Contextual Studies

In our first seminar with Jane De Teliga we looked at fashion photography through from the early 1900's to present day. I found this extremely interesting to see how fashion and beauty photographs and ideas has inspired so many other beautiful ideas and photographs but never really gave it much thought until now. After she showed some inspiring images I took note and researched an image later at home that stood out to me.

This was the image that was shown in class created by painter Johannes Vermeer in 1665 with oil on canvas. It stood out to me because of its name at first, The painting clearly shows a young girl wearing a headdress (what would of been seen to be fashionable in those days) and a very obvious pearl earring. The painting is so simple but so beautiful in many ways and I think the artist has captured the innocence of this girl very well which has inspired so many other artists of today to recreate this piece.

This is an image of Scarlett Johansson from the film 'The girl with the Pearl Earring' recreated from the original painting. The same innocence has been created as Scarlett Johansson was slightly older than the girl in the original painting but the same pale face with almost no makeup on with rouge lips shows the photographers intentions to stay true to the painting.

Here is an image of Beyonce as the girl with the pearl earring, and you can see from this picture that the photographer has taken more of a modern approach to the photograph. Beyonce is seen as more of an adult version of the girl with makeup on but still wearing the same headdress so the images are not too far apart. 

This is a piece done by a Vienna-based artist called Dorothee Golz who combined modern day imagery with the original 1665 painting to create something odd and thought provoking. The girl here is seen to be a normal present day girl of 2009 with the clothing and her carefree posing. I'm really inspired by this image as it's taken an old idea and added a modern twist which is something very skilled that the artist has done very well.

These images have all been inspired from that very image of the girl with the pearl earring and it shows how fashion, beauty and photography from the past can inspire so many new artists to create new and exciting pieces and even our work from today could inspire others in years to come!


Image 1: http://www.salon.com/2003/12/12/pearl_earring/
Image 2: 8http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24334678
Image 3: http://flavorwire.com/276113/dorothee-golz