Stanley Shoemaker
Posted on February 18 2016
Stanley Shoemaker, a Mexican photographer class 1979, his artistic background comes from the school of Mexican photography “Fabrica de imágenes”, it then matured and increased through his participation in various
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Stanley Shoemaker, a Mexican photographer class 1979, his artistic background comes from the school of Mexican photography “Fabrica de imágenes”, it then matured and increased through his participation in various seminars and workshops on contemporary photography. In the last recent years, Stanley Shoemaker has obtained several awards, including the one received at the International Biennial of Contemporary Photography - Ecuador. His photographs have been published in magazines, they have been exhibited in several group and solo exhibitions arranged in several countries, including England, United States, Mexico and Argentina.
Stanley Shoemaker starts a reflection on the role of the media of photography in contemporary times, he relegates to it an important role in the cultural development of today's consumer society, an awareness that art history reminds us, it has been in the past in the center of a phenomenon that brought some sixties' artists on the way of pop art. The Shoemaker images are not only the result of a deep thought on the role of the photographic medium, but also, and especially, on the way this performs its purpose . The digital age has made even more explicit the effective control that man has always had on this medium, a control that commonly, and erroneously, was believed to not have when using analog medium. This appears to be the first target of Shoemaker, to unveil a reality and a world of images fully under the control of man, in which the perception, for this photographer, becomes a new channel through which to communicate.
Stanley Shoemaker starts a reflection on the role of the media of photography in contemporary times, he relegates to it an important role in the cultural development of today's consumer society, an awareness that art history reminds us, it has been in the past in the center of a phenomenon that brought some sixties' artists on the way of pop art. The Shoemaker images are not only the result of a deep thought on the role of the photographic medium, but also, and especially, on the way this performs its purpose . The digital age has made even more explicit the effective control that man has always had on this medium, a control that commonly, and erroneously, was believed to not have when using analog medium. This appears to be the first target of Shoemaker, to unveil a reality and a world of images fully under the control of man, in which the perception, for this photographer, becomes a new channel through which to communicate.
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"Surreal Landscape"
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L.A.: Hello Stanley, to start how and when did you become interested in photography?
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Stanley Shoemaker: I found an old Nikon F camera sitting in my Grandfather's basement so I bought a couple of films and started shooting. A few months went by and suddenly I was studying analogue photography. That's when I learned the infinite possibilities that this medium had. I soon began working with images in the darkroom; nowadays, we call this Photoshop. I am very interested in using photography as a way to show and communicate my ideas through images. I create different visual landscapes, often adapting them to my own perception of the world.
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L.A.: Who were the first artists or photographers that inspired you? Who inspires you today?
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Stanley Shoemaker: I studied the history of photography so I have a long list of photographers that I really look up to. Oscar Gustave Rejlander is one of my favourites. In 1857 he made a photograph that's called The Two Ways of Life. He made it by combining 32 images and when I first saw this photograph I was completely fascinated by his technique. Henry Peach Robinson made a photograph called Fading Away. It's mind-blowing. Jerry Uelsmann inspires me. His work and technique are truly amazing. In my opinion, these three artists are by far the best conceptual photographers in the history of the medium.
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"Future generation" │ Buy it
L.A.: How photography today influence our vision of the world? Why in contemporary society, this of the consumerism, the medium of photography has a key role to express and tell the world and the time in which we live?
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Stanley Shoemaker: Photography is all around us. The images that we see on billboards and all types of ads affect and influence what we consider to be beautiful. Photography is a powerful tool that completely influences our own way of seeing things. We live in a visual world and most of the advertising that we see on the streets has images that try to convince us what we need to buy. We need to understand and digest this visual onslaught and make our own decisions.
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"Flying Over the American Dream"
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L.A.: Can you take one of your works from those presents at LoosenArt Gallery and express a personal comment about meanings or concepts?
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Stanley Shoemaker: Future Generation. This image has a very powerful meaning. It states that we as a global community need to see the consequences of what we are doing to the environment. The world belongs to future generations. We can't be playing God with nature as we are harming our own habitat for the sole purpose of exploiting our own natural resources while disregarding the effects that will take place in our near future... I placed the child facing backwards so that every person who sees this can form a relationship with the child. The red lollipop emphasises the innocence of the subject. I made this image with the intention of creating a conscience for our own environment and to question our relationship with the planet we inhabit.
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L.A.: Hopes and projects for the future?
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Stanley Shoemaker: I'm focusing on environmental issues now, I guess in the future Im going to be making images with this theme.
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BUY IT NOW View Stanley Shoemaker on Gallery
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Stanley Shoemaker www.stanleyshoemaker.co
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