Young and talented photographer Femke van Veen has just started a new project. A photo series that will cover 365 days. She is 5 weeks into her project now. On her blog she will share the photos with us. A 365 photos kind of project has been done by others before, of course, but knowing the kind of photographer she is, it might be a very interesting blog to follow. Beautiful photographs guaranteed.
Controversy is a word that springs to mind when looking at the photographs of Andres Serrano. The American photographer became notorious through his photos of corpses and his use of faeces and bodily fluids in his work. One of the very controversial photographs was that of a crucifix submerged in a liquid. The liquid was his own urine. This in 1987 created artwork he called “Immersion (Piss Christ)”.
For Serrano this artwork was a statement on the misuse of religion. He defended his photograph as a criticism of the “Billion-dollar-Christ-for-profit industry” and a “condemnation of those who abuse the teachings of Christ for their own ignoble ends”.
On several occasions the photograph was vandalized. A print of the photograph was damaged using a screwdriver or ice-pick on April 17, 2011 while on exhibit in Avignon, France. Before that a print was also vandalized in Australia. And in Sweden, neo-Nazis took it upon themselves to ransack the art work.
If by definition art has to communicate some form of emotion, Serrano sure managed to do so.
Spanish photographer Chema Madoz is a true visual poet. He is able to melt ordinary objects together into something very unique. He teaches us something about looking. He does this as no other.
The minimalistic way of presenting us this surreal reality is just marvelous. By only showing what is needed, and by doing so in black and white, he plays with our visual senses.
