Date of Artist's Life: Born in Missoula, Montana, 1977
Personal Background: Andres graduated form the University of Montana in 2002 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree. She later attended Portland State University in 2004 to receive her Masters of Fine Arts. Her interest in art began with training in traditional painting when she was young. She claims that she was inspired by religious Renaissance art as well as her childhood memories of watching the After School Specials and Little House on the Prairie. Andres was also motivated by the lack of strong female representation in the media during her time growing up, which motivated her to create a female heroine to inspire young girls that followed after.
Style: Andres photography style is based off of many of the clothing and hairstyle trends from the 70s. She has an old school Nancy Drew aura to her work. She uses twins in much of her work which is seemingly similar to the cinematography to that in the movie "The Shining", giving some of her photos an eerie vibe. Her work is contrastingly very dark while providing an look of innocence, it is a similar style to that of the religious Renaissance era. Her photography of animals closely resembles the Renaissance art of animals, she even dogs that resemble the greyhound found in many group portraits. She allows her work to show a sort of chaos and order throughout. She has an eye for contrasting images, symbols, and emotions.
Philosophy: Most of Andres work has demonstrated the female introspection. Her photography is used to examine complex concepts in her childhood while exemplifying the transition from girl to woman. She possess a skill which displays the tension between innocent objects and a darker subject matter. The femininity of a women yet the dangerous selfishness we all contain. Her photography demonstrates female strength with a certain air of mystery. These ideals were encouraged by her childhood reading Nancy Drew and the lack of female heroine, therefore making the majority of her photos a representation the feminine strength through her whimsical heroines.
Influences: Andres has encouraged me to bring out a more positive representations of the female perspective. She is brave in the way she goes about taking her images by empathizing the female experience. Her work also reminds me to allot more subjectivity in my photography for more of an introspective experience for the viewer. I am inspired by the way she pays great attention to detail and color in all of her photos. I will be sure to be more of a perfectionist when it comes to the lighting and layout of all my future pictures.
Compare and Contrast: I tried to pose my cat in similar or the same poses as Andres had her pets posed in. This was very difficult because my cat continued to move which led all the photos to be blurry. I had to edit all of my photos using multiple pictures to get them to be the same pose as the original. In the end I would say my photos look very similar to the original. The cats are looking the same way as the original and the decorations on the cats are similar to the original. The coloring for all of the photos was different form the original because the lighting in the photos weren't the same.
Personal Artist Statement: I found this project really difficult when I was taking the pictures because my cat didn't want to pose. I tried tempting her with treats but most of the photos were blurry. I had to use multiple photos and edit them on top of each other to make it look like she was posing the same way as the cats that were in Andres photos. The editing process took a long time but I'm really proud of how my photos turned out from what I started with. I used almost all of the techniques we learned throughout this trimester. I focused on making sure it seeming like the light was coming from one direction. I made sure to use the rule of thirds so the cat was in the middle of the photo. This was one of my favorite projects because I enjoyed editing the photos, seeming what I could make from what I had. I used more of my editing skills than my photography skills.
Resources:
"Art Producers Speak: Holly Andres." A Photo Editor. N.p., 25 Apr. 2013. Web. 10 May 2017.