Neeta Madahar: Flora

Laura with Irises: Neeta Madahar

While my Stoke project is moving on to the next stage I thought I'd share with you an artist whose work really caught my attention over the past few weeks.
Neeta Madahar, is a photographer whose new work is celebratory of women and uses a decorative theme which completely enchants and speaks to my love of female glamour!

Last year I wrote about Madame Yevonde, a photographer from the 1930's who produced a series of images based on goddesses. It is this work which has inspired Madahar and similar set ups and themes can be seen mirrored in her portraits series; Flora.

The Hon Byron Guinness as Venus: Madame Yevonde

Using friends and work collegues as models Madahar asked each one to choose a flower which has been used as a womans name to personify in their portrait. Whereas Yevonde photographed the titled peers of her social circles, such as' The Hon Byron Guinness as Venus', giving them an etherial filmic glamour in each shot, Madahar uses very normal looking women. In fact the lack of photoshopping is very refreshing in this day and age and it's the contrast of real and artificial which helps to make the images so intriguing.

Sian with Bluebells: Neeta Madahar

I love the campy aestheticsm, the artificial lighting and sets and vintage glamour, but I also love the way the models are natural in portrayal of size, age and looks.

There is a fantasy in each shot which transports the viewer and perfectly captures the personification of the flower in question. Artifice rules yet again. Despite the believability of the models they have successfully altered their everyday appearance to give a performance which only seems to maginfy their own characters and personal stories.

Venus Verticordia: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The idea of women with flowers or nature is an ancient one and one that has been touched upon hundreds of times, and I'm happy that the powerful myth is still inspiring artists today and producing images that glorify the female as icon! I think Madahar's Flora images could be seen as deceptfully simple but they are actually full of meaning and layered in history, reference and narrative.

Lee with Fushias: Neeta Madahar

Goddesses

Mrs Edward Mayer as Medusa

I'm loving working on my new water colour paintings inspired by sailor tattoos, pin-ups and nautical sayings. This week I was lucky enough to find out about a fabulous photographer called Madame Yevonde who was a pioneer of colour photography from the 1930's!

Her beautiful images fit perfectly with my current inspirations of dreamy, melancholy and melodramatic images and emotions evoked by the likes of French artists like Air and Pierre and Giles (see two posts ago). In fact I can see a lot of similarities between her work and that of the french photographic duo.

Madame Yevonde was a revolutionary, beginning her life as a devoted promoter of the suffragette movement and staying a supporter of women's rights throughout her life. By the age of 21 had set up her own photographic studio. Her photos were very different for their time, using props and costumes and friends as models (usually high society ladies, one even being the Prime minister's wife!) she created a new and exciting way of exploring women's social and sexual roles.

I particularly like her 'Goddesses' series from 1935, where the sitters are transformed by simple props and symbols into mythical women who's iconography has stayed strong throughout the ages.

The Hon Mrs Byran Guiness as Venus

Her images have the same otherworldly quality I am enjoying creating in my own work which I am infusing with a vintage and magical atmosphere.

'On the Rocks' finished but unframed

'All at Sea' in progress

What's more Yevonde did a study of nautical tattoos! I was so excited to find this out! She was interested in the symbolism behind both male and female tattoos and the strong sexual impulse they could both imply. She photographed the tattoos combined with knots, representing links and binding, and possibly exploring the relationship between the sexes.

Madame Yevonde is obviously a very important artist from the 20th Century and one I think may have been overshadowed by her male counterparts such as Man Ray, such is the irony! However I am now a proud owner of a beautiful exihibition catalogue and postcards of her work, which I am very happy about!