Reading 5: 3 artists

      For Reading number 5, I first reviewed the series Self-Portraits by the photographer Jen Davis. These images first caught my attention on account of the rich and natural colors. It appears that she utilized natural lighting mostly. However she accomplished these colors, they are very captivating. Not only are the colors mesmerizing, but they create an atmosphere to accompany certain images. Aside from the colors, there is great emotion shown in these photographs. I have no idea who this person is but I felt extreme sadness and loneliness looking at them. The woman isn't what would be considered beautiful these days, and she uses that to her advantage. Her photographs make you feel like you know her and that you are even feeling what she is. They bring out a strong emotional response as well as technically being strong images.

       Next, I looked at the series The Mark of Abel by Lydia Panas. I decided to look at this series because her style reminds me of Sally Mann or Nicholas Nixon. This automatically made me curious to see how a modern day photographer is approaching these kind of portraits. The series is definitely interesting to look at. All the images are of groups of people with a blank stare into the camera. It's especially interesting to compare older portraits with these on account of the diversity in people today. The blank stares don't tell the viewer much about what they could be feeling. Some seem to be more bored or sad, but I can't be too sure. They make me wonder who these people are and what is troubling them, if anything. Technically, I wasn't too impressed. Many of them are cropped at the top of the head or eyes. This works for some images, but for others just seem confusing and annoying. Basically, I'm not positive of the intent in any of these photographs. However, I still enjoy them as portraits of specific people.

       The third series I looked at was called The Devil's Promenade by Antone Dolezal and Lara Shipley. This series caught my eye on account of the surrealism it involves. It is a mixture of landscape, nature, and people. The mostly all have an unnatural look to them made possible by color. I'm not too interested in most of the portraits, but the images of nature and houses are what make it most exciting. Most of the scenes seem like normal images of a place at dusk. However, there are odd colors thrown in there that give them a mystical and eerie feel. This atmosphere is what holds my attention rather than having me scroll past. They feel like something unusual is happening and that I'm becoming a part of it.