Landscape - Julia Fullerton-Batten

Julia Fullerton-Batten
Constructed Landscapes
by David Kieckhefer

Julia Fullerton-Batten is a worldwide acclaimed and exhibited fine-art photographer. Her body of work now encompasses twelve major projects spanning a decade of engagement in the field. Julia’s use of unusual locations, highly creative settings, street-cast models, accented with cinematic lighting are hallmarks of her very distinctive style of photography. She insinuates visual tensions in her images, and imbues them with a hint of mystery, which combine to tease the viewer to re-examine the picture, each time seeing more content and finding a deeper meaning. These distinctive qualities have established enthusiasts for her work worldwide and at all ends of the cultural spectrum, from casual viewers to connoisseurs of fine-art photography. - juliafullerton-batten.com

Teenage Stories 

2005

'Teenage Stories' portrays the emotional dynamics of the female adolescent - self-consciousness, mood swings, uncertainty and vulnerability; experiencing over time, changes in body, psychology, emotional and social identity. Adolescent girls often spend time day-dreaming, just staring into space, immersed in their own thoughts and fantasies. For a while they inhabit an imaginary world. At this vulnerable age their imaginary world appears to be bigger, grander, more real than their own mundane suburban surroundings. In this fantasy world girls feel that they have much more power than in their everyday lives.

Fullerton-Batten shot the images on location in model villages so that the girls appear to have outgrown the world they live in, as in their day-dream existence. All of her models were street cast, with no formal training whatsoever. Young, vulnerable, awkward and uncertain, as they already were as models, she directed them to be static and show no emotion.

Airport, 2005

Beach Houses, 2005

Broken Eggs, 2005

Girl with Baby, 2005

Awkward

2011

In ‘Awkward’ Fullerton-Batten shows the social limitations and anxieties that girls endure in their relationships with the opposite sex. Her choice of location, sombre colors and the use of subtle lighting techniques to increase the tension between the sexes, and in some instances between the same sexes. She emphasizes the lack of understanding between boys and girls, despite the fact that they are close to adulthood and have gained at least some meaningful worldly experience on the way. 

They are aware of the underlying sexual overtones, but they still don't have the emotional maturity or social skills to know how to handle their hormonal impulses.

 

Bathroom, 2011

Bike in Living Room, 2011

Girls in Bedroom, 2011

Sports Hall, 2011

Night-dress, 2011

Yellow Dress, 2011

The Act

2016

Fullerton-Batten examines the lives of female sex-workers, women who choose to earn their living by exploiting their bodies as escorts, dominatrices, porn actresses, web cam and live sex and peep show performers, striptease, lap dancing artistes, or sexual surrogates as therapy for clients, and transgender people. She interviewed 15 women for the project. During her meetings with her models, she sensed that they tend to live their entire working lives as if on a stage.  They are women who are proud of their bodies and choose to use their bodies in order to make an income. Many have had physical enhancements in an attempt to be more physically attractive to their client. They live in the present and think little of their long-term future. 

Most are single, but some have relationships. Some are bold and confident while others are very vulnerable.

Fullerton-Batten created the backdrop for the images in the form of mini-theatrical sets. Each setting is relevant to the individual woman and her profession. The mini-sets were mounted on a stage as if they were giving a performance. She avoided sexually explicit scenes – the images are sexy and provocative, but also playful. The role of the sex industry in today’s society is heavily debated. While many feminists believe that sex work should be abolished, others on the other hand claim it as a contribution to a woman’s freedom of choice as to the work she engages in.

Bentley and Jade, Pornstars, 2016

Eliza De Lite, Burlesque Dancer, 2016

Jaye Rose, Webcam Girl, 2016

Lola Marie, Escort, 2016

Mouse, Ping Pong Girl, 2016

Veronica, Aerial Artiste, 2016

Their stories accompany the images in text form and can also be seen in here in this ‘behind-the-scenes’ video.

Commerce and Economics - Jesse Burke

Jesse Burke
Commerce and Economics

by David Kieckhefer

Jesse Burke divides his time between personal art projects and commissioned work. His work deals with themes related to vulnerability and identity, as well as human's complicated relationship with nature. Burke received his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design, where he is a faculty member. Burke's work is held in private/public collections including the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. He was recently named one of Time Magazine’s top 50 US photographers to follow on Instagram.

Buy Wild & Precious here for $50

Burke's Wild & Precious is work from a series of road trips traveled over 5 years with his daughter Clover to explore the natural world. Each image is named after a song that Johnny Cash wrote or recorded. His music and lyrics were a big part of their collective experience while on the road. The goal of Wild & Precious is to encourage parents and children to spend time together connecting with the natural world.

Watch a film on Wild & Precious here.

Intertidal

Intertidal is an investigation into the delicate balance that exists between the heroic idea of masculinity and the true reality of men. It explores the presence of vulnerability and sensitivity that act as forces against the mythology of male dominance and power.

Father

Gladiator

Open Country

Flannel

Blind

Blind explores the complexities of the awkward, beautiful, and romantic relationship we share with nature. It looks at concepts such as death and power, fragility and vulnerability, identity, mutability and camouflage through the lens of hunting.

