PART 1 1.Personal Background: (5 sentences. Culture, nationality, schooling, important life events, etc.) He grew up in the UK and moved to London to continue his artwork. He attended Goldsmiths college in London in the late 1980’s and started his work as a photographer and film enthusiast. He grew up in a very religious household where little was celebrated and everything was ridiculed. This sparked his passion for breaking cultural norms and experimenting with the darker side of photography. His most famous work of art is called “Bullet Hole” and it depicts a close up image of a bullet hole in someone's head. This went viral for its realistic depiction of our world today.
2.Style: (5 sentences. What visual characteristics does this artist’s work possess? If you can compare it to a painting or art history style please do.) In his earlier works he possessed a kind of flirty, lighthearted vision for his art similar to the romanticism era in Europe. In swept his later years and it tuned into something much more dark and impactful. His artwork makes you question society, government, and religion. There is a certain dark gore to it similar too much artwork done by Eugene Delacroix. It speaks to infinity of the universe and the realist approach to life. One of his most famous exhibitions was “ last meal on death row.” this exhibition had a certain realism and dark silence to it that made people think. Most of him photographs are pretty dimly lit and that establishes a tone for his pieces. Many of his works are straight shots of things not much experimentation, the subject is what speaks to the onlooker not the angles or lighting.
3.Philosophy: (5 sentences. What were the major ideas behind this artist’s work? Where they personal, political, social, etc. What were they trying to “say” with their photographs?) The message in Collishaws art is both political and deeply personal. Growing up in a religious environment where little freedom was given in childhood his artwork is a rebellion against his religious past. It points out some of the flaws of christianity and the utter hypocrisy of its foundation. It also has a deeply political stance. His work done with death row inmates made you look at these people in a different respect. It made you see them as humans not other worldly monsters that are completely different from the general population. Whether we agree or not it makes you critically think about these seemingly normal people at one point of their life and how they got to this somber, devastating, and cruel end.
4. Influences: (5 sentences. How has the photographer influenced you in your work or who were they influenced by?) They were deeply influenced by Eugene Delecroix and their realistic approach to artwork. I applaud his ability to flip something seemingly neutral like a plate of burger and fries into something totally different with lighting. His ability to use the light to portray mood is something that I will take away from his artwork. Additionally the intrinsic tie between political and personal connection is deeply interesting to me. Seeing your own beliefs come across in artwork is something I hope to get better at by experimenting with the lighting, angle, and positioning of the camera.
Part 2:
Billy Con Gardner, Last Meal on Death Row, https://matcollishaw.com/works/last-meal-on-death-row/
My Image
A Somber Meal
I think this first set of images look fairly similar to one another. The original photo has some darker lighting with the light almost elluminting over the muffin. This was difficult to achieve without a high level camera so the middle portion looks slightly brighter than the original. The positioning of the food was pretty spot on and so was the drink in the back corner, barely visible. I think the thing that stands out most to me is the lighting in this picture series. It is dark and dreary and gives off the same emotions.
Whispering weeds by Mat Collishaw, 2011 https://matcollishaw.com/works/whispering-weeds/
My Image
The Flow of Fall
The weeds in Mat's picture are more vibrant than mine mainly because this was taken in the middle of November. The peach colored background was something I wanted to include but you could only get that shot inside the exhibit so I opted for a different approach. I took a picture of the weeds in my yard and put it on top of a peach colored background. I think the weeds positioning and horizontal shot look similar, the peach background is not identical by any means but I think it does a nice job of contrasting the greens and grey's of the weeds with the background. Overall i think the images look similar they just have different approaches to achieving the background color.
This is Not an Exit, Mat Collishaw, 2013. https://matcollishaw.com/works/this-is-not-an-exit/
An Upset
The main issue with this photo was shaping the paper correctly so it would create the shadows shown in the original. I tried multiple different folds until I landed on this one. You can see the same general shadow marks and crumpled paper aesthetic but it does not look identical. One reason is due to the lighting used to create such precise shadows. i think that they are both oil paint on canvas so they look similar in that respect and have similar folds throughout, although it is more prominent in the original. I think the angle is also similar it was taken at.
Artist Statement: I learned a lot by taking these photos. it helped me develop my photography skills and find unique solutions to problems with lighting and angles. I hope to focus in the future more on the lighting in my photos and having that spread a unique emotion. I admire the amount of effort he puts into his messaging and how powerful his photos can be. They truly send a message and I hope in the future I will be able to do that as well.