Hannah Rosales Reviews Christian Hopkins

Christian Hopkins is a 20-year old photographer who heavily uses photography as an outlet for his depression. Hopkins planned to delete his images, however, fortunately, his friend decided to save them all and share the images online. Hopkins states, “I've been suffering from Major Depression for the past 4 years and it has manifested itself throughout that period in many ways, photography included.” Although his depression has different peaks, "...there's an incredibly relatable sentiment in his work that mirrors bouts with depression, loneliness, lethargy, and a mental battle with oneself."

I personally have struggled through depression and can relate to many of these images. What I admire most about these images, is the powerful message they have while, still varying in subject matter. 

In this first photograph, Hopkins is depicted in a slouching position on a stool as if he has lost all hope. He has also photoshopped branches reaching out on both sides of himself. I believe this symbolizes his depression spreading and the fact that he cannot seem to control it. 

In this second photograph, an arm is stuck in a plant pot and is reaching out with a flower. This flower seems to represent the fact that he is stuck in his depression but he is still trying to bring happiness to others. Although not explicitly stated by Hopkins, I believe that many people who struggle with depression feel this way many times.

Out of all the photographers I've researched for these blogposts, I've connected with this photographer the most. He has many other intense and strong compositions that show the depression he's struggled with. 

https://mymodernmet.com/christian-hopkins-photography/

Hector Vasquez reviews Uta Barth

  Uta Barth is a Contemporary Photographer. Utah Barth was born in Berlin, Germany in 1958.
Uta Barth attended UC Davis in 1982 and then later attended UCLA in 1985. Barth likes to capture the elusive aspects of life; She likes to allow people to perceive more than just what the object in the photograph is and focus beyond that. Barth's photographs use simplistic objects to create a vivid photo; such as using a plain white curtain on a window and taking the photograph while the sun lights shines through it.  "Deep Blue Day" 2012

In 2004, Uta Barth won the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012. Her work is featured in such museums as the New York Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate Gallery in London, just to name a few. Uta Barth lives in L.A., California, where Uta Barth

Jacqueline Martinez reviews Christo and Jeanne-Claude

The projects done by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, are entirely financed by the two, without accepting donations or sponsorships.

The Gates, was an installation located within Central Park, which lasted 16 days. In total there were 7,503 gates placed along the walkways of the park. By doing so it highlighted preexisting routes in the environment. After the installation the gates were removed and the material was recycled. The craftsmanship of the installation prevented the structure from creating holes in the ground. For those who used Central Park, The Gates didn't obstruct everyday life. From the city, The Gates mimic a golden river, for those who interacted, the installation was a golden ceiling. The panels created both a sensual and free flowing movement in the wind.

Although this on site installation was temporary it created a lasting impression. The short time frame created both urgency and "a feeling of love and tenderness", towards the work.

What I found interesting is that the installation itself as well as the title, gives a sense of both a starting and ending point. This being said, the placement of the gates, there is no apparent start or end. The installation relies on the interaction of motion of the viewer, it's purpose isn't fulfilled by one standing still.

Robert Mata - David Maisel

                                                                               David Maisel
                                                           

                                                                    "History's Shadow"
                                   A series of re-photographed x-rays of art objects from antiquity

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     David Maisel researches that misty space between intentional documentation and the subjective, crafting an edition of photos that use X-rays from the archives of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco as their reference material. Maisel investigates the camera’s capability to reveal uncommon views typically unseen to the naked eye.

Using Photoshop, Maisel intensifies the mystique and beauty of the museum’s archival documents by amplifying contrasts and providing the images with a color palette similar to early photographic processes. His illuminated, large-scale prints simultaneously show both the interior structure and external information of the art objects.      

Robert Mata - An-My Le

                                                                                An-My Le

     An-My Lê is an artist whose photos of terra-scapes interrupted by war or other means of military movements blend the boundaries between fact and fiction and are rich with levels of meaning.

Her photographs move on the cusp of the documentary and the conceptual, creating a nominal viewpoint that carries the essential ambivalence of the medium to the front.
 An-My Lê uses photography to challenge the delineation and commemoration of the Vietnam War in the United States.

 

 



Shōmei Tōmatsu, Steel Helmet with Skull Bone Fused by Atomic Bomb, Nagasaki, 1963  -Right-

Robert Mata - Massimo Vitali

 Massimo Vitali   

           
    Massimo Vitali is celebrated for his landscape views of crowded Italian beaches, where masses of people gather to participate in the modern ritual of a self-knowing showcasing and consumerism. Vitali explores these vacation seafronts as sites of performative activity, a venue where one can observe, in the artist’s own words, “the inner conditions and disturbances of normality: its cosmetic fakery, sexual innuendo, commodified leisure, deluded sense of affluence, and rigid conformism.” All of Vitali’s photos are taken from an elevated vantage point, providing the viewer with a novel level of separation from the human situation. Without any focal point, every element in the format is mutually diminished, leaving the identity and activities of each individual mundane and uniform while underpinning their inherent sameness.

Robert Mata - Namsa Leuba

             

Namsa Leuba

       

      Namsa creates work across the documentary, fashion and performance genres, inventing visual imagery that investigates the systems and symbols of African cultural heritage; from ceremonies and rituals to statuettes and masquerades.

          Namsa Leuba’s varied photographic acts examine the representation of African identity filtered through the Western imagination. Assuming a theatrical approach with careful attention to props, colors, and gestures, Namsa Leuba confronts and questions the relationship between fact and fiction, action and representation, and the sacred and the profane.