'Artists and Painters can spend weeks agonizing over their canvas as they attempt to create compositions that are visually moving to the artists and to viewers.'
Although a photographer can capture an images in split second, that moment is just one in many that goes into creating a great images. Incredible photographs, one that make you stop, look and feel, are often months in the making. The clicking of the lens is just one tiny part of the process.
So many photographers spend months, even years, contemplating concepts, planning how best to bring it life within an image. More time goes into planning, finding just the right model, scheduling, finding props, choosing poses and then finally lighting and shooting. And all that, is before the image is even taken. Then comes the post work and editing. For me, the difference between art, and just a good photo is both the creativity and skill of the artist, and the degree of emotional impact on the viewer.
What exactly is art, is at the core of artist Anthony Timiraos' newest book, Expose Art. Anthony is fully aware, some viewers may never love or appreciate computer enhanced imagery. He is also keenly aware that technology, just like a brush or palette knife, has given photographers unique opportunities. It is through this technology, that artist are now able to complete ideas and compositions that previously, were impossible to create without a pencil or paint brush.
Expose Art is the forth and final book in Expose theme that Anthony began and has explored over four years ago. I was honored to write the forward for the first edition back in 2017, and the choices and themes Anthony explored in the first book, have funneled through each of the four books within the series.
'I especially love the breadth of diversity Anthony captures. Diversity, not just of race and ethnicity, but diversity of age, body type, and maybe most significant, diversity of culture. Beyond ethnicity, one’s cultural background impacts the way lives are lived and how their ideas and passions are formed. For so many, this is often revealed on their bodies. It shows in their choice of piercings and body art and in the length of facial and body hair. It may most sharply show up in their comfort with being vulnerable, exposed and naked in front of the camera.'
Tye Briggs, Forward, expose
'Let’s take a model who posed nude for a painting. How wonderful it would be to capture that model viewing the art he helped create in one composition? How do we capture the pose, the look, the light? '
This sense of 'reflection' is one of the themes I enjoyed most about the images in Expose Art. FH readers are aware of my love of reflection themed images and I've wrote extensively about my passion for mirrors and windows used within images of the male form.
There are so many 'views' surrounding models and imagery, and one I love exploring is the view the model has of their own images. Some have their feelings about themselves reinforced, others see themselves for the first time, in an entirely new light. For some, it can be transformational. Some of my favorite images in Expose Art are the images Anthony created that have the model seemly reacting to their images, their bodies, and the artist's impressions within the images on the walls.
Although the idea for Expose Art was floating in Anthony's creative warehouse for awhile, it took the pandemic to bring the idea to fruition. Like so many others, Anthony found himself at home, with a lot of time to s pare. The book, in many ways, seems inspired not so much by the pandemic, but the emotional tole it's taken on so many. Anthony wasn't just home baking banana bread and creating, he was also impacted by the deaths of several people he'd come to know, not to mention the fight and survival of friends infected who made it through.
Isolation impacts all of us very differently. For some, it inspires creation, for others, it brings about powerful loneliness and pain. For me, I was both fascinated and worried about isolation's power to bring forth long emotions many of us thought were long buried and forgotten. Given most of the men in Anthony's images are alone, isolated with visuals only of themselves, the resulting feelings were very much like most of us over the last few months. Grateful for what we have, sadness for what we've lost, and a degree of self reflection most of us willingly choose to ignore by maintaining busy lives.
Anthony's work, and especially his Expose series, has never been about, or encouraged viewers to ignore. Expose has always been about uncovering, and bringing things into the light. Being uncovered, and unprotected can be frighting, but with his work, and through revealing what's underneath, and showing one's true self, Anthony wants to spotlight how empowering it can be, to be out, and in the open.
'I wanted the reader to see how my art would look at an exhibit or museum so I created a virtual gallery and gave each of the models an opportunity to look at themselves as a subject in a painting. To my fellow artists, let’s not limit creativity. To lovers and supporters of the arts, don’t be afraid to display art that some consider to be inappropriate. To both, don’t let the critics crush your taste, style and vision. Expose yourself – be brave.'
Check out and preview more on Anthony's site HERE:
You can also order directly from Amazon HERE:
No comments:
Post a Comment