Photography Oral Presentation Speech

Intro:

Polixeni Papapetrou isn’t a very common name. I’d say there’s only one person in the world with it. But in the world of art she’s a very commonly known photographer and artist. She’s known for her childhood fantasy pictures. Creating a mythical creature that only a child could imagine to be true. However this has landed her into some controversial topics on using her daughter for her pictures. However she’s brushed it off, keeps doing her own thing and is succeeding in the photography/ Art Industry.

Her Life:

Polixeni Papapetrou was born here in Sydney, Australia in 1960, however her parents and her heritage are Greek. In 1984 she graduated from Melbourne University with a degree in Law and Art. From ’85-2001 she was lawyer and in 1987 she started taking photos, this is when she began her album “Elvis Immortal” of which she only finished in 2002. Later in 1997 she graduated with masters in Art and in 2007 graduated with a PHD. In all this time she has created 16 Photo and Art Albums of which she won countless awards adding to her success in the Artist Industry.

World and Audience:

Her whole life Miss Papapetrou has been a “Lone Wolf” which means she hasn’t belonged to any groups or hasn’t really been directly influenced by any one single artist motion. She has created her own motion, her own genre of art and photography. She has started her own and she has been recognised for it. However as I said before it hasn’t been smooth sailing for her on this journey of creating her own image. She has had a lot of controversy for her methods and her way of using her daughter in her fantasy photos. But she has managed to prosper and be an inspiration to many up and coming artists who may be facing controversy.

Conceptual Frames

All of Papapetrou’s photos have a certain frame that they correspond with. Whether it be Structural, Subjective, Cultural or Postmodern. For example her Magma Man. Was a great frame use of the structural frame as she has devided the photo into thirds and used the golden section to draw our focus into the Ghillie suit and then back out to the actual magma structures. This lets us take in the whole picture which allows us to understand more about it, the way she wanted us to see it.

In The Hanging Rock #3, the Subjective frame work is in play as the children in the photo look blank and maybe even possessed. She is making us think about the children and what they are doing and the positions that they are in. She wants us to relate back to our own emotions and compare them to the kids and try understand for ourselves what’s happening. With the children’s positions/ stances we are made to believe that the kids are exploring and playing hide and seek. They are letting their imagination run wild in the terrain and being free. They are letting their fantasies explore the new area. This is exactly what the photographer is all about. Letting your imagination go.

Her Cultural Framed Art work is of course her “Elvis Impersonator” as we can see how much Elvis had an impact on the world, this fan and on Miss Papapetrou. This photo really tells us how he has created a legacy and how so many people respected him even after his death. This photo shows how Elvis created a culture, through the cultural frame of this picture.

And finally an example of the postmodern frame is probably one of the most controversial photos of the photographers’ collection: “The Loners”. This is in the postmodern frame as it is one of her most commonly known photos. This how she got even further in her carrier as this photo was morally questioned however Miss Papaptrou managed to block out the haters and succeed far beyond her initial goal. This is how she created her own genre!