Jock Sturges works very similar to Sally Mann he captures children, friends and family. He uses the same style camera as Mann to capture his photos a large format 8×10 camera. After finding a video interview with Sturges it is clear his reasons for photographing the images are very different.
In the interview Sturges explains how he feels there are three types of photography; photographs that have a negative benefit to the subject/s for example someone getting arrested, the second being photographs that have no effect on the subject/s for example being sat around the dinner table, the third category are images that make people feel better about them self’s in one sense or another. This last category in the one in which Sturges says he will always work in, he say he like to confine his work to only improve someone’s perception of themselves.
“for me, for a picture to succeed, for a picture to be beautiful for me. It wants, for me to have some sense of the person, really strongly there. I want to feel like the picture is true”
This is a quote from the video interview with Sturges. From this quote, we could say that Sturges would quite possibly find many of Mann’s images beautiful because for Sturges “truth” in a photograph is what makes it beautiful. This is of course an important factor in much of Mann’s work. So we can conclude by say that even though these two artist take photographs for different reasons a main factor is apparent in both of their works “truth”.
[online video] http://www.amadelio.com/vlog/2008/01/10/vlog-videoblog-jock-sturges-line-of-beauty-and-grace/ [accessed on 29/06/11]
[online source] http://www.kochgallery.com/artists/contemporary/Sturges/ [accessed 29/06/11]
[online image] http://www.photoeye.com/auctions/img/2788/Large_H300xW300.jpg [accessed 29/06/11]
[online image] http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/03.19.98/gifs/sturges3-9811.jpg [accessed 29/06/11]
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