Text with Images

Experimental artists

Jim Goldberg

Bangladesh. Dhaka. 2007. Man at a recruitment center.

GREECE. Athens. 2003. Muzaffar “Alex” Jafari writes about his journey on foot from Afghanistan to Greece via Iran. Now Alex is in school and supports himself by working in a call center.

Matt Siber

The Untitled Project is rooted in an underlying interest in the nature of power. With the removal of all traces of text from the photographs, the project explores the manifestation of power between large groups of people in the form of public and semi-public language. The absence of the printed word not only draws attention to the role text plays in the modern landscape but also simultaneously emphasizes alternative forms of communication such as symbols, colors, architecture and corporate branding. In doing this, it serves to point out the growing number of ways in which public voices communicate without using traditional forms of written language.

The reintroduction of the text takes written language out of the context of its intended viewing environment. The composition of the layouts remain true to the composition of their corresponding photographs in order to draw attention to relative size, location and orientation. The isolation of the text from its original graphic design and accompanying logos, photographs and icons helps to further explore the nature of communication in the urban landscape as a combination of visual and literal signifiers.

Jeffrey WolinWritten in Memory:Portraits of the Holocaust

Wolin's series of portraits of Holocaust survivors, Written in Memory: Portraits of the Holocaust, was published by Chronicle Books, accompanying solo exhibitions of this work at the Art Institute of Chicago, International Center of Photography in New York, Chrysler Museum in Norfolk.

Barbara Kruger

Alexander Apóstol

Daneile Buetti

Leon Ferrariexplores the relationship between violence and religion.

In 1995 the newspaper Pagina/12 decided to publish the The Nunca Mas (never more) report that investigated human rights violations and the fate of forced disappearances during the Argentinean dictatorship (1976-81).

Handwritten texts on photocopy

‘It is not anti-religious art, but rather art against repression and torture, whether it is of religious character or not,’ clarified the artist.

‘I treated the religious aspect in illustrations that I made for an edition of “NuncaMás”, especially against Videla, but I was talking about power in the same way that I talk about anti-Semitism, or against the criminalisation of abortion. It is not a problem with religion but rather a problem with intolerance and violence.’

Cited in Luis Felipe Noé, ‘Una visita con León Ferrari’, in Leon Ferrari: RetrospectivaObras 1954–2004. Andrea Giunta (ed.). Centro Cultural Recoleta, Pinacoteca, São Paolo, Brazil, 2006, p. 382.

Lorna Simpson

Three Seated Figure

Other Experimental Techniques

Hiroshi SugimotoEarly-twentieth century Modernism greatly transformed our lives, liberating the human spirit from untold decoration. No longer needing to draw attention from God, all aristocratic attempts at ostentation have fallen away. At last we avail ourselves of mechanical aids far beyond our human powers, attaining the freedom to shape things at will.

I decided to trace the beginnings of our age via architecture. Pushing my old large-format camera’s focal length out to twice-infinity―with no stops on the bellows rail, the view through the lens was an utter blur―I discovered that superlative architecture survives, however dissolved, the onslaught of blurred photography. Thus I began erosion-testing architecture for durability, completely melting away many of the buildings in the process.

Osamu James NakagawaMado (window series)

I have been working on the Mado series for over a decade. It is a work that I come back to

when I want to center myself. The series consists of contemplative introspective images

that call attention to moments of isolation. I am interested in the space between the self

and the other, private and public. In between these spaces, exist in flux: fluidity, unity,

energy, impulse, and rhythm.

Collages by Martha Rosler

Invasion, 2008

House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, New Series

Gray Drape, 2008

ELIJAH GOWIN

Into the Sun, 2009

You must Complete all of the following for the end of the week

Deadline for 1-3 is Thursday 21 / Friday 22 Jan

TACTILE EXPERIMENTATION You must demonstrate:3- 4 Tactile experiments on prints, this can include: sellotape transfer, burning, scratching, folding, image maker, embossing, painting on prints, sewing on prints, photo sculptures, layering images with materials.

DIGITAL EXPERIMENTATION You must demonstrate:2 Photoshop techniques: this can include: layering of images, collaging, HDR, joiners, double exposures, Jerry Uelsman style images and more.

2 alternative digital techniques: with a camera mask the lens with materials or home made filters, use the scanner as your camera, disposable camera and more.

ARTIST COMPARISONInclude a contextual reference comparing your experiment with an artist.