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| Isabel Uriarte |
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| Apples and Cigarettes |
For the most recent project, I chose to research the contemporary artist Roe Ethridge. As I flipped through two brand new books of his work, I was drawn into the way he handled each photograph. Instead of only incorporating fine art photographs, he interspersed editorial ones to effectively blur the boundaries between these two very different fields. Although his photographs may have seemed random initially, I appreciated the full series upon viewing them all. Each series created a rhythm which propelled you into viewing the next photo. Ethridge discussed his grasp of a “fugue” in his work as an “amnesia state of wandering”. He used repetition to draw out the importance of particular photographs as the viewer’s eyes wander through the photographs. My appreciation of Ethridge’s work only grew the more I studied his photos. His ability to capture people unaware for the briefest moment of time allows you to see into their soul with their guards down. His thoughtfully detailed landscape images and transformation of mundane objects into something special and unique never ceases to impress me. Truly Ethridge Roe is an artist who knows how to mold the outside world through the lens of his camera to achieve a significant impact on you.
Etheridge's use of the seemingly arbitrary object to make his point is incredibly fascinating. It reminds me of learning a language and the associations you make in order to remember what a certain word means, but his work goes a lot deeper than simply words and ideas. It seems by capturing associations and people when their guard is down, he is going for something much much deeper than a picture or a simple meaning, but something which can be a guided thought but can also have different individual meanigns as well.
ReplyDeleteLots of people think that being an artist is the easiest job in the world because they always have lots of free time. But since the artists' job is to look for ideas from life and the ideas always come from random things happen in life, they seem to be thinking all the time. Amazing and beautiful things always happen randomly in life so artists are the busiest people in the world.
ReplyDeleteYour reference to the creation of a rhythm reminded me of Robert Frank. Reading the article on the "The Americans" made me realize how important image arrangement and photo choice is. Clearly, Roe Ethridge establishes a rhythm that strengthens his message and artwork.
ReplyDeleteEthridge is going against the tradition of photographers working in series. He seems to be critiquing traditions in commercial photography, journalism, and fine art as if to wonder what it all means if various associative juxtapositions are made.
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