Melanie Pullen
American artist self trained in her chosen field grew up in New York city in a family of artists. Born in 1975 she work with galleries and museums around the world. Also working with musicians like beck, she currently resides in L.A. Her work has been published in numerous publications in many countries. There is also a book of her photographs out called High Fashion Crime Series published by the Nazraeli Press.
Her work is often very large and backlit when in a galleries setting. Pullen works in film and scans, prints and retouches her own work. Inspired by crime scene photographers between 1914 and 1918 as represented in the book Luc Sante’s “Evidence”. She has combined fashion, military uniforms and crime scenes in an interesting way. The film “Eyes of Laura Mars “ also was an influence.
High Fashion Crime Scenes (official site)
Exhibition Stephen Wirtz Gallery
New York Times Interview, 2004 New York Times
[Beck.com http://www.beck.com/colorspace]
[KQED Gallery Crawl http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/gallerycrawl/episode.jsp?essid=24440]
[YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF9tKM1BRrA]
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The first 2 photographs are very "suicide girls". I cannot not help but read them as somewhat misogynistic, especially when you look at the three photographs together. The women are fashionable, dead, powerless and the "soldier" looks quite powerful and alive. I will try to find her artist statement and see what her motivation was for making these images.
ReplyDeleteCheck out Anna Gaskell, I think you would like her use of lighting and interpretation of Alice in Wonderland.
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