After the book project launch I decided to look at indie photography publishers, one of them being Void Publishing, to get some more ideas for my photo book, content and layout wise. Below are some of the artists that I really liked off their website, mainly contained in their recent 'Bleak House' project, which focuses on the idea of producing art under the duress of our current crisis. I decided to look at this publisher in particular as a lot of the photographers that they feature tend to use black and white and create very dark and experimental work, all things that I'm very interested in doing myself in this project.
Brad Feuerhelm:
I really like how graphic these images are created with the focus on strong lines and very bold contrast. I'm not too sure why these images are about, but I quite like are in-personal they are, and are quite a refreshing look at architecture.
Dimitra Dede:
I love Dede's work. The haziness and faded nature of the the black and white photos alongside the dead looking bodies gives the collection a feeling of purgatory, and transports me to a very baron and eerie place which I really like.
Dylan Hausthor:
I really enjoy how strange and supernatural Hausthor's work for this collection is. The way he uses flash and over exposure in the portraits and has brought in a strong connection to nature is something that I'd really like to try in my own work.
Emel Abdipour
I find the focus on hands in Abdipour's collection of images here really interesting, as well as the decision for the female model to be looking away from the camera. It makes the images feel really intimate and as if the viewer is peeping into someone else's world. The photos also have a real softness to them, created mainly through the use of natural light which I think is really beautiful.
Hoda Afshar
These images are about the chaos of this year from the bushfires in Australia at the start of the year to the unrest caused in Iran after the army general was killed in a US airstrike and the way Coronavirus has caused so much to change. You can really feel the pain and anger in these photos, the way that a lot of them have been cropped to pick out anguished faces in crowds, and the graininess of the some of the images which look as though they've been caught on CCTV cameras makes the images feel like they've been taken in protest to all the disarray this year.
Marco Marzocchi:
These are some of my favourite images that I found on the Void website, and think that Marzoochi's work will be especially useful for my book project as I really like the layout of his work in his book titled 'Oyster'. This book is a visual diary compiled by Marzocchi as clues to understand his absent parents. At times bordering on frustration and violence, his images express his search for a ‘culprit’, a cause for his dysfunctional childhood environment. Using archival and original imagery, the artist ransacks the past to build a presence in a process of forgiving and letting go, as a quest to find love and healing. Marzocchi had reevaluate his whole family history from the point of view of an adult. And close a circle. Like an Ouroboros (which is ancient symbol depicting a dragon eating its own tail which represents the concept of eternity and endless return.) https://void.photo/oyster I think that the symbolism in his images and the nod to ancient legends to help him navigate his world is really clever, and definitely something I should consider in my own work and I'm thinking of looking at fairytales, ancient stories to express the state of childhood in the modern world.
Robin Crackwell:
I was really drawn to the experimental nature of Crackwell's work. The recurring circle motif in the images I think is a really nice to way to connect otherwise quite different images, which a alongside the overlaying of scratches and dirt onto the images are both techniques that I'd like to experiment with in my own work as I really enjoy the outcomes in Crackwell's images.
Katrin Koenning:
The use of Polaroids here I think is really interesting, especially the muted tones of the black and white. Despite the lack of colour, these images feel really warm and bright created through a really effective use of natural light and the over arching theme of family.
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