly's Peccadilloes 2007

 Aesthetically it is clear that the photographer has her own unique style and agenda. The visual style of these images taken at night have become her signature for her environmental work. Interested in the notion of duality/abstraction and capturing fleeting reflections or dark mysterious images using only available lighting. Looking for the beauty in the usually mundane, her style is to see what others miss, or dismiss. To see what many of us miss as we slumber, as we slumber she seeks images that fit her desired visual strategy and outlook on the city. Showing a layer of the city that is both mysteriously unfamiliar yet subconsciously known to many city dwellers. Her images are about mood, drawing the viewer into the images as we absorb and attempt to understand the visual choices. She is asking the viewer to engage with the environment and to look beyond the familiar. The images feel lonely and often cold, lacking people and thus highlighting their absence due to the locations and man made environment. Water and shadows often feature highly in the images creating a richness within the frame. Colours are subdued and limited in number in each image and a fine art feel exists within her images. Depth of Field is always deep and details remain sharp allowing the eye to engage fully with every aspect of the framed image. I'd also say that a stillness is often evident, and a feeling of suspense is created often by what is not within the image (the people). Traces of missing people exist, cups, chairs, footprints, lit windows inviting us to wonder at the human stories behind each image.
The images above date from 1997-2007 and in ten years her style remains strong.
Her work has been used on album covers, 'Lovesong' comes from the book 'Liebeslied Rut Blees Luxemburg  My Suicides Alexander Garcia Duttmann'. The 2007 'Piccadilly's Peccadilloe's image is one from a series commissioned to record London's underground railway system and is in fact taken at Heathrows terminal four (http://art.tfl.gov.uk/projects/detail/1125/).
http://www.rutbleesluxemburg.com/

Further images:

In Deeper also from 'Liebeslied Rut Blees Luxemburg  My Suicides Alexander Garcia Duttmann'

Narrow stage 1998 also from 'Liebeslied Rut Blees Luxemburg  My Suicides Alexander Garcia Duttmann'

Richard Wentworh:
Two images were provided to analyse and deconstruct.

Bottlestick

Tirana (from the series 'Making do and Getting' by 1999

Interestingly Wentworth is a sculptor and his interests photographically appear to lie in capturing what appear to be sculptural occurrences, which visually appear to be objects and situations that he has come across. Wentworth appears to seek the out of place, and his connection to objects and things is apparent. His making do and getting by series is an ongoing one that began back as early as 1974. So it is clear that this is an ongoing obsession, it's become a part of his own personality as an artist, and it is clear from his images that he is an artist. He gathers and documents images that depict the human interaction with the environment, often capturing the chaotic evidence of thoughtlessness. His images appear self conscious, seeking small cast off and oddly placed objects, often tucked/propped/Lent/piled. I wonder if his images are in fact a self portrait, a comment on the nature of city dwelling where you can become faceless and discarded and constrained with ease. He seems to be looking beyond the objects into some deeper metaphorical commentary, as seen in the images above. The beauty of nature polluted by the plastic bottle in 'Bottlestick'. The time worn decaying fabric of the city contrasted against the sharp reflective surfaces of the new (the mirrors/glass), it's all about juxtaposition and his work could be described as poetic and thought provoking in that sense. There is always a sense of being lost, time is evident because the cast off objects have served a purpose and then become redundant. To me there is a sadness, and a coldness to his work and it critiques modern Britain highlighting the soulless nature of the city. These images are a narrative and a commentary capturing small everyday stories overlooked due to the commonality of occurrence, but none the less worthy of consideration.

Further images:

Image care of http://www.lissongallery.com/#/artists/richard-wentworth/

Image care of http://www.lissongallery.com/#/artists/richard-wentworth/

Vera Lutter:

Images supplied to review were: '333 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL, 2001 and 'San Marco, Venice, XX: December 3, 2005

333 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL, 2001

San Marco, Venice, XX: December 3, 2005

 Vera Lutter uses a technique that abstracts the cityscape and creating a very interesting visual style. The concept appears be one of altering and abstracting, thus making the viewer question what they see, and how they see it. Using a Camera obscurer and projecting the image provided by the lens onto a photographic (light sensitive) paper no conventional negative is created. Being a Camera obscurer the image itself is recorded negatively on the paper. Light focused into the lens leaves it's mark on the paper, so that light from the sky for example is recorded as a dark tome on the image. This effect is striking since the paper size is large, and unlike a conventional film negative, it isn't translucent (being on paper). The long exposures required to create this effect don't record individual people so the images focus on the buildings themselves. Obviously lighting is natural and the technology involved in recording the images thus dictates the long exposure. The strong contrasts highlight the geometrical, the architectural aspect of the city. The camera position varies from street level to elevated positions. The photographer consistently seeks out rich and interesting subject matter and doesn't restrict herself to one city although she is New York based, her work is prolific and she continues to specialise in this visual and photographic technique as her signature style. Highly regarded and widely exhibited she acquired a guggenhiem fellowship (fine arts) in 2001.
Her images appear to me a homage to steel and glass, to machines and the large scale man made objects (including Jet passenger aircraft, pyramids, huge earth moving vehicles and of course the architecture of the city)

Further images:

545 8th Avenue, Looking North: February 10, 1994

Campo Santa Sofia Venice XXIII December 17th 2007

Each Photographer has taken a unique approach based on their experiences and relationships with the environment. They all use alternative approaches from their own specific perspective, in an attempt to create a visual message. The differences are obvious, but there is a theme that binds then all together. The desire to create a message and provoke thought and discussion with regards to the urban environment. The approach is visual and using the still image. Each frame is taken with great care and  consideration and in the case of Rutt Blees and especially Vera Lutter a great deal of time/equipment and setting up and composure is required to create the images. Rutt Blees would be using a tripod and longish exposures, Vera Lutter would be setting up a Camera Obscura. Each photograther has spent many years developing there creative and visual strategy and they all come from within the established world or photography (or art) via backgrounds that started with qualifications in their specific mediums making them part of the 'establishment'
 (photography/art)