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Homage: Our Own Pictures Inspired by a Work of Art Art that has gotten into my blood!

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Post your own photographs that are strengthened by another work of art. Include a picture of the art that inspired you, so we can see the relationships. Also, you're invited to discuss such influences that we cannot escape from, and must therefore face up to.


Carlos Rivera: Flower Seller: 1941

diego.gall.flowerseller1.jpg


Flower Seller. 1941. Oil on canvas, 48 x 48". Private collection.

Rivera was a very creative artist of the 20th Century and not only was a painter, but supported political reforms to benefit workers and did both painting and a special painted fresco plaster work over a metal and wood latticework. Here's an entry into his colorful life.


Now here's my own picture, from my new work from "Woman With Calla Lilies. It's not intentionally inspired by Rivera, although I cannot deny the influence as I know his pictures and admire his work so much.


_MG_0934_1-3 800 pixels.jpg


Asher Kelman: Woman with Calla Lillies



So while the directions for me where subliminal, it still is there and must serve as a reinforcement for my own original picture. Whether we realize it on a conscious level, Rivera's work is engraved in our lives and has earned an important seat in Western culture.

Looking forward to your comments and your own example of being inspired!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I have started a new project, almost by accident, an homage to Annie Leibovitz. I had paid for model time for a photographic get together, but few photographers wanted to shoot models, LOL! So I thought of the last picture of John Lennon and Yoko Ono together, the night before he was tragically shot and lost to us.



Annie_Leibovitz_Lennon_Ono_December_1980.jpg


Annie Leibovitz: Yoko Ono and John Lennon

December 1980


Used under "Fair Use" doctrine for editorial comment




Because the figure on the right in Annie Leibovitz' picture, John Lennon, was nude in the fetal position, that's my starting point! Why not explore this relationship or needing one another and "connecting" and see where it goes?



_MG_2153.jpg


Asher Kelman: Untitled #2

Oceano California 2012

Larva, left and Marcia, right

I am not going for simple beauty, although I love beauty for itself. I'm more interested in relationships, hopes and burdens, we have, what we value and what we can do to make others lives a little more joyful. That's what art does at its best, although of course art does not need to do that, but, often enough, it does that, anyway.

Asher
 

Tom dinning

Registrant*
I should get out more. Rivera hasn't hit my psych yet. I'll attend to it immediately. I think I saw a towel with one of his pictures on. I can connect while I dry.
This is something that has really never occurred to me, Asher. I'm sure there are some subliminal thoughts at work deep down where I live but I'm not conscious of it. In fact I have probably resisted it somewhat. So if I take this stoney path I hope you don't ruin my photographic vision forever.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I should get out more. Rivera hasn't hit my psych yet. I'll attend to it immediately. I think I saw a towel with one of his pictures on. I can connect while I dry.
This is something that has really never occurred to me, Asher. I'm sure there are some subliminal thoughts at work deep down where I live but I'm not conscious of it. In fact I have probably resisted it somewhat. So if I take this stoney path I hope you don't ruin my photographic vision forever.

Tom,

There "There aint no cure for love". Every time someone likes something it gets communicated to others. It spreads like a virus. All this and everything you see and like gets recorded and nothing is lost. So, our societies share loves and hates by infection and by hoarding crucifixes and grandmothers's recipes. When you lift up your camera to your eye, all those ideas are there, guiding your decisions. The difference here, on this page is that I'm outing myself!


Asher
 

Tom dinning

Registrant*
Tom,

There "There aint no cure for love". Every time someone likes something it gets communicated to others. It spreads like a virus. All this and everything you see and like gets recorded and nothing is lost. So, our societies share loves and hates by infection and by hoarding crucifixes and grandmothers's recipes. When you lift up your camera to your eye, all those ideas are there, guiding your decisions. The difference here, on this page is that I'm outing myself!


