Kacee Rigsby submits Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger uses text in her works to speak on feminism and give precise bold statements through her works. She has very masculine/feminine charged work that speak out about problems in today's society. She uses bold colors like red in her works that to me shows a sense of anger from the things she is speaking on. She creates and speaks on things such as vanity from a man and woman's perspective.

These images could be very emotionally charged if someone were to take it that way. Suggesting that this artist would like to pull at some heart strings but not offend. Get people to rethink how they live in this society that has been set forth for us.

artnet.com/artists/barbara-kruger/3

Kacee Rigsby submits Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman was a young artist who used black and white photos to show the female body, some where she was still in the frame and some moving in or out of the frame giving a sense of her identity being present and fleeting. Some of her photos are completely bold and tell us that she had a full sense of who she was as a person. Some of her photos seem less confident and less sure of herself, showing signs of self doubt. Each of these versions of herself show her humanity.

When she uses her own body in these photos, she uses each different part of her body in a new way, to show things of play in her body parts or to make a bold statement. The vulnerability in her photos shows a woman who was incredibly human.

http://www.artnet.com/artists/francesca-woodman/3

Kacee Rigsby submits Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is a diverse photographer who takes on many roles in her works, model, makeup artist, photographer, etc. She makes her works from seeing images on tv, movies and more showing status, youth, gore and more. You wouldn't know just from looking at these images that this is the same person across all of her works. She has done a great job of assuming roles for each of her collections put together.

In her works she is challenging what we think of gender and identity, sometimes going completely overboard with what we would see as feminine or masculine in an attempt to poke fun at these absurd things we would see as such. Some of her images are much more subtle than others that are right in your face with what she wants to say.

http://www.artnet.com/artists/cindy-sherman/

Kacee Rigsby submits Gilbert and George

Gilbert and George combine photographs with sculptures to create living artwork. Their work addresses social issues, male form, etc. They work boldly to make a statement, and seem to want to be very in your face with their work. Make you pay attention, make you think, make you care about the issues. Their use of bold words make you notice, you can't walk past these artworks without stopping to understand.

They insert themselves in their art pieces which is a bold move not all artists do. I think maybe they do this to immerse themselves in each issue they are fighting against. They create art for all, fighting for rights of all people, women, men, all races, and working to break norms. They use bold colors and images to bring you into another world that may have existed or may never have. Either way, when looking at these images together you can't help but want to understand their message.

https://whitecube.com/artists/artist/gilbert_and_george

Kacee Rigsby submits Clarissa Sligh

In this set of images called -Re-framing the past- Clarissa Sligh takes an old family album and illustrates the things she grew up with. Her grandparents, brothers, father, mother, etc. She brings them into a different light by writing stories over these seemingly innocent family photos, without which we would have no idea of what is on the other side. She takes these photos that by themselves are one sided because all we would see are smiling faces, or children with their siblings, but she brings a deeper look by telling us things we wouldn't know otherwise.

Clarissa Sligh uses text over photos to give us extra layers to stories we wouldn't know otherwise. While we could be looking at a photo of a dress, a smiling family, or portraits seeing a person or family who is happy, when we look at the other layers that she has brought a story to it we wouldn't know otherwise.

Her work is bold and outspoken to the things people may not always let us see. She dives deeper into her life and others to the things we wouldn't know by just looking at them.

https://clarissasligh.com/

Kacee Rigsby submits Joe Mcnally

Joe Mcnally photographs many things, dance, fashion, healthcare, and the photos he produces are beautiful. They have a clarity to them that brings out every detail of the subject. I especially appreciate the dance photos, he captures these movements in a moment in time, frozen dance moves that may look like someone flying, floating, and it stops time for even just a moment.

He produces beautiful portraits of all different kinds of people, the lighting that he uses highlights the subject wonderfully. The focal points he uses paired with the lighting brings your eye in to a spot in the photo that emphasizes what is important information.

He uses bright bold colors when shooting fashion ads, and equally as beautiful subjects in some high fashion pieces. He has strong bodies of work on all fronts. He seems to be a very well rounded photographer.

https://portfolio.joemcnally.com/index

Kacee Rigsby submits Lee Jeffries

Lee Jeffries is a self taught photographer who stumbled upon his passion/career for photography by coming across a homeless woman and hearing her story. He continued from that day forward taking their photos to tell their stories and raise money.

His images are a mix of black and white images as well as color. They show amazing detail in these faces, telling stories with each wrinkle or lack there of. Their eyes stare right through the photo and into yours. The way he takes and edits these photos seems to be done with such a purpose to tell each story in as much detail as you can, just by showing the affects of the world on their faces.

