ARTIST: Bettina Von Zwehl

Goodness me, I really love Bettina Von Zwehl's work. She came to talk at my university last term. Since then, she has influenced my work quite a bit (I haven't shown any of that specific work on here yet, though). The aim of her work is to photograph her subjects when they are in no way thinking about their personal appearance. Well, this is deffinately the case in 'Untitled One', 'Untitled Three' and 'Alina'. In 'Untitled One' she photographed her subjects within 30 seconds of them waking up. They were told to wear certain clothes, and they slept in Zwehl's bed for the night, so she could quickly bring them in front of the screen where they were to be photographed. In 'Untitled Three' the subjects had to exert themselves physically for a certain amount of time, and then laid face up on the floor to be photographed. In 'Alina', Zwehl had her subjects sit with their arms folded, in a dark room, listening to a specially chosen peice of music which lasted about ten mintues. She then photographed them using flash, which was quick enough so their reaction to it wasn't seen in the final image. The interesting thing about 'Alina' (or perhaps not so interesting) is that half of the women are music students, and half aren't. Initially, she wanted to see if she there would be any contrast between the portraits of people who have been musically trained and those who haven't. There isn't really any contrast, so perhaps these are slightly unsuccessful. However it is clear in the images how the sitters are deeply immersed in the music. As for 'Untitled Two', I can't quite remember what the situation is there, but they are interesting. I think the subjects just sat in the dark for a while or something... can't remember.

Her 'Anatomy Of Control' work I also find ingriguing. Von Zwehl usually finds her subjects by walking around the streets and picking people who look like they would benifit the work. So, in this case she asked the permission of parents so she could photograph their children. The childern were left alone with the camera (behind a curtain), and a table if they wanted to sit. They were given a cable release so they could take their portrait themselves. Von Zwehl then paired images together according to how the child was posing. The results are very interesting. Some are so playful and ambiguous. I don't know how getting children to take their own portraits managed to work out so well (not because they are children, but it's that the idea is so delightfully simple, and the results are... not).

Bettina Von Zwehl's work is highly inspiring to me. A lot of her images hold a certain quietness, and others can be almost daunting. Most of her works have deffinately been successful in visually describing the event occuring, and at the same time, still leave a lot of room for questions. Very nice.


On a completely un-related matter, I present to you my latest graphic. It is sexy. Tssss. Like most of my best ideas, this image just came to me while I was going about my daily business. When that happens, I must expel the image and then thrust it upon the world. I think this is highly descriptive of her character. You can do nothing but agree. AGREE!

FIRST THINGS FIRST: look at some of my graphics

Right then... yes... well. I think to begin I'll show a few of the latest graphics I have made, for I will be posting a graphic here every time I make one in the future. Usually when I've just completed one, I become very proud of myself and show it off anywhere I can.

Okay, this is my most recent piece. If you actually look in my Photobucket gallery you will see that the subject of this piece is featured heavily throughout. Mutya Buena (who knows if you've heard of her in the states) is my idol, so [too many of] my graphics are based around her. This one is purely for the aesthetic, however. I kinda got this idea from an erotic graphic design book called "All Allure". Basically, her skin has an outline and everything else is filled. Blah blah blah... the point is, it looks sexy and amazing, and it was so simple to do. Usually when graphics come out this good, they took absolutely forever to do. This is not the case here. Oh how wonderful. Please gaze at it in amazement as I have been doing for the past few days.




NEEEXT. We are going back before christmas now. I actually made this as a christmas present for a friend (he likes his weed. Or... pot, as you Americans call it). It is... a smoke machine. A-ha-ha... what a funny pun. As you can see, the little machine looks rather high, and looks as if he is wasting quite a bit of money, for it is pouring uncontrolably out of his back-side. This is indeed a sort of attack on todays youth, and how wasteful and irresponsible we can be, but also - without seeming too hypocrytical - I am mocking myself. I too like a bit of weed... but I've never actually spent my own money on it. (I think I would if I knew who to buy from... cough).


Well... while we're on the subject of weed, here is a lady... smoking weed. Uh, there is actually a point to this piece - I'm not completely obsessed with doing graphics related to weed. First of all, the woman is actually Amelle Berrabah, who is part of UK pop group the sugababes. A few weeks ago, I learnt that one of my best friends is now living with the guy who used to sell Amelle her weed when she lived in her home town. I found this rather amusing. I told other sugababes fans. While some too found it amusing, others were offended and disgusted. Call me stupid, but I did not realise that the majority of the sugababes fanbase grew up in an isolated plastic bubble completely cut-off from the REAL WORLD. SHE WAS A FUCKING TEENAGER FOR GODS SAKE... 90% OF TEENAGERS HAVE AT LEAST TRIED WEED. So... yeah... their reactions pissed me off enough to make this piece. It was hard to find the right photo, but this one was perfect. In the original photograph she is in fact signing some artwork, and just happened to turn her eye up to the camera which is why I suppose she isn't smiling. I replaced her pen with a nice little joint that she is stubbing out. And I believe her perfectly careless, almost angry, expression works so well here because it tells others that she doesn't care about this very tiny, minute, insignificant... thing about her past, and others shouldn't either. So there.


Right, I did this piece more or less straight after the last one. At this point, I had become a bit obsessed with doing graphical pieces about weed. This one is entitled "Weed Heads". Now, I was actually going to include something like this in the last piece (sitting on the table next to her or something) but that would have been far too cramped and pointless. It works really well as a piece on its own. Now really, its just a bit of fun, and wasn't meant to be that serious that I'd post it on here and write some fat description. But I'm showing this because I've never achieved something that looked quite so professional. Perhaps you disagree.


Lastly, I felt I should show this piece to get rid of the grassy after-taste. This is possibly one of the best pieces I have ever done. It has to be. It's a desktop wallpaper I made especially for myself... and I do not change my desktop wallpaper every week like most people do. I've had my own computer for about 5 years now, and since then I have changed my desktop wallpaper twice. First it was the golden petals, then a graphic that someone made me before I was any good at making my own graphics. And now (at a time where my graphic skills have greatly improved and had surpassed the quality of my previous wallpaper about a year ago) I have this one. The dominant colour is yellow, as it has been in my two previous wallpapers, but the content of course is very different. It actually looks quite mad when you think about it. There, on a strange black hill, stands my idol, cheerfully thinking "the cracks are in the dawn" (to this day I don't know what that means... it was a phrase that popped into my head). In front of her she sees her own giant, masked face; suspended, as if it were some kind of spectre. (please note she did not have a cloth around her mouth in the source photograph. I put that in to add further mystery, and so I could add the tiny label with her true first name on it). The hill then cuts off at an alarming angle causing her inspiring glow to fall upon the many, seemingly discarded dolls of herself. I suppose the huge pile of dolls is a reference to the fact that she is an original, and cannot be 'duplicated'. If you were to do so, it would be an immediate failure, worthy only of being thrown away. There you have it.

Phew, that took a long time. You have my thanks and gratitude if you even read one paragraph of this post. A-thank you.