Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus was a Jewish - American fashion photographer turned documentary photographer, born in 1923 New York City. I have to say I love her work its truely depressing and gritty. She chose to photograph people that where anything but ordinary, so called 'freaks' of society. Anything from dwarfs, transvestites and circus performers to the mentally ill.

She would follow these people day and night and catch them when they were off guard and most vulnerable, because they had begun to trust her.

She has been criticized by art critiques such as Susan Sontag. One being for her choice of lighting when photographing her subjects such as the one in the portrait above. Arbus did anything but beautify the person in the image.

"These photographs show the world only as a meaningless place of ugliness, horror and misery." Smith, C. Zoe. "Audience Reception of Diane Arbus' Photographs." Journal of American Culture, volume 8, issue 1, pages 13-28, Spring 1985.

She used a harsh flash creating a dark carved shadow around the person; further enhancing any unflattering features. So forth not giving a fair representation of them and the 'people' they represent within society.

Above I have also chosen a photograph Arbus took in a Psychiatric hospital of a few of the patients. She truly makes them look like a bunch of freaks; photographing them with paper bags on their heads. You can question the ethical stand point on this as she is photographing people that aren't of sound mind. She is coming in to their seemingly 'safe' and 'protected' environment and photographing them at their worst.

Though Arbus cannot be criticised to full extent as she to suffered from mental health problems. She was Bi - Polar and suffered from severe mood swings and bouts of depression. Leading to her death at the age of 48; suicide by ingesting barbiturates and slitting her wrists.

A different look on feminism

When I think of feminism I think of bra burning and hairy hippies, though the truth is feminism is far from that. Its more about equality for women and the end to primitive views and laws that belittle women universally.

A group of woman calling themselves 'The Guerrilla Girls,' were a group of radical feminist artists who established themselves in 1985 New York. Disguised as guerrillas they managed to remain anonymous. These women weren't stupid they where lawyers, accountants, business woman. They targeted the prejudices women faced in the art world regarding the lack of female artists work present in galleries in New York and America. They did this by designing catchy posters covered with facts and statistics regarding the matter such as,

'Less than 5% of the artists in the Met's modern art sections were women, but 85% of the nudes were female.'

These posters where spread all across New York, on buses, on billboards and even in galleries. The Guerrilla girls wanted to provoke thought in people and inevitably create change. They did this is in a clever manner using sharp and tact full facts that would be recognised in a male dominant world.

Below I have posted a video that I once saw of the 'Ali G,' (Sacha Baron Cohen) conducting an interview with a feminist, this cracked up. It also put forth some off the chauvinistic (in this case exaggerated) views that men can have too and about women.

Britney Spears unairbrushed Candies advertisments

On the 14th of April Britney Spears did something no other celebrity seems to have done before, by releasing the untouched original photographs for her Candies (the American fashion firm) Advertisments. Apparentley

'The 29 - year old singer made the extraordinary move in order to higlight the pressure exerted on women to look perfect.' -

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1265676/Britney-Spears-releases-airbrushed-images-digitally-altered-versions.html

We all know images are used through out the media to sell an idea of perfection that people can then buy in to, in hope that they to can be just as perfect as the person in the photograph. Though to me the images Britney released don't seem to expose to much of a flaw on the woman. I would say the statement she was trying to make was one of ' look at me I don't need to be airbrushed I'm a fine figure of a female without all this retouching,' in response to the negative press coverage on her image over the few years. Rather than it being a way to highlight the pressue put on woman to look perfect.
The original photographs although with some flaws inact such as brusing to Britneys legs and a sligher wider waste line, still show a figure that is admirable and a very unrealistic representation of the average females figure. The images she has released don't address the point of a how manipulative the media can be through the use of technology; to a satistifcatory enough extent. Her photographs in now way show the extreme and vast way a image can be altered in order to achieve the unreachable perfection, that people are being sold.




