The Woman Behind The Mannequins

I recently had an extended conversation with Steve from PhotoGrunt who featured my work on the POE (Photographers Of Etsy) Blog:

Focus On: Eleanors

The Look

Many, if not most or perhaps even all of us strive to comment on the human condition with our art. Some do that by focusing on things humans have built, some by focusing on things humans have cultivated, some by focusing on things humans find beautiful and some by focusing on actual humans.

Then there's Eleanors, a photographer based in Vienna, Austria that focuses on ersatz humans in the form of mannequins. If you haven't seen her work, you're about to.

Steve: Eleanor, there are any number of words that could be used to describe your work: "artful", "edgy", "dark", "macabre", "glamour", "reflective"...these are but a few that came to mind when I thought about it.

What words would you use to describe yourself? ... read more

Underground

Underground No6 (2010)

Being busy with working on film for months prevented me from blogging. Nonetheless I have managed to continue investigating the "underground" of stores searching for currently unemployed mannequins. Luckily I discovered some exciting places.

Today I´ll introduce you to one of these beautiful old basements with raw brick walling. A wonderful contradictory background for it´s attractive residents.

Underground No1 (2010)

Underground No2 (2010)

These mannequins stand out due to long legs and buxom curves. Being undressed their intrinsic postures appear even more bizarre.

Underground No5

Together with their pale companions with heavily made-up eyes this scenery let me think of a secret underground party. I am definitely lucky to have been invited!

Underground No4

Underground No3

I have created a small collection called "Underground" that as from now will be available in my etsy shop.

Pink

Cotton candy, bubble gum, babies, little girls, cute, cozy, romantic, charming, sugar and spice and everything nice. In Western culture these terms are commonly associated with the color pink. Most people still think of pink as a feminine, delicate color.

Did you know that from the 1920s until the 1940s, pink was considered appropriate for boys, while blue was considered appropriate for girls because it was the more delicate and dainty color, or related to the Virgin Mary? Since the 1940s, the social norm apparently inverted, a practice that has continued into the 21st century.

I can´t think of any other color being afflicted with such a variety of connotations ranging from the pink ribbon as the international symbol of breast cancer awareness to the "pink economy" (often used for the gay market).

However it was interesting to create my first photograph displaying the color pink, the "sweet side of red". An image intended to let one´s mind wander. And I actually took a fancy to work on further.

Miniature Art Extravaganza VI Seattle

My Miniatures Series has savely arrived in Seattle, WA. It will be on display at MINIATURE ART EXTRAVAGANZA VI exhibit from Nov. 13th, 2009 until Jan. 3rd 2010.



Laurie Kearney from Gossamer Collective has been organizing mini-shows over the past several years. In her own words she is obsessed with Miniatures, and making art so accessible to people is her passion as well. Every piece of artwork to be hung from artists all over the world is limited in size 4"x4"x4". What a brilliant idea!

The show will be spread out over 3 venues (Stylus Salon, Gossamer Collective and Solo Bar). If you happen to be in the Seattle area check out some more info here.

Thanks for inviting me and good luck!

Real Or Not ?

Pure 2009

I am kind of agitated and satisfied as well. The first part of my new mannequin series is in the can! I take a short look at the pictures after uploading to the computer and leave them on the back burner for a while to step back. During this time of "breeding" I´m open to particular images flashing automatically upon my inward eye. Before clicking the file two weeks later I get pretty nervous with a queasy feeling, just realizing a few minutes later that I am actually pretty confident which pictures are most captivating and worth to work on further.

Airy 2009

I´ve been fascinated by capturing mannequins since years. Provided they are realistic, well done and a bit shabby already, they draw my attention. Made to give to a shop window credibility and humanity in the stage setting of its products, mannequins have always been considered as the reflection of the "ideal beauty" during the time that they were manufactured.

Paris 2009

Especially when damaged, their humanoid appearance emerges even more, and I try to emphasize this effect in my images. I make my mind a blank and forget everything I know or associate with the object and try to see it with new eyes. I somehow communicate with the models, looking at them from different angles and lighting conditions.

Locked to the View 2009

At the end you can find one single model in a variety of moodes. She may look like being sad or pensive,

Memories 2009

showing confidence by throwing a piercing glance at the viewer,

Suburbia 2009

or "behave" like a shy deer.

Out of Order 2009

Being amazed at the images being as different as day and night, I am seeking to boost even more the specific atmospheres at post processing. When watching the faces it also may occure that an utterly artificial picture comes to my mind that I want to turn into reality.

