Chi mi legge forse saprà che ultimamente mi sto dedicando all'autoproduzione per risparmiare qualche soldo, ma soprattutto per dare una svolta green alla mia vita. Qualche anno fa sarei entrata in un' erboristeria e avrei comprato qualche intruglio naturale spendendo qualche decina di euro, ma siccome ho deciso che la mia vita dev'essere sostenibile non solo da un punto di vista ambientale, ma anche economico, ho deciso di seguire il sito Idee Green nel quale ho trovato una ricetta per produrre lo sciampo in casa. Se volete cimentarvi vi lascio qui il link . L'unica perplessità l'ho riscontrata con le scaglie di sapone che proprio non ne volevano sapere di sciogliersi, per cui la prossima volta credo che le sostituirò con 1 o 2 cucchiai di shampo normale. E voi che ne pensate dell'autoproduzione?
mercoledì 29 gennaio 2014
lunedì 27 gennaio 2014
Robbie la green economa pigrona
Premesso che non sono una "con le braccine corte", devo ammettere che per mia natura sono sempre stata una persona molto parsimoniosa fin da quando ero piccina.
Mio padre mi ha sempre insegnato a non sprecare e a reciclare il reciclabile, la carta in primis (non stampo cose che so che non leggerò mai e se stampo preferisco farlo fronte/retro e più pagine per foglio).
Da qualche mese mi sono iscritta ad un gruppo facebook che si chiama "Le (Eco)nome" e devo dire che mi ha rivoluzionato la vita perchè qui si trovano un sacco di notizie utili su come non sprecare.
C'è uno scambio continuo di informazioni e consigli davvero utilissimi.
La prima cosa che ho fatto è stata acquistare una macchina per il pane e devo dire che da quando l'ho presa la uso 2 - 3 volte alla settimana. Il risparmio in questo senso è di circa la metà del costo di 1,00kg di pane acquistato in panetteria o in supermercato (2,00 euro vs 4,00 euro circa) e poi vuoi mettere la genuinità di quello che mangiamo? Eppoi è una goduria vedere il pane che lievita e la mdp fa tutto da sola e io posso dedicarmi alle mie cose (tipo ora!).
Mi è stata passata una ricetta per ottenere un pane buonissimo, eccola:
150ml di acqua
150ml di latte di soya
2 cucchiai di olio evo
2 cucchiaini di sale
570gr di farina di manitoba
1 bustina 1/2 di lievito di birra secco
4 cucchiaini di zucchero
crust light
cottura french
Sul gruppo ho scoperto poi dell'esistenza di un sito internet http://www.biotiful.it/ dove è possibile conoscere la qualità dei prodotti che ogni giorno utilizziamo per la cura del nostro corpo ("inci").
Il passo successivo è stata la creazione del mio primo detersivo "ecologico" utilizzando 2 cucchiai di detersivo per piatti, 250ml di aceto e 750ml di acqua.
Ma in realtà ci si può fare un sacco di cose in casa come lo scrub al miele e zucchero o il deodorante al bicarbonato.
Un'altra cosa molto green che faccio è non acquistare alcun tipo di giornale, mi informo tramite internet attraverso il sistema degli RSS, di cui ho già parlato in un precedente post, che visualizzo tramite l'aggregatore di notizie "Feedly".
Eppoi cerco di utilizzare la bici nonostante la mia pigrizia ;)
Non molti poi sanno che esistono su facebook un sacco di gruppi nei quali le persone regalano le cose che non usano più.
Un'altra cosa molto green che faccio è non acquistare alcun tipo di giornale, mi informo tramite internet attraverso il sistema degli RSS, di cui ho già parlato in un precedente post, che visualizzo tramite l'aggregatore di notizie "Feedly".
Eppoi cerco di utilizzare la bici nonostante la mia pigrizia ;)
Non molti poi sanno che esistono su facebook un sacco di gruppi nei quali le persone regalano le cose che non usano più.
