Thursday, November 4, 2010

Blog Assignment 7

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Sam Wagstaff, 1979, Maplethorpe

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Deana, 2005, Tanyth Berkeley


Both of these artists seem to be addressing photography and the construction of gender, aging or of racial difference in their images. Maplethorpe creates images of all types of people, men, women, young, old. His images highlight the already apparent beauty of the subject by the use of lighting and composition. Berkeley's images deal with gender and what is thought of as "unusual" beauty. Her images depict women in natural and somewhat unflattering light to show their beauty. An example of the "unusual" beauty would be the albino woman she photographed who would not be considered to be beautiful when compaired to society today. This is where Berkeley and Maplethorpe's work seems to become different. Maplethorpe's subjects already seem to be deemed beautiful by popular society and Berkeley's work bring the people who aren't deemed beautiful by popular society into a place where they can be seen as beautiful, or given a second thought.

1 comment:

  1. try this link:
    http://i1.exhibit-e.com/mapplethorpe/f10b7d99.jpg

    Still excellent! Did you post your own work too?

    ReplyDelete