You may be thinking while reading my blog that I have not particularly included much with a historical context. There is a reason for this.
For the first blog, as I explained in my sketchbook for photography last year, I hate the old, pained still life pictures. A fine example of one being this:
This is a painting by Pieter Claesz and I do believe he was a rather famous Dutch painter. However, I thoroughly dislike how dull this painting is. There is a severe lack of colour in it and the most commonly used colour appears to be brown. I know the objects have been arranged and the man probably spent hours thinking about it but they just look like such a mess and it is not my sort of thing.
For portraiture, I did not particularly cover paintings either. I have been to see the Mona Lisa but it was probably more just because it is famous and not for the actual portrait itself.
I think the reason I am not particularly interested in painted portraits is that it is not something I can particularly achieve myself – I can take a photo of someone’s face but I definitely could not paint one, or not well anyway. There is no doubt that the lighting in painted portraits and positions in which people sit have been an inspiration and have heavily influenced certain photographers, but I find more current things are more relevant for me.
As for typologies, I have previously looked at Bernd & Becher and their study of types. I do like how unusual their typologies are, like their ‘Cooling Towers’ piece which sold for a $150,000 in 2004! I think they showed how it is a way of making a boring subject more interesting by being able to compare it to others.
