Artists Archive

alexis mire

PHOTOGRAPHER | CREATIVE WRITER

Photographed me at my worst and made me feel beautiful

Tamed me

Changed me

Fixed me

Diane Arbus: “If you scrutinise reality closely enough, if somehow you really, really get to it, it becomes fantastic. You know it really is fantastic that we look like this, and you sometimes see that very clearly in a photograph.” Dan beleiu

How did your journey into art begin, and more specifically, how did you begin doing photography? ���A friend gave me a digital camera at a time when I was a bit stuck in my oil painting. I knew what I wanted to make, but it just didnt come out right. I started taking photos of landscapes and buildings and myself. At first, my idea was to make basic photo compositions that I could later turn into paintings, but I only ended up doing one. I found photography was a much quicker and cleaner way to realize my daydreams. How would you describe your style of photography? ���Some sort of crazy realism. I base it on what i see in reality, but I exaggerate certain elements and or diminish others. I’m also very much influenced by oil painting, from any period. Where do you find inspiration for your work? ���Its silly to say its all around, but it is kind of true, especially since my tool is a camera. But there are two types of images, the one where I have an idea and make sketches and then go out to find the right stuff to take photos of, and the one where I make something based on the photos I have taken throughout the day. But like any artist, it’s a mix of everything I see hear and read, combined with my own daydreams, thoughts and ideas.

You’ve developed a very defined aesthetic for your self-portraiture, usually montages of you and your cat exploring surreal settings, such as the ‘purple moor’. How did this aesthetic develop for you? Was it a conscious choice or something that just sort of came about. A bit of both. I didn’t put myself or my cat in my first montages. The style and technique of my current montages started to take shaped when I made me ‘From the Garden in my Mind’ photo story. It’s all very rough compared to my more recent works and it’s closer to collage work then photomontage, but it shows many themes that you find throughout my latter work: the clones, cat, woman, castle, little guy etc. Self-portraits are often very personal expressions of an artist’s inner self. What do you wish to convey in your self-portraits? What drives you to do them? ���I have different types. Sometimes its clearly not about me. I could put on a hoody to make it less personal, play a character in the background, or act in a certain way, but I do have some where I’m portraying my feelings. Mostly I just see myself and my cat as models for my work.

mattijns

franssen

…“my name is Alex Stoddard. I'm sixteen years old, and I spend far too much time running barefoot in the forest.” Using yourself as a model is the perfect way to gain control of every image you create. Everything you’re feeling at the time of a shoot will be translated into your image. Learn to feel when your shooting. What sort of emotions to you want people to see and feel when they look at your work? When you are on a photoshoot take with you props that mean something to you. Think about every prop you have and what it will ne used for. Why are using that prop? What will the overall effect be on your image? What are you trying to say, what does your image mean? Go into a photoshop with an open mind. Try not to visualize the end result of your image too much. At times the image will not turn out the way you want. Experiment with a million different angles and different poses, set up of composition and then decided what image you like the best. Explore the options you have, use your imagination. The aim is to expand your creative mind.

Look at Tom Chambers work. There are clear elements that are in a lot of his work. The first thing that should strike you is the colours he uses. They are all heavily manipulated, strong vibrant colours that help illustrate the overall effect of his images. Chambers creates very dramatic images, very surreal. He posses a wild imagination to create images that simply aren’t real and never could be. It’s an exciting concept. It stimulates you’re mind. Surrealism is a hugely interesting genre to be inspired by as it’s the unknown and the unlimited. You can never stop. It allows you to push the boundaries and step into that world of magic and surrealism. The animal kingdom and mankind engage in an ongoing dance of co-existence which results in a predictable tension. This tension has escalated with man's increasing disregard for the fragility of the environment and abdication of his responsibility to care for the earth. One particular issue is global warming which has had a significant impact on all living things. Climate changes will minimally upset and perhaps ultimately destroy ecosystems. I feel strongly that the cumulative impact of negative environmental changes cannot be ignored. Having grown up on a Pennsylvania farm, I am inspired by Andrew Wyeth's rural landscapes, characterized by subtle, but powerful emotion. I hope to strike a similar emotional connection in the viewer by illustrating a disturbed ecosytem created by man's self-serving interests. These photomontages are composed of animals, children and adults, all of whom are potential victims and at risk.

erin mulvehill

noemie goudal

Ross sawyers