Thursday 29 November 2012

Lecture Seven - Celebrity Culture.

  • the history of celebrity
  • the relationship between photography/film/tv/celebrity
  • the cultural significance of celebrity
  • contemporary icons as case studies
  • how contemporary identity and celebrity are intwined

Julia Margaret Cameron
  • celebrity portraits
  • the pictoralist tradition
  • late 19th and early 20th century
  • a style that imitated painting, soft focus, sepia tones
  • sitters are often acting scenes from mythology or religious themes
  • male celebrities were given a different treatment photographically, more solid and less ethereal
  • more about what they did than how they looked

Invention of moving pictures
  • Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince, an inventor who lived in leeds
  • filmed moving images on leeds bridge in 1888
  • perfected the cinematography
  • The Artist (2011), silent movie except music, portrayal of an earlier era

Early celebrities
  • Josephine Baker (1906-1975)
    • her success coincides with the Art Deco movement
    • a muse for contemporary authors, painters, designers and sculptures
    • Langston Hughes, Christian Dior, Pablo Picasso
    • influences in popular culture - Beyonce, Fashion Rocks
  • Clark Gable
    • 'king of hollywood'
    • starred opposite many star actresses
    • silent films and on stage
    • portrayed as an on and off screen hero
  • Bette Davis
    • known for willingness to play unlikeable characters
    • less attractive or evil
    • Mildred of 'Human Bondage' (1934)
    • Regina Giddens in 'The Little Foxes' (1941)
    • married a man who claimed he had never heard of her
  • Marilyn Monroe
    • actress, singer
    • iconic as a sex symbol, spectacle
    • her death freezes her status as her image will never disintegrate
    • relationships with Arthur Miller and the Kennedy's
    • Andy Warhol pop art - her face becomes a mask, endlessly repeated in publicity and the news, idea that there is a different women underneath
    • Audrey Flack 'Marilyn' (1977) - vanitas painting where object in the image have a symbolic meaning
  • Elvis Presley
    • Warhol uses an image of him acting the classic american hero, the cowboy
    • blurs our vision, reminds us that the image is all we can see
    • music, good looks and acing all colliding
  • John F Kennedy
    • celebrity politician
    • youth and good looks
    • television speeches
    • fashionable and beautiful wife
    • his death in 1963 was not filmed by TV cameras but by the public
    • most valuable film footage $16million

Advent of Television
  • 'golden age' begins in the late 40's and goes through the 50's and 60's
  • focus on drama as entertainment
  • celebrities from public to private domain

The changing face of celebrity
  • The Jacksons as a brand
    • musicians/performers
    • 1971 the Jackson 5 had an animated cartoon on TV
    • 1976 the act in a comedy where they perform as themselves
    • the changes in Michael Jacksons appearance
    • symbolic of a society that is obsesses with appearance
    • he looks less like his father, reduces african american features
  • Madonna
    • changes her image for each tour and album
    • Material Girl (1985)
    • Vogue (1990)
    • post modern recycling of the golden era of Hollywood
  • Lady Gaga
    • post post modern icon
    • Lady Gaga recycles her image for every public appearance
    • mutation of image
    • no longer a signature look, like in the early Hollywood days
    • can't connect with the real person
    • just about the spectacle not her personality
    • meat dress - a feminist statement or looking at the hypocrisy in the attitudes to eating meat or an anti fashion statement or no meaning?

Modern Celebrities
  • Barak Obama
    • 'pop' president
    • young, good looking, musical
    • politicians reaching out through popular culture
    • reaching out to the masses
  • YouTube
    • created february 2005
    • self made celebrities
    • the masses reaching out
  • Princess Diana
    • 1980's
    • represents innocence and beauty
    • reinvents herself as a fashion icon as the begin to separate
    • photographed by Mario Testino, fashion photography
    • remarketing herself
    • the paparazzi seem to be to blame for her death
    • but our demand for 'real life' images of celebrity gives a demand for these images
    • share in grief and drama
    • one exaggerates the other
  • David Beckham
    • contemporary 'everyman'
    • Beckhams as a brand
    • cross worlds of fashion, sport and music
    • overcomes private life scandals

Imitation of celebrity
  • comic
  • tribute bands
  • commercial value to imitation

Photography of celebrities
  • Alison Jackson 'Private' 2004
    • unreal 
    • set up scenes
    • the underside of celebrity
    • voyeuristic moments
    • as if they are being secretly looked at
  • Pierre and Giles
    • elevating celebrities
    • before Photoshop was commonly used
    • retouched/airbrushed images
    • studio sets
    • colours from Indian religious posters
    • god like status and worship

Twitter
  • we can follow celebrities
  • details of their home and private lives
  • find out about latest projects
  • read their innermost thoughts
  • crosses line between public and private
  • gossip vehicle
  • replacement of magazines

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