Now when I heard about what she had done I expected something quite drastic in the case of re touching before and after. So I've done a little expermentating of my own and produced a different version of the images using Photoshop that I would have thought to have had much more of an impact if the idea really was to 'highlight the pressure put on women to look perfect.'



Now this would have been a real 'statement.' She still looks good, still has a slim yet curvy figure but just with a little more meat on her bones. A much more realistic image of a womans body for females to 'aspire towards,' or see the next time they open a magazine or on a lingerie or bathing suite ad. Becuase after all Britney's only 8st stone, so really how bad could she possibly look before airbrushing...?

Nan Goldin

Nan Goldin is a photographer whose work has been of much contoversy due to its context and credibility. Born in Washington D.C to a Jewish family and growing up in Boston, most of her work is documentary work based around the gay and transexuals communities.
A self proclaimed drug addict and alcoholic, Nan once didn't go outside for 15 years. Having mental health problms herself her life was spent in out of psychiatric wards.
Her photographs are a some what self portrait of her own view of life. Being graphic, raw and at times unpredictable no wonder they where a shock to the mainstream photographical industry of her time.
Like the photograph above, many of her images where taken of transgender males in and out of clubs but mostly in their homes. Goldin's friends were mainly gay or transsexual; drug users and alcoholics. But at that time drugs and alcohol such as cocaine and crack were blindly used for recreational purposes.
Goldin knew her subjects very well so her photographs are both a documentation of her life and experiences with the people around her. They are not planned and rarely contrived, being sometimes blurry and out of focus her photographical skills are made to be questioned by critiques. As to why these simple images deserve any technical credibility or recognition.
Though her photographs target the issues that other photographers were too scared to address such as gays and transsexuals and the HIV AIDS virus that was plaguing their community. Therefore being an eye opener to the hidden world of her time; painting a page in history that would have otherwise gone un noticed.

McCain, 'It's all good.'

Ok. So seriously how healthy can packaged mass produced food be?

Hmmmm... my guess is not very.

If it's bought in 2010 and goes out of date in 2011 I doubt it is as 'fresh' and 'nourishing' as its producers would like us the 'consumer' believe.

Though the latest advert from McCain oven chips would beg to differ, and fair play to them as one of their recent adverts is a supreme piece of marketing work.



When I first saw the advert I thought "wow, this is amazing, nothing like any other major food company advert I've seen before; very imaginative."
They've narrated the advert as though it is a short film, telling the story of how a variety of McCain potatoe products are 'created.' With the key message being ' it's all good.' As in the ingredients are simple, natural and good for you.

Semiotics
'the study of signs and symbols, what they mean and how they are used.' - Cambridge dictionary.

Semantics
'Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata.' - wikipedia

This advert speaks through images. Set in and old picturesque country barn, the scene couldn't be any more perfect. By choosing this setting the manufacturers are trying to imply that their goods are organic, and produced by local farmers in the surrounding country side. This is instinctively British, it rules out any questions people might have about where McCains ingredients are sourced. It's British, British and proud, something that would be very appealing to potential consumers. Automatically boosting the credibility of McCain foods, they now represent quality rather than quantity, dismissing rival brands and their comparatively inadequate massed produced products.

The machine used to make the potato goods is more like an old exquisite invention rather than giant metal structure, we would have perceived to be used in production. It's sweet and clever. Appealing to kids it draws upon a fairy tale like feeling where by every detail adds a little bit of magic to the food, from the way the potato wedges are seasoned to the soft blow of herbs on top. Making their chips special and a must have for children watching.
Its target audience are both children and adults. Enticing kids with the thought of the fun and excitement that is implied in their products, and persuading adults with a charismatic, smart and defyingly healthy food advert.



This advert for the campaign which I found in a magazine, is equally charming. It uses a human touch, one that is more approachable and therefore sympathetically appealing to the viewer.It does this by use of an illustrative narrative, rather than the use of standard photo-graphical images that are repetitively see throughout the media in advertisment. Making McCain unique, and more importantly remeberable for the next time your down at the supermarket choosing what to buy.