Author: carlwhetham

T.J. Demos, Kutluğ Ataman: The Art of Storytelling

(Taken from the catalogue of Kutluğ Ataman’s ‘The Enemy Inside Me’ exhibition at İstanbul Modern between 10 November, 2010 and 6 March, 2011)

Available on Ataman’s website here, this article is a true analysis of the filmmaker’s work and not obfuscated with high-brow terminology and hyperbole. The author first of all points out that Ataman’s films are part of a vogue that has been ongoing since the mid 90s, where artists have been engaged in challenging accepted parameters of documentary (objectivity, truthfulness) while simultaneously “…refusing to surrender film’s capacity to represent and construct meaningful social reality“; Continue reading “T.J. Demos, Kutluğ Ataman: The Art of Storytelling”

Ana Finel Honigman, What the Structure Defines: An Interview with Kutlug Ataman

This interview first appeared in Art Journal, Vol. 63, No. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp 79-86, and is available on Ataman’s website. As always, I prefer to read the artist’s own words since they generally give greater insight into what their work is about rather than reading critics and curators, who have a tendency for over-interpretation and hyperbole. Continue reading “Ana Finel Honigman, What the Structure Defines: An Interview with Kutlug Ataman”

Kutluğ Ataman

“I’m always interested in how things are constructed. How identities are constructed, how communities are constructed, how history, geography, art is constructed.” – Kutluğ Ataman

Ataman uses documentary tradition to get his point across, but at the same time he is revealing the misconceptions about truth and objectivity in documentary narratives, as well as the layers of meaning and reality in other media. Continue reading “Kutluğ Ataman”

Futureland Now – A Conversation, John Kippin and Chris Wainwright in conversation with Liz Wells

Located this conversation online after my tutor quoted Liz Wells as saying that a criterion for evaluating art is whether it makes you think differently about something of importance. Continue reading “Futureland Now – A Conversation, John Kippin and Chris Wainwright in conversation with Liz Wells”

Howells, R. (2011) Visual Culture, Cambridge: Polity Press.

An article which traces the history of photography’s perceived realism, Howells speaks about photography’s umbilical relationship with reality:

Photography, indeed, had a special relationship with reality, which persuaded people that when they looked at a photograph, they were looking at reality itself. They could say, ‘this is Abraham Lincoln’, when actually they were looking not at the man but at a photograph … an attitude that suggests that a photograph is an unmediated medium with a direct, uncomplicated authenticity and which provides straightforward evidence of the thing photographed. As it is a mechanical recording device, it can only record the truth. (p 190)
 Continue reading “Howells, R. (2011) Visual Culture, Cambridge: Polity Press.”

Fazal Sheikh, Ramadan Moon

Predominantly a portrait photographer, Sheikh uses his work to highlight humanitarian and other issues (refugees, migrant workers are among his more common subject matter). Rather than simply taking stock images of the other, Sheikh is in no way condescending towards his subjects, and their portraits are all instilled with a dignity and respect despite their plight. Continue reading “Fazal Sheikh, Ramadan Moon”

Bertien van Manen

This photographer is of particular interest to me since she works in the documentary tradition and (on some earlier projects) in the same geographical territory as me – namely the former USSR: “I did not focus on poverty, but the average living conditions are, of course, poorer than in the West. On the other hand I did not try to show happiness and lightheartedness where it does not exist.” Continue reading “Bertien van Manen”

Francis Giacobetti, Francis Bacon portraits & last interview

Looking up some quotes from Bacon, I came across the following interesting and inspiring words:

“The feeling of desperation and unhappiness are more useful to an artist than the feeling of contentment, because desperation and unhappiness stretch your whole sensibility.” (Francis Bacon) I think this is so true, and have always maintained that to create a piece of art, a piece of the artist must of necessity suffer, perhaps even die. I never photograph on a full stomach – hunger hones the quest for creating images, actually helps me to see better. Continue reading “Francis Giacobetti, Francis Bacon portraits & last interview”

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