Sunday, November 29, 2015

Betty Gowans - Weekly Artist Post 16

Vanessa Winship


Vanessa Winship is using an analogue, possibly large format camera. All images she takes are black and white. Image one uses line and high contrast. Images 2 and 3 are portraits. In each portrait, the frame allows space for each subject. There is a vanishing point in the background beyond the subjects in the foreground in image two. Image two has a shallow depth of field, and image three doesn't have a deep depth of field, but deeper than image two. The second image is divided in the background by the horizon line. In image three, the composition is split by a diagonal line.

These images appear to me to be about love. In the first image, there is a group of trees engraved numerous times over with initials and names presumably of lovers who wanted to commemorate their feelings by defacing a tree. Image two appears to be a young couple. And the third image appears to be a father and son. The relationships in the trees may have lasted or failed. The couple in the second image may have a strained relationship based on the awkardness in their pose and stares - same with the father and son. To me, the diagonal line in the third image is a division between this father and son. The son looks away, but keeps his hand on his father's shoulder, possibly implying a desire to salvage the loving relationship they had, or the opposite.

This series is interesting to me because it captures multiple aspects of love, and puts it in a different perspective from what is typically portrayed in photographs.

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