The photographic work of Laurie Simmons.Looking Carefully The animated look of the subject in Walking Camera (Jimmy the Camera) is striking, playful, fun, distant and a bit haunting. Artist Laurie Simmons has staged the subject in a stark environment to emphasize the lifelike quality of this object with legs. The dark floor and gray background are interrupted by only shadows. The line separating the floor from the wall has been carefully placed at one-third from the bottom of the composition. The camera itself is a theatrical costume being worn by an actor. The appearance of this camera with legs is reminiscent of 1930s music-hall reviews with dancers in costumes of objects, or of the dancing cigarette packages of early television commercials. This dated camera is, no doubt, black metal and plastic. The light source to the right is rather strong, playfully deepening the contrast of dark and light values on the object. The brilliant glow on the camera takes on a life-like energy of its own. The legs, clad in tights, reflect light in a somewhat artificial way, masking true anatomy and creating a barrier between the viewer and the actor. The tilt or bow of the camera animates Jimmy, yet suggests subservience. We arc not facing the lens or eye, which points downward and away from the viewer. Is Simmons forcing us to consider the person as object in society? The legs are definitely those of an adult while the object's playfulness is somewhat childlike. The addition of arms and hands or a face would have given the object character since people tend to interpret a person's feelings from upper-body movements and facial expressions. The choice to keep these from the viewer was a conscious decision, and gives us a clue that Simmons wanted distance between the viewer and the object. On the other hand, the photograph is quite large, 83 x 47[inches] (211 x 120 cm), confronting the viewer at a nearly life-size level. Is the image playful or haunting? Is it object or human? Is it old-fashioned or new? Is it artificial or real? Is it a social statement or just a theatrical costume? By asking more questions than giving answers, Simmons uses the camera as a tool for inquiry. Comparing The photograph of Mrs. Herbert Duckworth by Julia Margaret Cameron Julia Margaret Cameron (June 11 1815 – January 26 1879) was a British photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for Arthurian and similar legendary themed pictures. was taken 115 years before Laurie Simmons photographed her walking camera. These two women photographers show similar concerns for value and light, presentation of subject, and they both share a desire to leave the viewer with questions left unanswered about the subject. On the other hand, these two photographs reflect two different time periods, and two very different approaches. Julia Margaret Cameron knew many of the illustrious men and women of late nineteenth-century London. Robert Browning, Charles Darwin and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were among the famous people she photographed. Her portraits are usually straightforward, with the subject's head filling most of the composition as in the photograph of Mrs. Herbert Duckworth. Cameron's intent is quite clear--to record the inner spirit of the sitter. She softened details and allowed blurring, employing any means to capture the spirit of her subject. Cameron's softened and slightly blurred subject illustrates a popular concept of the time which related photography to painting rather than giving it a recognition of its own. In comparing the Cameron photograph to Laurie Simmons, image, we see that Simmons has total control over the technical aspect of her photograph. She has set the lights, established the shadows, controlled the angle of her shot and established a psychological wall between the viewer and the animated camera by posing the subject with lens or "face" turned from view. In contrast, Cameron's subject looks squarely at the viewer. Simmons manipulates technology to mask, while Cameron uses it to reveal. Key Concepts * Contemporary photographer Laurie Simmons uses dolls and other toys as staged subject matter for her photographs. * Simmons uses her technical knowledge of the camera to manipulate the light, color and spatial relationships giving her images a sense of skewed skewed curve of a usually unimodal distribution with one tail drawn out more than the other and the median will lie above or below the mean. skewed Epidemiology adjective Referring to an asymmetrical distribution of a population or of data reality. * Julia Margaret Cameron used her camera in a painterly paint·er·ly adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a painter; artistic. 2. a. Having qualities unique to the art of painting. b. manner reflective of the status of photography during the late nineteenth century. Simmons approaches the media under the societal acceptance of photography as an art form. * Laurie Simmons leaves the viewer with many unanswered questions about the nature of her images. * Photographers and other artists can give qualities to inanimate objects Inanimate Objects abiology the study of inanimate things. animatism the assignment to inanimate objects, forces, and plants of personalities and wills, but not souls. — animatistic, adj. that the objects do not actually possess, e.g., mysterious, foreboding, metaphoric, sensual, humorous. Biography Laurie Simmons began her photography career in the 1970s and currently lives and works in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . Fascinated by dolls and toys, she has used them frequently in various series of works. In an early series, she used small adult dolls and furniture to create interior environments which, at first, seemed to be like memories of childhood play. Her point of view and use of light seemed to magnify mag·ni·fy v. To increase the apparent size of, especially with a lens. the images suggesting a level of reality beyond that of a dollhouse. She later used dolls in scenes of underwater ballet, color-coordinated with environments (a solid yellow doll in a yellow environment), and as tourists in faraway places The Faraway Places is an indie rock band. Originally formed in Boston, Massachusetts as Solar Saturday, they changed their name after moving to Los Angeles, California. (photographs of monochromatic monochromatic /mono·chro·mat·ic/ (-kro-mat´ik) 1. existing in or having only one color. 2. pertaining to or affected by monochromatic vision. 