Module Work: Carmel Anderson
15th December 2017
As part of the written theory module first years students had to create their own post-modern informed self-portrait and write an artist’s statement to accompany the image.
This is the first post of this work created by Carmel Anderson.
“I thought of the people as puppets who were unstrung, mercilessly disempowered—not preyed upon, but living on the edge and not by choice,”– (Lorca diCorcia, 2014: Online)
Traditionally, art and photography were made to create an illusion. The better the illusion, the better the Image. Artifice within postmodernism does its best to expose how the illusion-making process works. It plays on the idea of being aware of the image and knowing that everything has been staged specifically for the photo. Finding the right balance between the image looking frozen in time and could come to life at any moment, yet making sure the viewer knows every element of the photo has been meticulously thought out.
To me, artifice is about creating a link between fantasy and real life. Seeing a beautifully shot image and being able to imagine it being a moving image, telling a story, but also being able to create your own story and possibly see yourself within that. As the photographer, being able to create a metaphorical blank canvas for the viewer to reflect their own feelings and stories onto.
Philip Lorca diCorcia has been my main inspiration for my self-portrait. diCorcia creates cinematic stills that are designed to evoke the emotion contained in real life situations. The theatrical and ‘in the moment’ atmosphere throughout diCorcia’s work, is what captured my attention the most. I was very interested in attempting to creating a dramatic image that wouldn’t look out if place in a film, whilst keeping in mind the intricate stylings that diCorcria uses.
In the photo above, I have attempted to recreate my own take on cinematic image that matched the theme artifice within the post modernism era.