Friday, September 11, 2009

Surprisingly Interesting

So when we were told we had to go to an art exhibit I was less than happy...I like looking at all of the art work and pictures, but looking deeper into the meaning of things and trying to figure out why the artist took the picture that he/she did is not part of my "enjoyable things to do" agenda. Generally I look at a picture and think, "Why in the world would someone want a picture of that?" But, when I got to the exhibit, I was overwhelmed with how enjoyable it was. I went into the room with a "hurry up, look at everything, get out" attitude. Surprisingly, I actually began to look at the pictures and found myself trying to get more meaning out of them rather than just quickly passing by them.

I would have to say that Ken Josephson's work with the postcards really was quite interesting to me. The idea of bringing the past to the present and showing how even through technology and all that society has come through, the past and present really are not that different. I felt that by taking pictures of scenery from now, and incorporating the old pictures into them, really brought out the idea of how we need to look back to appreciate the way things can last.

One of the other artists I was very surprised at was Joyce Neimanas. We were shown pictures of the artwork in class before hand and when we saw the picture of the back of the picture ("The Back of Famous Artist Photo"), I was confused. Now WHY would someone want a picture of the back of a picture, or of a legal pad with torn out pages? But when we got to the actual exhibit, I was amused at how incredible these actual photos were. The idea of taking a picture of someone, and "looking at the other side of things" reminded me of not judging a book by it's cover. We see pictures of people all around us, yet we never look at the back of a picture. Why would we? It's the back, yet Joyce captures the essence of looking behind the picture to get the full experience.

In many ways, I feel as my initial feelings towards this exhibit were like my feelings towards Joyce Neimanas photo of the back of the picture. I was only looking at the surface or the front of these artist's work. As I wove my way through the entire exhibit, my eyes were opened to the "back" of the photography world. Not only was a looking at the front of these works wondering why I had to be there, but by the end (or rather the middle) I was realizing the greater meanings to these pictures and perhaps one reason why the artists felt compelled to share these works with others.

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