Asher

A very romantic view of life, Asher, but yet again, I'm not strongly influenced by Cohen either. Christine tries to sneak in a song or 2 occasionally but I head for the 'shed' with Jack Lee and Pat Metheny.
I'm not big on the idea that all our experiences influence us ALL the time. We need to leave some space for individuality. Maybe there is value in thinking John Lennon was just another bloke making a living and not some gift to your nation.
There's also great value in rediscovering things that have been '....lost
And found and lost again and again ......' as Eliot said.
So, on second thought, I might pass on this 'challenge' just in case you prove me wrong and I turn out to be just a montage of muses past.
Cheers
Tom
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
A very romantic view of life, Asher, but yet again, I'm not strongly influenced by Cohen either. Christine tries to sneak in a song or 2 occasionally but I head for the 'shed' with Jack Lee and Pat Metheny.
I'm not big on the idea that all our experiences influence us ALL the time. We need to leave some space for individuality. Maybe there is value in thinking John Lennon was just another bloke making a living and not some gift to your nation.
There's also great value in rediscovering things that have been '....lost
And found and lost again and again ......' as Eliot said.
So, on second thought, I might pass on this 'challenge' just in case you prove me wrong and I turn out to be just a montage of muses past.
Cheers
Tom
Tom,

What inspires one today might not work tomorrow. This is not a challenge! There's no wish for anyone to follow a path of mine. Everyone has to take what they want with them into their shed or get on their bus with their own map. I'm not offering any ideas on how to do photography. I'm merely admitting what occurred for several pictures because the connection strong. That being said, there are many instances of artists being inspired by others going before them. In fact where would the surrealists, pleine air painters, Dadaists and more come from f not by being energized by someone's original idea.

That does not mean that folk who use an language or idiom are not original! Picasso followed Matisse in sculpting one kind of head. Thousands of photographers have tried to walk in Ansel Adams shoes with spot meters marked for his Zone system, LOL!

Still, millions more make wonderful pics without even knowing that either exist. So there you are!

Asher
 

Tom dinning

Registrant*
Sorry, Asher, I Wasunder the delusion it was all about me. Now I know it's about you I'll just watch from afar.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Sorry, Asher, I Wasunder the delusion it was all about me. Now I know it's about you I'll just watch from afar.

Tom,

It'a not about me either. It's about photography that's triggered or influenced by other art. It's about the occurrence of inspiration or excitement in some way of expressing an idea. I'm a most minor player, LOL! It's about photographers who admit to being inspired by someone else's art, that's all.

The invitation of for folk to share the photographs they have made admitting the influence of some art they like.

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Does no one admit to being influenced by a particular work of art the really impressed them? I'd thought we'd get a lot of takers.

Asher
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
I certainly admit to being influenced by others art, often other photographers, since I sometimes consciously take pictures "in the style" of know photographers. But I don't think this is what you are talking about, is it?
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I certainly admit to being influenced by others art, often other photographers, since I sometimes consciously take pictures "in the style" of know photographers. But I don't think this is what you are talking about, is it?

Thanks for giving this a try, Jerome! What I'm interested in is the fact that I realized after I had taken the pictures that I had likely been influenced by Carlos Rivera's pictures of Calla Lilies even though I was not my intention. His work is often making a social commentary about fairness in division of labor. His flower seller has to carry this enormous basket of flowers and that is a metaphor for the beauty rich have off the sweat of the poor. That is very emotional for me and rings true. I'm not interested in that for my artwork right now. However, I just happen to love nature and the juxtaposition of things to make something meaningful, beyond what they simply consist of. It was the gesture of the girl holding the flowers to enjoy them, that interests me.

Similarly, with Ono and Lennon, i really know nothing important about their intimate lives. The latter is not my intent. I am just interested in the closeness of the couple in Annie Leibovitz's picture. So I decided to start from that point and explore how I can go on my own and look at relationships of two figures. I realized quickly that the sensual part of a couple lying together on the bed is hard to escape. So i'm replacing the person on the left, (Ono position) with objects.

But that's just me. I Wonder whether other art has spoken strongly enough that you took it became as a starting off point for your own creations? I'd love to see others work and the art that sparked or inspired that idea.

Asher
 

Mark Hampton

New member
The example of Lionel and Andreas Feininger shows how a painter can influence a photographer.

As I already mentioned here, M.C. Escher's Three Worlds was an inspiration for the following photo.



