I know that title is backwards, but I loved that movie so.
Anyhoo...
Martin Schoeller's Ryan Hall portrait got me thinking of perspective and size and illusion. And then I was flipping through the front of The New Yorker, and huzzah! Some Julia Fullerton-Batten work from her series Teenage Stories popped right out at me. This work isn't new, but it's got staying power and is showing in a group show now at Jenkins Johnson.
I thought it was fair game for a post-- it must be new to some of you! I found a nice little interview with Fullerton-Batten over at Influx; excerpts are below.
Also, in case you're wondering; they didn't enlarge the girls-- they shrank the buildings.
Floating in Harbour, 2005
What were you trying to convey with "Teenage Stories"?
The idea was to create pictures that reflect my own meandering childhood memories of my sisters and me growing up in Pennsylvania and then in rural Germany. When I think back to how the three of us spent our time drifting through life I realize that the older we get the harder it is to spend time this way, every day seems to have an agenda, a set of objectives that must be achieved.
What were you trying to convey with "Teenage Stories"?
The idea was to create pictures that reflect my own meandering childhood memories of my sisters and me growing up in Pennsylvania and then in rural Germany. When I think back to how the three of us spent our time drifting through life I realize that the older we get the harder it is to spend time this way, every day seems to have an agenda, a set of objectives that must be achieved.
Underwear, 2005
The starting point for most of these pictures were observations I made of myself, or my sisters, during these wonderful years. I wanted to capture something of this "child-like ability" to get lost in dreams and fantasies in these pictures.
P&O, 2005
As soon as I saw the first of the miniature village I knew it was the perfect backdrop for this series. The strangeness of these environments perfectly echoes the strangeness I feel when I raid my own memories looking for events that I can turn into pictures.
The starting point for most of these pictures were observations I made of myself, or my sisters, during these wonderful years. I wanted to capture something of this "child-like ability" to get lost in dreams and fantasies in these pictures.
P&O, 2005
As soon as I saw the first of the miniature village I knew it was the perfect backdrop for this series. The strangeness of these environments perfectly echoes the strangeness I feel when I raid my own memories looking for events that I can turn into pictures.
Shopping Trolley, 2005
However it often leaves me wondering whether I'm glamorizing my own childhood and if so then why? Recently I went back to our family home in Pennsylvania, the first visit since we left in 1980. It didn't seem possible that my beautiful childhood memories had been born in this bland suburban wasteland.
However it often leaves me wondering whether I'm glamorizing my own childhood and if so then why? Recently I went back to our family home in Pennsylvania, the first visit since we left in 1980. It didn't seem possible that my beautiful childhood memories had been born in this bland suburban wasteland.
Pond, 2005
The girls I photograph in these miniature villages interact with them much like children interact with their real surroundings, living inside their own dreams and fantasies rather than living in a specific house on a specific street. In their minds they can be giants moving through our world whilst always remaining separate to it, cocooned in their own dream like existence.
The girls I photograph in these miniature villages interact with them much like children interact with their real surroundings, living inside their own dreams and fantasies rather than living in a specific house on a specific street. In their minds they can be giants moving through our world whilst always remaining separate to it, cocooned in their own dream like existence.
Stumble Upon
Brings to mind a segment Fellini did for an omnibus film in the 60s, where Anita Ekberg came to life from a billboard-
http://bit.ly/2q4njgd