This week I wanted to continue researching into other artists that were looking at objects in a conceptual way as well as looking at publications and articles that were exploring the relationship between objects and mass consumption.

Eian Kantor is an New York photographer whose work on conveying his subjects in their most natural form portrayed through several of his collection titled ‘Found sculptures’ and ‘(don’t)look down: 512 discarded cigarette boxes’. Similar to Guy Batey, this collection of images is a exploration of the object not in their natural environment. Although Batey and Kantors work are similar, Kantor has worked on using 2 mediums, phone and camera, which is reflected in the quality of the images and vibrancy of them.  

Micheal Landy is a British Artist whose work titled ‘Break Down’ 2001 and ‘Art Bin’ project in 2010 I found relevant as they both look at the idea of necessity and why we need our belongings. ‘Art Bin’ was a project created by Landy to question the role of value and the emotional attachment to objects. Landys ‘Break Down’ installation saw him collect everything he owned; 7,227 items in an empty shop in oxford street where you placed everything onto conveyor belts and destroyed every piece. By the end of the exhibition, Landy owned nothing but what he was wearing and saw the depletion of artist work he had accumulated as well as his own as a symbolic gesture to identifying the western cultures resistance in keeping what they own and contributing the mass consumption.

Eternally Yours 

Eternally Yours explores the ideas of how consumers forms relationships with objects the ways in which these relationship can become destructive or tainted by modern society and the fast paced movement of corporate industries.

The Object

Similar to Eternally yours, The object looks at different areas of how an object contextualise itself into materialistic society. Objects are used by the consumer to signify the direction and individual is taking and identifying our own needs however, The Object further explain how objects have an initial identifier, the meaning of their purpose.

Snoopers Paradise 

Looking into waste, i wanted to explore further what waste is which meant looking at its origin. This led me to looking at Objects or belongings and the psychological connection we have with our items and the reasoning for throwing them away. I went into Snoopers Paradise as it is known for its vast selection of items from vintage clothes to animals in jars. I have been in there a few times and have become aware of the large number of old family photos that are up for sale, which i feel really embodies the nature in which throw away even our most sentimental items. The idea that a families holiday photos or school portraits are up for sale for someone else to buy and repurpose and that we can even put a price on someone else belongings.

This led to the further exploration of this idea, and looking at artists below:

Paula Morales

This work is a collaboration between Paula Morales, Gutta Galli, and Anita Giasante which looks at found objects and their continuous projection of human life even after death. I found this work interesting as it reflecting a persons personality through an inanimate item which allows for strangers to come and interpret this from their perspective.

Guy Batey 

This series of images by Guy Batey titled ‘ The Melancholy of Objects’ is a display of object Batey came across throughout living in east London. These images are of objects that have been discarded or forgotten about and Batey describes how ‘Some of these objects stop me in my tracks with the power of their presence. They seem to want to talk to me, to tell me their stories. These photographs show what I feel they have to say.’

This concept was interesting to me as it conveyed the idea of how a object that has come to the end of its use, looking broken and destroyed, is able to explore the entirety of its lifecycle, portrayed in its natural form which identifies how although its initial ability for purpose has ended, its still ives through it current state.

The format in which Batey has taken his images is similar to photographers mentioned in previous posts, which

I experimented with digital photography, using my phone to create some low quality high focused images, which i experimented with layout and distortion using photoshop. These images follow on from waste in food and objects, looking at the ease in discarding objects with emotional detachment.

Using magazines and other images, i created collages that reflected waste and sustainability where i then edited them further using photoshop to create a more dynamic image.

Using photoshop, i followed on from the distortion of the images previously, by changing the format of these images using colour and movement to make dynamic GIFS that reflect how waste is manipulated from its original form to being repurposed.

I wanted to document my personal experience with waste using different medias. I used a 35mm point and shoot camera to document my findings as i like the visual ethic of the images. With this series, the images came out good with the colours of the subject of the mage coming out vibrant with a softer background. Through this experimentation i have found that i want to carry this further, experimenting with portrait images and similar as i feel this represents my desire to create a personal documentation of waste in my magazine.

Maisie Cousins 

William Farr

Vilde Rolfsen

I decided to look at artists that manipulated waste into new art pieces. Maisie Cousins is a British artist who uses food waste to create vulgar, but beautifully engaging imagery, incorporating colour and texture with strong stylisation. William Farr is an artist that creates consumer waste into large sculptures, with his most recent work featuring in Selfridges window displays . Much like Maisie Cousins, Farrs work is chaotic with a contrasting minimalism that runs throughout with the main body of his work. The accent of colour and the combination of man made and natural objects work well with conveying a strong tactility within his work. Vilde Rolfsen uses plastic bags to make etherial scenes, using external lighting and colour.

