Photographer Research

Photographer Research

Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation, but is also active in painting, performance, film, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other arts. I have chosen to research Yayoi as I love her abstract use of circles throughout her images.

The first image above is a picture of many yellow spotted pumpkins and the second image is a single yellow spotted pumpkin in a yellow spotted room. From research that I've done on the internet I have found that Yayoi has a love for pumpkins and has incorporated this in some of her images. All pumpkin I have seen in her images are yellow, which could also suggest her favourite colour is yellow. 

In the image above is one of Yayoi's exhibits; It is a white room full of white objects that are covered in colourful spots. This image to me represents the idea that anything with a blank slate can be made into anything you wanted, Yayoi used the blank objects to create a vibrant colourful room. The consistency of her art and themes is really effective because I believe it shows a clear intention of what she wanted to create and shows how she uses her creativity to create art using blank slates and spots. 

This image of Yayoi's is a white giant flower in a white room covered in colourful spots. The abstract idea of the giant flower I believes shows how Yayoi used art to create what she wanted and to show that art has no limits. Making the whole room the same pattern shows to me how she knew she could also use whatever she wanted as a canvas to further represent that art has no limits. 

Again this image above is a great example of how Yayoi represents in her images how art can be made into whatever your mind wants to create. In the image her consistency still runs through in this image, as the whole room is made of red flowers even including the furniture. In this image the flowers are red sunflowers, which is unusual as sunflowers are yellow, and this further represents how she has the power and creativity to make whatever she wanted using whatever she wanted and whatever colour she wanted it. 

Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Fox Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. I have chosen to research Roy as I would to recreate and experiment some of his images on models.

In the image above, Roy has used polka dots to colour and create his image which I would love to experiment with in my photography. I love this image as the expression on the women's face could be interpreted in different ways. In my opinion I view her expression as lust or jealousy. 

Similarly, In this image the women has been coloured using polka dots. The women in the image is on the phone and it has a speech comment on what she's saying. I love the speech in the image as this interpretation is down to the viewer along with her expression. Her expression is almost mutual ( like the image above ) and can be left for the viewer to decide how she feels and therefore what the situation is on the phone. In my opinion her expression sits between anger and disappointment; This then leads me to think that any news shes received over the phone isn't great.   

In this image above, it features the women from the first image I selected; I love this about Lichtenstein's art because his images tell a story. For example, the man in the image is giving the women a side glance however her focus is straight ahead ignoring him. Both features have a focus in the image, therefore in my opinion the image being called 'Focus'. This image also leaves the interpretation, of whats going on, down to the reader. 

Irving Penn

Irving Penn was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn's career included work at Vogue magazine, and independent advertising work for clients including Issey Miyake and Clinique. I have chosen to research Irving as I would love to experiment with the media of make up, and in his images he has used makeup as a media himself.

In the image above Penn has smeared different coloured lipsticks on the models face, this being the only colour on the model. Connotations of this image could be to show the different variations and quality of a lipstick; A deeper thought could be that women feel obliged to wear make up to feel pretty, and to fight against this the model has just got different lipsticks smeared onto her lips which doesn't look pretty. 

I have selected this image above as I believe it has potential to experiment with curves. In the image above the artist has make up patterned across her face. To me this expresses to the viewer that with make up you can create whatever you want to create. 

KwangHo Shin

Inspired by the exuberantly painted compositions of the Action Painters group of Abstract Expressionists, KwangHo Shin works with oil paint and charcoal on canvas to produce portraits that merge inner states with outer appearances. Often working at a grand scale, he creates sketchy, vigorously executed images of human figures, heads, and faces using a multicoloured patchwork of brushstrokes. In some compositions, his brushstrokes obscure his figures, whose contours can just be made out amid the pigment.