Narrative & Photography - Assignment #4

Anna Gaskell
What inspired me to further research Anna Gaskell was reading the words of Charlotte Cotton depicting her work as ambiguous and sinister. I was immediately drawn to Anna's Wonder and Override series' as i also have an interest in Lewis Carrol's Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and have used the story as a motif in my own photography in the past. Alice in wonderland seems to be a perfect narrative for Gaskell to work with as the tableau style of photography often involves children and misadventure or the good turned bad.
Although each series has many photos which when put together tell a story, the viewer still can find a lot to interpret in each single image. There is no flow or sense of time between her photos, rather they are all just snippets of an idea represented in different ways. Even the protagonist Alice changes actors multiple times throughout Wonder and Override.
Gaskell is no Gregory Crewston when it comes to elaborate setups although her simple and sometimes 'messy' lighting is helpful in exaggerating the dream like quality of narrative photography. Unlike some photographers, she uses existing ideas or stories and through her unique representation she lets the audience interpret them in a different way, often a way that is uncanny and somewhat sordid. Her Hide series is both voyeuristic and wreaks terror with inspiration drawn from Shakespeare's Ophelia and tales from Brothers Grimm. The visual story is so effectively told through her use of stalker like angles and ominous lighting.

untitled #47 (hide), 1998

Untitled #2 (wonder), 1996

Untitled #26 (override), 1997


Izima Kaoru
Izima Kaoru strikes my interest as it involves both beauty and death, a combination that when put together allow for very eerie and enchanting images.
His images leave a lot of questions to the viewer. Who is the subject? What exactly has happened to them? Why are they alone? What will happen now? I see Izima's works as the middle of the narrative and the story is left to interpretation.
In all Kaoru's images the females are dressed in high fashion outfits. I found out that he asked his models to "reveal to him their fantasies about a perfect death" and what designer clothes they would be in when they died. Having the girls in such clothing gives death a beautiful and somewhat enticing quality. It also makes it obvious that the images are fictional.

#312 Okamoto Aya wears Eri Matsui, 2001

Igawa Haruka wears Dolce & Gabbana, 2006

Hasegawa Kyoko wears YSL, 2003

Reika Hashimoto wears Milk (442), 2006


Sources
Image
Izima: http://www.artnet.com
Gaskell: http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f71/anna-gaskell-photographer-119879.html

General
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/
http://www.studiolacitta.it/English/Artists/IzimaKaoru.php
http://www.postmedia.net/999/gaskell.htm