Nei prossimi mesi continuerò ad autoprodurre quanto possibile (magari riuscirò a farmi un orticello!) al fine di avere una vita più economica ma soprattutto più green. Ora vado a sfornare il pane =)
Come realizzare uno studio fotografico spendendo poco
Da poco più di tre anni ho iniziato ad avventurarmi nel mondo della fotografia tanto da decidermi a ricominciare a studiare presso una Scuola d'arte.
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Di cose da imparare certo ne ho ancora molte, ma comunque ho deciso di scrivere questo post per aiutare chi, come me, vuole fare qualche lavoretto in studio ma senza fare un mutuo.
Per l'Università, la scorsa estate, ho fatto ben due shooting fotografici. Ho iniziato semplicemente con un mezzobusto e come sfondo ho utilizzato un cartoncino nero, ma già per la seconda serie fotografica tutto ciò non mi bastava più così ho tirato una cordina di juta da un capo all'altro della mia mansarda e ho acquistato un telo nero delle dimensioni di 3,00x4,00 in un negozio di tessuti della mia città spendendo circa 30,00 euro. Nei mesi successivi ho deciso di acquistare su ebay uno stativo per lampade con un ombrellino bianco (circa 33,00 euro), un pannello riflettente 5 in 1 (16,00 euro), per la modica cifra di 50,00 euro mi sono aggiudicata una struttura con fondale incluso, al Brico ho trovato un pannello di polistirolo per illuminare le parti del soggetto più scure (2,00 euro), il mio ultimo acquisto, invece, è stato un faretto alogeno da cantiere da 500W con stativo (30,50 euro). Quindi con circa 162,00 euro ho realizzato il mio piccolo studio fotografico, non sarà come nell'immagine, ma pur sempre fa la sua figura =)
venerdì 24 gennaio 2014
Manuale Plugin QGIS per il collegamento al Catalogo IRDAT fvg
Sono disponibili le istruzioni per l'installazione del plugin gratuito per il software GIS open source QGIS (www.qgis.org/) che consente, attraverso l'interfaccia QGIS, di ricercare le banche dati registrate nel Catalogo IRDAT fvg e di caricarne le geometrie sfruttando la connessione WFS.
martedì 14 gennaio 2014
Un nuovo inizio...=)
Domani per me sarà un nuovo inizio dopo l'incidente che ci è accaduto il giorno di Natale. Da allora, infatti, a causa delle lesioni subite, ci siamo trincerati in casa, perdendo tutte le feste, ma per lo meno con la contentezza di esseri tutti interni. Molte (ma davvero molte) ci sono state vicine e questo ci ha riempito davvero il cuore.
Sono stati giorni psicologicamente duri in quanto ho provato la sensazione che tutte le cose che avevo fatto sino a quel momento sarebbero state inutili se quel giorno le cose sarebbero andate differentemente. Ma non solo avrei tanto sprecato le mie energie nello studio e nel lavoro quando in realtà in quel momento avrei potuto perdere tutto (le persone che amo).
Ma per fortuna le cose sono andate per il meglio e di questo saremo grati e cercheremo un modo per ringraziare.
Io rientrerò al lavoro domani. Domani, un giorno come un altro sul calendario, per me sarà il giorno della mia rinascita spirituale.
Quest'anno vorrei tentare di migliorarmi, propormi e raggiungere obiettivi nuovi e non fermarmi al primo ostacolo. Vorrei inoltre dedicare più tempo alle persone della mia vita. Il tempo scivola in fretta e rischiamo di rendercene conto troppo tardi.
Quel che è certo è che dall'esperienza negativa che abbiamo vissuto ha contribuito a rinforzare il nostro legame.
Per il tempo perduto ci rifaremo presto =)
Colgo l'occasione per ringraziare TUTTI, ma davvero TUTTI coloro che ci hanno supportato in qualsiasi modo. Davvero grazie!
venerdì 10 gennaio 2014
THE ABNORMALS: FROM FOUCAULT'S THEORY TO PHOTOGRAPHY
At the beginning of ‘800 was raised the issue of mental illness, considerated increasingly as disease of the nervous system, often localized in the brain.
So in European clinics and hospitals, doctors began to study the various psychiatric disorders and often they hired some photographers who had the task of documenting the appearance of the patient suffering from such diseases and the progress achieved in the treatments .