Keith Arnatt is a British artist who, like the previous two artists, has documented waste and rubbish from personal experience/ visiting rubbish dumps. Arnatt’s series of images titled ‘Rubbish Tip 1988-9’ were taken using plastic sheeting and plastic bags as the backdrop with selected objects as the focus, giving a more stylised approach to the series. The plastic sheeting was used to support the lighting of each images dimming the natural light creating a faded effect that accentuated the bright colourings of each focus object. 

The composition of each image is slightly different to show the purity of the subject however was stylised using the sheets of plastic to ensure there is consistency. Similar to Chris Jordan, Arnatt considered aspects like affecting the lighting to make his images unrecognisable; making the viewer completely engage with his work. As Rubbish Tip was released in 1988, the format of his imagery is film, which provides the series with a more dynamic silhouette. With digital camera creating more vivid colours like in Harley Weird work, the film creates a more muted image which I think works well. Using film to convey sustainability and waste in today’s society would allow the strong social identifiers to be the focal point for the imagery with the film contrasting this.

Harley Weir is a British photographer who uses documentary style images, similar to Chris Jordan to create vivid and fascinating pieces. As a photographer, Weir has been looking at plastic since 2015 where she created a series named ‘Rubbish_1’ documenting all the waste she found using her phone. She explains in an article by i-D that the process of documenting the waste allowed her to consider her own involvement with the contribution to the over consumption of commodities and plastic. 

The images that Weir posted onto her instagram were over exposed, close ups of the rubbish which highlighted the bright, obnoxious colouring and texture. I looked at her work alongside the poet Wilson Oryemas to create a show ‘Rubbish 1’, where Harley Weir showcased her new work under the name Rubbish 1.2 accompanied by Oryemas poetry that assist Weirs imagery to project an immediacy to the control of our over consumption. Being interviewed by Dazed, Weird describes her photography as “representing her means to curiously learn about her surrounding and understand the world.” Weir used this collaboration to grip the viewer, showcasing her images that highlighted the everyday brands that were a regular in her series to create a feeling of relatability, where consumers were able to take responsibility for their over consumption. 

Similar to Jordan, the photography she creates is showing her subject in its natural state which I want to reflect in my magazine through the use if my own experiences. Through the collection of my own rubbish and looking my own consumption will help me develop a honest and strong piece of work. Her work also features accents of vivid colour that supports the unpleasant subject/story that she is conveying, creating a more light-hearted collection of images, in contrast to Chris Jordan’s series.

Chris Jordan is an American photographic artist that looks at social issues conveying these through documentary style imagery. He has worked on numerous series that look at the effect of human consumption on the planet including an Albatross series which highlights the rise in these animals decrease due to plastic. I decided to focus on the series named ‘Intolerable Beauty’ which is a series of images showing the various discarded materials that make their way into landfill but on a larger, more intense scale, showing the overwhelming number of items in a natural and honest way. This work has been created to portray the idea of how we as consumers collectively produce this excess waste but are completely unknown to each other which sees the identification of who is to blame completely anonymous. This can be seen in relation to the composition of these images, with there being no focus on a particular aspect of the image as well as the photography being taken from a distance which therefore makes the viewer have to take a deeper focus on what the image is of.  

I found this imagery engaging and inspiring, with the photographer looking at these subjects but conveying them in a pure and clear format that allows the viewer to fully understand the concept behind the imagery as well as the possibility to question and build their own interpretation. Photography in this style would work well with story I want to build in my magazine with impactful and thought-provoking images.

Novembre Magazine 

Novembre magazine is a independent, biannual publication that showcases artists and their talent to explore modern culture. They use engaging imagery through the magazine that challenge controversial idealisms as-well as covering topics like fashion and art. Originating from Sweden the magazines visual identity reflects the complexity and exuberance of the art pieces that are featured. Through examining this magazine, it is evident that using minimal text has allowed the power expressed from the photography and outrageous graphics is enough to carry this magazine to highly established platform. As a magazine they have described themselves as being able to make the ugly beautiful, challenging the idea of ‘bad taste. These images are a true reflection of the conceptual story pieces and adaptation of ideas to which is expressed through forms of imagery including still life, candid photography and generated graphics. Much like Rouge and The September Issues, there is a strong identity shown through colour, with November looking strongly as vivid, distorted colours to ensure that every page is impactful. Unlike, the previous magazines, although described as showcasing fashion in addition to art and music, this is not evident throughout the pages in terms of photography. The visual identity of all the magazines have a distinct fashion identification in contrast to Novembre which is reflected in a more conceptual approach.

Novembre Magazine is priced at £14 an issue, which places it in the lower sector within the market making it on of the more affordable magazines. It runs at an A3 format with higher quality gloss paper throughout the magazine, making the overall thickness of the publication to be relatively thick, comparing itself to Chaos Sixety Nine.