Qianhe Zhao's Blog 1: Mysterious Beauty in Contemporary Photography

          My first impression of Pre- Raphaelite art focuses on its astonishing depiction of female beauty. Think of Millais’s Ophelia, Waterhouse’s Lady of Shalott and Rossetti’s Lady Lilith. These female figures are not only muses in these Pre- Raphaelite artists’ eyes, but also muses in our eyes. They represent the most elegant, beautiful and idealized female beauty of all times and they all share an aura of mystery and melancholy. As the title of our course indicates, these figures’ beauty may relate to sex and death and thus become something that is dangerous and tragic. The mysterious atmospheres attract people to look for the stories behind these beautiful characters. I found two young artists in our era who use similar approach in representing female beauty on the picture planes—KylliSparre and Arlette Chiara SivizacaConde. Both of the photographers create dream-like unrealistic spaces in their work, which encourage people to explore the inner world of the beautiful female figures in their works.

          Sparre was a ballet dancer before she became a photographer, so graceful dancing-like poses are featured in her portraits and become her unique way of illustrating female beauty. Conde is a 19-year-old German girlfascinated by challenging people’s views of reality. These two artists are both good at creating dreaming atmosphere in their artworks to emphasize the ethereal beauty of the figures, and they both use nature as a vital inspiration for their photographs. These are something I find very similar to Pre- Raphaelite artists. It is interesting to see many female figures in their photography are posed in natural landscape settings. Beautiful modern young girls are floating in the water, sleeping in the woods or lying on the ice, which are some images that we are familiar with in Pre- Raphaelite art. Such settings make people wonder what are they doing and why they do so. It seems that these girls have their own worlds which are different from the world we live in. I feel that these images are highly emotional charged and trying to tell stories by themselves. The same feelings occur when I saw Pre-Raphaelite beauties. For instance, in Millais’s Ophelia, it seems that Ophelia sleeps soundly in desperation and embraces her death calmly. Staring at those beautiful figures will make you sink into their world and experience their emotions. I can feel the same tension in Sparre and Conte’s works.

      Conte                 Sparre