Often these pictures were attached to the notes that composed real scientific books.
So in European clinics and hospitals, doctors began to study the various psychiatric disorders and often they hired some photographers who had the task of documenting the appearance of the patient suffering from such diseases and the progress achieved in the treatments .
Often these pictures were attached to the notes that composed real scientific books.
The " madness " was not only a matter of doctors, but even of many scientists and philosophers who have devoted themselves to the study of so-called "abnormals".
The philosopher Michel Foucault taught at the Collège de France from January,1971 until his death in June 1984. The title of his chair was "History of systems of thought".
His book " Abnormals " collects the lectures of the course taught at the Collège de France in the
years 1974-1975 .
In the theory of Foucault we can find two types of power:
1.power of sovereignty is nothing more than the institutional power (such as the monarchy) that hangs over the people;
2. disciplinary power is ameshpower, not institutional, social, moral, but also individual without written rules that hangs equally on everyone. Foucault's insight is that this type of power shapes the individual in his normality or abnormality.
The disciplinary power defines what is normal and what is not. In the case of abnormality it must create a series of mechanism to get the individual normal and so we have the invention of Asylums.
Remaining in the psychiatry field is essential to quote another tool: the survey, that is a necessary element for the foundation of the idea of abnormality most of all during a trial.
The individual’s biography is studied so he starts to “resemble to the crime before having committed it”.
In the Foucault’s opinion, at the base of abnormality, there are three types of individuals: beginning was considered moral corrupted. Later the science distinguished between the “natural monster” and the “mental monster” (eg. The mad man).
2.The uncorrectable individual is the degenerated, the criminal that must be punished and recovered. His motive could come from the folly, or, if rational, from moral perversion.
3.The masturbator child. Since the XVIth century the priests considered the masturbation practice as an immoral action. The masturbation is considered a disease that provokes other illness and so it gets into a psychiatrical issue because of the behavior of the family that controls, denounces and asks for the medical aid. So the family executes the disciplinary power.
Already in the XVI century Giovanni della Porta published a manual of human physiognomy which compared human and animals characteristics.
The scholar Cesare Lombroso (1835 – 1909), has been considered the pioneer and “father” of the modern “criminal anthropology”.
His works are based on the concept of the criminal – born (individual to be corrected). In his opinion, the origin of the criminal behavior is deep inside the anatomical features of the subject, who is a physically different person compared to the normal man since he has abnormal qualities that define his criminal attitude. Subsequently, the only useful approach to the criminal is the clinical – therapeutic treatment.
In the following paragraphs we'll discuss about the two main categories of Foucault's theory: the monster and the uncorrectable. Probably I was expected to have discussed about the “masturbator child” in photography but, in my opinion, the topic is too delicate and somehow +misleading that I preferred to limit the work to the first two categories.
THE “MENTAL MONSTERS” IN PHOTOGRAPHY
The Lombroso's theories must have influenced the work of the psychiatrist Hugh Welch Diamond that was the first one who photographed in the 1850s some ill women from the Surrey County Asylum. The technique will be developed further by Albert Londe.
Diamond believed in the art of morphology (identifying somebody’s mental state by their facial expression) and used pictures of his patients to diagnose their mental condition and possibly healing their pathologies.
Diamond's work was taken a step further in the next generation by the French photographer Alber tLonde (1858–1917), whose famous 1885 series of photos of a hysterical female patient at the La Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.
One commentor defined this the “invention of hysteria” the visual pathology enacted by women, often misunderstood with possession.
Diamond was also the author of other photographic genres. Nevertheless these pictures, even if realized with a medical purpose, since their intensity and aesthetic quality, represent the top of his art.
This kind of photography attracted a broad public and became a mass cultural object that later will be rediscovered by Surrealists.
The medical photographer Albert Londe (1858- 1917) developed the most outstanding scientific photography of his time.
In 1878 he was hired as a medical photographer by the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière in Paris where he studied, through the camera, the movements of human muscles and shot insane people (“the abnormals”).
His pictures of insane people are so much interesting because they are pretty different from the usal.
