Julius von Bismarck

The other day I was doing what I always do when I'm bored, stumbleupon.com, and I happened upon the work of Julius von Bismarck. von Bismark is a German artist. He is a photographer and film-maker (of sorts) and his work focuses on perception and reality. von Bismark manipulates his cameras in order to seek out what he wants them to accomplish. His most interesting apparatus is the Image Fulgurator which is described as "a device for physically manipulating photographs"1 The fulgurator looks like a weapon, but it is a 35mm camera meant to work like a camera in reverse.  von Bismarck loads an exposed and developed roll of film into his camera which will projects its image into the world. The fulgurator contains a sensor that registers when another camera's flash unite goes off. At the exact moment, the fulgurator then synchronizes the image/ projection from the exposed film it contains and projects it out into the world to be captured by the extraneous cameras. Ingeniously, the fulgurator acts like a spying device, this time to "intervenes when a photo is being taken, without the photographer being able to detect anything."

Projections made with Fulgurator

I really dig von Bismarck's creative process. He does not only create his own art, but he forces them onto other cameras. In this way, he is able to manipulate the world around him in ways typically unmanipulatable. As a relatively young artist, I believe von Bismarck really knows his direction.  His projects are very innovative. von Bismark's work interacts well with its environment: they are often both still lives and performance pieces.

New media projects such as "Top Shot Helmet" are easy to understand and interesting to follow. For "Top Shot Helmet" von Bismarck designed a helmet camera that hovers about 5 feet above its wearer. The helmet encases the entire head, but contains a projection of the camera footage.  von Bismarck sites video games, especially Grand Theft Auto, where the player controls his character from directly above, as his inspiration for the idea. von Bismarck describes the experience as "...a simultaneous expansion and restriction of the sense" but as one ventures and is more comfortable in his new perspective,  he is able to "...begin to sense and to trust [himself to make] bigger steps and maneuvers."2   But the top shot helmet is more than a sensory experience. von Bismarck links the experience to the idea that when we die, it is believed that our soul floats above our bodies. von Bismarck's contraption is, to me, a masterful unity of scientific, religious and artistic inquiries communicated through a novel method.

View from the Topshot Helmet

 I believe that a new generation of photographers is needed to make progress photography out of its current state. Photography has generally hit a plateau where creativity the successes of the past and present. But I think it is photographers such as von Bismarck who are captivated by expanding the art form through thinking of new ways to define the camera. I am also encouraged by von Bismarck's purpose as an artist. In this video, [Julius Von Bismarck at the creators project] von Bismarck states that numerous ad agencies and corporations have asked for rights to use the fulgurator and have offered him great sums of money. But he refuses them because in granting such a right, the fulgurator looses its purpose. It is no longer a discreet tool for artistic purposes, and, in corporate hands, it is no longer a novel idea.

 Whenever I need inspiration on being an innovative photographer I will look back on von Bismarck's ingenious concepts and extraordinary contraptions.


Also, check out this video of image fulgurator at checkpoint charlie .


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1: http://www.juliusvonbismarck.com/fulgurator/idee.html
2: http://www.juliusvonbismarck.com/topshot-helmet/fertig.html


Images:
(Top) Photograph of von Bismarck with his fulgurator. Courtesy of Richard Wilhelmer: http://www.juliusvonbismarck.com/fulgurator/idee.html
(Upper Middle) Photograph from von Bismarck's 2008 exhibition in Berlin title Stimmungsgasometer. Courtesy of switched.com http://www.switched.com/2010/08/11/julius-von-bismarcks-feel-o-meter-reflects-public-sentiment/
(Lower Middle) "Fulguration of 'the Magritte dove' on the Mao Zedong portrait at Tienanmen Square in Beijing." http://www.juliusvonbismarck.com/fulgurator/fertig.html
(Bottom)http://www.juliusvonbismarck.com/topshot-helmet/

Martin Kippenberger

I first saw Kippenberger's work at MoMA in 2009 and, at the time, I was uninspired. The work was The Happy Ending from Franz Kafka's 'Amerika' from the exhibit "Problem Perspective." The work was presented in the main atrium of the MoMA and it showcased key pieces from his career. At the time, it seemed like a menagerie of arbitrary works with a chaotic connection. I simply walked away from the work, not dreading how I had missed its point.