3. staining with only one dye at a time. dolls superimposed su·per·im·pose tr.v. su·per·im·posed, su·per·im·pos·ing, su·per·im·pos·es 1. To lay or place (something) on or over something else. 2. over photos of tourist attractions like the Parthenon). She has stated that she is not trying to create narrative scenes, but to observe everyday life using photographic elements to give her observations a striking quality. "I realized early on that artifice attracted me to an image more than any other quality. That's what That's What is one of the more idiosyncratic releases by solo steel-string guitar artist Leo Kottke. It is distinctive in it's jazzy nature and "talking" songs ("Buzzby" and "Husbandry"). I wanted to see in pictures, particularly my own. I mean artifice in the sense of staging, heightened color and exaggerated lighting, not a surreal or fictive fic·tive adj. 1. Of, relating to, or able to engage in imaginative invention. 2. Of, relating to, or being fiction; fictional. 3. Not genuine; sham. moment." Her admiration of movie director Alfred Hitchcock can be seen in her use of color not of the white race; - commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or mixed. See also: Color , spatial relations and lighting. A slight falseness is a quality she has worked to capture in her photographs. "I'm counting on that wrongness to give the picture its edge. That's what markets the picture. I go for the maximum realism that I can in any given situation and the resulting reality is skewed." Walking Camera (Jimmy the Camera) comes from a series of staged photographs which include Walking Purse, Walking House, Walking Birthday Cake and Walking Microphone. Suggested Activities The following activities may be adapted for both elementary and secondary students. * Draw or photograph a still life that has dolls in it. You may wish to create a new reality for the dolls by changing color, value or spatial relationships within the scene. * Have students locate and pose an object to which doll legs could be attached Students should be prepared to answer such questions as "Why have you chosen this object?" "What pose is best suited for this object?" "Where should the light source be to best give your photography or drawing an ,edge, as Laurie Simmons did with her work?" * There are many significant women photographers in addition to Laurie Simmons and Julia Margaret Cameron including Berenice Abbott Berenice Abbott (July 17, 1898 – December 9, 1991), born Bernice Abbott, was an American photographer best known for her black-and-white photography of New York City architecture and urban design of the 1930s. , Imogen Cunningham Imogen Cunningham (April 12 1883 - June 24 1976) was an American photographer known for her photography of botanicals, nudes and industry. Cunningham was born in Portland, Oregon. , Laura Gilpin Laura Gilpin ( April 22, 1891 in Austin Bluffs, Colorado – November 30, 1979 in Santa Fe, New Mexico) was an American photographer known for her photographs of Native Americans, particularly the Navajo and Pueblo, and her Southwestern landscapes. , Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger (b. 1945) is an American conceptual artist. She was born in Newark, New Jersey and left there in 1964 to attend Syracuse University. After a year at Syracuse, she moved to New York, where she began attending Parsons School of Design. Cindy Sherman, Dorothea Lange, Eva Rubinstein and Sandy Skoglund This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details. This article has been tagged since September 2007. . Gather a collection of images from female photographers. Determine what type of subject matter each photographer preferred. Cite one influence on the work of that person and create a list of events that occurred during each phographer's lifetime * Direct students to Who's Who in American Art to locate the biographical listing for Laurie Simmons. Have them use the Art Index or the Guide to Periodicals to locate reviews of her work. Have each student look up a different contemporary artist in Who's Who in American Art and find out more about that person's current work. Ask students to establish three questions they would most like to ask their artist, and have them attempt to contact the artist or the artist's representative. * Have the class create a time line of photographic history. Ask them to collect images and place them on or near the appropriate year. Have them write an essay on how the subject matter has changed over time. They should also write about the significance of technical advances such as the introduction of color film. * While Laurie Simmons might not consider her work narrative, the subjects of her photographs could lend themselves to creative concept interpretation. Using the idea of object and person being closely related, have students write an imaginative story which begins, "If I woke up and discovered I was part camera, I'd . . ." Resources Slides of Walking Camera (Jimmy the Camera) and A Beautiful Vision (Mrs. Herbert Duckworth), as well as work by other artists, are available for a fee from the Resource Center at The Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum is rated as one of the principal art museums in the United States and is visited by up to a half million people every year. Admission is free.[1] Located in Forest Park in St. , Forest Park, St. Louis, MO 63110-1380: Telephone (314) 721-0067, ext. 266. Reviews of Laurie Simmons, work appear in the following: Art News, March, 1990, p. 173-74. Art in America Art in America, published since 1913, is an illustrated monthly art magazine covering the visual art world both in the US and abroad, but concentrating on New York City. , February, 1990, p. 174. Contemporanea, March, 1990, p. 88. Tema Celeste Celeste is a woman's first name. Celeste may also refer to: in Music
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times, May 29, 1992, p. C28. Catalogs of Exhibitions: Laune Simmons, San Jose Museum of Art The San Jose Museum of Art is an art museum in Downtown San Jose, California, USA. Founded in 1969, the museum hosts a large permanent collection emphasizing West Coast artists of the 20th- and 21st-century. , October 21-December 30, 1990. Past/Imperfect: Eric Fischel, Vernon Fisher, Laurie Simmons, Walker Art Center: Minneapolis, 1987. Quotations of Laurie Simmons were taken from an interview by Cindy Sherman published in Laurie Simmons from Panco Publishers, 1987. Pamela Hellwege is an art educator at McClure High School, Ferguson-Florissant RII RII Routing Information Indicator RII Remote Ignition Interrupter (monster truck emergency power switch) RII Required Inspection Item (FAA) RII Relevant Information and Intelligence School District, St. Louis, Missouri. |
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