Reading 3

Daniel lee began his career with the series shown in the book “manimals”. The work uses digital editing to morph human portraits to resemble animals. A related series is called nightlife. In which a large image is shown of people in a nightclub area with the faces morphed into animals again. Originally I found Lee’s work interesting due to the comparison he makes between humans and animals, but in night life it is taken to another level its is like an examination of humans in their habitat of sorts, and the faces are what allow the connection to be seen in a more literal sense.

Aziz + Cucher is a team of artists made up of Anthony Aziz, and Samuel Cucher much of their work revolves around the human body and its relation to society with a focus on technological advancement. The work shown in the book “dystopia” used digital techniques to remove the sensory organs from the face of a person to remove their identity. The point was to signify that people were losing personal identity in the face of the rapidly developing technological world in which people were anonymous. Their other works also attempt to fuse human elements with inanimate object like their series “interiors” in which they take picture of interiors and layer textures of human flesh which gives the area the appearance of be constructed of people. I am a fan of the dystopia series mainly because I am a fan of the technique used to resemble a loss of identify, it is simple and very visually appealing.

Thomas Ruff is a German artist whose first large series was entitles “portraits” in which he created what are photos you would see at an I.D center very basic even lighting with emotionless expression from the subjects. The work we see in the book is called “nudes” and they are just that they are pornographic images in which Ruff has blurred the image. I found this interesting because with a very basic change Ruff was able to completely change the context of the image. The viewer stops for a moment they look over the same areas they would if it were un-obstructed but the mindset is more analytical than lustful.