Since his medical research, he had the possibility to taking pictures of mad people during their insane sympthoms. Like aforementioned one of the most famous of his pictures is that one depicting the hysteria phenomenon. He documented every single step of the crisis. Undoubtedly these pictures have a huge medical worth, but, time after time, they acquired an artistic worth too.
His pictures show to the public what they've never seen before: the madness crisis and its effects.
For the first time the insane people were figuratively outside the Asylum under the eyes of everybody, the same people whom Focault's disciplinary power had confined the ill persons inside those painful places. Probably this had shocked the public at that time.
There was a slow proccess that turned this medical – research photography in something with artistic values.
In “Camera Chiara” it is stated that when someone knows that someone else is gonna takin' a picture, the shot person is not himself because he perfeclty knows he has to pose so the picture, in this case, can't reveal the real nature of the subject portraited. Viceversa when he doesn't know someone is going to shoot, he is what he is for real.
To stress this concept the author underlines that when he was leafing among the pictures of his passed – away mother he could recognised her just in one picture taken by chance when she was a child.
Even if we've to admit that the first pictures taken of lunatic people were shot for medical and scientific purposes, time after time, they started to become somehow an artistic phenomenon.
Insane people, in their madness, have something pure, they appear spontaneous because their mental state removes any inhibitions. This is probably the main reason why painters, like Gericault and Charles Le Brun, were used to represented them. Insane people, infact, have a particular twinkle in their eyes, their expression is weird and their appeal is odd. Their figures are somehow mysterious and the artists try to represent the halo of these characters. Probably nobody, either the artists, could understand who they are and what they think and this is the real essence of the mistery of representing them.
In more recent times shooting Asylums had the purpose to denounce the mistreatments and bad conditions the patients were living in.
In the 1969 the italian photographer Gianni Berengo Gardin with Carla Cerati, created a reportage called "Dying of Class" (“Morire di classe”) which tells in pictures the memorable inquiry into mental Asylums led by Franco Basaglia, contributing considerably to raise awareness about the terrible conditions of the mental illness in Italy (the pictures have been taken in Parma, Florence Ferrara and Gorizia where 350 of the patients were from ex Jugoslavia). The purpose of this work was to shock the people about the cruelty of these places, and at the same time, to promote the Basaglia' struggle to obtain a law that would permit better conditions for insane people. And also with the help of photography this could happen for real in the 1978 with the approval of the “Basaglia law” that restructered the system.
The book reported the horrible conditions of the patients dwelling in the Asylum and the photographers themselves had some difficulties to taking pictures because the nurses, once they've got the meaning of the work, asked to gave them the camera rolls, but the photographer gave them empty ones.
The pictures are extremely strong, penetrating and anguishing, they move the awarness of the observer that often could turn shocked.
They depict the humble and the lack of dignity of these human beings, both elderly and young people (even children!), mistreated and suffering that lying down on the floor or sit, desperated, on a bench with the hands over their head.
Some of them wear a straightjacket other appear like they were boring. An old man is bound at his bed, because they tied his feet. Everything inside the Asylum takes off any dignity remained.
The observer can feel the sadness and the sufferance of their eyes and inevitably gets involved into their feelings.
The pictures also represent the place where ill people are living in: everything is dirty and unhealthy. Inhuman bars fill every window, while people, willing to get out there, are screaming.
If we could compare the work of Gardin to Albert Londe's one we could realize that the subject s the same (insane people) but the puropes and results are completely different.
The pictures of Gardin are a public denounce of mistreatment, somehow are more dramatic, and move the spectator whilst the Londe's ones are more objective even though we are aware of the personal drama of the people involved, but we feel pretty far to share with them their huge pain and sufferences, somehow we're not involved into the drama like we could be into the Gardin's work.
The philosopher Michel Foucault taught at the Collège de France from January,1971 until his death in June 1984. The title of his chair was "History of systems of thought".
His book " Abnormals " collects the lectures of the course taught at the Collège de France in the
years 1974-1975 .
In the theory of Foucault we can find two types of power:
1.power of sovereignty is nothing more than the institutional power (such as the monarchy) that hangs over the people;
2. disciplinary power is ameshpower, not institutional, social, moral, but also individual without written rules that hangs equally on everyone. Foucault's insight is that this type of power shapes the individual in his normality or abnormality.
