Paul M. Smith.
The first photographer I am going to look at for my decided change in direction, now that I am only looking at “staged” images that I think create shock value to make them memorable, is the photographer Paul M. Smith
I came across Smith’s work when after being appointed as one of the senior lectures on my university course he did an introductory talk, during which he showed us a number of pieces of his work, which I have to say I have become quite a fan of. I have always liked the ‘art’ of digital photography and admire photographers that chose to use it over film and don’t think that is a technique that should be looked down on compared to traditional photography methods. Smith experimented with early visions of photo imaging software to create what has almost become the signature of his work. Most of Smiths photographs are what I would describe as digitally manipulated, multi-layered self-portraits. Most of his earlier pieces including the images he created for his bodies of work called ‘Artists Rifles’, ‘Make my night’ and the images he created for the cover Robbie Williams’ 2000 album, ‘Sing when your winning’. All employ his technique of muti-layered digitally manipulated photographs.
The bodies of Smith’s work that I am most interested in mind you is his series of images entitled ‘This is not pornography’. This set of 12 images has to be some of the most provocative and shocking images I have seen in a long time, when he presented them to us in his speech people in the lecture theatre gasped out loud and the images created quite a stir. In my honest opinion Smith showed us the least shocking images of the set. On his website it explains that for this series of images, “Paul combines elements of the pornographic, theatrical and grotesque into a form that does not conceal it’s dislocation from realism”. So what are these images, well from what I can see they consist of again manipulated images that are based on conventions and reinforced serotypes found in pornography but Smith has taken these conventions and stereotyped and created images that he says that are “deliberately intended to have a rebarbative effect rather than appear erotic”. In most of these images he has created grotesque visions of what I can only think to describe as hermaphrodite-esc beings that are presented in the way that you would expect to see glamorized in pornography
I have to say I think this image entitled “shave” is the most shocking image out of all of the pieces in the “This is not pornography” series. I don’t think staged photography gets much more brutal than this. The image depicts another hermaphrodite-esc being, shaving both sets of their genitals with a rather dangerous looking saving blade. On his website it say that “the cut throat razor evokes the fear of castration and the blended bodies lose all their sexual function”. I have to say I think the topic of male and female castration is quite a hard hitting topic for anyone to tackle. I’m not sure what else to say about this image I do find it that shocking that I find myself reduced to just staring at the image, quite lost for words. I have been trying to work out if this picture has a deeper meaning or what messages Smith might have been trying to put forward but I’m at a bit of a loss but it is shocking and it does, entail make the image memorable and I have to say I admire anyone who has the balls and the imagination to concoct and produce something like this.
