Does Biography Matter?

In this chapter, the writer introduced a photograph toke by Andre Kertesz. He begins the chapter by asking is the biography of the author really reflected on one’s work, is there a self in every work one made? There are many examples of artwork that don’t relate to one’s personal life very much, for example, Vivian Maier’s, but Kertesz’s is a counterexample of that. His work much more reflected by his inner experience than presenting an objective world. There is one sentence that I think is very interesting: “his images filtered social reality through a highly emotional filter.” His works, instead of saying about the social changes, speaks more of himself. Not only his emotional state but also his experience. When he was in Paris and met many artistic people, his photographs are said to have a big difference from works later on.

During his old age, he made lots of images of still life. These images reflect his emotions as consistent. And, it is these stories of him that made the still life different and beautiful. Under current situation, I think still life photography is also something interesting and worth exploring!

Lost Cloud by Andre Kertesz

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Final blog

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