Untitled, 1981. Photo Courtesy of MoMA.
(Apparently he hired an artist to paint it.)
http://nymage.com/arts/reviews/54940

What drew me back to Kippenberger's work was Untitled (1981): I came upon this work one Saturday as I glanced through a 20th century portrait catalog at some store in some mall. I was entrapped. Sure, it is photo-realistic, but, most importantly, it is striking. I found myself curious about the scenario. The work was paradoxical- subtle colors to a bold scene; very long depth of field and a singular perspective. 


Upon further research I was stunned to see that Kippenberger's work was so variable.  And,just like The Happy Ending, all his work has an assemblage of meaning amongst the menagerie. 

Oh Boo Hoo, Mr. Pope.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/602383

Kippenberger's work is predominantly loud and I like that the most. His subjects and characters are seemingly dark and sunny. His works seems to reveal not only his emotions, but  also the angst, the compulsiveness, the humor and the numbness of  life: A cascading stream of influences.  I always something I find interesting in his work,  and once interpreted, it is often amusing or thought provoking. 




Kippenberger's work reminds me to be more expressive- less critical of myself, less timid, and much less worried about what people think about me/my work.  Kippenberger was a maniacal artist.  Kippenberger, who pissed off the pope after his death, was certainly confident in what he was doing. He stated "You are not the problem: the problem maker is in your head."  He reminds me to remind myself who I am. I aspire to make my work as clear and limitless through Kippenberger's example. His works have made it clear to me that art is perceivably easy, it's only myself that I have difficulty figuring out. 

Martin, into the Corner, You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself, 1992. Photo Courtesy of MoMA

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A great article on the Problem Persepctive exhibit, along with a lot of information on his life and work. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/arts/design/27kipp.html?_r=1

Technically Speaking

When I actually pick up a camera and begin shooting I have decided that I am ready to make art. But before I jump into that step I must decide on my materials.

My first material is a dusting off of my phantasmagoric imagination. That sounds silly, but to be honest, if I'm not ready to unclutter my mind to figure out how I want to compose my images and where I intend to go in my work, I will be unable to formalize my photographs once I'm behind the camera. This process can take moments or days. Most of the time, my conceptual ideas fill up notebooks while my other photographic work requires only a few moments to focus, to research and to process what I will be shooting. I do believe that photography has elements of improvisation but, like musical improvisation, artistic photography requires a repertoire.

The next material I use involves choosing how I will manipulate light. Because photography's main 'pigment' (so to say) is light I cannot manipulate it like one would manipulate paint. Instead I depend on film, lenses, cameras, and developmental and printing processing to be my manipulator. Film and lenses especially either set restrictions or grant flexibility depending on which I choose. In these realms I am a huge fan of photo-extremes. I use primarily my wide angle lens, or I like to get very close to my subject matter. Film wise, I am polar as well. I will use film that either produces strong colors/hues or muted tones. I adore slide film for its color purity and, as Marni puts it, they are just like little photographic gems. I also enjoy using color negative film for the subtle yellows and magentas in addition to all the complex blues that pop. Digitally, I manipulate light mainly through filters.

Sometimes I do have control over subject matter. As an artist I try to incorporate some other methods of making art into my photographs. I have always been interested in building: I am technically savvy enough to experiment but I do not have enough patience to engineer. Thus I often find myself manipulating or crafting scenarios out of prefabricated objects. In my upcoming work I will be manipulating toy cars which I will then photograph. I am also interested in some degree of using found objects in my photography. I have already begun to unravel the strangeness and importance of my grandmother's family photographs and I hope to use these found photographs for another upcoming project involving family history and memory.

I have chosen to stay with photography for so long because I love the novelty of manipulating finite instances of reality and photography seems to have unlimited methods to manipulate it. I was drawn in by photography because I have never been one to step back and let life go by me. And it hooked me the first time I dipped paper in the developer and the image appeared out of thin air in the chemicals. I still get a rush by how more magnificent life can be in two dimensions.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Canton Palace, Ohio
Courtesy of ArtStor. See also: http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/theater.html

http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/LighteningFieldcomposed.html

Hiroshi Sugimoto is an extraordinary Japanese photographer and installation artist. Some of his work seems minimalistic- sometimes just a horizon line- but they require a lot of space to view and a lot of time to contemplate. These works are captivating. Most of Sugimoto's installations also command and manipulate empty space. I like the unity of his installations. I also am incredibly drawn to how a lot of his work relate to scale, proportions. But I am especially drawn to how subject matter relates to its backgrounds incredibly well.

