Artis Lecture

Artist Lecture

For this project, I chose to emulate Jeff Wall who is a prominent photographer. He once stated, “a picture is something that makes us feel invisible before and after.”  Throughout his lecture on Art 21, he describes his attentive detail throughout his life, which has led him to notice accidental encounters and moments that he recreates. Once he captures ‘that photo’ he turns it into a large-scale photograph, which helps the viewer examine the finer detail in the image such as subject, emotion, and scenery.  His work varies from showing challenges, as little as spilling milk, to then big emotions. Us viewers see the challenges first hand of being an artist- his attention to detail is always on because he doesn’t want to miss a potential new recreation. We see his recreation of scenes as well as his thought process through capturing a new image. When a scene isn’t up to par, he fiddles and tweaks it until it is up to his liking. Throughout his life’s work, he started off as a conceptual artist but now has ventured in appropriating scenes, cartoons, and ideas about the ’70s and ’80s as well as bringing light to pop culture. He walked us through certain images as he appropriated them, but he mostly brings to light accidental encounters that have turned into a beautiful way to capture art. He mentions, “an accident connects me with something that wasn’t there before.”  The encounter can be as simple as people walking down the street- but in his eyes, it’s the opportunity of something spectacular. His passion lets us viewers appreciate his fine attention to detail as his work can make us feel all sorts of emotions, almost as if we feel invisible at the moment.