Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Robert Benson reviews Julie Cockburn



Julie Cockburn is a contemporary photographer located in London and her works are manipulated found photographs and objects. She takes photographs of portraits or a landscape with little to no worth and re-purposes them into beautiful intricate thought provoking images. Julie has multiple ways of changing the found photograph; such as embroidering painting of cutting them out and reassembling them. The photos I appreciate the most are the ones she cuts and reassembles where the images start to resemble what you would see if the pieces of the photo were put into a kaleidoscope. The kaleidoscope effect gives the image a feel of three-dimensionality and invites the viewer to move throughout the image as if you are seeing not only the image of the person but thoughts of the person in the image.
 












Other photos I think are notable by Julie are the ones where she embroiders or draws tattoos onto the portraits of women’s faces and body’s. The tattoos like the kaleidoscope photos add an extra dimension to the images as well as add new meaning by the choice she made in the type of tattoos she put on the subject. I really enjoy her works because she takes portraits from the 50s where they already have classic beauty and carefully and thoughtfully recreates them into beautiful piece of art.
Julie Cockburn’s educational background includes Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design 1993-1996 and Chelsea School of Art 1992-1993 and has had many solo and group exhibitions in the USA and London.

1 comment:

  1. although the images on the bottom of the post are just that...images, they remind me of an artist who paints swirly designs on his subjects...GLEN BROWN.

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