Moving people is a fascinating short art movie by Vladimir Shcherban, the director of Belarus Free Theatre. This is his first film work where he presents actors with whom he has collaborated in the underground theatre. Human emotion, individual identities, movement, light and fragments of the human body are the elements which tell the tales of the 6 short stories in this film.
Vladimir Shcherban about the film: “The idea to make this video came to my mind when i found the illuminant in my temporary loft appartment in New York City. My friend finally bought a camera for saved money and helped me with my film. The film production was carried out in the room of one of New York City hotels.”
The National Portrait Gallery in London has dedicated a retrospective exhibition to the work of one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated photographers, Irving Penn (1917-2009).
The exhibition is brought together from major international collections and includes over 120 silver and platinum prints, many vintage, ranging from his portraits for Vogue magazine in the 1940s to some of his last work. The exhibition is a survey of Penn’s portraits of major cultural figures from the worlds of literature, Fashion, music and the visual and performing arts brought together from many international collections. Portraits include Truman Capote, Salvador Dalì, Marlene Dietrich, Christian Dior, T.S. Eliot, Duke Ellington, Alfred Hitchcock, Nicole Kidman, Willem de Kooning, Kate Moss, Jessye Norman, Rudolph Nureyev, Edith Piaf, Pablo Picasso, Harold Pinter, Igor Stravinsky, and Tennessee Williams.
Penn’s photographs stand out for their elegance, the clean look of their images, a strong contrast between subject and background and a “less is more” aesthetic. These are the distinctive features of an oeuvre that marked and captured an epoch. The power of Irving Penn’s visual language is often found in the details and shades of his portraits. Through his sublime techniques of composition, light and printing, the character of his subjects is stripped naked before the camera lens.
Irving Penn said in 1975:
“Sensitive people faced with the prospect of a camera portrait put on a face they think is one they would like to show the world… very often what lies behind the facade is rare and more wonderful than the subject knows or dares to believe.”
The exhibition in the The National Portrait Gallery in London will run until the 6Th of June 2010 and will travel afterwards to Rome’s Palazzo delle Esposizioni where it will be on display from the 1st of July to 19Th of September 2010.
Photos: Irving Penn | Photo top and 6Th photo: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters | Photo bottom: Cate Gillon/Getty Images | The National Portrait Gallery
The monumental installations created by ,the New York based artist, Spencer Tunick are an inspiring and interesting dialogue between the naked human body and the public spaces they are placed in. But, at the same time, they are also a dialogue between the individual human and the larger group. By taking pictures of hundreds and sometimes thousands of naked bodies at specific locations he transforms human individuals to sculptural objects. By doing this he shows and opens a new point of view or perception of humans, nature and architecture.
In his early work he focussed more on individual nude bodies or small groups. This made these works more intimate compared to the massive installations for which he is now known. His work can be considered as a crossover between an installation and a performance.
Spencer Tunick:
“A body is a living entity. It represents life, freedom, sensuality, and it is a mechanism to carry out our thoughts. A body is always beautiful to me. It depends on the individual work and what I do with it and what kind of idea lies behind it — if age matters or not. But in my group works, the only difference is how far people can go if it rains, snows etc.”
On March 1st, 2010 he created his latest work. Tunick set up a series of installations titled “The Base” on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt and inside the Opera House. These installations were carried out as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and were Tunick’s first large-scale installation in Sydney, with over 5,200 participants.
In the below video by Ralph Goertz, Spencer Tunick was followed by the Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie during the creation of his installation at the Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf in 2006.
Photos top Spencer Tunick | Photo centre Reuters | Photo bottom Wood/Getty | Video by Ralph Goertz, Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie
