Melanie Pullen Says It's Art
...and I agree that it is. It's fucked-up art. I don't want to ban it, or protest it. And in a real sense, she's giving us what they say we say we want: I don't even watch the CSI or SVU shows, with their highly sexualized violence, but the TV ads creep me out. (This is hardly new. Beautiful dead co-eds have been TV cannon fodder from the beginning.)
And I never liked the stylized Vogue spreads (who did them? Avedon? Helmut Newton?) featuring haute debasement. (ETA: diachrony clues me in about Avedon. Thanks.)
So L.A. - based photojournalist Melanie Pullen currently has an exhibit of her work at Stephen Wirtz Gallery in San Francisco. Here's the page announcing High Fashion Crime Scenes. You can click for a photo gallery. From the press release:Using the Los Angeles Police Department and County Corner’s office database as primary study for her reenacted crime scenes, Los Angeles based photographer Melanie Pullen presents high saturated chromogenic prints for her series aptly titled High Fashion Crime Scenes. Pullen’s High Fashion Crime Scenes takes aim at the public’s fascination with forensic investigations, crime scenes and bodies of evidence, while confusing the solemn feel of such scenes by the inclusion of haute couture.
Employing the body as vehicle, Pullen introduces such lifeless conduits treated with Bulgari, Gucci, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Louis Verdad, assessing the line between high fashion’s ability to mask or draw attention away from harsh visual realities and its opposite platform, that being of the everyday un-staged tragedy, existing wholly within the actuality of the daily. Seen in Pullen’s photographs are productions against nature, so to speak, as the complete process is a mimicry of heinous crimes captured with the assistance of models, haute couture on loan from top fashion houses, and complete staffs consisting of set designers, makeup artists, and other associated stage hands.
Pullen’s photographs beg the question of a number of issues regarding authenticity, the human obsession with other people’s tragedy, the blurred line between reality and the fake spectacle in contemporary culture and the general disassociation that humans feel in regards to issues of mortality from such rapid exposure to violent imagery modern day. Raised in a family of photojournalists, Pullen was inspired by Luc Sante’s 1992 book Evidence that contained crime scene images collected from the New York Police Department from 1912-1914.
"....Employing the body as vehicle, Pullen introduces such lifeless conduits treated with Bulgari, Gucci, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Louis Verdad, assessing the line between high fashion’s ability to mask or draw attention away from harsh visual realities and its opposite platform, that being of the everyday un-staged tragedy, existing wholly within the actuality of the daily...."
Huh? Although I guess one shouldn't look to press releases for sensible prose.
What do you think? How do you react? Especially if you are a photographer, how do you react? How do you think we are meant to react?
I have this feeling that I'm supposed to admire the witty interplay of reality and fantasy, note how it might shock some people but not me, because I'm not just another girl, I'm the coolist post-feminist chick on the block. May I should laugh at how ordinary a bit of Prada looks when it's been left out in the rain like Richard Harris's cake. Am I not supposed to notice the dead women? Am I supposed to "other" them?
PJ Harvey:
Put on that dress
I'm going out dancing
Starting off red
Clean and sparkling, maybe he'll see me
Music play, make it dreamy for dancing
Must be a way that I can dress to please him
It's hard to walk in the dress, it's not easy
I'm swinging over like a heavy loaded fruit tree
If you put it on....
It's sad to see
Lonely, all this lonely
Close up my eyes
Dreamy, dreamy music, make it be alright
Music play, make it good for romancing
Must be a way I can dress to please him
Swing and sway, everything will be alright
But it's feeling so damn tight tonight
....
Filthy tight, the dress is filthy
I'm falling flat and my arms are empty
Clear the way, better get it out of this room
A fallen woman in dancing costume
And I never liked the stylized Vogue spreads (who did them? Avedon? Helmut Newton?) featuring haute debasement. (ETA: diachrony clues me in about Avedon. Thanks.)
So L.A. - based photojournalist Melanie Pullen currently has an exhibit of her work at Stephen Wirtz Gallery in San Francisco. Here's the page announcing High Fashion Crime Scenes. You can click for a photo gallery. From the press release:Using the Los Angeles Police Department and County Corner’s office database as primary study for her reenacted crime scenes, Los Angeles based photographer Melanie Pullen presents high saturated chromogenic prints for her series aptly titled High Fashion Crime Scenes. Pullen’s High Fashion Crime Scenes takes aim at the public’s fascination with forensic investigations, crime scenes and bodies of evidence, while confusing the solemn feel of such scenes by the inclusion of haute couture.
Employing the body as vehicle, Pullen introduces such lifeless conduits treated with Bulgari, Gucci, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Louis Verdad, assessing the line between high fashion’s ability to mask or draw attention away from harsh visual realities and its opposite platform, that being of the everyday un-staged tragedy, existing wholly within the actuality of the daily. Seen in Pullen’s photographs are productions against nature, so to speak, as the complete process is a mimicry of heinous crimes captured with the assistance of models, haute couture on loan from top fashion houses, and complete staffs consisting of set designers, makeup artists, and other associated stage hands.
Pullen’s photographs beg the question of a number of issues regarding authenticity, the human obsession with other people’s tragedy, the blurred line between reality and the fake spectacle in contemporary culture and the general disassociation that humans feel in regards to issues of mortality from such rapid exposure to violent imagery modern day. Raised in a family of photojournalists, Pullen was inspired by Luc Sante’s 1992 book Evidence that contained crime scene images collected from the New York Police Department from 1912-1914.
"....Employing the body as vehicle, Pullen introduces such lifeless conduits treated with Bulgari, Gucci, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Louis Verdad, assessing the line between high fashion’s ability to mask or draw attention away from harsh visual realities and its opposite platform, that being of the everyday un-staged tragedy, existing wholly within the actuality of the daily...."
Huh? Although I guess one shouldn't look to press releases for sensible prose.
What do you think? How do you react? Especially if you are a photographer, how do you react? How do you think we are meant to react?
I have this feeling that I'm supposed to admire the witty interplay of reality and fantasy, note how it might shock some people but not me, because I'm not just another girl, I'm the coolist post-feminist chick on the block. May I should laugh at how ordinary a bit of Prada looks when it's been left out in the rain like Richard Harris's cake. Am I not supposed to notice the dead women? Am I supposed to "other" them?
PJ Harvey:
Put on that dress
I'm going out dancing
Starting off red
Clean and sparkling, maybe he'll see me
Music play, make it dreamy for dancing
Must be a way that I can dress to please him
It's hard to walk in the dress, it's not easy
I'm swinging over like a heavy loaded fruit tree
If you put it on....
It's sad to see
Lonely, all this lonely
Close up my eyes
Dreamy, dreamy music, make it be alright
Music play, make it good for romancing
Must be a way I can dress to please him
Swing and sway, everything will be alright
But it's feeling so damn tight tonight
....
Filthy tight, the dress is filthy
I'm falling flat and my arms are empty
Clear the way, better get it out of this room
A fallen woman in dancing costume