Photographic sculpture or sculptural photography?

?

Korean sculptor  Gwon Osang creates  life-size portrait figures merely by using series of photos and polystyrene. He starts by several hundred photographs of his model from every angle and pastes the resulting skin onto a carved boday shape.  Slightly odd but still cool!

"I Am Standing Behind A Camera In Order That I Can Extend Myself In Front Of it" Klein.S

Steven Klein is an American photographer based in New York.

After studying painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, he moved into the field of photography. Klein has shot advertising campaigns for high profile clients including Calvin Klein, D&G, Alexander McQueen and Nike and is a regular contributor to magazines including American and French Vogue, i-D, Numéro, W and Arena. Featured in numerous exhibitions, most recently at the Gagosian Gallery, California and the Brancolini Grimaldi Gallery in Florence, his work has been described as: 

"Playing with appearances he mixes mediums and metaphors to literally stitch his tableaus together from the stuff of reality and dreams" (Neville Wakefield) Klein is well known for his W Magazine editorials with the likes of Madonna,Tom Ford and Brad Pitt. It was whilst collaborating with Madonna, that Klein created X-STaTICPRO=CeSS, an exhibition installation. But whilst looking through Klein's portfolio, I think I prefer his other work. His projects seem to capture a segment of his imagination, creating a dream-like and surrealist canvas for his camera to work with.

A quote from Carol Squiers, W Magazine 2009 sums up my thoughts completely:

"He's clearly been on a fantastic creative streak"

"A fearless approach in combining ugliness and beauty. I love the way he fills the frame with patterns, activity and background detail,"

 "And he has a fantastic color sense, both in the way he uses colors that he makes artificially and in more realistic looking color."

This idea behind the term 'creative streak' and delving into the mind's imagination is something I am really interested in researching further.

To see more of Klein's photography, visit his online studio:

http://www.stevenkleinstudio.com/www/index.html

Walker's Ideas Of The Impossible

I'm really interested in Surrealsim and popular culture, both being a huge inspiration to this Sydney-based artist. 

Brian Walker is a digital artist who aims to interpret the line between hyper reality and reality, creating artworks that combine fashion, illustration and surprise! 

I find it intriguing how Walker takes these inspiration genres and merges them with his concept of 

'using photography as a tool to represent the ideas of the impossible'  

David La Chapelle is a major influence:

 

Overall I love Walker's thinking, striving to create a hyper real visual language that at first glance appears real, and at a second, evolves into the surreal.