Go online and research the work of Eadweard Muybridge, Duane Michals, Keith Arnatt, John Hilliard and Ed Ruscha’s Every Building on Sunset Strip.
An interesting group of photographers to see the variety and diversity of subject matter , interpretation and use of photography.
Eadweard Muybridge (1830 -1904) had a significant influence on photography and its scientific use. As a landscape photographer Muybridge had done much to show the Yosemite Valley as a beautiful part of America but is best known for his study of “Animal Locomotion” a project to study the movement of horses. Sequences captured by using multiple cameras.
Duane Michals (1932) use of sequencing used to tell stories. His sequence titled “Grandpa goes to Heaven” is a very powerful story of the dying/dead grandfather rising from the bed, growing wings and flying off into the sky while being watched by his grandson.
Keith Arnatt’s (1930 -2008) ideas seem much more challenging as the images progress in a more conceptual way. Self burial is a sequence showing the person disappearing into the ground until completely gone. Arnatt’s explanation of the sequence “It was made as a comment upon the notion of the «disappearance of the art object». It seemed a logical corollary that the artist should also disappear”
John Hilliard (1945) – I just don’t understand! I will need to give this more thought
Ed Ruscha’s (1937) Every Building on Sunset Strip returns back to the documentary. Interesting to compare with Muybridge Muybridge used multiple cameras to record one object in sequence whereas Ruscha has used one camera to record multiple objects.
Interesting to compare the use of sequences in photography above. Story telling, scientific investigation and documentary photographs pose different thinking and approach. Arnatt’s for example are nine images where only the subject changes and compare this with the Michals set where the altered reality is added in the three middle pictures by lightening the tone to create the ethereal/unreal feeling of the story.
ian's learning log 