I chose his work because I aspire to be as forward thinking with my photography as he is with his. Not only is his work diverse, it is original, something I think is difficult to do in photography. Yet, somehow his concepts seem so simple it is ridiculous to think no one else thought of it.

His most recent portfolio honors the works of scientists and photographic methods that developed from science. It is a masterful homage called Lightning fields. The first of two photographs above is from this work.
Technically speaking I have been inspired by Sugimoto's lighting prowess. Work's from his Theater's in the 1970s to 1993 not only are technically beautiful they are conceptually genius: each photograph of theaters is a whole movie's length.

Simple and elegant.

Describing is the hardest part

Don't tread on me, I like what I see

I am infatuated with light, I am awed by dimension. I believe that I pursue the photographic arts because I love how it allows my imagination to manipulate both light and dimension. I believe I produce photographic works because I have a raw emotional passion for the medium. But I keep coming back to photography because it engages me: I get a rush when I must actively participate with the world I am capturing, and my heart races especially when the time to capture the world is fleeting. Retrospectively all of the types of photography I have been involved in (artistic, journalistic, etc) have allowed me to feel distanced yet connected to a world I am trying to capture
.

But photography has grown to be more than just about capturing the world around me. Sure, being able to capture the world around me is the fuel to my motivation, and the feelings I get from participating in the act of photography is the spark that keeps me coming back. Yet my curiosity to codify my imagination about both the intricacies and extremes that I see in the world is my motivation making art. I believe I can draw my motivation from an inherent nature to ceaselessly pursue answers, even when I have had to face ridiculous or traumatic experiences.


 To this day photography has been the most successful way to capture what I have found to be implausible to explain any other way: my photography is my voice.


When I was little I had an overzealous imagination, and with it came an exaggerated fear of the unknown . Today I believe that some of my photography is based around my attempt to find the answers to escaping danger. Doing photography has also put me in situations (both physically and mentally) where I was forced to face my fears. Photography has become important proof that my overzealous imagination is not necessarily a bad thing.

I also become motivated to make work when I see others' works. I have a visual memory which helps me remember specific traits of other artists' works, especially in regards to the composition and the power of their works. Once I have found some idea or concept that I want to work with I become obsessed with it. Most importantly my obsession with ideas brings both success and failure; and the battle that ensues in me has been the most valuable for my artistic growth.

I believe that the hands on experience unique to the visual arts is some of the most rewarding learning I have been exposed to academically. I plan to continue on one of two paths after my formal education is completed: I want to go into photojournalism or I want to teach photography. Currently I try to stay up to date to the constant changes within the photo industry. I do not see myself lagging behind, but rather I welcome the pace and progress of the industry. But I never forget about the past with photography- I shoot film probably more often than I shoot digitally because, no matter how you cut it, digital will never replace film. Independent of my career plans my ultimate goal as a photographer is to be able to continuously create interest in my photographs for as long as I am involved in the art.

Finally, I view art as a feeling that transcends our basic needs and wants. Honestly, we don't need art to survive. But, as a species, I do think we need art to evolve.

Luke Sharrett

Hi all,

My first artist hasn't been inspiring me for very long. I met Luke Sharrett this summer when I was in D.C. at the Senate. To make his long story short, this guy is a budding student-professional photographer with a huge future ahead of him. I am inspired by his resourcefulness, his effort and his humility. These are things I haven't seen a lot of young photographers showing. He's only 21, just like most of us in UR Senior Art, but has already worked for the NY Times and basically as a full time a photojournalist. He is incredibly talented. Check him out here:

http://www.lukesphoto.com/
and my favorite works:
http://www.lukesphoto.com/#a=0&at=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=7&p=0
http://www.lukesphoto.com/#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=1&p=6&a=0&at=0
http://www.lukesphoto.com/#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=17&p=2&a=0&at=0