Artist Statement

Eric Granwehr 

Professor Lasky

Writing and Thesis Prep 

6 February 2011

Artist Statement

I strongly believe that fashion photography and contemporary fine art photography are one in the same. I urge to bridge the gap that so many blindly see between them, and create work that serves both needs equally. I draw inspiration from both genres of photography, and find myself bringing ideas from one and using them in the other. I enjoy toning down the glamour and bringing out the domesticity within my work.

My work has undergone great development since I first began shooting 10 years ago. I constantly find that not only am I learning more about my ultimate preferences, but I’m learning who I am as an artist as well. I find my abilities to conceptualize and envision a continued body of work are stronger and continue to grow. My work addresses the idea that simplicity overrules excessive drama. I find such visual poignancy in the most mundane and commonplace of locations. Whether it’s a domestic setting or an urban exterior, I am constantly inspired by day- to-day locations and often incorporate them in my work.

My ultimate inspiration are the genre paintings of the Dutch Golden Age and the Flemish Baroque period. I enjoy attempting to blend the concepts of genre paintings while remaining current and relevant in terms of styling and casting. Not only is it a challenge that is often difficult to overcome, but I believe it’s the backbone of my work. Maintaining a coherency in regards to styling is something I deem crucial to any sort of artistic success. I find the use of separates with strong attention to the littlest of details are often strongest. I enjoy simple accents that are often quirky or perhaps gender-bending in a way. Not everything is cut-and-dry when it comes to styling, and sometimes a viewer has to look closely to find peculiar ideas.

Light is something that all photographers analyze more than anything else. I prefer to avoid the use of artificial light and stick strictly to natural light. I think it goes hand-in-hand with my preference toward shooting film as opposed to using more advanced digital equipment. There’s something soft and dreamy about the use of film, even with the sharpest of images. “Merge Visible” was an earlier body work in which I experimented with layered images shot with two different cameras; one analog and one manual. The layering effect was strong and differed greatly from the majority of double exposures that I’ve seen from time to time.

Genre paintings is still an field of art that I am still investigating deeper. I often struggle to convert older motifs into something relevant to today’s demand. It simply goes to show I haven’t fully developed as an artist and that my progression has yet to come to any sort of end.