I’m using this blog to store and collect sources of information and research, in accompaniment to a physical collection. Here, I hope to consider and critique the visual information I acquire and allow it to feed my own work.
I (and Vice) am a big fan of Ryan McGinley’s photographs. I love the atmosphere created by manipulating lenses and lighting and also appreciate that before using such tools there has to be a good photo there to start. I also like the way the images seem very much the product of luck, capturing the subject(s) at the best moment and the environment around them at it’s most complimentary. As someone who is not at all interested in fashion / star photography, his use of celebrity icons irks me a little. To me, it makes the photos seem contrived, capturing such a subject so used to controlling their image and press and serves perhaps only to me, as a distraction to the aesthetic worth of the photograph.
These pieces are exciting as reinvented commonplace objects. Understated works purely by their usage of such items, they are dismissible at a glance and maybe surprising at closer investigation. These items show beauty created by arguably ugly things, creativity under the most strict constraints, works of art that enable us to see and appreciate their ‘basic’ forms and how art can enrich the mundane.
In terms of product design Atypyk are great at creating desirable products out of basic necessities. Surprising, silly but remaining functional these items refresh the images of the things we simply need and allow us to indulge in ‘cheap’ luxury.
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