Criticism on Laurie Simmons artwork of 1949

Laurie Simmons was born in the Queens suburb of Far Rockaway in 1949. She started photographing when she was six years old, when her father gave her a Brownie camera. Laurie earned her BFA in 1971 from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. After two years, he relocated to New York. Her first photos were portraits of friends, but after working as a freelancer for a dollhouse miniature company, she started filming toys, specifically dolls from the 1950s that she had bought at an old toy shop in the Catskills. (Guttenheim). Simmons’ first mature works, shot in 1976, were black and white images taken in a dollhouse, where Simmons made un-peopled variations on each room in the house, using sunlight and different angles to create a “dazzling, dreamlike stage set.”(IMDb) To enhance the resemble images of people. The practice allied her with contemporaneous photographers of her time such as Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince. Her early work was entirely in based on black and white until 1977, at this point she changed exclusively to color; in 1981, she returned to black and white with a fabulous shoot, haunting series of dolls floating underwater.

In the 1980’s, Simmons capitalized on her dolls project with series featuring toy ballerinas, cowboys, and “walking objects” giant props worn by her friend and photographer Jimmy de Sana. Walking Camera, I Jimmy the Camera of 1987 is a tribute to de Sana, who died of AIDS in 1990. Around this time, Simmons also developed a portfolio that is the main topic in this paper which is the lying objects of 1992.(simple Movie)

Simmons later worked on other pieces bt our focus in this essay is on the lying objects and how they relate or a criticism of the ”lying objects” and the correlation between women stereotypes.

Simmons lying objects analogy towards stereotype of women

Figure 1.0

The bending globe (from Lying Objects portfolio), 1992

In this photo where the world is represented to be half man and the ‘man’ appears to be bending forward with legs apart. This contemporary art piece is remarkable there is no doubt that Laurie Simmons is a talented photographer as we see the stroke of genius in her work. This particular picture in the lying objects portfolio has its message

The picture of the bending globe represents a lot of stereotypical interpretations such as that of a woman trapped as we see in the picture, the globe is half man, we can only see the lower part of the body which signifies entrapment.

The picture shows the pressure that women face in the world today, where most females in this times are forced to conform to the societal norms or what is perceived by the society to be good or normal for women to do or what she can not do hence hindering most women from certain freedoms and rights.

In the art piece, we see that there is a control point of focus thus creating an illusion. Shadow gives a dream of a perfect world in comparison to the distorted image signifying the disturbance in the actual world. Wherein the case of women stereotypes this shows that the world uses distractions and opinion control where the majority of the world population, being women, are led to focus or deviate from real issues and are subjected to illusions by the ‘dominant’ force.

Darkened background to enable focus and create a form of simplicity in the picture Laurie Simmons captures a masterpiece by ensuring that the principle focus contrasts the background showing two opposing sides that can be used to elude certain aspects in a real-world scenario.

The photo shows how certain stereotypes of women as we can see the representation of how the world today views women as people who would do anything to gain the world and materialistic. The world is considered to be a typical presentation of ‘materials’ such as land, money e.t.c. The doll is a symbolic presentation of a woman getting stuck in worldly and materialistic endeavors only to get stuck with no way to set themselves free and no one to help them because the world is a dark place, and we are alone especially when we need help.

Figure 2.0

The book (from the lying objects portfolio)1992

This artwork of a doll trapped and being crushed by a giant antique book is also another masterpiece in Laurie Simmons Lying objects portfolio that shows and is relevant to the criticism of women stereotypes.

Women are being forced to stay ”up to date” with modern standards styles and bring out a reflection of societal view on status quo. In this photo we see women being forced to conform to modernization where society is again seen to depict what the woman can and can not do.

In this piece, we see the representation of a doll crushed by a giant book which can interpret as the advancement of the learning era. Where women are not getting as much attention as they would need to grow academically and unfortunately those who do tend to be more focused on raising their education level that they get lost in it.

Most women stereotypes, however, are against the empowerment of women politically, economically and socially hence portraying the effort to crush dreams of the female population where we find undermining hurdles along the road to success for the female gender where we see opportunities thou available are just impossible to get therefore suppressing women empowerment.Beyond the education and status quo females are still overshadowed by the society at large

Another stereotype displayed in this photo is that of the world and the community forcing women to hide from the world that is their talents personality e.t.c. The world is viewed to focus mostly on the image rather than the actual person behind it all.

Figure 3.0

Comparison between the Globe and the Lying book

There is no doubt that Laurie Simmons is one of the best contemporary artists of all time her works inspire and aspire. The lying objects portfolio is one her best art pieces, in which every photo is unique from the other although my convey similar and different views according to interpretation.

Laurie Simmons sampled photos both portray women’s vulnerabilities in the world today. They show how chauvinism and gender inequality has brought about women stereotypes. Laurie Simmons is a feminist who displays inequality and women stereotypes through her work.

The two also the objectification of the female gender. Every day in the United States, women encounter lots of different forms of gender oppression and discrimination. Example scenarios of this range from sexist jokes to sexual harassment and coercion, rape, physical abuse, and even murder. A sexist, chauvinistic joke is considered an act of sexual violence that may dismiss as very unrelated and different events, but they are related. These two behaviors entwined by the presence of sexual objectification.( Rooney)

Sexual objectification is when a woman’s body, body parts, or reproductive functions are isolated from her whole. The approach of seeing them as a complex being to be treated as objects merely to be looked at, coveted, or touched.(Aspirant)

Both highlight what is wrong with the society they encourage women empowerment and feminism. Women Empowerment refers to increasing and improving the political, economic, social and legal strength of the women, to ensure the provision equal-right to women, and to build their confidence enough to claim their rights, (Yousafzai)

Work Cited

Emma Rooney ”The Effects Of Sexual Objectification On Women’s Mental” source:N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2017

Malala Yousafzai ”women empowerment.”

source: https://www.iaspaper.net/women-empowerment-in-india/

Yousafzai, N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2017

Aspirant “Gender Budgeting- A Tool For Women Empowerment | Aspirant” Source:https://aspirantforum.com/2017/09/17/gender-budgeting-a-tool-for-women-empowerme. Aspirant, N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2017

Simple movie ”Actor Laurie Simmons. Biography And Filmography Laurie “

Source: http://simple-movie.com/actor/laurie-simmons N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2017.

IMDb ”Laurie Simmons - IMDb.“

Source: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2419914/

IMDb N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2017