Surrealism

Surrealism was very intermit with the minds unconscious, meditation techniques and word games, where used to help reveal a persons unconscious desires. Surrealists would try to get as close as possible to the inner world of imagination. (Warner Marion, 2002, 253)

This is a piece called super impression by Maurice Tabard 1931, which is a great example of surrealism work. Here 3 images have been put together of 2 different people, because of the way they have been constructed and placed together, it creates an illusion that although there faces are different people it almost look like one person, when viewing it from different angles.

Constructivism, Dada and Bauhaus

Hannah Hoch, "The beautiful Girl"

Dada -
Dada started in 1918 onwards, it was a group of all art types that came together to make anti war art work. Dada's idea was to go back to the beginning, simplify, strip art work back down to the basics, making images 2 dimensional. They had the idea that the body was like a machine. This is why in a lot of Dada influenced work there is machinery.

This is a image by Hannah Hoch, the image is made up of various picture clippings, that have all been put together as a collage. It holds a hidden message that is uncovered as the viewer looks at the picture in more depth. In the centre of the image there is a woman sitting with an umbrella, her face is then covered with a light bulb, on the right of her is a tire and on the left on side there is machine parts, such as gears, cogs and watches. In the top right there is picture of a woman's face, which has then had cat eyes layered over the top. The background is made up of lots of BMW car logos.  All these images juxtapose each other but link to the the industrial development and woman may be optimistic about the future and the upcoming relationship between technology and woman.

Constructivism -
A geometric style, which uses lots of shapes, colours and lines. It looks almost mechanical, some may say its not real art and that theres no craft in it. An artistic and architectural movement that emphasised art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism is a celebration of the development of the city, it can also be used for political meanings and messages.

Bauhaus -
German school of design, the building had amazing architecture lots of glass and the full furnishings on the building such as doors, window frames and sign all look very sharp and precise. They were all about simplicity and functionality, even the type face is without decoration. The objects that were made at the Bauhaus school of design, were always curved and had no sharp edges, everything had a soft finish and had a modern abstracting influence.

Postmodernism

Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol.

Postmodernism started in the 1960s-1970s and it is still around today but just isn't as popular. Above is a picture by Andy warhol, he took an image of Marilyn Monroe and then duplicated it four times, using different colours. This was something that didn't look ordinary to others, he was breaking the rules and setting himself away from what people where used to. This is a great example of postmodernism is has a sense of history being reinterpreted .

"the attention of the viewer is now engaged by a differential opposition within the image itself."(Jameson 1991: 179)

"In art circles, Postmodernism came to mean a rejection of themes and subjects that interested Modernist artists, such as abstraction and the subjective expression of unique intellects."(The Postmodern era, Richard Prince)

Pure and Straight Photography

 Bill Brandt, Epsom Races, 1933

This image show a man and woman both perched on one seat, sitting back to back. The man is holding a umbrella and the lady is reading a book. They are both dressed in formal clothing, for the woman is wearing an ankle length dress and sun hat and the man is wearing a full dark coloured suit and hat. The photograph has been taken from a low, floor angle which makes the grass look very high but then also exaggerated the hight of the man and woman within the image. The image is very sharp and contains a lot of detail. This image portrays the style of pure and straight photography as it has clearly not been manipulated, the image has been clearly set up, the angle of the camera has been thought about and the subject matter has been positioned perfectly before taking the image. Bill Brandt was a German-British photographer and photojournalist. Although born in Germany. Bill Brandt then moved to England, where he became known for his high-contrast images of British society, his distorted nudes and landscapes. Around this time this time the great depression was at its best, within this image  there may be a link to this event in time, as even though the couple are dressed in formal clothes they both look slightly worried, as they both sit back to back not smiling or communicating with one another. The gentleman looking down to the floor which gives of the impression he's worried and the woman looking very closely at a book of some sort, connotes that she is possibly not interested in her surroundings or is being slightly ignorant or dismissive to the gentleman.

Pictorialism

Edward Steichen, The flatiron, 1904

This image shows one of New York's firsts skyscrapers, it consists of only 22 floors. The soft, unsharpened layer over the whole photograph, gives a real painting feel. Steichen added colour to his photograph, casting it in a moody, blue glow. which I think gives it a cold, winter feel. Edward Jean Steichen was an American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. For a period of time he also did military Photography then went on to be the photographer for vogue and vanity fair. This photograph portrays the time it was set by the silhouette of the gentleman wearing a top hat. Around the time of this photograph there was the "first message to travel around the world" and also the first silent movie, "the Great Train Robbery", these thing may both of influenced steichen. Even though a picture is silent just like the film, I think he wanted it to have a deeper meaning maybe even a story but without text, it gives the viewer a chance to decide how the image makes them feel and what message it may be portraying and how it relates to them personally.

Triangulation

I recently reviewed the book "Image Makers, Image Takers", by Anne-Celine Jaeger. This book is made up of various interviews with Photographers such a Martin Parr and Tina barney, it reveals abit about their backgrounds and the type of photography the focus within. I also found the  photographers approaches to the same genre of photography were all slightly different, but still all very informative and interesting. This book goes into much depth about each photographers original ideas and then follows them throughout the whole process of capturing planning, organising, taking the photographs, post production to then finally publishing them within a gallery, this helps understand the long, hard process it takes to get your work shown, but also help readers gain confidence and understanding to pursue this. It raises understanding of photographers technical journeys and creative journeys and gives further understanding to what curators and publishers are looking for within the industry. I found this book easy to follow and thought it gave valuable information, that may help new photographers it gives advice such as, "broaden your range, have a unique style and don't imitate others". I also love how this book contains photographs to help understand the context and pictures of photographers work. I would recommend this book to other new photographers, as i think it will help gain knowledge, tips and valuable research reference for the future.