Artist Log - Ellen Von Unwerth

Ellen Von Unwerth

Unweth's work is strange, she works with loads of people especially celebrities. She focuses on making people look attractive, making them seem sexy and important even. She's interesting in the way she does things, making even the weird sexy but overall her work is incredible and great to look at. I chose her because her work is surreal in a way that it almost is real, she takes extravagant real life situations and turns weird and wonderful. 

Here Keira Knightly and friend pay tribute to one of two movies, either the popular Pirates of Caribbean or the more political thriller V for Vendetta, both films are incredible and she gave great performances so a tribute to either films wouldn't be bad. The way Unwerth takes this concept of masculinity from facial hair and applies to a girl is rather extraordinary, she is still able to make the women look sexy.   

Unwerth once again using her skills to sexualise her model, this time it's Emma Watson (well known actress). In way it shows that celebrities are also people as Emma is sorting out her make up in the morning but at the same time she still looks incredible overemphasising the way that celebrities always look 'good'.

Unwerth manly photographs women but here she has taken the time to photograph Christian Bale (Batman), here he is shown dressing smart but with a t-shirt on. This is different from what Bale would usually wear, he is usually in a suit or at least looking very smart here on the other hand not so much yet Unwerth still makes him look attractive. From this image we can see that smart casual doesn't actually look too bad, maybe through this photo Unwerth is trying to show this. 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and friend are again made to look attractive by Unwerth, she creates the atmosphere by making both models seem attractive and perfect for each other. She's trying to create a real life setting, this could show how people are mesmerised by TV (Levitt holding a TV remote), to the point where they ignore their loved ones, even something as primal as sex. So as a species we are destroying ourselves almost, ignoring basic instinct in order to be brainless for a while. 

I really like the way Unwerth takes her photos, they seem so clean and simple when really there is depth within the photos and I would like to incorporate that into her work. 

I feel as if Unwerth can influence my work through the compassion of my work, she takes very good portraits and I really enjoy how she takes people, I would very much like to take her style and possible recreate a piece or two just to get a feel for the different ways she takes photos and I wish to incorporate that into my own work. I have then gone on to take similar photos, using themes which have helped me to develop my composition and atmosphere of the photo taking the lighting into thought. 

I still really like Unwerth's style and I feel as if it's very surreal but it shows celebrities as real people and find it extraordinary how she can show those two very different atmospheres at the same time. To summarise her work is incredible and will continue to influence my own with creating a setting or a scene within my work, the reason i like her so much is because she can do that. Almost every photo she takes looks as if it's been ripped from a film and that is what I'd like to do.