William Eggleston. Huntsville, AL
(Man in a Motel Room). c. 1969-70.

Art photographers generally didn't appreciate color photography because:

Didn't like its commercial associations

The media was degraded once amateurs enthusiastically adopted color film

Color images looked average instead of artistic

Color needlessly prettified the image

"There are four simple words which must be whispered: color photography is vulgar." - Walker Evans

Historic Context

1981

End of the Cold War

1986

GRID renamed AIDS

Chernobyl nuclear accident

1989

Robert Mapplethorpe dies of AIDS

David Hockney.  Pearblossom Hwy.  1986.
http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~mdst322/hockney_pearblossom.jpg

Belief that no single truth exists

Embrace diversity and questioning

Promotes parody, irony and playfulness

pastiche = an artistic technique whereby a generally light-hearted tongue-in-cheek imitation of another's style is employed; although jocular it is usually respectful (as opposed to parody, which is not)

Cindy Sherman. Untitled Film Still #21. 1978.
Cruz, Amanda and Elizabeth A. T. Smith.  Cindy Sherman: Retrospective.  Chicago:  Thames & Hudson, 1998.

Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema 1973

Cindy Sherman. Untitled Film Still #34. 1979.
Cruz, Amanda and Elizabeth A. T. Smith.  Cindy Sherman: Retrospective.  Chicago:  Thames & Hudson, 1998.

Hollywood cinema places the viewer in the masculine position

The viewer identifies with the protagonist who tends to be male

The woman is the object of desire - something to be looked at

1996 Museum of Modern Art purchased a complete set of Film Stills for $1 million

In 2006 a print of #32 (she made 10) sold for $140,000 at auction

Leonardo da Vinci . Madonna and Child. 1482.
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_3_1b.html

Cindy Sherman. Untitled #216. 1990.
Grosenick, Uta ed. Women Artists in the 20th and 21st Century. Taschen, Koln. 2005.

Witkin Gallery.  Six Nudes of Neil, 1925 by Edward Weston.  Poster announcing publicationof a limited edition portfolio printed by George A. Tice.  1977.

Edward Weston .  Neil Nude.  1925.

Weintraub, Linda.  Art on the Edge and Over: Searching for Art's Meaning in Contemporary Society.  Litchfield, CT: Art Insights, Inc..  1996.

Polykleitos. Doryphoros. 450 - 440 BC.
Janson, H.W. and Anthony F. Janson. History of Art. Sixth edition. University of North Carolina, Wilmington: Prentice Hall, Inc., 2001.

Sherrie Levine.  After Edward Weston.  1981.

Sherrie Levine. After Walker Evans #19 . 1981.
Grosenick, Uta ed. Women Artists in the 20th and 21st Century. Taschen, Koln. 2005.

“Confronts the contradiction between photography (an infinitely reproducible medium) and fine art (commonly considered a unique object).  Many art photographers artificially curtail the size of their editions to give their work the aura of a unique object.  This exclusivity is compromised when their work is then reproduced in books and magazines [and on the internet].  Levine rescues them from this process.  The images she photographs originate in the media; but in framing and presenting them as singular works of art, she returns them to the privileged arena of fine art where such mid-twentieth-century photographers as Edward Weston and Walker Evans intended them to be seen.” – Linda Weintraub

E.T. Theatrical Poster.  1982.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:E_t_the_extra_terrestrial_ver3.jpg

Michelangelo. Sistine Chapel ceiling, Creation of Adam . 1508-12.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. Revised Second ed. Vol. 2. New York:
Prentice Hall Inc., and Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2005.

Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation 1981

simulacra = a copy of a copy which has been so dissipated in its relation to the original that it can no longer be said to be a copy.  The simulacrum therefore stands on its own as a copy without a model

Sold at Christie's Art auction for $1,248,000 on November 8th, 2005, setting world auction record for photography

Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby

sold at auction for $601,600 in 2004