Maurizio Anzeri

Anzeri uses old found portraits of people he doesn't know and stitches on the image and makes intriguing embroidery patterns. The images have an old antique feel to them in contrast to the bright shimmery thread overlapping. 
Quote from Anzeri:
“I’ve been collecting old photographs for a long time. A few years ago I was doing ink drawings with them and out of curiosity I stitched into one. I work a lot with threads and hand stitching, and the link to photography was a natural progression. I put tracing paper over the photo and draw on the face until it develops. Sometimes the image comes straight away, suggested by a detail on a dress or in the background, but with the majority of them I spend a lot of time drawing. Once the drawing is done, I pierce the photo with a set of needle-like tools I invented and take the paper away; the holes are obsessively paced at the same distance to convey an idea of geometry. When I begin the stitching something else happens, drawing will never do what thread will – the light changes, and at some points you can lose the face, and at others you can still see under it.”

This I found interesting about his images:
“There’s a dynamic in what happens between the photograph, the embroidery on top, and you standing in front looking at it. I try never to completely cover a face, you can always still see the face underneath. There are no rules other than I always leave one or both eyes open. Nothing is bigger in my head than a face, it’s the best landscape we can look at. It’s all to do with the centre, the body. Like a costume or other identity, my work reveals something that is behind the face that suddenly becomes in front. It’s like a mask – not a mask you put on, but something that grows out of you. It’s what the photo is telling you and what you want to read in the photos."


The style of this work is somewhat similar to mine due to hiding the identity, the media is just different, I would love to try it as I think the effect of covering the face but still be able to see it underneath.

Images Taken

Here are some images with similar intentions as to Urs Fisher and John Stezaker who I have just previously researched. For Fishers work I did add objects over the face but made it slightly different as I used the objects to cover the entire face. I have just fruit and flowers in these images as I thought the circular shape will cover most of the face.

In this particular image I showed the eye as I thought i might add abit of a story and even with this you still don't know who it is. 

I really like this image as it allowed me to cut a hole in the image where I could show the eye and it still make you the view interact more with the image but you don't know who it is. 

These images are in relation to John Stezekers work as i had added a landscape over the persons face.

Some of these image work but I don't think there as thought out as Stezaker's work as in where the facial structures are in relation to the landscape. When I first saw Stezaker's images I did think that the landscape what where the person wanted to be and thinking of and I still think that now when I see these images.

This is proberly the only image looks like the landscape is the face in my opinion as i made the shapes of the building juin the the edges of her face. 

John Stezaker

There is one piece of work I am looking at in relation to my project that work  is called "Moving Image". His work features males or females in a black and white portrait from a 50's film still and has glued over the top a postcard of a landscape. The alignment of his work is key, for example this image below of the couple about the kiss. The use of the cliff as the jaw and the foliage as the eyebrows and even the light difference between the people and the background is the same. There are many juxtapositions in his images such as colour/ black and white, male/ female and portrait and landscape.

I find Stezaker's work really imaginative and clever to make such similar shapes from the landscape as the face. I wanted to add his work to my research as he does hide the identity of these people and I find the style of the mix media of putting another image on top of the original is clever. Although the style is different to my work the use of covering the face is the same I guess our intentions are both the same. 

Urs Fischer

The set of work i am focusing on is called "Problem Painting". The "problem" of the painting is that a object obstructs each man or woman in the image. There is also a correlation between the object and the face. The people in the images are of Hollywood publicity shots but Fishers doesn't want this to be the main focus of the image.

Here is a question asked to Fischer in an interview: In these works, you’re referring to a particular era of Hollywood’s Golden Age. It’s a specific way of sculpting an image of a person that is not personal; it’s idealised. Actually, it’s not about the faces in the background so much as the things in the foreground. My daughter comes in and she doesn’t say: “Oh, that’s Veronica Lake.” She says: “Lemon! Mushroom! Salad!” The things in the foreground are much more universal than the things in the background. That’s what people misunderstand because they look at the wrong layer of the painting. 

I think this is interesting; What the “Problem Paintings” do not do, by design, is portray a middle. Born from the artist’s frustration that so much visual creativity that happens on screens never gains dimensionality because it looks so bad when printed out, these are illustrations of monumental flatness. There may not be as much there as in his other works, but that may be part of the point.

I think from reading this that he wants the viewer to focus on the layers of the image and not just the famous Hollywood celeb but the objects in the foreground as much. 

I have added these images into my research as they are relating to identity and covering up partly who they are. I like the style of the images but i know i have been looking at paint and other mixed medias but this itself objects is another way i could approach my work.

Images Taken

I took these set of images in the studio, i wanted to uses fashion related images as they have to be all pristine and look perfect but i wanted to make them different by covering the face in a mix media way for example like the images above with the paint. Although in Wys and Robson's work the contrast between old paintings and the bright modern look of paint and graphic design. I think the contrast between the pristine model and the messy paint creates an interesting contrast. 

