The Photograph as Contemporary Art Chapter 1 Reading Response

          I really enjoyed today’s reading because I enjoy learning about the history of photoconceptualism. I was particularly pleased with knowing about photographers who took the direction of the grotesque, or other thought provoking attitudes. The Bread Man, Gillian Wearing, Erwin Wurm’s idea of challenging the disruption of daily life is an intriguing approach.  I think that Wearing had a particularly interesting body of work. She asked people in London to write something about themselves on a piece of white card, and then she would photograph them. The result was the portrayal of different personal issues were captured in a photograph. I also enjoyed learning about the photographer versus subject relationship. For instance, Bettina von Zwehl’s work involved photographing subjects in a three part series which “portrays subjects when their appearance is not controlled by them” (23). For the first part of the series, her subjects were asked to sleep in white clothes and they were photographed after being awoken. The second part of the series involved the subjects wearing blue an they were asked to do something physical before being photographed. For the third part, the subjects were asked to hold their breaths while be photographed, which made them feel strained. Zwehl was able to capture the essence of these feelings in her photographs, which I find very compelling.