Artist Erin O’Keefe uses elements of painting, sculpture and architecture to create studio-based photographs that confuse the senses, and reconfigure how we see photography as truth. Using multiple means of visual trickery, she leverages the digital manipulation we often take for granted by creating images that appear altered, but are shot straight on, without any form of retouching or “post processing.” In less than a decade, O’Keefe has created more than five distinct projects of studio based work that address these ideas in wavering forms. With a background in sculpture and architecture, she brings new and unexpected energy to the medium, encouraging viewers to rethink how they view photographs and interpret vision itself. We asked Erin about her practice and thoughts on photography's continuously shifting moment.
Is your Instagram feed littered with kittens, selfies and "regrams" from jokers like snoopdogg, thefatjewish, and f*ckjerry? Well, you should continue to follow them because kittens are adorable, selfies can be intellectualized, and @thefatjewish is still hilarious. But you can broaden your scope with great work from these 5 photographers who have recently done residencies on Humble Arts Foundation's Instagram feed. From Sean Ellingson's Hong Kong field trips, to Serrah Russell's captivating collage work, we continue to be floored and awed by the work we see on our phones. Click on their images below to go straight to their IG handles.
The past five years have demonstrated an increased attention to process-based photography. Often-coined “The New Formalism,” this work has received both salivating acclaim and hate-heavy criticism for its test of photographic material, asking a nearly recycled question: “What is a photograph?” New York-based artist Charlie Rubin’s constantly evolving work unapologetically removes this from the conversation and age-old photography ghetto with thoughtful photo-based images that speak to a more open and inclusive approach of making and looking at art.
Since his childhood, Brandan Gomez has been perplexed with religious narratives and mythology, and his inability to find proof – spiritual or scientific—of their real-life foundations. His recent series Mystica X is a visual quest to make sense of this uncertainty and his ongoing challenge in contemplating what he sees as their lack of conviction.
Since photography’s early days, photographers have explored human relationships to the natural world at countless angles, from Ansel Adams’ glorifications of the national parks to The New Topographics’ flat, and often typological views of industrial and suburban development. While at times, it might appear that this terrain has been done to death, Christopher Rodríguez’ series Between Artifice and the Sublime offers a sad, yet refreshing meditation on our constantly evolving place in the American landscape.