Hans Bellmer
Hans Bellmer was a German artist and photographer who is most notably remembered for his work with life sized dolls. Some of is works have inspired various other mediums including the hit video game Silent Hill and also the works of Jake and Dinos Chapman. In his native Germany, Bellmer's work was declared degenerate by the Nazi Party and he was forced to flee to Paris where his status as a surrealist grew.
Bellmer's work with dolls absolutely fascinates me. The images are erotic and haunting at the same time. You can kind of feel that Bellmer had some disturbing sexual issues. There seems to be an overt sense of forbidden love and sexual aggression in his work. Theres also a strong question of possession. Many of his dolls are positioned in suggestive poses and the fantastic black and white shows off the highlights and shadowy areas superbly.
I think the use of black and white actually gives these photographs a realistic quality. You kind of feel like voyeur looking in on some strange world of living automatons. Bellmer's compositions are unlike anything I had seen and they really do stick in the mind. I find a lot of his photographs appear over or underexposed in places and this just adds to the effect. Bellmer also uses shadows to good effect. The above picture is given greater depth by the lighting arrangement. The projected shadows on the wall also give the scene a more busy feel. It's kind of like a merry dance of limbs.
The photograph below is one of my favourites. The way the light shines through the window onto the dolls is very dreamlike. It's a very relaxing picture.
There has always been a lot of controversy surrounding Bellmer's works. There's a power in the confusion these images create. For instance, the above image has been interpreted in many different ways. Is this a sexual struggle of some kind? The scene does have some nightmarish qualities. The eerie use of shadows, the apparent struggle of the dolls and the suggestion of sexual and domestic violence. It's thought provoking to say the least.
I love the way Bellmer, in this self portrait seems to look more surreal than the mutilated doll he's standing next to. Thanks to the use of a slow shutter speed it's as if Bellmer is a ghostly apparition in his own strange world. The crispness of the doll totally contradicts the difference between whats real and whats fake.
"It was worth all my obsessive efforts, when, amid the smell of glue and wet plaster, the essence of all that is impressive would take shape and become a real object to be possessed." - Hans Bellmer
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