Feminism

Modernism/Postmodernism

Modernism is the term to describe cultural movements which took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, in the Western society. This refers to art, architecture, music, literature and applied arts that came out at this time. Modernism encouraged the re-examination of many things, including commerce to philosophy. Through examining them they aimed to find what was 'holding back' progress and found ways in which to replace it with better and more progressive ways. Believers of modernism usually rebel against 'tradiotional' forms of art, religious faith, etc. Modernist thinkers in the nineteenth century believed that daily life was becoming outdated. Some people divide the 20th Century into two movements – modernism and postmodernism. Others see them as two apects of the same movement. Some modernists believed that by rejecting traditional ideas they could discover new, radical ways of making art. Abstract artists made the assumption that colour and shape formed the essential characteristics of art. The main aspect of the modernism movement is the rejection of traditional ideas – things such as freedom of expression, experimentation and radicalism.

Semiotics

Semiotics represents a range of studies in art, literature, anthropology and the mass media rather than an independent academic discipline. Those involved in semiotics include linguists, philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, literary, aesthetic and media theorists, psychoanalysts and educationalists. Beyond the most basic definition, there is considerable variation amongst leading semioticians as to what semiotics involves. It is not only concerned with (intentional) communication but also with our ascription of significance to anything in the world. Semiotics has changed over time, since semioticians have sought to remedy weaknesses in early semiotic approaches. Even with the most basic semiotic terms there are multiple definitions. Consequently, anyone attempting semiotic analysis would be wise to make clear which definitions are being applied and, if a particular semiotician's approach is being adopted, what its source is. There are two divergent traditions in semiotics stemming respectively from Saussure and Peirce. The work of Louis Hjelmslev, Roland Barthes, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Julia Kristeva, Christian Metz and Jean Baudrillard (b 1929) follows in the 'semiological' tradition of Saussure whilst that of Charles W Morris, Ivor A Richards (1893-1979), Charles K Ogden (1989-1957) and Thomas Sebeok (b 1920) is in the 'semiotic' tradition of Peirce. The leading semiotician bridging these two traditions is the celebrated Italian author Umberto Eco, who as the author of the bestseller The Name of the Rose (novel 1980, film 1986) is probably the only semiotician whose film rights are of any value.

Lee Miller

Lee Miller was born 1907,was an American photographer. Born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907, she was a successful fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris where she became an established fashion and fine art photographer. During the Second World War, she became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine covering events such as the London Blitz, the liberation of Paris, and the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau.In 1929, she traveled to Paris with the intention of apprenticing herself to the surrealist artist and photographer Man Ray. Although, at first, he insisted that he did not take students, Miller soon became his photographic assistant, as well as his lover and muse. While she was in Paris, she began her own photographic studio, often taking over Man Ray's fashion assignments to enable him to concentrate on his painting. In fact, many of the photographs taken during this period and credited to Man Ray were actually taken by Lee. Together with Man Ray, she rediscovered the photographic technique of solarisation. She was an active participant in the surrealist movement, with her witty and humorous images. Amongst her circle of friends were Pablo Picasso, Paul Éluard, and Jean Cocteau. She even appeared as a statue that comes to life in Cocteau's The Blood of a Poet (1930).

Sally Mann

Sally Mann was born on May 1, 1951 in Lexington, Virginia to upper-middle class parents.
Her current projects include a series of self-portraits, a study of the effects of muscular dystrophy on her husband, portraits of intimate family life over the past 30 years, and a multipart study of the legacy of slavery in Virginia
today Sally Mann is known as one of the most influential female photographers in history. Her works are included in the permanent collections at some of the world’s finest museums, including:

* Metropolitan Museum of Art
* Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
* Corcoran Gallery of Art
* Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
* San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
* Whitney Museum of American Art in New York

In addition, Mann was named by Time magazine as "America's Best Photographer" in 2001 and her images have made the cover of The New York Times Magazine on multiple occasions.

William Eggleston

William Eggleston was born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised in Sumner, Mississippi. His father was an engineer who had a failed career as a cotton farmer, and his mother was the daughter of a prominent local judge. As a boy, Eggleston was introverted and enjoyed playing the piano, drawing, and working with electronics. From an early age, he was drawn to visual media; he reportedly enjoyed buying postcards and cutting out pictures from magazines. Eggleston was also interested in audio technology as a child.First photographing in black-and-white, Eggleston began experimenting with color in 1965 and 1966; color transparency film became his dominant medium in the later sixties. Eggleston's development as a photographer seems to have taken place in relative isolation from other artists

David LaChapelle

David LaChapelle is a photographer and director who is known for fashion, advertising and fine art photography. He has a surreal and humorous style. He was born on March 11th 1963 in Conneticut. LaChapelle went to North Carolina School of the Arts. His first photograph was of his mother who wore a bikini and held a martini glass on the balcony. Soon after he became obsessed with photography. He was offered his first professional job by Andy Warhol for Interview magazine, and his book LaChapelle Land and Hotel LaChapelle which both contained vivid and bizarre portraits of celebrities. He was the director of Madonna's video for the 2005 hit "Hung Up" but fell apart due to creative differences. Also in the UK he directed the surreal Lost trailers for Channel 4 and showed the cast dancing in 1920's costume among the burning wreckage on the beach. He also directed Channel 4's promotion for Desperate Housewives (season one). His work has been described as surreal, ironic. He uses celebrities and exaggerates aspects of them or their superficial world.