The black and white images show each speck of dirt and give enormous detail to the subject. Some have a sadness to them, some show longing in their eyes, but they all show these incredibly human traits that we may not always speak of. The back grounds of a lot of these photos are plain black, which pulls our eyes into the subject so that we may not focus on anything but. He is telling us exactly where he wants us to focus.

https://500px.com/leejeffries

Chris Gamez submits Arthur Tress

                  

“Boot Fantasy”                                   "2 Leather Guys in Pier Doorways, NY"

Chris Gamez submits Arthur Tress

Arthur Tress is an American artist and is most known for his fantastical photos that use both staging and repurposing found objects. One of his most notable series of works is his “Gay Fantasies” which explore the concepts and dynamics of sexual kinks with male models.

Tress’s “Gay Fantasies” focus on homoerotic imagery by using male models, often with two males in a dominant or submissive role, except for a few exceptions such as “Boot Fantasy” or “Superman Fantasy” where the model is in one of the mentioned roles. The beauty that shows throughout his series is how the subject of the fantasies are shown, as they are often taboo subjects to mainstream conversations. Tress doesn’t shy away from showing the intimacy and connection with his men, even in stark contrast to the acts being depicted. Often what makes these acts of S&M culture erotic is the chemistry and bond with the men because of the level of trust that they have in relinquishing themselves to be used in such a way. Tress also does an incredible job at also showing the more unique fantasies that men have with some of his works such as “Man Peeing into Boot” and “Feather Fantasy”.

What fascinates me with Tress’s work is how honest he is about the sexual fantasies he displays along with the men who help depict the images. I want to be able to emulate the level of reality he has about not shying away from the taboo subjects.

Website: https://exhibits.stanford.edu/tress

Kacee Rigsby submits Marc Adamus

Marc Adamus is a landscape photographer that has traveled all over the world to capture images. the images he captures are insanely beautiful and transport you to a place you may have never been, feeling like a fantasy world he captures his landscapes in a way that makes them seem almost mystical.

He spares no expense in adventure when it comes to these photographs, he himself has to trek long ways to capture these images. He leaves them in color instead of black and white and it gives them a different feel of complete consumption. I myself want to end up in these places.

The way he captures these places makes them feel unreal, simply because of the quality of work he is producing. They are clean clear images that show every detail possible. It must take a lot of will to be able to capture and produce something so beautiful. He is taking everyday things we may not see and turning them into something much larger.

https://www.marcadamus.com/

Kacee Rigsby submits Olivia Bee

Olivia bee is a young photographer who works in many different areas, editorial, personal, fine art. She has many collections of photos, some of celebrities we know and some of everyday people. She uses different lighting but most of it looks natural versus studio lighting in most collections.

In her collection kids in love it shows different ages of people all doing things kids would do. Sneaking out, cuddling with another, smiling faces, in this collection it isn't always a romantic love some of these just show kids in love with life. Showing the people in love with life just at the beach or having fun or just smiling shows a freedom from other people that we don't always get. We feel like "love" entails another person of romantic intentions, it could just be loving our self or loving our friends or simply loving our life. She does a beautiful job of showing the other side of life.

Some of these photos have objects obscuring them, blurs, colors. Some showing that life can be blurry in the midst of fun, or showing that in moments it goes by so quickly when you are having fun.

http://oliviabee.com/kids-in-love/kids-in-love-2/

Michelle Falcon Submits Sarah Sudhoff

Sarah Sudhoff is an American photographer based in San Antonio. Her artwork themes range from gender, personal experience, and science. The two photos below are from her series Supply and Demand, 2013. These pieces are close-ups of her video, Surrender, that she staged of a woman holding frozen breastmilk while it melts in her arms. The set is well lit by what looks like natural light from a window behind the woman, and the contrast of the frozen milk on the skin really brings it into attention. The breastmilk is failing at its purpose to nourish infants as it drips down to the floor. It is revealed in Sudhoff’s artist statement that she had a problem with not being able to supply enough milk for her baby son, failing to do her motherly duties. The photos allow you to focus on the subject since the set up is clear of distractions. They tune in on the action of the milk dripping down her arm and not who the person is holding the frozen milk. 

https://www.sarahsudhoff.com/supplydemand#0

Chris Gamez submits Marilyn Minter

              

   Wangechi Gold 5                                Mud bath

                                                Chris Gamez submits Marilyn Minter

Marilyn Minter is a New York based artist who has been featured in many solo and group exhibitions across the country and even internationally. Minter is recognizable for her work on female body parts, usually their mouths or feet, covered my makeup, jewelry, or unknown slimes and liquids.

