I was initially drawn into the painting's similarity in colour to the original image of Bob Dylan, and I enjoyed the artificial take on the original photographs background.
Objective Description: The Image is a copy of a Bob Dylan image shot by Elliot Landy. The background has a red painted forest scene to mimic the natural forest in the Dylan Image. It is a Self portrait of Ali; she sits on a log in front of her painting with a smug grin on her face. Beyond the Painting is an actual forest with much more dull colours which suggests a common contrast between real life and what we see in an image.
Formal Complaints/praise: I really enjoyed the concept of Ali’s piece, playing with the idea of an individuals passion becoming an extension of themselves more so than just an object or talent they possess. The only critisim I have for this piece is I’d like to see a more cropped in version, focusing more so on the painting, and allowing the grass around the bottom of her feet to suggest the artificiality of the scene.
The story Ali’s image tells of her process begins with a trip to Montreal several years ago where she first found the Dylan image at a Pop Culture Exhibit gift shop. The image drew her in initially only by the colour, not even aware that it was an image of Bob Dylan. The image has remained a favorite of Ali’s since then, being framed in her home allowing her to constantly return to it. As she decided on the process to take in mimicking this image, she knew she wanted to focus on the colour, and the idea of a person’s passion being an extension of them. After some thought she came to the idea of a self-portrait, and in place of Dylan’s guitar she uses the background painting itself to represent her passion for art. She chose to keep the real forest visible in her image to play on her fascination with the natural beauty of the west, and the idea that in the Dylan image it makes her wonder why he is in this particular scene, the sort of artificial placement in a natural space. Ali chose to be sitting in the image because it seemed more fitting in the scene, and the log she sits on is a reiteration of the natural forest behind her painting of a forest. The Car that Dylan sits on is less important to Ali than the contrast between the red and black colours in the image themselves; the simple casual position Dylan is in, in this setting is more intriguing than what he actually sits on.
The Work in the world applies to many other images by many other artists based on the fact that we often create an artificial scene made to look like a natural one and shoot the image in a way that is believable. Ali’s image shows us an almost “behind the scene” view of what many other photographers try so hard to hide.
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