Gregory Crewdson

Photographer Gregory Crewdson is a prime example of an artist following the tableux vivants, capturing truly fascinating scenes with a static and eerie stillness. Each piece is elaborately staged with the aid of a professional crew, where Crewdson is able to envision and create an often surreal sense of foreboding tension around characters situated in an eerie environment.

In this piece, a couple seem devoid and loss in the bedroom. An array of objects litter the makeup table from beauty products to obscure pills and even a bird who stares questioningly at the woman. We are refrained from looking anywhere else in the image as a fence and wall of another house blocks any outside view from the patio door, with the walls of the bedroom and bathroom keeping our view in. As we continue to try and piece the image together, we are left with only ambiguous thoughts with no clear or defined truth.


Some further examples that seek to defy our understanding of an image, leaving only ambiguous thoughts as to what is happening in each shot. This piece features a motionless town left in 'pause' as signified by the amber signals of traffic lights, with a single left on and abandoned in the middle of the road.


In this piece, a taxi is left with a passenger and no driver, where the passenger door is left wide open. Are we then to assume the woman standing barefoot in the middle of a road, seemingly in tears and clutching onto something, is the driver?


And finally, a boy and a naked women in a caravan seemingly stare at each other for eternity, as emphasised by the reflection of the large puddle. His home and mother? Or something seemingly more sinister and disturbing.


Nothing is ever clear or definitive in Crewdon's constructed pieces. Effectively, we are confronted by the familiar in contrast to something strange which creates the ambiguous, uncanny and unsettling nature of each piece.

To see the lengths at which Crewdon carefully composes his scenes, watch a interview of him below. It's really quite fascinating showcasing Crewdon's two very different approaches to his works, and the resulting piece of a massively constructed set in a live location.

Arnold Newman + Essay Development

I've been refining my essay idea looking through a number of resources. The book 'Interviews with Master Photographers' has provided a fantastic insight into the techniques and philosophies of photographers, particularly with portraiture photographers Yousuf Karsh and Arnold Newman.

Newman interested me in particular with his ideas that photography is not confined to realism, but gains a 'new power when it is released from realism'. To the contrary to popular belief, Newman finds 'many things false in photography' but rather an illusion of reality that we must recognise and interpret like any other art form.

Newman produced a particularly powerful piece of Alfried Krupp, a 'horrible human' who chained his slaves to machinery of his arms factory to stop them from escaping when the bombers came. He underfed his workers 'even to Nazi standards', sending them to concentration camps once they underperformed. Newman himself states that the subject makes the piece, suggesting that he has simply portrayed the Krupp for who he is, essentially as 'the face of evil'.



A powerful portrait, if a little contrived, reminiscent to the power a portrait can have with the previous example of Myra Hindley.

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Being well aware of the vastness of my initial essay title, I have begun to narrow this down adjusting the focus to look at an area of transition in photographic portraiture. Thus, I am considering the title of: 'A Transition of Photography in Portraiture and the Nature of Identity', which hopefully narrows down the subject area of focus.

The structure would consist:

• Small introduction of photographic portraiture
• Photography's attempt to capture identity of the soul and essence of the subject
• Conversely following photography's obliteration of identity
  
• Conclusion

One or two artists with an ideal piece each will help illustrate the transition of photography to draw a conclusion. In this way, I hope to draw a structured and focused essay while keeping in line with the 1500 word count.

Thoughts and feedback are welcome.

John Stezaker

Some most interesting photography Phil suggested to look at is the work of John Stezaker. His work combines photographs of some iconic Hollywood stars to form some great uncanny portraits. Combining both males and females together for a dramatic juxtaposition, it also begins to question the aspect of identity with the aura of glamorous film stars being portrayed in a traditional photographic manner.



Stezaker's portraits reminded me of my earlier facial symmetry portrait. Where I blended both halves of myself seamlessly, it created a disturbing effect as we can only recognise a single individual, and while the transition is obvious between both photographs in Stezaker's work, it makes for an effective juxtaposition as one is able to determine two individuals for a less unnerving portrait.

While I am fond of Stezaker's work, I don't want to just replicate his concept and so I will think of other techniques if I am to continue this idea.

You can find more of John Stezaker's work here.

Photographic Identity

Photography is fascinating in its ability to capture a moment in time for eternity, a precise moment which can no longer returned to. A prime example is Alexander Garner's piece ‘The Portrait of Lewis Payne’ capturing Payne’s last moments before being executed. His very being and identity as an individual is preserved in one last portrait that appears truthful despite being open to interpretation.



Concerning the nature of identity, it can be said that photography also possesses the ability to encapsulate one’s identity. The photographer Yousuf Karsh, who was particularly famous for his photographic portraits of world renown figures, believed that ‘within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal… a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world’.



These portraits in particular possess a certain quality that appears to capture the essence of the individual, with Ian Mckellen seemingly lost in his thoughts and Albert Einstein appearing humble and honest.

In such a way, photography can be fundamental in its unique ability to encapsulate a moment in time, the identity of an individual, in an instant.

You can find more of Karsh’s work here.

Crying Babies - Jill Greenberg

Having looked at Sam Taylor Wood, I stumbled upon Jill Greenberg's photography where her series of crying children stood out in particular. Greenberg captures a range of children crying in a series of around 35 pieces. Her methods involve giving the child a lollipop to enjoy, only to take it away.

With the subject being children, the impact is decisively different from Wood's crying men. Children are delicate, pure and beautiful. We instinctively move to protect them. Seeing the children's raw expression and emotion stir memories of our own childhood and the anguish we perhaps once had to endure. To a degree, we feel what they feel as we instinctively feel compelled to ease one's suffering.

The effectiveness in both Greenberg's and Wood's work stems from the emotion of the subject. Both confront us with raw emotions that can relate to a personal level. Thus, portraiture with an emotional context can sometimes overwhelm us as in this case a child crying is all we are presented to see, making for a powerful gripping image.

You can find more of Greenberg's work here.

Sam Taylor Wood

'Women cry, men get angry.'

The very notion is still a common core stereotype of both men and woman, an accepted course of emotions which anything otherwise is perceived as odd, unbecoming or unfit of the individual.

Photographer Sam Taylor Wood's series 'Crying Men' captures a range of male Hollywood actors exposed in various states of emotional breakdown. Men who are icons admired by many for their talent and success where their fame has granted them a meaning far greater than their physical presence, are exposed and reduced to tears. Their grief has a powerful gripping influence that perhaps could not be achieved with any anonymous individual. Such actors include Laurence Fishburne, Paul Newman and Daniel Craig, all of which Wood claims that each experience was truly unique where ‘some shook with grief, others quietly wept and Laurence Fishburne couldn’t stop himself crying.’

The fact that Wood’s subjects are actors makes one question the authenticity of their emotions. Yet in such a personal manner you cannot help but feel that they are fully exposed, that they are not playing a role but are in actual grief, which begs the question – what is going through their minds as they cry?

These icons of our modern society who express such deep human sorrow make us aware of our own grief connecting to each of us in a unique and personal way. We are confronted with such raw emotions of grief that perhaps it also begins to question the identity of men and their perceived roles in society.

I find Wood's series most intriguing as it demonstrates portraiture capturing raw emotions of sorrow not often associated with males, where the focus is in the expression of the inner self rather than on notions of power, wealth and status being particularly apparent in the renaissance period.