i think my photos feel more like paintings to me
July 31, 2014 9:54 AM   Subscribe

Hobbes Ginsberg is a 20-year-old photographer from Los Angeles who takes gorgeous, color saturated, studio composed photographs of herself and others, most often her girlfriend Chloe (NSFW). Buy her photozine, see photos from an exhibition, or read her text blog. posted by Juliet Banana (12 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Can you talk a little bit more about why you find these shots so compelling? I'm browsing through and there are a few that I like, but a lot of it just seems like competent student work in a home studio.
posted by klangklangston at 10:38 AM on July 31, 2014 [3 favorites]


I'm really into her leg hair. It's striking. Not that deep, but there you go.
posted by The Minotaur at 10:46 AM on July 31, 2014


With all due respect, this post feels a bit like marketing.
posted by davebush at 10:57 AM on July 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Hi, I don't know Hobbes personally, have never spoken with her, and seeing as her photozine is pay-what-you-want am not sure what would be gained by Pepsi-Bluing her work.

I like the colors, the messy claustrophobic still life arrangements, sadness, and themes of identity and gender. If you're not into it, that's cool too.
posted by Juliet Banana at 11:03 AM on July 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Hi, I don't know Hobbes personally, have never spoken with her, and seeing as her photozine is pay-what-you-want am not sure what would be gained by Pepsi-Bluing her work.

I like the colors, the messy claustrophobic still life arrangements, sadness, and themes of identity and gender. If you're not into it, that's cool too.


Totally valid points. I apologize.
posted by davebush at 11:27 AM on July 31, 2014


"I like the colors, the messy claustrophobic still life arrangements, sadness, and themes of identity and gender. If you're not into it, that's cool too."

No, the thing is that I'm into those things too, but folks like Vivian Fu and Molly Soda are doing similar things in a more compelling way, at least for me. (Those two were just at the top of my Dashboard; there's tons more.) So that's why I was asking you what you liked specifically, because it felt like I was missing something. Especially since her photos don't compare well to either paintings nor painterly photography — Pierre et Gilles and David LaChapelle work a lot in that genre (also playing with identity and gender, as well as classical painting styles and arrangements). For a contemporary painter playing with classical portraiture (like Ginsberg sometimes does with her girlfriend), Kehinde Wiley shows how a deeper understanding of classical portrait tropes can help explode them.
posted by klangklangston at 1:16 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Girlfriend's name should be Calvin.
posted by NedKoppel at 1:17 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Your comparisons seem to aiming too high or too low; Molly Soda takes Photobooth photos of herself with her laptop's camera, and while I totally appreciate her and am aware of her (I used to run into her all the time when she lived in Chicago, she's pretty hard to miss) I think it's unfair to say she's doing the same thing as Hobbes and doing it better. Expecting a 20 year old tumblr girl's portfolio to have reached the heights of David LaChappelle's thirty-year oeuvre is a little unfair, as well.

I like her photos and I wanted to make a Metafilter post about her. I'm not defending it beyond that.
posted by Juliet Banana at 2:07 PM on July 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


No, the thing is that I'm into those things too, but folks like Vivian Fu and Molly Soda are doing similar things in a more compelling way, at least for me. (Those two were just at the top of my Dashboard; there's tons more.)

I guess I can see similarities (of scope and subject more than color and composition, maybe), but all three look distinct to me. With each they have specific photos I like, surrounded by a bunch that don't particularly stand out, though there is also something interesting in how they play off each other.

The win/win here would be more photography FPPs from both of you, of course.

Also, as a more general complaint about photography websites, why do so few give any information about buying prints, or even answer emails? I'm sure I'm not the only person who buys art, but there's only so much one can do.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:12 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


These color pallets are simply fantastic.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:11 PM on July 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


I know I've been here. I wasn't proud, but it was delicious. After the sugar buzz wore off I thought about how strange and ephemeral everything is; how everything that is emerges and dissolves like waves on the sea; how, through fear, desire, and memory, we make what we think is truth—solid and, if not eternal, then durable enough to outlast at least ourselves. We race ahead of an ever-devouring chaos, for which everything we love and hate, everything we know and need, and even every maybe-someday-possible thing, what we might wish for but may never have, are but sweet treats in the grinding maw of entropy. It's not required that we love each other, but, by chance or grace, it is permitted.
posted by wobh at 10:41 PM on July 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


The laptop one is ace, looks like a reflection, such a cool idea. And I like the composition of this one, it looks kinda Warholian.

That last pic on the "girlfriend Chloe" link is amazing. It is 2 put together, but the join lines up with what looks like a door so it looks like one pic, and then it is the same person in each half. Love the idea and execution.

Cool pics and good ideas. I know fuck all about art but if I like it that is always enough (according to artists I have spoken to!)
posted by marienbad at 6:49 AM on August 1, 2014


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