Best regards,
Michael
Michael,

I liked this 1st time around - not a fan of echers and I do find your vision more compelling - but that's just me !
http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15357

I keep being haunted by JMC -

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Cameron_julia_jackson.jpg

these works dont get old for me... and have effected the way I make portraits as mentioned in this thread


again nice idea Asher.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I was despairing last night as there were no takers but just a firm nibble from Jerome.


Jerome, Mark and Michael,

I'm so appreciative to wake up today to you great additions to this thread. Your examples are splendid and themselves educational and inspiring.

Asher
 

John Wolf

New member
link lixed!

I was despairing last night as there were no takers but just a firm nibble from Jerome.

Sorry, Asher, I gave your post a lot of thought, but could not come up with anything that suggests a 1:1 relationship. So what follows stretches your intention.

I'm certainly influenced. In fact I consider myself mostly derivative. Although I don't see that as a bad thing. I think we Americans place too much emphasis on originality. Nothing wrong with humbly following the greats. If I could shoot street like Robert Frank and landscapes like Michael Kenna, I'd be content.

There is one painting I would love to loosely render in a photograph: Hopper's "Nighthawks." Pretty much the perfect street scene.

Anyway, here's Frank and my 21st century Frank. Not done consciously, but almost surely sparked by The Man.

John


rf-robert-frank-metropolitan-museum.jpg




L1001516.jpg


 
Last edited by a moderator:

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Sorry, Asher, I gave your post a lot of thought, but could not come up with anything that suggests a 1:1 relationship.

"Inspired" does not mean one simply copies another artist, it means one try to use the same "process" that artist has used but maybe on a different subject. In that respect, your picture is indeed inspired by Robert Frank.

I was "inspired" by Eggleston myself, and I started a thread on that subject here.
 

John Wolf

New member
"Inspired" does not mean one simply copies another artist, it means one try to use the same "process" that artist has used but maybe on a different subject. In that respect, your picture is indeed inspired by Robert Frank.

I was "inspired" by Eggleston myself, and I started a thread on that subject here.


Thanks, Jerome. Just re-read Asher's post and see I took it too narrowly.

When I saw your photo, Eggleston's trike immediately came to mind. And when I first saw Asher's two women shot, the Lennon/Ono photo immediately came to mind. I guess creator and viewer are equally conditioned.

John
 

Michael Nagel

Well-known member
Inspired does indeed not mean that the work has to be a copy of the original.

Jerome, the inspiration worked quite well, but does it mean that you want to continue on the same track or was this just a detour on the way to your own way of photographic expression?

Speaking for myself:
There are a lot of footsteps that are uncomfortably large for my small feet.
It may be interesting to wander a few steps in this traces, look and learn, but it is also nice and fulfilling to leave that path already explored and wander off into other places to leave my own, albeit small footsteps. For this I go through a lot of bad pictures and accept this gladly as it is the best way to learn.

Best regards,
Michael
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Inspired does indeed not mean that the work has to be a copy of the original........

It may be interesting to wander a few steps in this traces, look and learn, but it is also nice and fulfilling to leave that path already explored and wander off into other places to leave my own, albeit small footsteps.

Michael,

That is how it should work best.

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Sorry, Asher, I gave your post a lot of thought, but could not come up with anything that suggests a 1:1 relationship. So what follows stretches your intention.

I'm certainly influenced. In fact I consider myself mostly derivative. Although I don't see that as a bad thing. I think we Americans place too much emphasis on originality. Nothing wrong with humbly following the greats. If I could shoot street like Robert Frank and landscapes like Michael Kenna, I'd be content.

There is one painting I would love to loosely render in a photograph: Hopper's "Nighthawks." Pretty much the perfect street scene.





rf-robert-frank-metropolitan-museum.jpg




Anyway, here's Frank [above] and [below,] my 21st century Frank. Not done consciously, but almost surely sparked by The Man.




L1001516.jpg




John,

Your example is so good because you have been influenced by the idea but not much of the sentence structure. This is a first class contribution. Do you have more? I'm so impressed and humbled. Good ideas are ten a penny. Execution is another matter and your photograph does credit to you!

Asher
 
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