» Top early Flickr inspirations (part 2)
Above: l-r, 5-1!
My Top ten of early inspirations on Flickr, continued, 5 -1. (No. 1 strongest)
For 10-6, click here.
5. Jaime Bley
When I was first around on Flickr I was looking at all the work of people who ‘cloned’ themselves. Jaime was into multiplicity and I liked her work. However, not until recently, when I reacquainted myself with those images, did I truly feel awed by them. That’s because I think I have a bigger appreciation for finely-constructed, minutely-detailed work nowadays. It’s rare that I would like a clone pic where the clones are so distant from the camera. But when I look at Jaime’s intricate images I don’t feel like I am on Flickr, but standing in an art gallery. Really! I chose to put Jaime into this first list rather than my list of current inspirations, because although I am most in love with her work now, those images were created quite a while back, and I saw them when I first came onto Flickr nearly two years ago.
4. Lara Swift
Lara’s photostream currently no longer contains all the pictures I first saw 2 years ago, but there’s a comprehensive enough display of her ’self’ work here. Funnily enough Lara doesn’t want to do photography professionally (she is studying medicine) but she does have a fine talent for creating self portraits. Photos like this one have inspired my use of mirrors and old looking objects wherever I can get hold of them…
3. Lara Jade Coton
Lara Jade at a remarkably young age has a fantastic talent for photography, she was a professional in my eyes right back at the age of 16!
Of all Lara’s work I most enjoy her self portraits (just my own taste, there’s nothing like seeing ‘the star herself’) and her self portraits came in by the hundreds when I was first on Flickr. You can check out her self portrait set here. The interesting thing about her self portraits is that I don’t think I’ve seen such a diverse set of images that are mostly taken ‘close up’ to her face. Keeping close up to one’s face I find can often be extremely limiting and even unflattering, but Lara’s knack for CUs is unbeatable.
Images that particularly inspired me include this one where she is throwing a strawberry, which led to the creation of my image ‘Strawberry tossing’.
She did a fecking ace one with an umbrella too. I’ve yet to try something with an umbrella, when I do, her image will be in my head as the benchmark!
2. Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir
Rebekka is probably the most popular artist on Flickr, or has been at one point, her work ranging from self portraits to landscapes, to horses, to pics of her sons, celebrities and much more. I was most inspired by her early clone images, I know that this one most definitely had a direct effect on the creation of my clone pic ‘By the lake’. Nowadays Rebekka has a busy schedule hence doesn’t upload as often, but has never really been fully active in the Flickr community as much as I admire of my other fave Flickrers. She also seems to avoid doing too many self portraits. For these reasons she is not a top inspiration, but she’s No. 2 in this list because her body of work over the past three years since she began photography is simply fantastic. Her successes are encouraging to anyone who starts out as an amateur on the web. She’s achieved some pretty amazing feats outside of Flickr, including an ad campaign for Toyota, and use of her images by an Icelandic airline.
1. Solea (Carmen Gonzalez)
At first I found Solea’s work too delicate and mystical for my taste - I was into big brash colourful processing and close-up subjects. But over time, works like this one became my personal benchmark and encouraged me to insert the ’self portrait’ into the landscape, such as for example, in my image ‘The approach’ and just landscapes alone too, titled, like her set, ‘Around where I live’. I loved the minutely constructed painterly quality to Solea’s images. Her openness about her preference for self portraits, ‘I am a self portrait artist, that is my way’, encouraged and motivated me to create more myself, and not be ashamed. Solea is openly sensual and evocative. I can’t see that intricacy in Solea’s recent work that I so admired a year or so ago, but that is not a criticism, she is as hardworking as ever and has also deservedly started to exhibit her work in print.
Next: my Top 5 current Flickr inspirations…
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 7:47 pm and is filed under Inspirations - References to other artists, Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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March 28th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Great list, you set me off in a flurry of adding and faving
Im really interested to see your current top 5!
March 28th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I’m surprised at your number 1. I don’t really see any correlation between Carmen’s work and yours, at least no in the few examples I’ve checked.
Rebekka is obviously fantastic and her range is indeed very wide. She appeals to so many different tastes. I think many of your clones are as good as if not better than the her best, so it’s great that you’ve thanked her for inspiration.
The two Laras have a bit of a goth thing going on, which I can find stunning and ridiculous in equal measure. The quality of their work, however, raises it well above the “Suicide Girls” chic that has proliferated all too widely across the internet. Lara Swift especially has created some remarkable images of late, so I’ve added her as a contact.
Jaime is probably the most interesting of the lot for me. Some of the shots are more “womanly” than I’ve seen you do, and I’ll certainly be investigating her work further.
Thanks once more for giving credit where it’s due and for posting links to such fascinating art.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:40 pm
@ Lucy - thanks for popping along! glad u enjoyed the work of these people. x
@ Arty
I chose to put Solea at the top because I remember being so enthralled by her landscape work and going out with my camera feeling so excited and reinvigorated, just by photography itself, after looking at her work.
