Understanding Visual and Text
I came across these books, which combined photography, text and paintings - which is what I am doing for my assessment however in the smaller form of a zine. These works assisted me in composition and understanding how valuable text can be when combined with visuals.
MARIA KALMAN & DANIEL HANDLER
1. The MOMA series, ‘Girls Standing on Lawns’ (2014) is this unique collaboration, that combines vintage photographs from MOMA’s collections and original paintings (Kalman) inspired by these photographs accompanied by text (Handler). This monumental publication displays “this shared fascination with anonymous snapshots and the rich lives, memories and stories they evoke.”
“Growing up, my house had two lawns. One lawn was for playing and taking pictures. My parents planted a tree when I was born and when my sister was born and we would take pictures…standing in front of the trees. The other lawn was for nothing.” - Daniel Handler
This publication references how this idea of standing on lawns and having your picture taken is something that is done and always has been, whereby we consider this act to be a normal and something almost ritualistic in nature. The photograph collection acts as evidence that has notion occurred for some time, while the paintings are humorous and playful depictions filled with vivid colours embodying the happiness of youth. However, the act of acknowledging that girls stand on lawns for their various reasons, gives this act meaning and new purpose that once seemed so trivial.
2. ‘Hurry Up and Wait’ (2015) the second volume in a series of collaboration similarly referencing this acknowledgement of human nature, more so ‘the human race’, how we are all busy going places in which we barely give ourselves time to stand still as we are always moving.
“How long can we stay here? We hurry around for a while and then it’s time to go. Time to go. Everybody says it. Time to go. And then we do.”- Daniel Handler
Some other considerations for my assessment include the title, as both “Girls Standing On Lawns” and “Hurry Up and Wait” are extremely successful in conveying their idea. The viewer will be influenced by the title as they view the series, therefore it must be carefully considered.