Previously on Skandalon

Previously on Skandalon

Ariel Levy wrote about McGinley:

“People fall in love with McGinley’s work because it tells a story about liberation and hedonism: Where Goldin and Larry Clark were saying something painful and anxiety-producing about Kids and what happens when they take drugs and have sex in an ungoverned urban underworld, McGinley started out announcing that “The Kids Are Alright,” fantastic, really, and suggested that a gleeful, unfettered subculture was just around the corner—still—if only you knew where to look.”

“That show, “The Kids Are Alright,” depicted a downtown neverland where people are thrilled and naked, leaping in front of graffiti on the street, sacked out in heaps of flannel shirts—everything very debauched and drug-addled and decadent, like Nan Goldin hit with a happy wand.” (New York Magazine)

I think it’s an inexact account of both McGinley and Clark works. Kids are happy from time to time in Larry Clark’s Kids. And young naked people seems to be a little fucked up in some on McGinley photographs. I would certainly not opposed those two artist that quickly.

Previously on Skandalon

“McGinley went on a two-year road trip, traveling to dozens of Morrissey concerts in the US, the UK, and Mexico. The resultant photos, many of which are densely saturated in the concerts’ colored lights, feature candid shots of fans, regularly zooming in for seductive close-ups of enamored youngsters—a celebration of the ecstatic cult of fame and its ardent enablers. A few oblique pics of Morrissey himself are scattered throughout the show, though the shots are careful to avoid the singer’s face.” (more)

About McGinley:

“Ryan McGinley (born October 17, 1977) is an American photographer living in New York City who began making photographs in 1998. In 2003, at the age of 24, McGinley was the youngest artist to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He was also named Photographer of the Year in 2003 by American Photo Magazine. In 2007 McGinley was awarded the Young Photographer Infinity Award by the International Center of Photography.” (wikipedia)

About Mona Kuhn:

“Mona Kuhn was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1969, of German descent. She earned her degree in the United States from Ohio State University. Since 1998, she has been an independent studies scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited, and is included in public and private collections, internationally and in the United States. Kuhn’s first monograph, Photographs, was debut by Steidl in 2004; immediately followed by, Evidence, published by Steidl and released in Spring 2007. The images appearing in Evidence were photographed entirely in France, where she resides each summer.” (more)

Interesting comments about Kuhn’s work by Joerg Colberg (from his Conscientious’ blog):

“It’s probably not surprising that this kind of photography looks just like advertizing (minus the clothes) and that it usually is described as bringing back “youth” and “freedom” to photography when it is “discovered”. (more)

Colberg is quoting Alexander Adams’ analysis of Ryan McGinley’s work:

“It is here, ever more specifically, that the work continues its travel into the collective Spectacle – the domain of Guy Debord’s societal criticism – it joins product advertising in creating the image of an unattainable lifestyle – the “world vision which has become objectified [17].” McGinley shoots thousands of rolls of film, creates elaborate situations, to attain what he expresses as “the life I wish I was living.” If even he – young, hip, white, famous, and increasingly wealthy – cannot actually attain this lifestyle, it is hard to comprehend it as existing for anyone outside of the shallow frame of his camera.” (much more)

In McGinley’s case, I think it’s really hard to say if this is a weakness or a quality : his work is a symptom of its time. I find the reflexive quality in Kuhn’s work to be less evocative. Some of McGinley’s photos could offer great illustrations for Bret Easton Ellis’ novels. Just like Terry Rogers decadent photorealist paintings.

See-Saw explained:

“An established artist edits the photographs of his younger self – I’m delighted to be able to share a sampling of my earlier photography. These come from bodies of work begun when I was “living behind a camera” in small town Ohio. A camera was my sword, my shield, my close companion then, and when I moved out into the wider world.

Photography was a passing interest, at age seven, when Cousin Bill gave me a box camera. At age thirteen it kicked in hard, and from then on was a solid pursuit. I was hooked. I became a kind of local treasure, winning contests with a good eye for composition and a whole lot to learn.

I’ve looked back at some of my earlier work, after four decades as a professional photographer. I chose the period from ages 7 to around 47, and pondered its influence on my contemporary work. I see that I had a fascination with movement as well as light. I see that I developed reflexively and intuitively in capturing the essence of a moment. I see that the innate compositional sense expanded. And so on, all insights giving me a chance to pause and reflect as I go forward in my photographic career.

At the age of 48 a major shift occurred. I found my personal photographic voice. But that’s another story, one that sprung from the early fascination. I see now what I saw back when, as the evolution of my transition into fine art photography.”

Biography:

“Michael Philip Manheim has been a professional photographer since 1969. A chance encounter with photography, at the age of 13, locked him onto a life-long pursuit.” Read more over at Contemporary Works