The disciplinary power defines what is normal and what is not. In the case of abnormality it must create a series of mechanism to get the individual normal and so we have the invention of Asylums.
Remaining in the psychiatry field is essential to quote another tool: the survey, that is a necessary element for the foundation of the idea of abnormality most of all during a trial.
The individual’s biography is studied so he starts to “resemble to the crime before having committed it”.
In the Foucault’s opinion, at the base of abnormality, there are three types of individuals: beginning was considered moral corrupted. Later the science distinguished between the “natural monster” and the “mental monster” (eg. The mad man).
2.The uncorrectable individual is the degenerated, the criminal that must be punished and recovered. His motive could come from the folly, or, if rational, from moral perversion.
3.The masturbator child. Since the XVIth century the priests considered the masturbation practice as an immoral action. The masturbation is considered a disease that provokes other illness and so it gets into a psychiatrical issue because of the behavior of the family that controls, denounces and asks for the medical aid. So the family executes the disciplinary power.
Already in the XVI century Giovanni della Porta published a manual of human physiognomy which compared human and animals characteristics.
The scholar Cesare Lombroso (1835 – 1909), has been considered the pioneer and “father” of the modern “criminal anthropology”.
His works are based on the concept of the criminal – born (individual to be corrected). In his opinion, the origin of the criminal behavior is deep inside the anatomical features of the subject, who is a physically different person compared to the normal man since he has abnormal qualities that define his criminal attitude. Subsequently, the only useful approach to the criminal is the clinical – therapeutic treatment.
In the following paragraphs we'll discuss about the two main categories of Foucault's theory: the monster and the uncorrectable. Probably I was expected to have discussed about the “masturbator child” in photography but, in my opinion, the topic is too delicate and somehow +misleading that I preferred to limit the work to the first two categories.
THE “MENTAL MONSTERS” IN PHOTOGRAPHY
The Lombroso's theories must have influenced the work of the psychiatrist Hugh Welch Diamond that was the first one who photographed in the 1850s some ill women from the Surrey County Asylum. The technique will be developed further by Albert Londe.
Diamond believed in the art of morphology (identifying somebody’s mental state by their facial expression) and used pictures of his patients to diagnose their mental condition and possibly healing their pathologies.
Diamond's work was taken a step further in the next generation by the French photographer Alber tLonde (1858–1917), whose famous 1885 series of photos of a hysterical female patient at the La Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.
One commentor defined this the “invention of hysteria” the visual pathology enacted by women, often misunderstood with possession.
Diamond was also the author of other photographic genres. Nevertheless these pictures, even if realized with a medical purpose, since their intensity and aesthetic quality, represent the top of his art.
This kind of photography attracted a broad public and became a mass cultural object that later will be rediscovered by Surrealists.
The medical photographer Albert Londe (1858- 1917) developed the most outstanding scientific photography of his time.
In 1878 he was hired as a medical photographer by the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière in Paris where he studied, through the camera, the movements of human muscles and shot insane people (“the abnormals”).
His pictures of insane people are so much interesting because they are pretty different from the usal.
Since his medical research, he had the possibility to taking pictures of mad people during their insane sympthoms. Like aforementioned one of the most famous of his pictures is that one depicting the hysteria phenomenon. He documented every single step of the crisis. Undoubtedly these pictures have a huge medical worth, but, time after time, they acquired an artistic worth too.
His pictures show to the public what they've never seen before: the madness crisis and its effects.
For the first time the insane people were figuratively outside the Asylum under the eyes of everybody, the same people whom Focault's disciplinary power had confined the ill persons inside those painful places. Probably this had shocked the public at that time.
There was a slow proccess that turned this medical – research photography in something with artistic values.
In “Camera Chiara” it is stated that when someone knows that someone else is gonna takin' a picture, the shot person is not himself because he perfeclty knows he has to pose so the picture, in this case, can't reveal the real nature of the subject portraited. Viceversa when he doesn't know someone is going to shoot, he is what he is for real.
