The morning after the Pavement concert, my friend Emily and I decided we would venture across Boston to the Museum of Fine Arts. I hadn't been in a few months and was especially excited to be able to catch the Nicholas Nixon exhibit. Years ago, when I was a high schooler taking pre-college courses at the Art Institute of Boston on my weekends and summers, I happened to have two of the courses with the same professor. The courses were Color Film Photography and Black and White Portrait Film Photography. She introduced us to multiple artists and I vividly remember the lectures on Nicholas Nixon as I stared at the four faces and body languages of the Brown sisters. Nicholas Nixon has photographed his wife and her three sisters every year since 1975. Seeing a wall full of these women in front of me, rather than flipping through pages was powerful. The space and placement of the prints allowed me to see the chronological aging of the women. Nixon has always concentrated and had a fascination with "family". He has a beautiful eye in capturing genuine moments of those he is closest to in a natural way.
This exhibit also became an experience as my friend Emily started conversations with an older onlooker. The two women discussed the possible age difference and verbally noted the body languages shifting throughout the years. They also discussed how it looked as if the women may meet up at a vacation place, seeing as a few of the photographs were taken by the beach, or by beautiful areas. It was interesting to take in the pieces I had only seen in textbooks beforehand while hearing perspectives and potential inferences from those with different amounts of life experience.
There was one blank space on the grid for the 2010 photograph, so Emily and I discussed how he must photograph these sisters during the fall or winter.
This exhibit helped to reintroduce me to why I have always been so in love with photography. It was a powerful and fulfilling experience.
Another photography exhibit that we saw included the work of Richard Avedon. Walking in and out of the rooms filled with fashion icons from 1944 to the year 2000 was amazing. To see the changes of the image of the woman portrayed evolution. His eye for photography is scrupulous. It was unreal to see this fashion photography exhibit in person. His processes were laid out in glass cases with old Harper's Bazaar magazines. Avedon is one of the first influences to start portraying women in ways they had never been depicted. "He approached fashion photography primarily as the art of depicting women rather than promoting fleeting changes in style...he enlarged and complicated the image of the fashionable woman, playing the earnest soleminities of fashion against what he conceived as the buoyant, vigorous life the twentieth-century woman".
I would highly suggest catching this exhibit. He has such a talent for creating power of portrayal in an image.
The museum of Fine Arts is beautiful and holds so much rare work. Even the architecture got me feeling inspired.
When I stated that Richard Avedon focused (pun) on representing women, I mentioned how prevalent the appearance of evolution was. Before Avedon, women were not usually represented as strong, independent individuals. A lot of representations of women were associating with many representations that feminists have been fighting for years. Avedon was one of the catalyst artists who helped to break the stereotypical homemaker images of women. His images progress throughout his career in representing the capturing of women breaking out into the social scene and the more contrived, directed photographs.
ReplyDeleteWhen I stated that Avedon's exhibit was "unreal", I was specifically concentrating on the overwhelming emotion and strong representation that the photographs conjured up for me. First off, how beautiful the images themselves were was impressive and highly appreciated. The ideas behind the images, and to read about how they launched stronger portrayals than the early representation of early twentieth century women was something I could not only respect, but relate too. It was witnessing the power of imagery and it's effects. I connected on both an artistic and gender level.
ReplyDeleteWhen I stated that Avedon's eye for photography was scrupulous, I mean to say that his form and capturing of composition was exact. He clearly has the talent to produce strong composition that helps to relay equally strong ideas. His imagery appears precise and as close to perfection as art can get.
ReplyDeleteWhen I stated that even the architecture of the museum had me feeling inspired, this too relates back to one of the main concepts I have been beginning to understand through this independent study: use of space. This too becomes part of the experience and atmosphere. Although it is a different feeling than being present in person, I have started incorporating this concept into my films. The latest example is how I made a film (/am actually still in the process) on my almost ninety-four year old grandmother). Many of my shots incorporate a sense of space. In fact, my first edit on this film was almost entirely dedicated to the up-close physical presence of my grandmother. However, after our first critique in class, I was forced to realize that that may be playing it safe. I then took into consideration the idea of playing with space to represent so much more. I am a lot more happy with my second cut, and see how creating a sense of place can be of great importance. Also, seeing this architecture helped to allow me to determine composition in lay-out and inspire me to look more for details on buildings and the way in which they are laid out. Two weekends ago I went out for sushi with some of my friends who go to WPI. I just kept babbling on about how I loved the way in which the sushi restaurant was set up and pointing out specific details. They looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn't care because I had my miso soup.
ReplyDeleteI actually had a debate about Avdeon's work with myself for a while after I saw his work. I do understand that he was photographing anything but housewives, as his subjects were the hollywood idols and the women who were dominating the public scene. I suppose I felt connected to his work of capturing these women because it was one of the first times that women were being captured as anything besides the stereotype. To me, it was one of the first time that women were being representing as independent, and on their own. In many of his documentary photographs of these women at public affairs, they are seen without men. It felt as if it was about being a woman on her (whoever the subject was) own facing the public.
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