Designer Zuzana Licko
Wendy Zhang
Designer Zuzana Licko
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Author Archives: WENQI ZHANG
Nan Goldin Ballad of Sexual Dependency
Wendy Zhang
Art 4900
I think the exhibition of Nan Goldin The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is very interesting. It basically is a slideshow of Nan Goldin’s photographs, which contain a lot of sex, drugs and love. In my opinion, she expressed the emotions very well, not only in each individual photo but also as a whole composition.
I took a very quick look of the photographs that displayed outside and headed right into the theater to watch the whole documentation. I think it is very remarkable that she separated the photos by gender, sexual preferences, age and also the stories happened behind the photos.
The most impressive part to me is the beginning, the section of girls looking into mirror, staying rooms alone, and enjoying the bath time. I felt connected as a girl who has been through this stage of my life, feeling lost and confused during the high school period, finding out the beauty of my body as a grown up girl, and also wondering about the love. I was extremely attracted by the bodies of the young ladies in Nan Goldin’s pictures, such as the brightening skins and also the prefect curves shape. It’s the natural beauty that no one could take away but time, and Nan Goldin recorded them forever in the photos.
On the other hand, I think different people looking into the same photo would have variety understanding of the stories. Some stories are very well told by looking at the first sight. For example, I remember of one photo that a couples are siting at somewhere like a bar since the background is very dark. They are smiling to the camera but the audiences can clearly see the reflection of the tears insides the girls eye also a little bit in the boys. I started to wondering maybe they are talking about future, or being separate from each other, or could be they just made peace from the fight. Freezing the stories into one simple picture, I think that is how Nan Goldin made the whole The Ballad of Sexual Dependency fascinating.
Photographer Lisette Model
Wenqi Zhang
Art 4900
Professor Klein
Lisette Model, a renowned photographer, was born in 1901 in Vienna, where she first studied compositional theory and piano before going to Paris (Rosenblum 37). She was later influenced by European modernist aesthetics and philosophy; hence, abandoned her musical career to take up painting and subsequently photography. Later in 1937, she decided to concentrate full-time on photography and moved to New York with her husband, Evsa Model, in 1938. Three years later, she started a twelve-year association as a freelance photographer with Harper’s Bazaar (Roosens 26). In 1951, she taught in various workshops and private classes during her time and died in 1983.
Model’s notable work encompasses a series of photographs she made using a 35-milimeter camera, of individuals on the Lower East Side of New York streets and Promenade des Anglais in Nice (Rosenblum 39). Model’s work is notable since it emphasizes on the peculiarities of ordinary people in addition to its direct, honest portrayal of the contemporary life and its influence on the human character. She redefined the aspect of American documentary photography as well as the direction of the postwar photography in the 1940s (Roosens 28). Model made several great images from the sad, often eccentric, and funny inhabitants of subterranean haunts in New York to the rich idlers in Promenade des Anglais.
Figure 1: Coney Island Bather, New York (Rosenblum 40)
Model’s photography was natural and brought out all the features in the image. Her photographs represented the actual occurrences at the time and are admired because of their clarity. Model’s images have an impact on me in that I can deduce the historical incidents from the pictures. I often get a glimpse of the past by looking at the images. The first reaction one gets by looking at the pictures is a good feeling since they look real and actual people express the universal humanity in the society.
Roosens, Laurent, and Luc Salu. History of Photography: A Bibliography of Books. London: Mansell, 1989. Print.
Rosenblum, Naomi. A History of Women Photographers. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 2010. Print