annie leibovitz & artexpress

today i went to see annie leibovitz: a photographer's life 1990-2005 at the mca.


the highlight for me was the video that was played in a small room (went for quite a long time too!) which had footage of some of the shoots, scenes with her family where she is taking their photographs, and also herself and other artists/journalists giving commentary. besides photos of 'celebrities' and other famous people/artists/creators, the exhibition also showed some of her personal photos of her family and friends, especially her friend Susan - at first we were confused about who she was, and which Susan she was (there were a total of 3 Susans!) and i was surprised at how intimate/how much information was given about her life. well, seeing as the exhibition is titled that, i guess it's fitting! there were a few serious subject matters (though the notes displayed said that she didn't want to call herself a 'journalist', because journalists don't take sides, so rather she was a 'photographer'), but i liked the celebrity subjects the most. i find it so interesting to look at an image of someone you've seen before, but in a different light. towards the back of the exhibit were A4 papers showing images of each print categorised into years, all displayed behind glass on two long walls, there were also images here that weren't displayed, which was a bonus :)
my favourite image would have to be this one of jim carrey pulling a face. i can't help but laugh everytime i walk past it x)

source: nytimes

this image seriously does no justice to seeing the real thing, the scale and seeing it on actual paper is so much better! i also love how some of the photographs displayed showed the edges of the developing paper (if that's what it's called).

afterwards, we went to see the ARTEXPRESS exhibition at the art gallery of nsw (final works of year 12 visual art students that were chosen from the whole of nsw). previously i've only ever seen them showcased in the david jones store window displays, but to see so many types of media used in the museum and also the level of work was just so impressive!
these 3 were my favourites - images taken from the artexpress website, and some photos i took of the first artist - click for larger image (click on the artists' names to see a description of their work)

jacob zinman-jeanes
it looked like it should be in a picture book!



peta lilley
the paper cuts and the birds were especially wonderful! i also loved the eggs in the paper nests, which had (sad relationship) stories written on them.


katherine mcnamara
she hand stitched things onto her photographs and the outcome looked like a child's imagination come to life!