I Need Mythology in Photography

[stevenvaneck]

Hello,

I'm in need of names of photographers or titles of photographs that have got something to do with mythology for a school assignment.

My first thought was Jeff Wall with ''the storyteller'', or ''a sudden gust of wind''

But I would like to have more names of photographers who use ''Mythology'' as a subject for their photo's.

Photo's / photographers may be known, unknown, old, dead, or still working, as long as the bottom line is that a story / myth is used for the base of the photo.


I like Tim Walker's subjects / photo's as well, but I think that's only fashion photography, and will probably have nothing got to do with mythology.


So I guess I'm thinking mostly about conceptual photography. Can anyone help me with some more names? Any help or new names will be helpful for me.

Thank you

[LeeR]

I did a bit of research in order to better answer your question and I was absolutely shocked at the lack of photographic images with mythological themes. In all the other arts, myths are everywhere; movies, plays, books, songs, poems, paintings and sculptures abound in mythological concepts, but not photography. Is photography just so young that we have not yet discovered this rich source of ideas? Or are we so tied to the literal that we have trouble with the mythological? I don't know.

There is a husband and wife couple you may be interested in; Jerry Ueslmann and Maggie Taylor. Maggie does a lot of work with an "Alice in Wonderland" theme. Not exactly a true mythology, but close enough. Jerry Uelsmann's work is everywhere. He was doing Photoshop type work before Photoshop was invented. Because both he and his wife do nearly all of their work in post production they are not bound to 'reality' in the sense that most photographers are. Still, even his work is not tied to a specific mythology. In his words, his images invent their own mythology. Both have a fascinating view of the world and do some amazing work still.

[stevenvaneck]

Hi, thank you Lee for your response. The names you gave are interesting. I like Uelsmann's photo's, I am not known with his work.

In class we do have some photo history and I do know mythological themes are used in photography.

If we have a timeline in photography and art we see that when photography takes it place, painters and artist start to wonder if their perception of their realities can be true enough as the capture of a photo.

photography is cheaper than a painting, costs less time to make and a photo is more true than a painting. so painters wondered if they should continue making art with photography as a competitor.

it took a long time until photography was seen as an art, because man considered photography nothing more than a registration method.

conceptual art in photography took place. mostly getting the ideas from known mythology.

why do you do what you do? staged photography took time and effort to construct. this photography was not ''just a registration of an true invent'' but a conceptual constructive setting... photography finally was considered art too.

but now we're talking about the early 19th century... now I'm still in search of mythological themes / photographers.

who can help me further?


maybe in the end after I have given my presentation I can post a small essay about history and photography. I think it will be interesting

[stevenvaneck]

I found some new mytholgy in photography I can work with

photographer: Gregory Crewdson
title of photo: ''Opheilia''
year: 2001

http://sarahh.net/blog/wp-content/up...6/00027gyt.jpg


But more work / photo's / photographers / titles will be usefull so please keep comming with help

[FocalFrenzy]

If you go to deviantart.com there is a heading listed under "Digital Art", called "Photomanipulation".
If you key in the word "Mythological", you'll see everything from griffins to Pegasus. All of these works are created from photos. I'm not sure if this fits your purpose, or not, but it's the best I can do.

[spazoid1965]

Can you use stills from movies? Theres been quite a few cameramen shooting movies with mythological characters. Does it have to be Greek/Roman mytholgy? There's quite a bit of mythology in western cultures too. Examples: Santa, Tooth Fairy, Sandman, Easter Bunny, Uncle Sam, etc.