Hisaji Hara's Photographic Portrayal of the Paintings of Balthus

When you think Amsterdam and art, one name springs to mind. Vincent Van Gogh. But it was the heavy, government marketing that turned me off seeing the work of the great artist in person. Thinking back it was almost mad not to take up the opportunity, but it was just unappealing. The Van Gogh Museum held huge rectangular signs that dominated the side of the building. It was almost like the Netherlands government saying this is art! You must conform and see this work. I am usually not so sensitive to my perceptions of such factors, but after my 'right to censor' project on globlisation, consumerism and new world order, it was hard to ignore. So I decided to turn my attention to more current artistes. Thankfully Amsterdam is a cultured city. Only a few streets down I was stopped in my tracks by the work of Hisaji Hara's Photographic Portrayal of the Painting of Balthus.

Perhaps it was the serenity of seeing the work at night through the window of the Reflex Modern Art Gallery, which stopped me in my tracks. Art was not on my agenda that night. I was too engrossed in exploring Amsterdam's nightlife. But I found his images arresting. I instantly connected with what the artist was trying to achieve. I could see that this was work perfected. It hit many buttons under scrutiny and is something that I desire to achieve; An understanding and input into the art community. A relief. So much for the Harris museum at Preston. This single series awakened me to the fact that I am starving of artistic nourishment. Literally starving. I live in a place populated by handy men with dim views of art. How can I continue to excel in this environment? "If you can't bring the mountain to muhammad, then bring mohammed to the mountain"

I found Hisaji Hara's Photographic Portrayal a display of artistic freedom that encapsulates a world that is separate from mine. One which determines its own rules and boundaries. Perhaps a private view of a fantasy or vision that I was invited to join. His still life's are delicate and use of monochromatic tones evocative, presented before my eyes as tasteful center pieces to finish any blank space. I think I will have to get my hands on some of Hara's work.

I later found out the full title of the work and researched it further. I found that the artist in which Hisaji was emulating causes some controversy. Some of Balthus paintings have featured young girls in erotically suggestive poses or situations. In Hara's images he has toned down the perversity, by introducing more acceptably aged Japanese women, rather than adolescents. The sexual suggestion if any for me, becomes more of an expression of Japanese values or culture. Below are some examples of Hisaji Hara's Photographic Portrayal of the Paintings of Balthus. I have included one comparison so that you can see how closely he has followed Balthus paintings. But also what alterations and interpretations Hisaji has placed on his own photographic portrayal.

Wedding distraction

Nothing like a wedding to distract you from your work. I got married! I have spent the last few months putting all my energy into getting married. I like to thank my good photo buddy Alex for capturing the wedding pictures on my big day that I will be posting a.s.a.p. I haven't decided to pack in the photography just yet and now I am back on the grind. So my main focus over the next few weeks is to have a really strong online presence that sings and dances at every end (if that makes sense). I want people to be able to go online and explore the world of domgoodphoto. I wouldn't say that its something hard to do, but I'm gonna need to put the work in. I'm almost building it from scratch. I'm quite happy that when you type my name into google my work comes up, but now I wish to work on campaigns to achieve my photographic ambition. Who knows, I could have all this online work done by the end of the week.

The wedding distraction did not go in vain as I discovered a few new things. Firstly the power of tumbler. I think nothing has brought me more up to date than tumbler. It single handedly opened up a world of other prolific photographers working on current trends which I find highly appealing. As you may recall 'After The Smoke' appealed to me when I worked with 'Sjambok' on my latest music video project. I loved After The Smoke's website designed by 'Rob Coin'. I wanted to create something similar for my own music projects. On closer inspection I noticed that he had used tumbler to create the site. Although I have not quite figured out how I will best use tumbler. I have began to explore it with a small sample of pictures. You can see how it unfold at http://domgoodphoto.tumblr.com/

Twitter. I have to finally embrace it. I have solely used facebook as my means to stay connected. However I have come to find that almost everyone who is half decent at something, is available on twitter. I will post my twitter link on the blog shortly when I have sorted out my twitter game later this week. domgoodphoto will have its own facebook page which will also launch this week.