Ian Shelton 03 - A Lackluster Selection

So, within this set of gallery exhibitions, the greatest feeling I felt was probably hunger, followed by overwhelming apathy.  But never once did I think too much of any of the photographs.  All of them were not good, nor bad enough to garnish much attention from me at all.  The ideas behind quite a few of the galleries were an overwhelming vibe of 'vintage, architecture, and a night out' all of which don't really lead to much discussion within my mind.  Not only that, but the overwhelming majority were presented, fine, however, without much interest. Needless to say, never have I been so overwhelmed by something I myself have described as uninteresting.  But I suppose quantity does that to you?  My Faces // our face - prayers was a fine show I believe, but I enjoyed it without thinking too much about it I suppose. Therefore, in the end I chose.

Francesca Woodman - I'm Trying my Hand at Fashion Photography

I suppose that even if it had something to do with being the center in a series of photos I was apathetic towards, this set may have made me feel something more than all the rest; albeit that something being "anger".  The expressions, postures, and clothing of the subjects all seem to resemble a bunch of friends getting drunk and taking selfies in an abandoned building while wearing rags that they've found about.  Once more a series of vintage photographs, I don't quite see how these belong in a gallery setting?  The composition of the photographs seems poor and as if there was only one of each image taken, or hyper-experimentation.  The lighting is clearly not intentional and is, rather, the result of accepting whichever lighting was current.  The idea of mimicking fashion photography despite it not being much of that was ok? Save the fact that it was betrayed by the cooperation of the subjects.  I don't know, I hate these, and perhaps I can't quite explain why.  Some are alright, but others are just, absurd, ruining the entire series.  You can make judgments for yourself.

So, after a bit of thinking, and a bit more poor weather, I made a collection of what I'd like to call "fashion photography"  The result, I think, is actually even less successful than Francesca Woodman, however the idea of crafting characters out of absurd selections interests me, and I'll probably investigate this further at a later time.