Michelle Melendez
Self I As Image
Professor Doris Cacoilo

April 18, 2017

    “To collect pictures is to collect the world” Susan Sontag. Collecting pictures as always been much more than just a piece of paper for me. Collecting pictures is collecting memories, collecting the world, for me collecting pictures is reviving memories that I might never be able to experience again. Every picture I have represents something special. They say that we always photograph the things that we are so afraid to loose and throughout my life I realize that’s true because I always find myself photographing those things that I always wanna keep, that i’m afraid to let go.

    The first time I heard about this class I knew I had to take it, and I don’t regret it. If I love selfies and pictures, this class made me love it a little more. I learned that there was so much more to just taking a picture. The background, the people, the way you take the picture, each little thing matters. Pictures represent something and artist decided to use them to bring out a point, to show people what’s happening in real life in a way that they know and like. Thee first artist we worked with was Cindy Sherman and I fell in love with her work and the way she uses pictures to represent women. I was excited while reading about sherman’s work, especially when she utilizes a wide variety of makeup techniques, masks and prostheses to create a truly stunning and grotesque representation of the body. When it was my chance to create a selfie, I wanted to do something that represented women and they way they are seem. I created mine as the way men se woman in today’s society, as a doll, as a sex toy. Because of the way they dress, or how much makeup they have on. I decided to be a doll, more like a naked doll to represent the way men view women, when it should not be like that.

    The male gaze has always been one of my favorite topics and a big controversy in photography and art. “A woman is always accompanied, except when quite alone, and perhaps even then, by her own image of herself. While she is walking across a room or weeping at the death of her father, she cannot avoid envisioning herself walking or weeping. From earliest childhood she is taught and persuaded to survey herself continually. She has to survey everything she is and everything she does, because how she appears to others and particularly how she appears to men is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life” ( John Berger, ways of seeing).  John berger did not only talked about the male gaze but he broke it down and showed us why the male gaze really exists. Naturally, the way female bodies were presented as an object to look at had an affect on women. In the quotes which I included in this paragraph berger bring a point that might be familiar to many women. You are never yourself, you are how you appear to others, especially men.

The Campbell’s soup can collecton by Andy Warhol was really interesting, who thinks about painting soup cans?  I was so curious to find out why soup cans and I found something really interesting. Soliciting suggestions for subjects to paint, he asked a friend, who suggested he choose something that everybody recognised like Campbell’s Soup. In a flash of inspiration he bought cans from the store and began to trace projections onto canvas. At this time he received a return studio visit from Irving Blum of Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, who was expecting to see comic-strip paintings and was surprised by the new soup cans. Everyone was surprised but it was a success. I created my own set of pics trying to have my own collection.

    How can I talk about art, photography and paintings without talking about Frida Kahlo. Frida is one of my favorites, her work is just so amazing. One of my assignments for this course was to go to a museum during spring break. I decided to go to the MoMA because I wanted to see Frida’s work in person. Going to the MoMA was a whole adventure. From taking the path train to walking through the beautiful street of NY in such a cold day, to getting to the museum. Everything was so fun.I was surprised and sad to know that they only have two of of her painting, but happy at the same time because I got to see them.

   

When I used to think about images and elfie, I never thought about how much work this artist actually put into creating their work. Learning that a pictures is much more than just an image of an object of something we like or just a moment that we will like to cherrist for the rest of our lives was amazing. This course taught me to look beyond the image, look for the meaning because every pictures has it’s own. Now I look at photographs and painting in a whole new way, a better one. If I loved pictures before now I love them even more.