Tattooing

While I was at the Manchester Art Gallery I recognised a few paintings and parts of paintings that resembled traditional tattoo flash. Of course when tattoo symbolism was being intergrated, artists would look at paintings and other sources to draw from. A folk art form mostly in americana culture, tattoo showed imagery of love, amaerican patriotism, military emblems, but also parts of paintings.
Most notably is the example of 'Pharoahs horses' -

A tattoo in the traditional American style of 'pharaoh's horses'

The original painting allegedly found at a flea market and drawn into a design, soon to became a classic tattoo design.

I enjoy the fact that tattoos came from folk art, it feels homelier and more part of the people. With its vast history designs have been diluted and recreated so many times so it feels like I'm contributing my take. that tattooing was recreated designs from classic paintings, I think I might delve more into that history and see if theres a way I can incorporate that into my work.

Manchester Art Gallery

I went to visit the Manchester Art Gallery to get more of a feel for classic paintings. I had never really paid much attention to them, but now learning about them and how big photographers have used paintings to influence there own work I started looking properly and analyzing. I looked at how paintings were cropped, the colours used, where the light was coming from, was it in a symbolic way? What was the story? what was the artist trying to get through? I made notes and sketches on my favourite pieces and bullet points of key techniques. I found I love Nordic and Scandinavian painting aswell! Something about their neutral tones and seascapes, the lighting and colours really appeal to me and go hand in hand with the effect I want to give. However after looking at these paintings I think they may be a bit too hard to work with, I just can't visualise the photographs I will take based on these. I'll keep looking for a certain genre or stye to use.

Films recreated from books

Its not only photographs that copy classic culture, many films have modernised classic literature as well. The way in which this has been done is creative and gives new life to the story, again making it relevant to today's society.

10 Things I Hate About You is based on William Shakespeare's play, The Taming of the Shrew. Believed to be written between 1590 and 1592, the play follows Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, try to win the heart of Katherina, the headstrong, obdurate shrew.It is a comedy based on the timeless cat and mouse game of love.

Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet is amazingly shot and directed. With a heavy feel of Italian/Latin Catholicism throughout the movie, Luhrmann brings the story into the 21st century by bringing in handguns for swords, wealthy families are family businesses, cars instead of horses. Still keeping the original script though its a fantastic adaptation of a fantastic play. Again I think this juxtaposition of qualities will really work well in my work. I also like the colours and lighting in this movie and want to incorporate them.

Tom Hunter

 I like the way Tom Hunter has taken these classical paintings and brought them into this era so we can all associate with them. Of course at the time the paintings were completed they spoke to the people at that point in history, its only common sense that they be more understandable in this way nowadays. I also really like his cropping technique. In the second painting the figure he photographs isnt a huge part of the scene but the main focus. From this I can take his contemporary look in his photographs and the natural lighting is also something I would like to use.
http://fstoppers.com/tom-hunters-photographic-recreations-of-famous-paintings

Oscar Gustave Rejlander

There is not a lot known about the photographer Oscar Gustave Rejlander, and what we do have is only from comments in conversation he made personally. Even then it is unclear any of it can be trusted, born in Sweden he studied fine art and moved to Rome to make copies of large renaissance paintings. When he discovered photography he quickly realised how useful it can be in the hands of an artist, he began taking pictures with sentimentality and strong theatrical, emotional elements with hints of humour. Given his studies earlier in his life he also gravitated towards a classical style of imagery with ornate, grand sets he recreated his favourite renaissance paintings and constructed some himself. I like the poses he has people stand in, they are very classic and have a narrative all of their own, with a contemporary look and classical poses I think I could use these qualities as a juxtaposition in my photographs.

Richard Tuschman

 

Richard Tuschman takes painting by Edward Hopper and recreates them in stunning quality and painter like effects. Edward Hopper has always been a huge influence on photography because of his subject matter being so similar. I am a fan of his paintings because of the loneliness and forlorn looks his figures have, I always wonder what they are thinking or going through at the time. Tuschman focuses more on Hopper's paintings of women looking forlorn or lost. Whats most interesting though is his attention to detail, in the images above the light and shadows are the same, the woman is represented the same way and even outside the window the same landscape is shown. The effects of the photographs visually is compelling aswell, you have to do a double take to check whether they are actually photographs because of the painting look they have so strongly. I don't think I will try to enhance the image to a painter like quality because I want them to have a modern day twist and associate with people nowadays.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2308563/Richard-Tuschman-Artist-recreates-famous-paintings-stunning-photographs.html

Explore and Experiment

For this project I want to explore the way photographers such as Jeff Wall and Tom Hunter recreate classic paintings in photography. I think its a really interesting way of giving new life to old paintings and even better when artists put their own style to the works, its like seeing a painting the way someone else sees it. I'm going to start by looking at how these artists have done this and visit galleries with classical paintings to understand that genre of art more. From there I will choose a few paintings that I like most and go about recreating them in photography in different ways. I will experiment with film, black and white, digital, drawings, paintings and other mediums. Ultimately I want to share with the viewer what I see when I look at a painting and what random thoughts pop into my head when I do. This can be anything from 'a figure in the background looks like someone I know' to 'this scene reminds of a scene from a movie I watched with my girlfriend', anything that gives my personal experience with a painting.