To stress this concept the author underlines that when he was leafing among the pictures of his passed – away mother he could recognised her just in one picture taken by chance when she was a child.
Even if we've to admit that the first pictures taken of lunatic people were shot for medical and scientific purposes, time after time, they started to become somehow an artistic phenomenon.
Insane people, in their madness, have something pure, they appear spontaneous because their mental state removes any inhibitions. This is probably the main reason why painters, like Gericault and Charles Le Brun, were used to represented them. Insane people, infact, have a particular twinkle in their eyes, their expression is weird and their appeal is odd. Their figures are somehow mysterious and the artists try to represent the halo of these characters. Probably nobody, either the artists, could understand who they are and what they think and this is the real essence of the mistery of representing them.
In more recent times shooting Asylums had the purpose to denounce the mistreatments and bad conditions the patients were living in.
In the 1969 the italian photographer Gianni Berengo Gardin with Carla Cerati, created a reportage called "Dying of Class" (“Morire di classe”) which tells in pictures the memorable inquiry into mental Asylums led by Franco Basaglia, contributing considerably to raise awareness about the terrible conditions of the mental illness in Italy (the pictures have been taken in Parma, Florence Ferrara and Gorizia where 350 of the patients were from ex Jugoslavia). The purpose of this work was to shock the people about the cruelty of these places, and at the same time, to promote the Basaglia' struggle to obtain a law that would permit better conditions for insane people. And also with the help of photography this could happen for real in the 1978 with the approval of the “Basaglia law” that restructered the system.
The book reported the horrible conditions of the patients dwelling in the Asylum and the photographers themselves had some difficulties to taking pictures because the nurses, once they've got the meaning of the work, asked to gave them the camera rolls, but the photographer gave them empty ones.
The pictures are extremely strong, penetrating and anguishing, they move the awarness of the observer that often could turn shocked.
They depict the humble and the lack of dignity of these human beings, both elderly and young people (even children!), mistreated and suffering that lying down on the floor or sit, desperated, on a bench with the hands over their head.
Some of them wear a straightjacket other appear like they were boring. An old man is bound at his bed, because they tied his feet. Everything inside the Asylum takes off any dignity remained.
The observer can feel the sadness and the sufferance of their eyes and inevitably gets involved into their feelings.
The pictures also represent the place where ill people are living in: everything is dirty and unhealthy. Inhuman bars fill every window, while people, willing to get out there, are screaming.
If we could compare the work of Gardin to Albert Londe's one we could realize that the subject s the same (insane people) but the puropes and results are completely different.
The pictures of Gardin are a public denounce of mistreatment, somehow are more dramatic, and move the spectator whilst the Londe's ones are more objective even though we are aware of the personal drama of the people involved, but we feel pretty far to share with them their huge pain and sufferences, somehow we're not involved into the drama like we could be into the Gardin's work.
WAYS OF SHOOTING PUBLICITY
PUBLICITY IS GLAMOUR (from John Berger's lecture “Way of seeing”)
In the world we're livin' in we are all surrounded by images of an alternative way of life: everywhere, everytime. Basically a promised of better life. This is publicity.
In more recent times commercial paintings have been substituted by commercial photography.
Often in commercial photography we can find parks and gardens like in oil paintings of the past but nowadays the models substitute the goddness.
At the base of the concept of “glamour” (and so of “publicity”) we can find the social envy, infact, without it, glamour couldn't exist.
Oil paintings and publicity have a lot in common infact sometimes the first ones are used in advertising to give prestige. Moreover publicity very often refers to master pieces of the history of art and, most of all, it continues the tradition of oil painting.
Like oil painting, that indeed is very tactile, photography tries to render out the things represented more tangible.
The strategy of publicity is to make you think that “you are what you have”, the same happened with the oil paintings infact they were used to make people know that a specified family, for instance, had a lot of richness. They were a mean to communicate “look how much I'm rich”.
The message of commercial photography is that if we buy something our life and our private relationships will be better, even though, indeed, we'll be poorer. But we can have an object only if we have money. Infact publicity works on anxieties about money.
Advertising suggests that we are inadequate as we are, but it consoles us with a promise of a dream and make our mind imagine a better life.
