Steven Pippin | |
---|---|
Born | Steven John Pippin 1960 (age 63–64) Redhill, Surrey, England |
Nationality | British |
Known for | Sculpture |
Movement | Young British Artists |
Website | www |
Steven Pippin (born 1960 at Redhill, Surrey) is an English photographer and installation artist. Pippin works with converted or improvised photographic equipment and kinetic sculptures which are often based on physical models and are metaphors for social mechanisms. [1]
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2020) |
Pippin's work shows a strong interest in the mechanical, which he has said stems from an early childhood memory of seeing his father surrounded by the wires and tubes of a television set he was repairing. [2]
He studied in Mechanical Engineering at Charles Keen College, Leicester; Foundation Art & Design at Loughborough College, Leicestershire; Fine Art Sculpture at Brighton Polytechnic and Fine Art Sculpture at Chelsea School of Art, London [1] [3]
During his student days he was selected for the DAAD scholarship (German Academic Exchange Service) [4]
From the beginning of his career, his works focused on creating atmospheric photographs by converting every day object into provisional pin hole cameras. Later his photography became closer to science after making peace with this type of disciplines.
I hated it because my father and grandfather were engineers... I've gone back to technology now, but for a long time I didn't touch it; I blocked it. I tried making gears out of cardboard when I already had the knowledge to machine the parts! [5]
Pippin's early work was based on converting furniture and everyday objects into makeshift pinhole cameras which he then used to take sympathetic photographs. Sympathetic photography, as seen through photographer Allan Sekula (1951-2013) using photography not only for an aesthetic purpose but as a tool to show injustices and bodily suffering. [6]
His work often involves a significant amount of planning to overcome the practical problems posed by the chosen object. Pippin typically has to plan and construct a significant amount of supporting equipment in order to achieve his pictures. Frequently the resulting photographs are distorted or otherwise compromised by the manner of their construction, but the imperfections are seen as an important characteristic of the image, giving a link back to the object which was used as a camera. The photographs are always shown alongside an image of the converted object, and for later works, much of the actual equipment used in the conversion along with supporting documentation. [7]
Within the exhibition called A Non Event (Horizon) that took place from June 16, 2011 to October 2, 2011 at the CEAAC (Centre européen d'actions artistiques contemporaines) there is one of Steven Pippin's best-known works: Point Blank.
Throughout this series, the artist exhibits small and medium-sized analog cameras pierced by bullets along with some of the photos they took while the projectile was heading towards them, making his last photos capture the reason for its destruction. This project contains 20 images to date. It began in Wisconsin, USA and was continued in London later.
It is precisely the fact of obtaining perforated cameras and the symbology that accompanies them that makes this series such an interesting work. As a result, photographs are obtained with distorted and fractured images with organic ramifications that are reminiscent of the chemical process that accompanies analog photographs. In some of the images obtained we can see the bullet out of focus due to its speed. [8]
During the eighties, a transition occurred in the world of photography that brought with it a lot of controversy, dividing photographers between those who abandoned analog to switch to digital format and those who decided to stay with the traditional technique.
In this work, Steven Pippin seeks to reflect this change through a method that consists of simultaneously taking the same photograph with a digital and an analog camera. The image resulting from the synchronized shot is exposed divided in two, either by natural borders (typical of the landscape or element photographed) or artificial ones, separating the two formats.
The analog side is done using a C print, printed by hand; and the digital side is an inkjet print. [8] [9]
This work is one of the most philosophical, in it we can see a CANON camera from which the artist has decided to delete the first two initials, a fact that is referenced in the title of the project itself. The lens of this camera is surrounded by a system of tubes and mirrors that rotate on the camera to focus on itself. This work lacks functionality and is based on self-reflection and absurdity. [8] [10]
Our universe is theoretically, according to astrophysical theories, in a constant state of equilibrium between collapse through implosion and total explosion. Normally, physicists use a pencil as a metaphor to show this very delicate state of balance of forces, maintaining its balance supported only by its tip. For approximately 10 years Steven Pippin dedicated himself to devising a sculpture that could represent this metaphor.
The sculpture is based mainly on two lights that project the shadows of a 2B pencil on a metal plate where it is held. These shadows are monitored by sensors that, upon detecting the slightest change, modify the position of the plate where the pencil rests with a margin of 20 milliseconds and almost imperceptibly to avoid losing balance. Thus, the pencil remains upright without the help of anything other than its tip. [5] [11]
This work seems to stop time while keeping the viewer in a constant state of expectation and teaching us the fragility of balance. [12]
The first images in this series were made in London in 1991. Later, in 1997, Pippin expanded his idea and moved it to a laundry room in New Jersey, where he placed photographic paper on each of the backgrounds of 12 washing machines that were attached to ropes of cotton. That ropes were activated in his path to capture him walking. As we can guess from the name, this work is a tribute to Animal Locomotion (1887) by Eadweard Muybridge. In this work, Muybridge tried to confirm or deny the following hypothesis: There is a moment in a horse's trot where none of its legs are in contact with the ground. To test this bet, Muybridge had a horse run in front of 12 cameras that were activated by ropes in its path, capturing snapshots of the movement.