In one of her exhibitions in New York at Salon 94, Minter experiments with “Pathology of Glamour”, which is an examination at women’s strive for perfection and how she subverts desire by focusing in on her subjects. With some pieces such as Mud bath, Minter mocks how modern advertisements often fetishize models by focusing on a main body part, in this piece she focuses on a woman’s foot. The photo has a clashing theme due to the contrast of the woman’s stylized pose in a heel being a regular image for advertisement. What makes this contrasting is that the foot is positioned in a three quarters view from the back of the foot in a style that is almost reminiscent of looking over a shoulder, like sneaking a glance.. Mud bath was also featured in her billboard collection that deals with this fetishizing  more direct and head on. Other pieces include Crystal Swallow and Glazed which focus on a woman’s mouth and eyes.

Minter’s work is beautiful in that her subjects are presented in a way that is glamorized but also suggest a deeper, darker meaning. Minter’s work was introduced to me by a professor comparing my artwork with her photos. My interest was piqued, and I soon became fascinate by her unique glamorization of fetishization, especially in pieces such as Satiated, which focuses on a woman with a pearl necklace spilling from her mouth, and Wangechi Gold 5, which focuses on liquid gold spilling from a woman’s mouth.

I am deeply interested in how Minter’s color pops with the glamorization and her subject matter. The overt sexual connotation in the photos is fascinating to see depicted and is something I would like to explore myself. Marilyn Minter is defiantly an artist for me to observe.

Website: https://www.marilynminter.net/bio/

Kacee Rigsby submits Diane Saginer

Diane Sagnier is a photographer that uses natural light in her photos beautifully. She has many different collections some in fashion, some in portraits and some that make statement pieces such as the two photos I will display below. These statement pieces tell us more in each photo. The femen piece is women taking back their power that men have taken away from us.

In the femen piece she has desexualized these women by making it about strength. So as much as she is a wonderful photographer she also has a message she is putting out into the world. Each of these photos is taken beautifully, with great lighting and such clarity that bring out important details in each photo.

She uses light in different ways to highlight faces and or parts of the human body to make for beautiful photos. She seems to have a way with people, so in turn they are that much more comfortable with her and can let their true personality show in these photos.

http://www.dianesagnier.com/?page_id=64&cat=portraits

Kacee Rigsby submits Sylvia Grav

Sylvia Grav uses photographic manipulation to create dream like and or nightmarish photos. Her photos show more than just dreamlike or nightmare states, they show the emotion one might feel when stuck in said situation (walking through a living nightmare or stuck in a dream). 

Most images I see from this artist are done in black and white which give the dreamlike state a much more real representation. It pulls you into the photo as if it was happening to you, and can make you feel the terror one might feel if trapped in a nightmare. The black and white also brings out the dark and light elements of each photo beautifully, and feels as though it may not all be a bad thing.

In some photos she manipulates bodies to where they look bent and or demonic, which adds a deeper feel to the nightmare quality. Looking over her work it makes me think maybe these people started off stuck in dreams that were pleasant but the more they freaked out about being stuck in a dream it slowly became a nightmare. 

https://www.flickr.com/people/silviabmx/

Chris Gamez submits Anna Gaskell

                           

Untitled No. 4 (from Wonder series)               Untitled No. 6 (from Wonder series)

                                                Chris Gamez submits Anna Gaskell

Anna Gaskell is an American artist who focuses primarily in photography and deals with a range of similar themes and subjects. She mainly focuses on narratives and themes around preadolescence girls and fairy tales, which is most exemplified by Gaskell’s Wonder series.

Wonder is a series Gaskell created and displayed in her first solo exhibition in 1997 and focuses on different girls, all portraying Alice from Lewis Carol’s novel, Alice in Wonderland. The reasoning behind the use of multiple girls and different sized images is so Gaskell could portray Alice’s rapidly altering body size and forms through her journey. Another reasoning is how in Gaskell’s narrative, all the girls exist in a narrative timeline where there is no past or future event, only the present being witnessed by the viewers across multiple images.

The use of a fairy tale as a narrative along with recreating said narrative is fascinating to me. It’s always interesting to see how each artist’s depiction of a different idea, and the way Gaskell depicts Alice’s adventure and transformation through the photo size variations is not that unique, it is quite effective for a visual medium. What is unique and even original is the use of different models portraying the same Alice.

Another interesting variable is her concept of a narrative stuck in a single, present moment. While this may not be easy to read, this was Anna Gaskell’s first exhibition and she has grown as an artist since then. With some reworking and a clearer emphasis on the reasoning of multiple Alice’s present together, this series could become an even more unique series that is quite unique on narrative perspective.

Overall, Anna Gaskell has captivated my imagination with her unique exploration of time, narrative, and overall depiction of recognizable characters and stories. Her depiction of young women is unique and adds an element of creepiness.

Website: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/anna-gaskell