{"id":123,"date":"2011-12-08T18:40:18","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T18:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artvsblog.com\/?p=123"},"modified":"2018-12-13T20:30:29","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T20:30:29","slug":"review-of-stephan-wurths-ghost-town-projectbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michaelgracemartin.com\/main\/review-of-stephan-wurths-ghost-town-projectbook\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of Stephan W\u00fcrth’s “Ghost Town” Project\/Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stephan<\/p>\n

(1\/14\/2014) Note: apparently, the photos we linked to are no longer available. We’ll see if we can re-link to them somehow.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn abandoned western gold rush town sets the stage for a photographic fantasy of three beautiful young women.\u201d Ghost Town is the result of Stephan W\u00fcrth\u2019s lifelong fascination with the American West. — Clic bookstore & gallery<\/a><\/p>\n

(Note: this review is based on the 21 photos from the book that *were* displayed at Stephan W\u00fcrth’s website<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

It would appear that Stephan’s main body of work is in fashion photography; all of the photographs included in his “portfolios” section at his website are fashion-related at the time this review is being written.<\/p>\n

\"Stephan<\/p>\n

Though some of the book’s photos remind me of Playboy-esque soft porn, there’s sufficient artistry in his treatment of the subject matter to bring it back into a primarily art-oriented enterprise–though with a fairly obvious sexual fantasy targeted undercurrent.<\/p>\n

\"Stephan<\/p>\n

I am sure we could endlessly debate whether these photos are “art” or soft porn. I am OK with leaving this an open question.<\/p>\n

\"Stephan<\/p>\n

What I wonder about more than the art versus porn question is what W\u00fcrth’s conceptual and visual goals were with this project? For example, take a look at the following two photos from the book:<\/p>\n

\"Stepan<\/p>\n

\"Stephan<\/p>\n

These two photos–and there are more of this sort–seem to be here simply to remind us that we’re in a western ghost town, people; forget those naked women for a moment!<\/p>\n

There are a number of purely artsy “detail”-type shots (e.g., a table outside on the plains with a framed photograph of a man that seems to date from early cowboy days) whose purpose seems primarily decorative.<\/p>\n

Then, there are these very fashion-oriented photos. For example:<\/p>\n

\"Stephan<\/p>\n

\"Stephan<\/p>\n

There are also some photos of the women that seem very posed and isolated from the ghost town context (e.g., there’s one of a totally nude woman seated on a chair with a plain canvas backdrop…fairly disconnected from her surroundings).<\/p>\n

What it comes down to is this: he seems to be going in 3 or 4 different directions at once with these photos, which I think ends up diluting<\/em> their overall effect.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong…I think he’s got some nice photographs in this book. The problem is they seem loosely put together without a clear visual or conceptual direction. Sure they’re all black & white photos–and maybe they all took place in a single ghost town location–but I don’t think that ensures the sort of continuity the human mind yearns for in a singular book-based project.<\/p>\n

Does this review mean you shouldn’t purchase the book? Not necessarily. It’s just what I think; you can make up your own mind.<\/p>\n

You can see more of Stephan W\u00fcrth\u2019s Ghost Town project and book at his website<\/a>. It’s available for purchase at Clic Bookstore & Gallery and other booksellers.<\/p>\n
\n\n \n \n \n <\/a>
\nVisit Michael's Art Photography Portfolio<\/a> at SaatchiArt.com!\n <\/td>\n <\/tr>\n <\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(1\/14\/2014) Note: apparently, the photos we linked to are no longer available. We’ll see if we can re-link to them …<\/p>\n

Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,15],"tags":[25,39,43,57,65,75,83,101],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","category-reviews","tag-book","tag-fashion","tag-fine-art","tag-nude","tag-photography","tag-review","tag-stephan","tag-wurth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgracemartin.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgracemartin.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgracemartin.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgracemartin.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgracemartin.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgracemartin.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6378,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgracemartin.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/6378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgracemartin.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgracemartin.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgracemartin.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}