Screen Shots: Warrick Page

Israel border guard photo shot by Warrick Page in Winter of 2004.

Photojournalist Warrick Page is a native of Melbourne, Australia who graduated from Deakin University in Victoria with a B.A. in in Professional Writing and Journalism in 2003. As of 2004 Page began actively working as a photographer/stringer for the Associated Press in the Middle East.

His first professional assignment as a photojournalist involved spending over 4 months in Israel and Palestine photographing the constant unrest for global news services. Afterwards, Warrick moved to onto Pakistan where he has been based since November of 2004 working as a freelancer for Panos Pictures.

Page continually demonstrates a very high regard for his subjects regardless of their nationality. Page displays an almost supernatural eye for their stories and surroundings which are almost always at war by bringing out the undeniably human tragedy of all those who are caught in the crossfire of Middle East politics.

References:

• Warrick Page, Photography
• Photo Shelter, Warrick Page
• Eddie Adams Gallery, Photography

Off The Shelf: Chuck Burns

Artist and Illustrator Chuck Burns has spent 30 years in underground comics.
Charles Burns, a Philladelpia based artist and illustrator, starting out as a freelance illustrator for a Sub Pop fanzine and Another Room Magazine of Oakland. Burns gained a wider audience when his unusually detailed underground comics were published for the first time in early issues of RAW, the avant-garde comics magazine founded in 1980 by Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman (Maus).

In 1982, Burns did a die-cut cover for RAW #4. Raw Books also published two books by Burns as RAW one-shots: Big Baby and the hilarious Hard-Boiled Defective Stories. In 1994, he was awarded a Pew Fellowships in the Arts and in 1999, he showed nearly 20 years of his art and illustrations at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.


The critically acclaimed El Borbah, seen above, ran in Heavy Metal from 1983 to 1985.
Burns has worked on a wide range of projects from Iggy Pop albums (Brick by Brick), adapting his own series Dogboy for MTV's Liquid Television and having theatrical releases of his animation being featured in the amazing Fear(s) of The Dark (2007).

Burns, a humble, humorous and often self-effacing man, continues to enjoys a deep respect for his intricate art style and unusual story-craft among many artists and illustrators world-wide today.

Chuck Burns Interview Philadelphia 2009.mp3 (9.5 mb)



References:

• Wikipedia, Charles Burns
• Maximumfun.org, Charles Burns
• Thrilling Defectives, El Borbah

The Art of Michela Colette: Cute Art Brut Meets Bullshit Frank

Michela Colette is a young artist and Rhode Island School of Art and Design (Riz-dee for short and Sheppard Fairey's alma mater) graduate who regularly self-publishes her own uniquely themed comics and posters for venues like the Cake Shop in NYC.

Pablo Picasso: Minotaur

These images document the love affair that was to define an artist's career. Now all 100 of Picasso's Vollard etchings are to be shown in London after being donated to the British Museum.

The prints were created as a visual diary of the artist's life with his young mistress and muse, Marie-Thérèse Walter.

She became the inspiration for some of his most famous work - and caused the downfall of his marriage.

References:

• Daily Mail, 100 Picasso Etchings Donated To The British Museum

She gave the term sex act a whole new meaning: The Art of Alejandra Guerrero

Sometimes, words should fail us. This is one of those times.

One of the best new American photographers I'm aware of is Colombian born Alejandra Guerrero. In her work she explores and challenges female roles as sex symbols and is an active participant in her own carefully staged, emotional charged tableaus.

I came across her photo sessions, on Flickr, with pop sex goddess Julie Strain - a woman who has been photographed from every angle and every position possible. The key difference between all the illustrations and photos that I'd seen prior was that Alejandra included herself in the photos as a photographer. One with a searching eye. She appears to be trying to understand the mystifying attraction of Julie and also asking herself where she fits into the wider audience.

Alejandra is also a very beautiful model. When she is in front of the camera there is an hypnotic obsessive search occurring. A search that revolves around defining crucial mile markers of self-image and esteem. I dig the way she stares back into the barrel of the camera lens sharing a candid reflective moment.

In her serious work behind the camera, there are often extreme contrasts (clothed vs. naked, tied vs. free, beautiful vs. ugly) represented through two models having these kinds of wild physical encounters that often have a third party included as a voyeur (A, B, C). Her work is deeply provocative and sexually charged. Even the stuff that borders on porno borrows all the cliches - w/out the back hair or penetration but with the burning vitality. In this aspect, the themes of her compositions edge their way into deeper classifications of the nature of desire. Raw savage foreplay.

Alejandra's work explores the nature of being a viewer and empowers those who are viewed. She gives the term "sex act" a whole new meaning. Challenging, feisty new work.

References:

• Alejandra Guerreo, Portfolio Site

But Is It Art?: Paris is Burning

Paris Hilton Autopsy, Daniel Edwards 2007.

The work of relevant artists, like Daniel Edwards whose interactive sculpture is pictured above, is to choose from the constellation of culture those figures who embody a value or a sin. The artist represents that ideal in their work. The edge in good art comes from relevance.

The raw and controversial work of M.F. Hussain in his native India, portrays Indian deities in every day life, Luncheon on the Grass portraying artists and their muse together by Manet, and Olympia again by Manet - confront us with the public's ideal versus the source of this tremendous beauty. This outrageous beauty is perceived by the artist. For the viewing audience, the living muse is an a object of desire and scorn.


Goddess Durga Astride the Tiger, M.F. Husain 2006.


Luncheon on the Grass, Edouard Manet 1863.


Olympia, Edouard Manet 1863.

There is a everpresent hypocrisy at work in contemporary culture. The attitude that infrequently rewards artists and their muse for their work also punishes them for an implied violation of morality. The same violation occurs in the viewing public's heart: repeatedly and in secret. In public, in the galleries, the artist and muse occupy that tragic dark space with their imagery or bodies and have for the past two centuries as Art became a more democratized experience.

Sheppard Fairey: This is Your God