post the second // photography comments

Gregory Crewsden:

The interest in Crewsden’s work lies in that his images all depict situations that could indeed exist in life, and yet, they have a sort of surreal quality to them, one which is difficult to place exactly. Most of his works contain human figures placed in a large setting, and lighting is very important to the overall look of his manipulations. One of his more noticeable works is the image of a naked woman standing alone in a room where a family eats a meal, which is of course an incredibly strange and unlikely situation, yet the possibility of it occurring in life is not impossible.

Teun Hocks:

I find Hocks’ work to be especially intriguing, his manipulations of photo images create a brilliant sense of atmosphere, and the surreality of these pictures have a certain humor to them, for instance, his piece in which he pours water underneath an already- swimming duck seems to give an indication of a light, playful atmosphere, despite the colors of the manipulations contradicting that with their dull, earthy tones.

Jeff Wall:

Wall’s photographs have a fairly clear theme to them, and that is that they center around destruction, of all sorts. For instance, his piece depicting a wrecked room, including a ripped up mattress and walls, and blankets and clothes tossed around the room arbitrarily, gives off an obvious sense of disorder and chaos. However, his photographs also depict destruction in a much more organized sense, examples of this being the photo of trimmed tree branches tucked neatly to the side of a tree, or an excavation site in the middle of a forest. Both of these depict destruction, but not in the chaotic fashion we are used to seeing.

Cindy Sherman:

Sherman’s photographs are mostly self-portaits, centered around her, and often involving fashion in some manner. I rather like her use of lighting and the monochrome images, however, I find her self-portrait motif to be rather repetitive and bland. When compared with the works of Crewsden, Hocks, and Wall, her photos hold little interest to the surreal and colorful works of the other artists.