Thanks to this, he not only managed to demonstrate that the hypothesis was indeed true, but also laid the foundations of cinema, motion photography, and if that were not enough, he helped the world in general to better understand the movement of the horse. Later he would do more projects capturing dances and everyday movements of human beings.
Pippin's tribute was even closer to the original images obtained by Muybridge because the washing machines were spinning at 500 rpm.
(It gave the images) a certain degree of authenticity, making them look like a Muybridge original from a hundred years ago. The scratches on the surface of the negative become a substitute for time, an artificial aging process that gives the images an accidental air of authenticity. [13]
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed in many fields of science, manufacturing, and business, as well as its more direct uses for art, film and video production, recreational purposes, hobby, and mass communication.
Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection.
Ansel Easton Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating "pure" photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph. He and Fred Archer developed a system of image-making called the Zone System, a method of achieving a desired final print through a technical understanding of how the tonal range of an image is the result of choices made in exposure, negative development, and printing.
A tintype, also known as a melanotype or ferrotype, is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal, colloquially called 'tin', coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion. It was introduced in 1853 by Adolphe Alexandre Martin in Paris, like the daguerreotype was fourteen years before by Daguerre. The daguerreotype was established and most popular by now, though the primary competition for the tintype would have been the ambrotype, that shared the same collodion process, but on a glass support instead of metal. Both found unequivocal, if not exclusive, acceptance in North America. Tintypes enjoyed their widest use during the 1860s and 1870s, but lesser use of the medium persisted into 1930s and it has been revived as a novelty and fine art form in the 21st century. It has been described as the first "truly democratic" medium for mass portraiture.
Chronophotography is a photographic technique from the Victorian era which captures a number of phases of movements. The best known chronophotography works were mostly intended for the scientific study of locomotion, to discover practical information for animal handlers and/or as reference material for artists. Although many results were not intended to be exhibited as moving pictures, there is much overlap with the more or less simultaneous quest to register and exhibit photographic motion pictures.
A snapshot is a photograph that is "shot" spontaneously and quickly, most often without artistic or journalistic intent and usually made with a relatively cheap and compact camera.
Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life. It is typically undertaken as professional photojournalism, or real life reportage, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or academic pursuit.
Anna Atkins was an English botanist and photographer. She is often considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images. Some sources say that she was the first woman to create a photograph.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to photography:
Architectural photography is the subgenre of the photography discipline where the primary emphasis is made to capturing photographs of buildings and similar architectural structures that are both aesthetically pleasing and accurate in terms of representations of their subjects. Architectural photographers are usually skilled in the use of specialized techniques and cameras for producing such specialized photography.
Nude photography is the creation of any photograph which contains an image of a nude or semi-nude person, or an image suggestive of nudity. Nude photography is undertaken for a variety of purposes, including educational uses, commercial applications and artistic creations. The exhibition or publication of nude photographs may be controversial, more so in some cultures or countries than in others, and especially if the subject is a minor.
The Horse in Motion is a series of cabinet cards by Eadweard Muybridge, including six cards that each show a sequential series of six to twelve "automatic electro-photographs" depicting the movement of a horse. Muybridge shot the photographs in June 1878. An additional card reprinted the single image of the horse "Occident" trotting at high speed, which had previously been published by Muybridge in 1877.
Barbara Blondeau (1938–1974) was an American experimental photographer active in the mid-1960s through the early 1970s. In her career as a photographer, she worked in a wide variety of materials, process and formats, although she is best known for her strip prints which she stumbled upon while shooting with a malfunctioning camera.
Sammy Baloji is a photographer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He works in Lubumbashi and Brussels, and held exhibitions in Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Bilbao, Cape Town and Bamako.
Robert Stivers is an American fine-art photographer. His work is collected by museums from New York to Paris and Cologne and shown in galleries worldwide.
Abstract photography, sometimes called non-objective, experimental or conceptual photography, is a means of depicting a visual image that does not have an immediate association with the object world and that has been created through the use of photographic equipment, processes or materials. An abstract photograph may isolate a fragment of a natural scene to remove its inherent context from the viewer, it may be purposely staged to create a seemingly unreal appearance from real objects, or it may involve the use of color, light, shadow, texture, shape and/or form to convey a feeling, sensation or impression. The image may be produced using traditional photographic equipment like a camera, darkroom or computer, or it may be created without using a camera by directly manipulating film, paper or other photographic media, including digital presentations.
The practice and appreciation of photographyin the United States began in the 19th century, when various advances in the development of photography took place and after daguerreotype photography was introduced in France in 1839. The earliest commercialization of photography was made in the country when Alexander Walcott and John Johnson opened the first commercial portrait gallery in 1840. In 1866, the first color photograph was taken. Only in the 1880s, would photography expand to a mass audience with the first easy-to-use, lightweight Kodak camera, issued by George Eastman and his company.
Sorel Cohen is a Canadian photographer and visual artist currently living and working in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She was represented by Donald Browne Gallery in Montreal until the gallery closed its doors in 2016.
Matt Lipps is an American photographer and artist.
Animal Locomotion: An Electro-photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements is a series of scientific photographs by Eadweard Muybridge made in 1884 and 1885 at the University of Pennsylvania, to study motion in animals. Published in July 9, 1887, the chronophotographic series comprised 781 collotype plates, each containing up to 36 pictures of the different phases of a specific motion of one subject.