Name of Artist: Vanessa Mckeown Age: 26 (1991-now)
1. Personal Background: Vanessa Mckeown originally Studied graphic design and worked ad a film editor. But she quit her job to do photography. She is known to entertain her large Instagram followers. Her work ranges from placing candy where it typically wouldn't be found. Also by using colors and other objects to make her work look extraordinary. Source: https://www.talenthouse.com/articles/get-to-know-vanessa-mckeown Lanijani, Chloe. "Get to Know: Vanessa McKeown." Talenthouse. N.p., 24 Aug. 2016. Web. 01 June 2017.
2. Style: Mckeowns style is very colorful and fun. Her process on creating her photos is that she she starts by writing thoughts down, which usually leads her to something. When people look at her art, she wants them to smile. She uses different objects and colors, and puts them together to create to image that not only has a meaning, but also looks fun and spunky. She says she gets her creativity from the heart, and that its most important. Source: https://www.talenthouse.com/articles/get-to-know-vanessa-mckeown Lanijani, Chloe. "Get to Know: Vanessa McKeown." Talenthouse. N.p., 24 Aug. 2016. Web. 01 June 2017.
3.Philosophy Her imagination seems to know no bounds. Vanessa Mckeown finds inspiration everywhere and anywhere. For example inspiration struck in April after McKeown returned home from a local London co-op with some juicy, on-the-vine tomatoes. Using her tiny kitchen as a studio, she replicated arranged balloons she happened to have lying around, attached them to the vine, snapped a pic. Her first “fruloon”—the name she’s given some of funny photos—was born. It kicked off a interest with combining two objects in unexpected ways. “I was hooked,” she says. She alway want people to smile and feel happy after viewing her photography. Source: https://www.wired.com/2015/09/vanessa-mckeown-fruloons/ Glascock, Taylor. "Wacky Photos Make You Wonder How Mushroom Doughnuts Taste."Wired. Conde Nast, 30 Sept. 2015. Web. 01 June 2017.
4.Influences I was influenced to do Vanessa Mckeown because of her colorful imagery. And also because for most of this trimester, my photography has been nature and landscape. I wanted to step out and do something different. I really enjoyed the still life pictures that we had to take and looking up other peoples still life imagery, so I decided that I was gonna do it. When I saw Vanessa'a imagery, I knew that I had replicate hers. The most difficult part about this project was deciding which photography of hers I was gonna replicate, because she has so many great ones.
Compare and Contrast The main difference between the images that stand out the most is the lighting in my opinion. When Vanessa Mckeown took hers, she was in a studio with light, but I just used natural light coming out of a window. Another difference in the difference of color in sprinkles and the hand in the Candy Crush photo. They are similar because of what is happening in each photo. For the Addiction image, both have crayons put in a box. For the Sweet Toothimage, both have a colorful strip coming out of a white toothpaste bottle. And for the Candy Crush, both had the hand of a doll coming out of sprinkles.
Artist Statement When I started thinking about my final project I immediately knew that I was going to do Still life photography. I wanted to do still life because it was my favorite photography topic that we had to take pictures for. When I looked up still life photography to find the artist I would do, I saw Vanessa Mckeowns album images called Party Food and knew I wanted to do her. What stood out the most was all the color she used and how unordinary her images were. I looked through all of her albums and picked the ones that I could attempt. I went to the store the next day and bought a barbie doll, sprinkles, crayons, a marlboro cigarette packet, and a fruit candy which was later eaten by my sister. Many people thought that I was being extra and shouldn't have attempted it, but even though this project was for my Digital Photography class, I wanted to do it for myself. I took a huge interest in this project and had to finish it. When it came to actually taking the images a wave a frustration came because it wasn't turning out perfect. But in the end I relaxed and realized that for my first time replicating still life images I did pretty well.