Rut Blees Luxemburg
Long exposure, Night photography
"There is a challenge for the artist, on one side you have to be as open as possible, it has to be generous with your work and share it and give it out but on the other side, you also want to have certain types of deeper engagements which can be to the next work, so the next work can emerge" - Rut Blees Luxemburg
I really like how Luxemburg reflects on work and how she is very open to criticism and reads a lot about if from people who have viewed her work. I feel as though she is open to new ideas and ways to work constantly, this allows her creative mind to always be working and i respect her as an artist for this. I love how she constantly states how her work is viewed and how she wants to reach a larger audience changing perspectives everywhere, which is another reason why i feel i gravitated towards her work naturally.
Luxembourg photographed the streets at dark as it was able to display a different viewpoint for the viewer. You could see how the architecture differs from the day and how it’s all left to rest at night. The images resignated with me a lot due to the passive motion that you cannot see within the image. The people do not know a camera is pointed towards there home window, yet how can it look so perfectly put together. The windows all shaded different from simply turning on the tv or opening the curtains to the warm glow from the city bellow bouncing with life and spirit. I think this image particularly helped me figure out a starting point for my project, while sparking my curiosity for the constant passive thought of not being able to know and control everything given to us.
Luxembourg always wanted to hit a "wider audience", and when watching an interview she did on YouTube, i learned that this image was the forthcoming for that as it was commissioned for an album cover which stemmed this image to be used on 'posters in teenage bedrooms'. That is how her work "entered the wider world" and she was being viewed by many in many different contexts.
Reflections
Luxembourg has photographed a lot of reflections in her work, mainly being puddles on the urban ground. To me these stood out to me as it’s quite similar to what I was drawn towards in my first shoot. The puddles provide extra context to the environment and other perspectives throughout. Warping your perception. I really like this thought and how it links to the made up thought that you as a person cannot physically know and understand everything about everyone and everything, leaving these holes for mystery and disruption our own mind fills in the blanks for.
Shadows and Extreme perspectives
Luxemburg is always looking for a new way of showing her work, always keeping up with the new technology and is open to try almost everything. She explains how she keeps every part of her work, all the negatives and all the "failures" in boxes and cups just in case she wants them or wants to revisit them in the future allowing time to prove there worth.
Looking at a few artists time is always a most common theme. Whether this is because time is always there and is always working or whether its just a fascinating concept on how time works with real objects and subjects, time changes everything i believe its just how you document this deems how successful you are. She explains how photography has changed a lot over the years, even to the point of how its viewed as a lot of things these days are digital, working along side this you have to adapt and keep up or your work becomes lost among the rest.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rut-blees-luxemburg-3652
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLK7sThFDOo
