Discuss a Melanie Manchot photograph

[catem]

Disgusting? Yes. Too arty? Yes.

Joyce Tennyson does a much better job, and a more honest job, of the same concept.

Do you think you could post a link to one? It would be interesting to compare...
Cate

[SuzanneR]

Here's a link to her work. http://www.tenneson.com/ Not sure which work Alex is referring to, but she has a series of portraits called "Wise Women" and another called "Amazing Men".

There are some great protraits, but all these people are famous in some way. So it's a bit different in the premise than portraits of "normal" folks, but the portraits really do show lives well lived, if not a little pampered!

[photomc]

Not my type of work, but I would congratulate the artist for moving out of the mainstream and trying something different. Hopefully they will find it really did not work, but learn from it and produce a new body of work that does.

Suzanne, has some very valid points and most of all..no matter what we do, we are all heading down the road to aging. It may not be beauty in the sense that we have all learned to see it, but it is beauty in many other ways...our bodies will fail us, and for other the mind will fail as well..but it is better to 'see' those that have attained a place in life, that we all should hope to arrive at. The alternative would be never getting to that point...I for one look forward to the aging one way or the other.

[Mick Fagan]

As a person in the age group of her mother, I find these pictures of her mother interesting.

Also as a person who has used public saunas all around Australia and a lot of western Europe, I find the way her mother has been shown on that link provided, normal.

We at various stages of life, view things quite differently.

I've never heard of this photographer before, never seen her work before, I would like to see more of her work.

What she has done is different, I find that refreshing.

Mick.

[Curt]

I worked in health care so long that they neither disturb or disgust me. I feel neutral toward them. It's a fact that a lot of the people in the United States look like the people in the pictures, without their closes of course. Maybe I have been looking at too much Art, the masters loved the wrinkles and rolls.

[Alex Hawley]

Here's a link to her work. http://www.tenneson.com/ Not sure which work Alex is referring to, but she has a series of portraits called "Wise Women" and another called "Amazing Men".

Thanks Suzanne. Maybe I'm crossing Tenneson and Leibovitz together. (And 'scuse my spelling-I know its probably correct)

Somewhere, someplace, I've seen the similar theme (mature women) done much better and it was by a famous female photographer of the current era.

[blansky]

The work is in a way the "anti nude".

Since most people on the planet probably look more like this that the typical nudes we see, it's interesting that people find them disgusting.

On the other hand maybe she is stating the often "female photographer mantra" that beauty is not just about physical beauty, and that women try too hard to reach the plastic beauty that the media and or men, try to jam down our throats.

So my opinion on the work is "interesting", but I wouldn't hang it on my wall.


Michael

[scootermm]

I havent posted much in this forum... but do love reading it.

I find the work to be somewhat in argument with its presentation and subject matter. The muddy/funky/experimental method of printing seems to only try and exemplify the "disgusting" characteristic of the work. Almost (despite what her words and thoughts seem to be) as though she is trying to get the viewer to see it as revolting etc. I find that to conflict when I view it.
The method of creation (processes used, presentation method, etc) are an integral part of the overall reaction a viewer has, in my opinion. Something that comes to mind for me is work like Keriks wetplate photographs of flowers, or Robb Kendricks choice of wet plate for his texas cowboy projects, In the case of keriks work I find the somewhat dreamy method of printing to fit the delicate and almost transient beauty of the chosen subject to be expressed wonderfully with the method of wet plate. Similiarly Kendriks work with the modern day cowboys and his choice to use a process that requires "hard work" and a hands on approach to be fitting for the subject, a group of society that makes their living working with their hands and actually doing things on their own.
In these examples the method and processes used only assist in better presentation of the work. In Manchots work she seems to be try to exagerate the notion that the subject matter is supposed to be revolting or disgusting, when in fact growing older, gaining weight, and veering away from the societally excepted "beauty" is something to embrace and cherish, as many have pointed out already.

[mark]

I think the images would come across better if there were no words.

I guess I don't see the disgusting people are talking about.

I did not like the images because of the cheesy effects, and I am not really a fan of nudes.

[Claire Senft]

I did not read the words. It is not the subject matter but the way that it is presented.