Often, in the magazines, this unreality is compared with reality so you can find two adjoint pages where on the first one you have the publicity that means richness, social elevation and on the next page you can find the raw reality of poor country where there is the war, for instance. There is a relevant disconnection between these pages, but the combination is very significant because the messages is clear “this (the war) happens to some other” and “this (the dream offered by pubblicity) happens to you”.
The comparison between these pages is in any case uncomprehensible that's because we're living in a mad society.
But now the point is: can publicity be considered a form of art? Yes, in my opinion.
There are some (very) famous photographers that could shook up the way to promote commercial objects and we're gonna talk about them in the next paragraphs.
In more recent times commercial paintings have been substituted by commercial photography.
Often in commercial photography we can find parks and gardens like in oil paintings of the past but nowadays the models substitute the goddness.
At the base of the concept of “glamour” (and so of “publicity”) we can find the social envy, infact, without it, glamour couldn't exist.
Oil paintings and publicity have a lot in common infact sometimes the first ones are used in advertising to give prestige. Moreover publicity very often refers to master pieces of the history of art and, most of all, it continues the tradition of oil painting.
Like oil painting, that indeed is very tactile, photography tries to render out the things represented more tangible.
The strategy of publicity is to make you think that “you are what you have”, the same happened with the oil paintings infact they were used to make people know that a specified family, for instance, had a lot of richness. They were a mean to communicate “look how much I'm rich”.
The message of commercial photography is that if we buy something our life and our private relationships will be better, even though, indeed, we'll be poorer. But we can have an object only if we have money. Infact publicity works on anxieties about money.
Advertising suggests that we are inadequate as we are, but it consoles us with a promise of a dream and make our mind imagine a better life.
Often, in the magazines, this unreality is compared with reality so you can find two adjoint pages where on the first one you have the publicity that means richness, social elevation and on the next page you can find the raw reality of poor country where there is the war, for instance. There is a relevant disconnection between these pages, but the combination is very significant because the messages is clear “this (the war) happens to some other” and “this (the dream offered by pubblicity) happens to you”.
The comparison between these pages is in any case uncomprehensible that's because we're living in a mad society.
But now the point is: can publicity be considered a form of art? Yes, in my opinion.
There are some (very) famous photographers that could shook up the way to promote commercial objects and we're gonna talk about them in the next paragraphs.
THE IRRIVERENCY OF DAVID LACHAPPELE
David LaChapelle (Fairfield, march 11th, 1963) is a post – modern and commercial photographer that creates surrealistic pictures.
He attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and later the School of Art of New York.
His artistic father is somehow Andy Warhol that offered him his first incharge for the magazine “Interview”. He worked a lot, and still works, for many magazines such as Vanity Fair, GQ, Vogue, The Face, Arena Homme and Rolling Stone.
His first photographic book is entitled “LaChapelle Land” and makes know the photographer world wide for his eccentric style.
His next book is “Hotel LaChappelle” that made him successful.
His style is somehow original, colorful, glamour, odd, freak, byzarre, fake, trasgressive, baroque, eccessive, irriverent, sexualist, sometime vulgar and dreamy.
The pictures denounce the contemporary obsession, the relationship with the pleasure, the wellness and the superflous. The nudes are aggressive and insolent.
In his pictures he's not interested to represent a world of tragedy, desperation and lack of hope. For him fashion is fun.
At the same time we have a social purpose and he's trying to sell us something. So this is the innovation: the public denounce and the publicity mixed together.
Often in his work we have some references to the history of art like “Deluge” (2006 – see below) that is inspired by Sistine Chapel. Since he was young, LaChappele, felt himself inspired by Michelangelo that considers the top of the pop artist because his images are understandable by anyone.
His photography makes the impossible, be possible in a dreamy and eccentric context.
We can say he shook up the way to create pictures for the publicity inventing his own style that brings his signature.
He works like he was a director. Every detail is studied meticulously.
Often the subjects of his “folly” are famous actors or singers that become caricatures of themselves like Courtney Love, Pamela Anderson, Amanda Lepore, Madonna, Tupac Shakur, Elizabeth Taylor, Uma Thurman, but also Hillary Clinton, Lance Armstrong and David Beckham.