Hidden

Shell

Drake

Jack

Low

Low explores the world of inner demons and displaced persons.

"Beautiful light is born of darkness, so the faith the springs from conflict is often strongest and the best." 

- Robert Turnbull Life Pictures: From a Pastor's Notebook 1857

Maxim Montagno

Clarence Momolu

Steve Tsang

Yannick Jolin

Event Review - Joseph Mougel - Artist Now! Talk

Artists Now! Guest Lecture Series: Joseph Mougel

February 15 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

By Rebeka Schmieder

Joseph Mougel is a videographer, photographer, sculptor and performative artist. All of these techniques have been methodically used in his projects. His work explores specific places and experiencing the place in its entirety. 

Mougel generously introduced us to his early work and the artists who have influenced him. All  artists are all influenced by other people, events, politics, etc. In most artist talks I have attended, the speaker failed to include influences which helped them create their work. Inspiration is part of the creative process for artists and research is important. Students need to be aware of other artists who tackle a subject, concept, or esthetic that relates to their own developing work.

Mougel's experience as a marine influenced his early work. Rabbit to Bee questions how he came to this place and his travels influencing the man he is today. He photographs himself doing different actions. While photos themselves have an empty feeling, I see them being a small moment in Mougel's life that he is capturing. Although these scenes are choreographed, Mougel still wants the viewer to perceive the images as discrete moments, he wants the viewer to literally stare at them and witness the scene. 

Cowboy

Mougel continues to use his history as a marine in his series Blanc. This series revisits the time in a person's life when they transform into a new recruit for the military. The idea of unification of individuals is the process when someone joined the armed services. What I found beautiful was, as Mougel states, "Even though these figures are fully covered in paint and camouflaged into the background, you couldn't fully erase the identity of the person behind the paint." This notion contradicts what the government's desire to transform individuals into a unified being. No one person can be blended into being the same as another.

002

In my own work, I have started to realize that my interest in landscapes and documentary work is purely based on the discovery and documentation, but there is this underlying theme. I need to show the identity that a body of people give a place. Whether this is a town or a vast landscape, I want to  identify the uniqueness of a land has and how it came to be. The human footprint is what I am interested in. In his work, Mougel explores/discovers, how a place came to be. He settles on a place and studies the landscape in depth rather than photographing it and moving on. This is why he documents his process with different media. Perhaps his influence can help me shape and strengthen my work through examination of one landscape at a time. 

Identity - Fashion - The Sartorialist

The Sartorialist/Scott Schuman
By Steffen Francisco

The world of high fashion is often portrayed as a great bastion of unassailable density, approachable only by those anointed few that are deemed to have the ineffable qualities required.  Scott Schuman’s work is in direct opposition to the elitist default of that world.  He photographs people around the world in many situations, locations and outfits where the main thread that draws them together is that these are people living their lives and he showcases the fashion that exists in the everyday world rather than on the runways of the fashion capitals of the world.

On the Street…The Fortezza, Florence

The main thrust of this body of work, The Sartorialist, is a version of street photography that is centered on the fashionable everyday appearance of people going about their lives.  Schuman takes street photos, sometimes posed and sometimes candid, but always of people wearing what he considers to be striking styles.  In addition to the photos, each post contains a comment that is usually either positive or open ended in regards to the subject

The Sartorialist

The work is wonderfully shot with an eye to both fashion as well as lighting and technique.  What makes this blog especially interesting and has contributed heavily to the rise in popularity of the artist’s work is the overall positive tone.  Schuman eschews the highly critical and often abrasive nature of the fashion world with his blog. 

On the Street…Surface Texture, Paris

The photographer’s eye for lighting in natural situations and backdrops that complement without distracting from the subject are both techniques that I want to work on in my own photography.  The ability to walk up to people, talk to people and convince them to be in a photograph is something that I have been working on in street situations but I have yet to become adept.  Conceptually, I enjoy the artists message and his ability to take fashion out of traditional hallowed halls and move it to the new media of the internet.

Identity - Gender - Jess T. Dugan

By David Kieckhefer

Jess T. Dugan is an artist whose work explores issues of gender, sexuality, identity, and community. In her series, Every breath we drew, Dugan’s photographs explore what it means to be masculine. When asked about her own identity, Dugan says, “I’m part of trans community; I’m not a lesbian and I’m not a gay man but I hang out in those spaces. I think I’m hyper aware of how my identity changes in different contexts.” Dugan’s work asks for her viewers to question the gender binary, as she believes these gender roles are failing the LGBTQ community. Dugan photographs people in their homes, usually in their bedrooms, using medium and large format cameras to create a very detailed and intimate portrait. Dugan holds an MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago, a Master of Liberal Arts in Museum Studies from Harvard University, and a BFA in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

http://www.jessdugan.com

Dugan’s website is extremely clean with no added color or flare to distract from her images. It is very user friendly and easy to navigate. I found myself very drawn to her work because of my own interest and personal experiences as a gay man in the LBGTQ community. Much of my own work is centered around gender identity and sexuality. I have been shooting portraits and would like to have more control over my lighting, and am currently learning new techniques in my Studio Lighting course.