The above images are all done on Photoshop and i used contrasting colours to make the paint on the face stand out.

I added extra paint around the image to add more interest to the image almost like a messy boarder like the artist has accidentally dropped paint around the edges. 

For this image i used a spray paint effect brush and held it over the face to cover and in other areas to add to the look of a messy image. 

Images Taken

These three images above are all done digitally on Photoshop I have used a brush which I think gives a great affect to paint i have used bright colours and only covered the face. Theses portraits are all quite close up and only show the face and chest. I wanted to do this to see how I preferred them to a full length image of a person. 

This image has turned out with a strange blur to the image but I wanted to add it to the list to show the use of the tool I used on Photoshop and that it gives the effect of paint/spray can. This image is more close up then the others and I only sprayed one side and showed the outline of the face on the right or I think there wouldn't be much to see and for the viewer to work out what it was.  

The above two photos i used a more dotty brush which does give the effect of paint been flicked and brushed over the face. I used two different colours of the paint to add depth and to make the colour no seem flat and bland. The bottom image i kept the eye uncovered I tried this technique as i have seem something similar in Wys work and I find in interesting revealing a small part of the person as with out it is does look like a nude person, unknowing to the gender. 

This image I find the mixture of the colours gives the impression that it is done digitally and not paint the outline of the strokes does the but block colours work best to create the full look of paint i find. 

Thomas Robson

This British artist has caught my eye as it is similar to Chad Wys work whoIi have researched previously. He uses old Victorian images in some of his work and combines graphic design, photography, fine art and illustrations all into one. Unlike Wys work Robson uses unusual Images to cover up the face and using shapes and bright colours to hide the identity. Here are a few example of his work.

There is a lot of conflict with Robson's work and even Wys work. Are they digitally vandalising  the traditional Victorian images or  modifying them?  In my opinion I find the work unique there's a edge to their work unlike anyone else. Yes, the photos are not theirs but the creativeness to make them modern is. 

For my work I have scanned some images taken by a relative in the 50's and i would love to create the finishing product using paint over their faces. Even thought I have not taken them i will have recreated something unique. 

Although for my work I want to take the images myself to get the right pose and appearance as I want to create the right overall look for my final images.

Here's some information on Robson's response to his work.

"I began to wonder how I could make individuals question pictures more deeply and in doing so, develop enhanced critical skills in their reading and interpretation of imagery.

As my initial creative response I began thinking about taking familiar images and imposing change on them to create an Art Remix. A creative approach which enables me to author images, invested with the power to provoke heightened aesthetic and critical responses.

I am experimenting with fusing fine art & photography imagery with the visual language of graphic design, to create new categories of art composition. In which new layers of visual interventions are used to reconstruct and transform the significance of images, place them in new contexts and in so doing make new demands on the viewer.

It is an approach which seeks to short circuit peoples’ common interactions with representational fine art & photography. Forcing them to question images more intently, and in so doing develop enhanced critical skills and visual literacy.

Striping away the traditional and highly restrictive carapace of how fine art and photography should be read, and subverting it with a new highly accessible visual language. Which is more accurately reflective of our highly edited, curated, media remixed and visually saturated world."

Looking at Robson's work I am using his work to reference the fact that he hides the persons identity in most of his images and this is what I want to do in my work. But the uses of the objects is something i didn't consider I like the use of paint and drawing not so much the use of the 3D cubes.

Images Taken

These image were inspired by the work of Helena Almedia. In the images i have taken the photo in black and white but think i will experiment in only showing the colour of the red. I painted on a piece of glass so the girl can hold it in front of her face. This is similar intentions to Almedia's work but i wanted to see the effect of holding the object in front. The style is similar with using only one colour throughout but i do like the idea of Wys work where he uses all sorts of colours and media so i think in my next attempt i will change the colours a little.

Helena Almedia

Is an artist not a photographer but I am adding her work into my research as I think it is relevant to the style of my work. The particular images I am focusing on are image which her husband took of her which are black and white portraits with a particular shade of blue painted over the front covering her face and body. In the images you see the artist in the act of painting and holding the paint brush in her hand.

The title of this set of images is called " Inner Improvement".

The colour blue is copied from the artist Yves Kleins work. The artist painted on nude models (the same blue) and then printed their bodies on a canvas. He called this work " Living Brushes".
Males dominated the art world in the 1970's and Almedia protested the use of women in his work.
In one image in particular Almedia is chewing up the Kleins blue, a colour he had come to dominate, was a liberating act for women and artists everywhere.

Looking at the style of the work which i am more interested in. The use of the bright paint popping out from the image against the black and white image. I like the use of the brush affects similar to Wys work. My approach will be similar as i will be covering the face.