He was influenced and inspired by Andy Warhol infact his photography is defenitely “pop” but at the beginning his photography was black and white, when he found out he hadn't HIV he started to use an explosion of color.
He considered the pop art like something that could be understand by everyone.
David LaChappelle works so much with the publicity: in the past he relized advertising for Tommy Hilfiger, Nokia, Lavazza, L'Oréal, Diesel, H&M e Burger King.
THE SOCIAL CRITICISM OF OLIVIERO TOSCANI
Oliviero Toscani (Milan, 1942) is an italian photographer mainly known for his photographic works for the italian brand “Benetton” but also for “Chanel”, “Esprit”, “Fiorucci”, “Prénatal” that turn him famous as a photographer for publicity.
His way to photograph is often very strong, trasgressive, scandalous, purely real because even in the publicity he tries to communicate a social interest message.
Very often he was up to be censored for his strong pictures.
He tried to make up with the critics with the picture of a newborn baby, but it was a failure because the image was too shoking to be exposed publicly. It remains one of the most censored images of the history of photography.
His picture about a black woman feeding a white baby is probably his best known picture even if the black american communities have strongly criticized it.
He's also famous (and very criticized) for “No–l–ita” a picture about an anorexic model which aim was to sensitize the public opinion about the problem of anorexia.
For Benetton he realized the campaign “Unhate” portraing politicians and religious chiefs kissing each other. Of course Pope Ratzinger threatened to denouce the brand that had to retire the pictures in the next 24h from the launching.
“Benetton” incharged him to shoot prisoners sentenced to death, but the brand was denounced by Missouri state and sentenced to pay 50.000$. This damaged a lot the brand that had to close 50 shops in all the country and the collaboration with Olivieri was interrupted.
The photographer encountered the disappointment of the Pope for his picture portraiting a gay couple with a baby. The image had an enormous success in the States.
He also fought against the violence on women shooting two kids, a boy and a girl; the meaning of the work was a critic to the families that sometimes are not able to give a good education to the children thus they could generate violence.
Oliviero Toscani is deeply different from David LaChapelle, the second one is very glamour and treats shallow topics in a fancy world, whilst the first one in each picture that he shoots, treats very strong subjects and themes shoking the public. In this sense he could be considered as innovetor as the american photographer. Both are genial, trasgressive, direct and they use a strong visual language like no others have used in advertising pictures before.
“Benetton” incharged him to shoot prisoners sentenced to death, but the brand was denounced by Missouri state and sentenced to pay 50.000$. This damaged a lot the brand that had to close 50 shops in all the country and the collaboration with Olivieri was interrupted.
The photographer encountered the disappointment of the Pope for his picture portraiting a gay couple with a baby. The image had an enormous success in the States.
He also fought against the violence on women shooting two kids, a boy and a girl; the meaning of the work was a critic to the families that sometimes are not able to give a good education to the children thus they could generate violence.
Oliviero Toscani is deeply different from David LaChapelle, the second one is very glamour and treats shallow topics in a fancy world, whilst the first one in each picture that he shoots, treats very strong subjects and themes shoking the public. In this sense he could be considered as innovetor as the american photographer. Both are genial, trasgressive, direct and they use a strong visual language like no others have used in advertising pictures before.
La gatta che vedeva le streghe - Stefania Conte
Durante questi giorni di festa (e di convalescenza) mia madre, sapendo che adoro i gatti (ne ho ben quattro) mi ha imprestato un libro dal titolo "La gatta che vedeva le streghe" di Stefania Conte.
La storia è ambientata nel (mio) bel Friuli e precisamente a Varmo dove la vita di una iper - razionale psicologa si intreccia con quella della magica gatta Zoe e di Alice, una pasticcera che la vita ha duramente segnato. Tra un ostacolo e l'altro le tre riescono ad aprire una pasticceria che riscuoterà un grande successo in paese, suscitando però l'invidia di alcune streghe...
Una bellissima e velocissima lettura immersa in un Friuli legato ancora alle antiche tradizioni di Benandanti e Agane e arricchita da una dolce atmosfera.
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