Contemporary Photographer: Andres Serrano

Biography: Serrano is from a half Honduran, half Afro-Cuban background and was raised a strict Roman Catholic. He studied from 1967 to 1969 at the Brooklyn Museum and Art School, and lives and works in New York. Serrano is represented in New York and Paris by Yvon Lambert Gallery.

His work has been exhibited in locations as varied and prestigious as the Episcopal Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City and a retrospective at the Barbican Arts Centre in London (2001) and in the Collection Lambert Avignon France (2006). (from Wikipedia)



Piss Christ, 1987. Type C Photographic print. Dimensions vary with edition.



The Morgue: Burn Victim, 1992 . Cibachrome Print. from edition of 3.

Significance: Serrano is mostly know for being part of the "shock art" movement, a term described for an artistic movement where the author tries to shock the audience with the gruesome and powerful art present, often times with them trying to find the beauty even in the most despicable situations.

This particularly can be seen in his "Shit" series, where he takes macro photograph of feces, often times, turning the gruesome picture into a well crafted product shot. The same can be said about his "Morgue" series, where he shot different corpses and the well crafting of lighting and frame created unique pictures turning something horrid into something beautiful.

Composition: Most of his work is often carefully framed and lighten in order to create a sensation of contradictory feelings: a vogue feeling of inspiring beauty and a primal natural rejection feeling due the element portrayed. Most of the time he uses elements of fashion photography and fashion elements for over produced photos applied to gruesome or shocking elements.



Heaven and Hell, 1985. Type C Photographic print. Dimensions vary with edition.




Concept/Aboutness/Idea: I believe that he speaks for a current time that we live, where the true values have been lost over the idea of the "facade". We live in a particular world where the carcass seems to be more important than the whole content and what is inside.

Serrano portrays this idea by presenting images that are extremely beautiful crafted, but the subject in the picture is often times in a pose or in a way that defies this idea of "beauty". The juxtaposition of both ideas create a meaningful experience for the audience, one that they may not forget and defies the cannons of what the scholars and the average people consider as "art".



Method: What I've seen is that most of the times the images are all created on studio: the use of carefully placed lightning and background drops gives this vibe of crafted photos, but at the same time, the subjects are somewhat taboo for the idea that society has placed over them.

Motivations: I believe Serrano tries constantly to go beyond and shock the people with his work, often times going further. Particularly, he goes lengths constantly to find how to shock them and I personally think this statement has to be taken into careful consideration, as there is a fine line between the transgressive and the downright aggressive.

Your Opinion: What particularly made me choose him was this idea of crafting and finding the beauty even in the most horrible elements. I believe that beauty, specially in photography, is quite playful and sometimes, even avoiding; often times photography is used to convey what we believe is beautiful to be kept, but we often overlook or frown upon those negative things on life that balance it.