Observations of different aspects of water have inspired many photographers, videomakers and artists. The surface qualities of water and the effects of water on an object have been explored in different ways by Ernst Haas, Billy Viola and David Hockney. Look at appropriate examples and produce your own work.
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Ernst Haas"Bored with obvious reality, I find my fascination in transforming it into a subjective point of view. Without touching my subject I want to come to the moment when, through pure concentration of seeing, the composed picture becomes more made than taken. Without a descriptive caption to justify its existence, it will speak for itself - less descriptive, more creative; less informative, more suggestive - less prose, more poetry."
Ernst Haas from About Color Photography, 1961 |
Bill ViolaBill Viola (b.1951) is internationally recognized as one of today’s leading artists. He has been instrumental in the establishment of video as a vital form of contemporary art, and in so doing has helped to greatly expand its scope in terms of technology, content, and historical reach. For 40 years he has created videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, and works for television broadcast.
Viola’s video installations—total environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound—employ state-of-the-art technologies and are distinguished by their precision and direct simplicity. They are shown in museums and galleries worldwide and are found in many distinguished collections. His single channel videotapes have been widely broadcast and presented cinematically, while his writings have been extensively published, and translated for international readers. Viola uses video to explore the phenomena of sense perception as an avenue to self-knowledge. His works focus on universal human experiences—birth, death, the unfolding of consciousness—and have roots in both Eastern and Western art as well as spiritual traditions, including Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and Christian mysticism. Using the inner language of subjective thoughts and collective memories, his videos communicate to a wide audience, allowing viewers to experience the work directly, and in their own personal way. This is a great talk by Bill Viola held at the Tate and in response to LOVE/DEATH: The Tristan Project, at Haunch of Venison in London |
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David HockneyHockney's use of multiple images collaged together in a variety of ways owes much to both Cubism's re-discovery of multiple viewpoint perspective and the camera's ability to freeze snippets of the real world and put a frame around them. Hockney has always been interested in the play of light on water and the way it moves in the California sunshine. many of his photographs have been used as studies for paintings but several photo compositions exist in their own right where the sum is definitely greater than all the parts.
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Tabitha Soren
from the series 'Weathering' and 'Panic Beach'
Q: Tell us a little about yourself. A: I started out thinking my pictures needed to be hard to love for them to be art. But then I remembered how much I respond to the beauty in J.W.M. Turner’s paintings and to Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photographs. I am patiently waiting for the sublime to come back into fashion in the art world. |
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Hiroshi Sugimoto
"Seascapes. Water and air. So very commonplace are these substances, they hardly attract attention―and yet they vouchsafe our very existence. The beginnings of life are shrouded in myth: Let there water and air. Living phenomena spontaneously generated from water and air in the presence of light, though that could just as easily suggest random coincidence as a Deity. Let's just say that there happened to be a planet with water and air in our solar system, and moreover at precisely the right distance from the sun for the temperatures required to coax forth life. While hardly inconceivable that at least one such planet should exist in the vast reaches of universe, we search in vain for another similar example. Mystery of mysteries, water and air are right there before us in the sea. Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security, as if visiting my ancestral home; I embark on a voyage of seeing."
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