Blog Post #11: Tableaux photos

What is this post?: Each of these artists sets up full–scale tableaux to shoot. Some composite multiple shots. Choose an example from one of the artists to describe and interpret. Read biographies and artists statements or watch videos when provided to get an understanding of the artist’s background and concepts. Use this information to help you with our interpretation.

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Although this blog post only requests one image, I felt like including multiple of the work of Robert ParkeHarrison was necessary as it helps illustrate the type of artwork he produces. ParkeHarrison continues a common theme of doom, sadness, and death in morbid yet extremely creative ways. In most of his photos the main subject is one singular man, dressed very simply in a black suit, about to take on a task that is either extremely dangerous or impossible. ParkeHarrison’s work is extremely thought and emotion provoking which is what drew my immediate attention. The dates of these photographs reveal that PrakeHarrison was photographing in years in which color photography was available, yet he chose to leave out the color and have his pieces be in black and white. This choice by the artist is another reason why I believe his pieces are so powerful. Without the color the viewers are able to focus on the story that the image is telling and allow their thoughts to run wild from there. I selected these three images in particular because they all evoked different emotions from me. The first one screamed curiosity, youth and vulnerability, a while it also infers an impending doom as the man is dressed in metal as he walks towards what seems to be lightning. Second, Mending the Earth by PrakeHarrison has a a contrast in emotions where on one side I feel a sense of hope as the man in the image seeks to repair something broken, but as a sense of doubt because of how impossible this task would actually be. Lastly I included the image title Burn Season because I found this one to be most morbid of them all. The man dressed in his black suit as some sort of liquid in water balloons all on his body. Due to how he is walking into fire, and what we know about PrakeHarrison’s style of art, many would assume the liquid in the balloons would be something along the lines of gasoline or some sort of lighter fluid. Therefore the man in this image is directly walking to his death which is extremely sad and morbid.