Digital Photography

The chapter “Something and Nothing” is all about photographing everyday objects and things that you normally wouldn’t take the time to look at in detail, but are actually quite interesting to examine. This chapter starts off explaining how the photographs in this chapter show non-human, ordinary, everyday objects that are made extraordinary by taking a picture of them. By taking a photograph of them they then become art instead of just a thing. Making forms of art from “matter of daily life” is the point of this chapter and what the photographers are trying to get at. At one point the book refers to Marcel Duchamp’s work like “Fountain” which took an ordinary object, a urinal, and turned it into a work of art by saying it is art.
The chapter then goes into some artists and their work, starting with “Quiet Afternoon” by Fischli and Weiss; this is a great piece of run-of-the-mill objects assembled to make something interesting then photographed. The act of making sculptures of these objects is art on its own, and then they photograph it to give it that extra intrigue to the piece. The next artist is Orozco who photographed the surface of a piano right after he breathed on it, producing condensation on it. This makes the viewer wonder what just happened in this picture, why does the piano have this condensation on it. Gonzalez-Torres’s photo, “Untitled”, is an interesting piece about displaying an intimate moment in public and shooting it.
Richard Wentworth’s piece featured in this chapter is about objects from the urban streets often used for a different function than that it was made for. This offers a great contrast to the idea of form and function and the images are often comical to see. Evan’s photograph in this book is about the connection of nature and timing of the artist catching that moment of beauty. The next piece “Sewing Kit” by Shafran is about finding the interesting way people arrange their items in their daily lives. How we do these things unknowingly and when photographed and examined are actually quite interesting. “Globe”, by Bolande is about taking pictures of globes on windowsills of random houses in the city, this is a very interesting piece about our culture and relationships to different objects.
Bustamante’s photograph in this chapter is about different planes and spaces and how they interact to make something new. The book then goes into some architectural pieces like the one by Wenders called “Wall in Paris, Texas” which shows cracks in a wall and the brick behind a plaster; doing this revels the vulnerability of the building. The next piece by Hernandez is all about abandoned spaces and what is left in them, in the example shown it’s a random toy skeleton hanging from the ceiling and it makes you wonder who left this there and why. “Dewy” by Baran is another piece about our daily lives and how where we leave something can be beautiful, and Fraser’s piece is about how we can leave something and it can be seen in a cosmic form for example the dust in his image makes a galaxy type design.
The next image is by Willmann and it’s about finding aspects of rural lifestyle and photographing it to give an experience of that particular place. Ethridge goes for a different approach by photographing forward colors and drawing attention to subjects and forms. The chapter then goes to Tillmans photo of the suit hanging like it’s a skin to the person that left it. Welling’s piece in this book is about lighting and how it can make very stimulating designs. The next artist featured is Jeff Wall, who has a photo of just a mop, bucket and the floor, but the way it is cropped gives it personality. The next photo is by Laura Letinsky, who photographed a table someone ate at and left their mess, which represents how we live our lives at home and aren’t afraid to make a mess. Uta Barth’s photo has a great focus on the window frame that gives details we normally wouldn’t pay attention to, and the blurred outside world creates a mystery of the beyond. The last artist in this chapter is Hornig, and her piece “Window with Door”. This is a great photo that confuses the viewer to where is this taken, how does this reflection work, and with it’s ghostly appearance adds a mysterious look to this photo.
The first artist that isn’t in this chapter but could be is Cristof Echard. He is a photographer that came up during research and fits into this chapter. From what I can tell his personal work is about everyday things, as you will see in the images below. The first image of a gas pump is a great example of an ordinary object being photographed to look beautiful. Again in the image below that is just a car on the side of the street but the photo was taken in a way to make it look like a piece of art. Most of his other work also follows these rules and he does this with an array of subjects such as a faucet, shown below, to a basketball court and bleachers. All of which fit into this category of everyday objects being made into art by photography. The photo of the car I feel is the strongest of the three I posted, just because it’s so simple. It’s just a car parked on a hill but yet this photograph brings out all of these lines and angles that make it special. Because Cristof Echard is able to photograph ordinary objects and make them extraordinary he has a place in this chapter.
The next artist chosen to be in this chapter is Matt McCormick, who is best known for his movie “The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal”. This movie consists shots of the paint that is painted over graffiti. As you can see in this photo it can actually form art without the graffiti remover even knowing, and by photographing it documents the art. The idea of these paintings being art fits into this chapter because it questions what is art, this is something we see everyday but never notice how stunning it can actually be. In some places over time graffiti and the cover paint builds up into these great murals of blocks. In the movie Matt McCormick goes all over Portland showing different paint jobs that removed graffiti. The video itself is a sarcastic piece on how these graffiti removers are artist but at the same time it really is true once you photograph it and say it’s art. These photos remind me of Wim Wenders’ “Wall in Paris, Texas” because of the architectural aspect but also show how vulnerable these buildings are in a different way; to vandalism. The images from the video are quite stunning and are intriguing to look at, plus the fact that it’s something you never notice until you’ve seen this video. Matt McCormick took something that actually removes art, photographed it, and now it is a new art form, the art of graffiti removal.
The last artist that fits into this chapter is Ed Ruscha because of his books he has made, like “Twenty-six Gasoline Stations”. In that book he went from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City and took pictures of 26 gas stations he passed. That is the true meaning of this chapter, something we see everyday, photographed and made into art. He does this in a different but great way by taking photos of many ordinary things and putting them all in one book. It is also interesting to compare the different photos and see the variations in the books; it adds an extra perspective to the form. Ruscha made about 16 books similar to this one with various topics, like “Every Building on the Sunset Strip” and “A Few Palm Trees”. He released all of these books before any of the photographers in the book made any of those pieces shown. I like to think of him as the grandfather of “Something and Nothing”, because his work is exactly that.
All three of these artists fit this chapter pretty well; they all have taken pictures of nothing and turned them into something. Whether it is taking pictures of the same type of things or finding art that was unknowingly put there, these artists have made it into art officially. It was very interesting to research these and other artists, and I ran across many great photos and projects. I found this chapter to be very intriguing because I find myself more of a photographer that fits into this category. I like to find the ordinary things in the world and photograph them and turn them into something more special. My last project in which I photographed construction sites is this same type of concept as I was finding objects that workers placed there and made an attractive sculpture that I then photographed similar to the work of Nigel Shafran. After reading this chapter and doing this research it makes me want to do this same type of thing in my final project, but with some sort of twist.