Uta Barth

Uta Barth 'and to draw a bright white line with light.' (Untitled 11.2), 2011. 

I went to Leeds this weekend, my home town and whilst I was cleaning my room I came across my old Art & Design book from my previous course and this book is about other artists and designers that are inspirational. I was extremely happy that I saved my book because it reminded me of the unique photographer Utah Barth and what I like about Utah Barth is that her work is very different from other photographs. I couldn't leave Uta Barth aside from my research, the way she approached her work is too unique to be ignored. I wish to learn from her technique with a camera because i want to able to include it in my primary research so i may be able to experiment with it with one of my ideas rush hour in Huddersfield.

  

 Uta Barth Field #20 1997

Why is Utah Barth unique and why do I like her work? You see usually we are familiar with looking at a photograph of something, like a photograph of a person or object because our eyes subconsciously is looking for the main purpose of the photograph. Utah Barth is playing against those rules, her photographs is not about what is seen in it, it is about the action of seeing, I honestly it leans a bit to psychology as well. Like take for example her work called '

'Field #20' taken in 1997. The medium used is digital print acrylic paint on canvas. She has not manipulated this photographic print in any way. The photo is of a street corner with a red traffic lights across. She has deliberately took the photograph out of focus, the blurriness makes photograph to resemble an abstract piece, it has an abstract elements and dramatic feel. I like the fact that her work could be looked at differently, as an abstract not just as a photograph. The composition of red light dots causes the work to stand out more, it is as if we are staring through a wet glass window.

I think that Utah Barth's work goes more into depth than it just being a 'blurred photograph', it deserves more than a glance because her work calls the viewers attentions to the absence of the subject 'Street corner' and this causes them to focus on where the subject would be if it was a focused photograph in effect turning us the viewers into the real subjects.

Utah Barth said in an interview - "Mostly the camera is used as a sort of pointing device. One goes out into the world and points it at something of beauty, something of importance, a spectacle of some sort . . . always at something, so in most images the subject of the photograph and the meaning are one and the same. I wanted to challenge that by removing the central subject and to look at and think about the background, which ascribes meaning to the subject in an almost subliminal way."

Reference:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/barth-field-20-t07627

http://bombmagazine.org/article/6511/