Sam Taylor Wood Further research

I looked at the work of Sam Taylor–Wood in my AS year and was influenced to reproduce some suspended images after looking at her ‘Self Portrait Suspended’ series. Although I looked at the Crying men work she did last year I have explored that further when considering my topic portrait in unit 3.

Crying Men is a series of photographic portraits of famous film actors by Sam Taylor-Wood. Taylor –Wood asked each of these actors perform and cry for the camera while she photographed them.

Taylor-Wood wants the viewer to decide for themselves which were real tears and which were fake. She did say it was difficult for some of them to show their feelings and she had wanted to get masculine men and show a different side to them

I think if these subjects were not known or were not famous we wouldn’t even question if the sadness was real. We would assume it was real.

I think portraits, whether they are taken on film or digitally still depend on the photographers ability to use decent light and pose the subject. Taylor-Wood has a skill of bringing in the unexpected. She goes one step further to make you question what you are seeing. In her ‘self suspended’ series she made me think ‘how does she do that?’ with the ‘crying men series’ she will get a response from the viewer. Either ‘are these tears real?’ or it’s not what people expect, men crying. Will the viewer think about themselves, would I allow someone to capture something private?

As well as photography Sam Taylor-Wood makes films that challenge and provoke emotion.

Her film showing David Beckham asleep taken in 2004 is controversial.  Firstly why does she choose a famous footballer who is usually very active? I think he is considered an attractive guy and the way the film was taken it implies the photographer was lying next to him in bed. This makes you think was this staged like a photo shoot? Or does she know him? He has been linked to the press to pretty girls outside of his marriage.  Either way it gets people talking about Taylor Wood and her work.

Another short film she made was a 2 minute film to promote International Women's Day. This sees Daniel Craig playing the super-spy James Bond showing gender in equality.  The voice over is by his MI5 boss M, as played by Judi Dench in the recent movies. Basically Taylor Wood gives out a strong message that woman are not treated fairly, a bit like how woman are treated by some in Islam.

Overall I would say Taylor Wood uses all different techniques and elements within the images she takes such as lighting, shapes, and movements within the shoot. Most of all though there is a sexual undertone to her work maybe this is to shock a bit in an acceptable way. The way she uses attractive guys in her photo’s or films. The half dressed photos of herself in the suspended series and then her self portrait ‘suck, fuck, spank, wank’. This image is defiant a bit like me.