Her work has always been very different from mine in style, her portraits are mostly sensual, wispy feminine images - she has a particular way of using brightness and less contrast to give a more delicate feel.
But because these rundowns are all about ‘inspirations’, I took care to choose the artists who have made me feel different about photography regardless of whether or not I go off and produce something that’s similiar to their work … well of course I’m flattered that you don’t think I have produced something similar… it’s the joy that looking at a person’s work and feeling the spurt of energy to go out and do something with my own camera that is important..
I’d say the main difference between my clones and Rebekka’s is that I am more concerned with visual symphonies of colour and composition.. that’s why I never switch clothes between clones (which people have always suggested to me). Her work is based more on concept, a photographic magician’s tromp d’oeil, whereas I am more concerned with making sure the colours of the clones pop pleasingly at correlating parts of the image. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone. Her most recent clone image, titled something like ‘We were just sitting here talking’ demonstrates what I mean. The two clones are differently dressed and with different hair colours, I would not be interesting in doing something like this because to my eye the image would look like it’s leaking at the sides, dissembled… unpackaged, ‘unribboned’… (maybe a stream of consciousness there will help proffer understanding of my obscure point)
Those words are not meant negatively of her work and not to detract from my general admiration for all of her portfolio.
Good term ’suicide girls’… haha, i’ve never been so much of a fan of those kind of images, though I did do one once where i was laying in the bath threatening to be dead, giving some dialogue about my mum and sister who had complained earlier about my dirty knickers in the tub. And I suppose ‘The pool of tears’ (an image I did) is kind of deathly, and then you’ve got ‘The deaths’, which is, erm, blatantly deathly… but I prefer a colourful sanitised version of ‘death’, as if to show i’m not literally talking about death but a symbol of ending, peace, or tranquility.. or a commemoration of dead loved ones, or a question or exploration of the frightening mystical quality of it… maybe I am into death then. Lol. But I’m not keen on those female SPs with the heavy eye make up and angel wing thing going on.
Yeah I like jaime, I’m trying to find out about prints that she has available but i’m not having much luck.
Thanks for your comment and i hope you will find the artists in the 3rd installment equally interesting.
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Thanks very much for the answer about “different clones”. I think I get the gist of what you mean, so I won’t be suggesting that idea again.
I can’t claim responsibility for the term “Suicide Girls”. It’s an Internet phenomenon I thought most young people were aware of, but it seems it’s passed you by. There is a website at http://suicidegirls.com/ that acts as a modelling agency for girls with tattoos and piercings, and it has been highly influential in youth culture, with many competing sites that make a vast amount of money.
It started as a way for “unconventional” young models to get their 15 minutes of fame, with “female empowerment” touted as the driving force, but it turned out that the owner is a redneck porno guy who saw a gap in the market. Many girls left and set up their own sites amid claims of not being paid for their work.
Some of the models are truly stunning, and the photoshoots are often lavish and artistic affairs, allowing girls who were bullied at school to finally feel “beautiful”, but I have many misgivings about the site. Firstly, I don’t find tattoos and piercings at all attractive, but my main issue is that the undercurrent is just basic pornography, exploiting women’s desire to be judged on the size and shape of their tits n’ ass. The “Lolita”-look, which I have such a problem with, is also widespread on the SG site.
I don’t actually have a major problem with art that references the themes of death or suicide. Indeed, I like art that does that. I’m planning on doing a “drowning in the bath” photo tonight. It’s just that the Suicide Girls and their amateur copyists seem to glamourize death and destruction as something to aspire to.
I’m sure that many of the SGs are perfectly aware of the contradictions they are caught up in and are thoroughly decent people just trying to make ends meet, but overall I think the message they send out is quite retrogressive. As someone put it, it’s just porn for goths. Calling themselves “post-feminists” (whatever that means) doesn’t help anyone. Showing off your fanny to some guy in Texas doesn’t bring about equal pay for female office workers, does it?
Oops! I see I have gone on a rant again.
I look forward to the 3rd installment (although my contacts list is quickly getting too large for me to give my favourites the time they deserve). I’ve actually come to regard DrJoanne - from your previous list - as my favourite artist on flickr. She’s just so creative and witty. If you can recommend anyone half as good as her, I’ll be delighted.
Take care, Arty x
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:22 am
P.S. My drowning photo went completely wrong. I wanted to pose as a corpse, but when I left the bathroom to fetch my fags, my camera committed suicide by jumping in the bath! It’s a good job I can see the ironic humour in this, as I could quite easily be distraught by such an occurrence. It also gives me an excuse to buy a new camera. Yippee!
July 25th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
[...] from finding my own article I found - to my surprise - Miss Aniela’s blog and specifically a post she wrote about Flickr photographers who inspired her. And yes, Rebekka was one of [...]