My Photography: The Duomo of Milano

In the first post I had some images I had taken while living in Milan, Italy. This post is dedicated to the Duomo of Milan which is without a doubt one of the most beautiful old buildings I have ever seen and visited. All the images were taken during 2004. I hope you enjoy them. Next time something completely different.

Artist of the Week: Helene Schjerfbeck

This weeks artist is a Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1945). From the photographs and portraits that she painted of herself looks out a fragile, but serious and decisive woman. Her art also reflects that - in them her personal tenderness and strength are combined. Often the artist is focused on describing the most central character in the painting, leaving the background almost empty.

Helene Schjerfbeck's life was shadowed by an accident at the age of four, effecting her ability to walk. When growing up she often had to watch while others played their lively games. Later in life she was no stranger to loneliness, withdrawal or even becoming a hermit. In her art you can also see the same things, and her independent and personal style has often been described as being detached from the Finnish art of the time.


Schjerfbeck had excellent drawing skills and she was taken into drawing school when she was only 11 years old. As a young artist she proved to be capable of producing works that were demanding in size, subject matter and that she could also do paintings about historic events - just as the male artists of her time. When she started to portray children and women, the critics said she painted things that were not significant. Schjerfbeck, however, did not go back to the "masculine" subjects - and later on, her numerous child portraits have become the jewels of her production. For example, today one of her most beloved works is a painting portraying a child healing from an illness.

From that particular painting you can find a lot of the painter herself. Like the child, Helene healed from her own illnes and later on from the pain inflicted by a broken engagement and the criticism towards her art. As early as 1902 she left the artist life in the capital city and moved to live with her mother in Hyvinkää. She lived the rest of her life without contacts to the outside world - this also meant giving up her connections to other artists, only few female artists remained as a part of her life.

Schjerfbeck chose loneliness and she interacted almost only with her own art. After she withdrew herself, her paintings took a more fragile and thoughtful tone. The artist was rarely satisfied with her own work: she painted them again and again, even after many years she came back to paint the same subject again, she played with them and even destroyed some of them. When she was painting, she also brushed and wiped off the extra colour from them, which gave them the unique, easily recognizable fragile glimmer.

Through her life she painted selfportraits, in which she portrayed amazingly bravely her aging process and revealed herself and her mind for others to see. While the years passed on, her rosy cheeks changed more and more simpler in shape.

Finally, just before she died, she painted herself only with a few careful strokes but so that you could still recognize her face. Through her long life, Schjerfbeck had succeeded in taking her skill of simplyfying and focusing into her grand finale.

My Photography: Details

I promised to start this feature in my blog, so here is the first My Photography post. These are mixed images: details and/or objects that I have found intriguing, beautiful, funny or they have moved in some level. Many of these photographs have been taken during 2004. I was living in Milan then and I saw lots of things I wanted to photograph and still many was left unphotographed. Milan became my second home, and it would be great to go back just to concentrate on taking beautiful pictures (even if I hate feeling like a tourist - but I wouldn't be, 'cos I've lived there and I know my way around it). Naturally I could not got to Milan without seeing my dear friend Sara who I miss a lot.. But back to these photographs! The images not taken during 2004 in Milan, have been taken in Finland the year after. I hope you enjoy them. I will be adding more images - which will varie from detail images such as these to male/female portraits, self-portraits, tasteful nudes and whatever I can find from my archives. So make sure to keep looking for more posts under the title My Photography.Layers, 2004

Plastic flowers, 2005

In Traffic, 2004

Electric Box, 2004

The Beauty of Broken, 2004

Peace, 2004

Figures on a wall, 2005

Iron fly, 2004

Funny Car, 2005

Hardcore, 2004

Artist of the Week: Controversial Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe (November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black & white portraits, photos of flowers and male nudes. The frank, erotic nature of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks.

Nude portrait of Patti Smith, who was also her girlfriend.

Mapplethorpe is best known for his Portfolio X series, which sparked national attention because of its explicit content and the funding of the effort by the NEA, including a self-portrait with a bullwhip inserted in his anus.

One of Mapplethorpe's most controversial works, Self-Portrait with A Wip.

Mapplethorpe made most of his photographs in the studio. Common themes were flowers, especially orchids; portraits of famous individuals, including Andy Warhol, Deborah Harry, Richard Gere, Peter Gabriel, Grace Jones, Patti Smith and nude works that include homoerotic imagery from classic nudes to sadistic and masochistic acts.

"Let's face it, most photographers are living their lives vicariously by taking pictures."

ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE

Calla Lily, 1984

Thomas, 1979

Mapplethorpe also played with sexual identities, fading out the line between the sexes.
Self-Portrait, 1981

The cover of Patti Smith's first album, Horses, featured a Robert Mapplethorpe photo.

Ken and Tyler

Bob Love, 1979

His photographs of black men have been criticized as exploitive.



Black Man in a Polyester Suit

In the mid-1970s, he began taking photographs of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, including artists, composers, socialites, but it wasn't until he met Benjamin Green the pornographic film star, that he truly became inspired to push the envelope of sexuality and photographing the human body.

Mapplethorpe was once quoted as saying, "Of all the men and women that I had the pleasure of photographing, Ben Green was the apple of my eye, my unicorn if you will. I could shoot him for hours and hours and no matter the position, each print captured the complete essence of human perfection" (New York Times). It was this relationship that inspired him during the 1980s, to refine his photographs with an emphasis on formal beauty. He concentrated on statuesque male and female nudes, delicate flower still lifes, and formal portraits of artists and celebrities.

Self-Portrait, 1988

When it became known that Mapplethorpe was infected with HIV, the prices for his photos increased dramatically. In December 1988 his photos collected $500,000 each. Mapplethorpe died on the morning of March 9, 1989, in a Boston, Massachusetts hospital from complications arising from AIDS; he was 42 years old. His ashes were buried in Queens, New York.

Artist of the Week: Gus Bozzetti

This week's artist is Gus Bozzetti, very talented graphic designer from Brazil. He does amazing illustrations! He is the same guy who was brave enough to enter the "Co-Write A Song With Me" contest that is still open until the end of July. Here is some of Gus's illustrations, if you want to see more go to my links - his websites are listed there!