Tuesday, February 2, 2010

O'born artists

When I saw O'born Contemporary's website, I thought child pornography might be making a comeback in the art world. Then I read that Edith Maybin placed her 5 year old daughter's head on her own body. It makes for very confusing imagery; also if you were concerned about the suggestive nature of the photos, I'm not sure you'd actually be comforted by the knowledge that they were photoshopped.

Edith Maybin

If fakeness is Maybin's excuse for the suggestive nature of her photos, I'm not sure what Jess Roberts' excuse is.

Jess Roberts

4 comments:

  1. I really like the Jess Roberts photos. The Edith Maybin photographs have something to them, but the ones you've mentioned with the childs face are taking away from the natural beauty of the photograph in my opinion. I think there's some great shots in her gallery, but the photoshopped heads take away from the natural beauty of it. I understand that she's going for the mother/daughter sort of thing, but I find that to be just a distraction from the beautiful shot.

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  2. Without knowing at first that the heads were photoshopped on the bodies, I was just distracted by my wondering how old the girl was. In some photos she looks 5 and in some she looks 16. But the photos have a subtle strangeness to them that I like.

    Looking at Jess Roberts' photos I was equally distracted, since I was wondering "where did she get these kids to pose like this?!" It's hard to see them just as beautiful shots.

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  3. I actually only saw the three photos that were linked on the Jess Roberts site when I first looked. Now I see the ones of the girl in the grass. I thought the three that she had linked there were beautiful shots... but the ones of the girl in the grass felt unsettling.

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