Emily Cole

Emily Cole used images from Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Gary Winograd,  Michael Ormorod, Jeff Wall (A Sudden gust of wind) Vija Celmins ('Truck' and 'Freezing' 1966) and Wolfgang Tillmans (New Family, 2001) to illustrate her seminar.

Robert Frank received a Guggenheim grant in 1955/6 to take photos whilst travelling around the USA. (See link below.) Emily Cole has been sponsored by One rail network to make journeys by public transport recording what she sees on the way. She takes hundreds of digital images using her camera's motor drive, so there is a random element to her work - not least because she does not necessarily remember where on the journey an image might have been taken.

(C) Emily Cole 2005

Emily uses a flourescent green ground on her paintings first, draws onto that and then paints on top. The brightly-coloured ground is reminiscent of highly visible roadsigns. She makes 30 paintings per exhibition by printing low-quality A4 prints, blowing them up and then making drawings form the prints ( a structure to fall back on when making the painting).

"Photos are a skeleton on which to build practice".

So... are the finished paintings different from the original photos? Cole maintains that they are: the original photos are banal whereas the paintings are colourful, abstract interpretations rather than copies. She sees the 'digital image turned painting' as a slowing down from a hectic, modern lifestyle; the act of transforming the image into a painting is described thus: "The painterly marks slow down the reading of the image; whilst the florescent paint echoes the road markings and signage along the route."

Websites

All sites accessed and working 31/10/05

Robert Frank's trip across America 
©2005 About, Inc., A part of the New York Times Company. 

Emily Cole Personal Statement

(C) Helen Williams 2005