Martha Rosler idea development
IN todays lecture about Martha Rosler and her idea of exploiting poverty and only seeing the good side of people got me interested because it seemed she didn't like Richard Billingham's work, which she criticised but actually i believed they were doing the same thing, only Richard Billingham's photos were on a more personal level o his own family, and it seems that Martha didn't like the personal aspect of exploiting your own family for what they are really like.
I wanted to find some more photographers that i believed gave the better side of life out rather than what we really see, sort of opposite to Martha rosler and Richard Billingham. I came across the works of Gregory Crewdson and his photographic series 'Beneath the roses'. theses photos are typical scenes of drama and cinematic films, exploring the american psyche. These typical scenes from top hollywood movies and happy and sad situations, although these scenarios are taken from films not real life they seem to show the dystopia of real life. although Gregory isn't directly exploiting any stereotypes of american people, digging deeper and thinking in this way about Martha Roslers work has made me analyse his work in this way.
I also came across a photographer that seems to be doing a similar thing to Crewdson in the way she works. Cindy Sherman brings out more of the stereotype idea out in a more obvious way. She is recreating characters form films, but not specific characters, general ones that appear in the same situations. however i think the difference she is bringing is that the characters she is portraying are actually ones that are happy, not the disastrous or the sad scenes that Crewsdon shows but ones that are more dramatic or exiting. i think she likes the idea of hiding the real life and not exploiting the hard truths in a harsh way, but maybe in a hidden way like Martha Rosler.
