Independent Reflection
I want to see myself as a photographer in both the commercial and the fine art sector, however I imagine the commercial sector financing the fine art projects in terms of personal projects, which would hopefully be marketable to different institutions media outlets. The aim is to have a commercial practice that is very much informed by more creative fine art approach. Inspirations include Juno Calypso, Petra Collins, Nadav Kander, and Alex Prager. Three artists who are sought out because of their visual language. Petra Collins is a particularly good example, her work with Gucci, MAC, and the editorials she has created for media groups like ID, have all stemmed from her popularity as a young woman taking dreamy photographs with a female gaze. Her practice has resonated so hard with a female audience, an under represented group in still male-dominated fashion photography industry.
So far I have gone it alone in terms of working with others, I want to collaborate because I want to develop and use their experience to further my own practice – however the brief activities will be a learning curve.
Prince of Thieves
One of the points in this week’s task was to discuss the Canal Zone/Yes Rasta lawsuit in which Richard Prince was accused of appropriating Patrick Cariou’s work Yes Rasta. More can be read about the case which was eventually settled years later, here.
I was surprised by the majority of one-sided responses to the Richard Prince forum post condemning him entirely, and saying that what he did wasn’t art. I understand that everyone thinks he is morally bankrupt and I admit, this is a problem for me too, however to say that his work isn’t art is the wrong response. The fact that he can do this and then sell it for millions to his celebrity clients says a lot more about the market than it does about the work. Prince has made more than a living from similar acts over the years and he still sells. He is a conceptual artist, and it seems that a lot of the concept in the work is tied into ownership regardless of intent.
“If artists were in Hell in 1946, now they are in Business” Allan Kaprow ‘The artist as a man of the world’, 1964 Kaprow’s quote from 1964 is more real than ever; the artworld is a market, it is now commodity over artistry. These commodities serve as cultural capitol to anyone willing to pay for it, they might not buy it because of an aesthetic jouissance but so that it can simply be part of a collection of culturally relevant pieces.
It is incredibly interesting to watch the reactions to his work because for ever one or two that understood his work in a conceptual market as opposed to a photography project, there are about 20 of the group who can’t see it as anything other than despicable. There is a failure at this point, to realise that Cariou, would never have commanded millions for his work, how many documentary projects become famous enough to make anywhere near that amount? If anything Cariou has probably gained a little bit of notoriety from the case.
When considering both the works as pieces of art I think what Prince did was more interesting than Cariou’s original intent despite the origian photographs being great.
In the piece ‘The hidousness of the Art World’ in the Charles Saatchi speaks on how art is used as cultural capitol for the rich, who already have the economic and perhaps the social capitol.
“being an art buyer these days is comprehensivley and indisputably vulgar. It is the sport of the Eurotrashy, Hedge-fundy, Hamptonites; of trendy oilgarchs and oiligarchs; and of art dealers with masturbatory levels of self-regard … Artistic credentials are au courant in the important business of being seen as cultured, elegant and, of course, stupendously rich.”
This vulagrity Saatchi speaks of is not a new revelation to me, but I have never thought of myself in relation to it until considering Richard Prince’s sales figures for Canal Zone and the backlash from a traditional photography point of view in the forum posts.
Headway Group Pitch
Our first group meeting on Canvas was good, as a group we decided to meet once a week via conference and to have each member of the group minute the meeting on a turn based system.
For the first meeting we discussed the research we had done in looking at Headway, looking primarily at their social media presence and how they use certain platforms. Quickly we were able to identify that Instagram would be the platform we pitch for, based on what Instagram offers in terms of posts, stories, paid posts and now Instagram TV. Not only that, we felt that the biggest reach would be possible on Instagram due to the open nature of the platform.
Following the meeting we decided to conduct further research in existing campaigns for similar causes as well as a more indepth look into Headway’s current assets as a group.
CRJ 