3 Influential photographers

     Andre Kertesz's work comes from mostly the early and mid-nineties.  He was born in Budapest and moved to Paris in 1925, then in 1936 he moved to New York and took a bulk of his photos there.  He wasn't a surrealist or a strict photojournalist but existed somewhere in between the two.  I find his photographs really interesting to look at because they are weird.  He uses juxtaposition in many of his images which I really like and am inspired by.  After looking through his work I was inspired to not choose the composition that would look "nice" or "even".  I tried to look at things a different way.  I  also am inspired by his work because it made me want to look for things that are strange and abnormal.  And find feelings in photographs where you didn't think there could be.  Instead of finding comfort in photographs which is something I normally like doing, I am starting to try to find weirdness and uncomfortableness.  
     Something else Kertesz does is he crops photographs weirdly.  And not all of his croppings are the same.  Some photographers have a specific way of cropping that they stick to.  Although I have always admired that I know as a photographer I am not like that.  I always like to try different ways of cropping things.  Recently I have been cropping things differently to add a stranger tone to the photo.

     Laurie simmons is an artist that I heard of just in the past few months.  She uses women as her subject a lot of the time but its mostly not just a human woman.  She manipulates the woman/female human figure and turns it into doll form.  She plays a lot with the ideas of typically what a woman is or was expected to do (I'd like to think our society is a bit progressive).  She uses simple ideas like that women have to maintain perfect figures (the use of dolls), that women have to "take care of the house" a lot of her set-ups have to do with houses or kitchens, where a woman is most likely expected to be.  I feel like she has a somewhat feminist approach to her work, because she seems to be trying to tear apart the expectations and norms that are attached to femininity and womanhood.  I am really interested in doing that as well.  

     A series she has called Walking & Lying Objects features photographs of different dolls legs with an object where the dolls torso should be.  Each doll is photographed in a different light, some in black and white, but most in color.  Most dolls are photographed with various objects on top that seem to be "feminine" like a house (for a mother) and a handbag (for all fashionable women).  And later on in the images, there is a doll with a gun for a torso and it looks to be lying down.  A couple later is a more disturbing looking image of dolls legs with a gun top.  

     I think some sort of idea that she wanted to convey was no one is allowed to talk about or venture into the "dark side" of women-identifying people.  Women are allowed to be one thing.  I took a photograph that was related to this series (it was pointed out to me afterwards).  It is a photograph of my mom.  She is wearing only a tight tank top almost as a dress, and is holding up napkins to conceal her face.  It's a strange photograph and actually kind of pushed me in a direction I now realize I'm interested in.  Taking ideas of femininity and making them uncomfortable and awkward to look at, almost wrong.  

     Jacques Henri Lartigue is another photographer who's art I have come across just recently.  I am very attracted to black and white photography of people that have humor behind them.  Like Kertesz, Lartigue did work throughout the 1900s, but Lartigue shot mostly people.  He  found moments that seemed almost to mock the subjects in them.  He liked to find humor in most of his photographs, which I really admire.  His photographs make me want to find humor in everything.  Even though most of his photographs don't inspire my idea for my final project, the intention behind many of his photographs is something I want to include in my intentions.  I can keep with my main idea and have in mind humor for some of the photos.  For him it seemed that he found the perfect moment where everything seems strange, funny, or off.  I want to try to get better at paying close attention to finding the moment when someones face contorts, or something abrupt happens.

     My idea for my final project has to do with people looking at themselves.  But I am making that broad.  I am interested in people critiquing themselves because it's something almost everyone does.  I like the idea of cinematically capturing parts of peoples lives that somehow show them reflecting on themselves.  Some photos will be set-up, some will have symbols and some photos will look a little more like everyday scenes.  Even though this seems somewhat narrow I am going to try to keep the idea broad - it will be a lingering idea that I want to capture people looking at themselves or thinking about themselves, or it being hard to face themselves, or loving themselves.