Bill Brandt

An English photographer of German birth, Bill Brandt travelled to Vienna in 1927 to see a lung specialist and then decided to stay and find work in a photography studio. There, in 1928, he met and made a successful portrait of the poet Ezra Pound, who subsequently introduced Brandt to the American-born, Paris-based photographer Man Ray. Brandt arrived in Paris to begin three months of study as an apprentice at the Man Ray Studio in 1929, at the height of the era’s enthusiasm for photographic exhibitions and publications; his work from this time shows the influence of André Kertész and Eugène Atget, as well as Man Ray and the Surrealists.

“I believe this power of seeing
the world as fresh and strange
lies hidden in every human being.”

Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger has produced a proactive body of work, cracking open her appropriated images with her invented texts, hoisting the everyday assumptions of contemporary society on its own petards. She has done this creatively critical work at every scale, from matchbook covers to giant billboards, and across many media, from simple photomontages to complex screen and audio installations. Always alert to questions of audience and address, Kruger forever seeks new ways to push her practice into the public realm, drawing political debate into art and vice versa.

From her work in trying to present different messages of the everyday assumptions of contemporary society to the population, I will take inspiration from this and create a modern day version of her work. By focusing on the female gaze and interpreting her work into it at the same time it will create a strong message. In the modern day females still have struggles and standards we are expected to meet, which is similar to when Kruger was creating her work. Many girls my age struggle with body image and feeling they are not the stereotypical perfect image.