Moonlit 2009

Chimera 2009

As Autumn Wanes

Fall Breeze 2008

Everything changes over night. A storm comes up suddenly and unexpectedly. Heavy rainfall turns the warm colors into cold light. Strong wind defoliates the trees, and the last walnuts are falling to the ground.


We have to remove a vast number of walnut leaves from the grassland. It´s getting rather cold for this time of the year. Even lemons are watching out for cozy little places to warm themselves.

Lemon´s Excursion 2008

Swallows migrated already. Beetroot, black radish, salad, mangel and onions still find theirselves in the patch. Basil and sweet peppers are getting killed or damaged by frost. In the larder I find some jars with stewed fruit which have got moldy already. All the work for nothing, it´s enough to cry me a river.

Taking Wing 2008

My back hurts, and I hardly can move. I have been running into this situation through my own fault. A lot of stooping, kneeling and photographing in bad posture without going in for sports ... winter is just around the corner. Two new pictures I just have finished somehow correspond to that certain kind of seasonal mood:

Boundaries 2009

Uncertainty 2009

Indian Summer

Autumn 2008

The last warm und sunny days. Leaves just started to turn into red brown and yellow. Jars full of collected seeds from withered flowers and blooming herbs everywhere.



Sunflower seeds expected to be fed to birds in winter. Which probably won´t come anymore since four young cats, masters of climbing up trees, are populating our backyard.



Calyxes of marigold which gave the vegetable patch a vibrant touch of orange and yellow for a long time.


Green beans got dry too soon in a hot summer with little rain.

And I´m lucky to start off with a new series of mannequin photographs. I use a slightly damaged torso of a vintage mannequin as a subject. Unlike my "Secret Society" collection of black and white mannequins which I shot in a storeroom in a more documentary way, I`m now experiencing with a single body put on stage. I´ll write more about the new series in the next couple of weeks when work will be progressed quite a bit.

Secret Society No 17

"under construction"

Black and White

The last days I have been working on a double portrait of a black and a white kitten featuring The Investigator and The Inapproachable. I took the photographs when they were looking through the window from outside awaiting their breakfast.

Black And White - Black 2009

I like the dust and scratches of the window which let the portrait of the black one look very picturesque. The white one is looking through a fly screen which I used to boost the soft tone of the image.

Black And White - White 2009

Shades Of Green

Today Pam from alwaysartistic included one of my photographs in her treasury displaying works by POE (Photographers of Etsy Street Team) members. The photographs are featuring different shades of green. It´s quite a gorgeous selection all around. Congrats Pam and many thanks for including Glassy Landscape!

In Motion

As a kid growing up in the country, I lived life outside: alpine skiing, skating, cycling, running, jumping, swiming and climbing up mountains. In my teens, that meant also playing tennis, competitive track and field as well as playing volleyball. But it was in high school, that I gravitated away from track and field and alpine skiing and I found my way into dance, a long standing wish since childhood. I spent several years attending jazz- and modern dance classes as well as pantomime.

The discipline I learned through sports pushed me to participate in new things. I always had an insatiable love for trying new things and discovered a passion for photography and filmmaking. At that time I consequentially learned to "dance" with my camera. At first with small movie cameras, later on with a photo camera I enjoyed experimenting with all kinds of movement whenever possible.

As Autumn Wanes 2008

Evanescence of life and beauty in mind I shot this portrait of a morello cherry tree by moving the camera with a long shutter speed at low light, so that the tree appears in disintegration.

When cutting a film I spend a lot of time looking closely to any single of the 24 or 25 photographic images of which one second of motion picture exists. And I get absolutely impressed with these usually unseen and often blurry jewels of film frames.

Noir 1987

Life consists of movement. If we see something wonderful or remarkable most of us like to capture it in a photo. It can be interesting to watch a picture of such a single moment where life gets "frozen", and we are able to study the details. I still remember my amazement about gazing at an ordinary bee approaching a flower.

Approach For A Landing 2008

However looking at a picture "in motion" the details of single moments become indistinct and get transformed to a bigger something. It´s somehow an illusion of visible reality and often provokes different kinds of emotion.

Momentum 2009

The picture above consists of two photographs. I took the first one during our perseverative trips between Austria and Hungary. This strip of land on the Hungarian side of the former Iron Curtain, also known as border zone, is covered with deep forests full of mystery which still remind me of all the anxiety when crossing the border to a Eastern European Country in the past. Times changed and due to the European Union we are now allowed to go to any member country without any passport control. I liked the blue and green colors of the wood passing by but also wanted to add some bright color. As you also can find yellow canola fields in this area which emanate warmth and cheerfulness, I combined these two images to create a whole new one.

The Vineyard 2009

Only some miles away, when crossing the border to Austria, you will find a totally different aspect of the same landscape. Few if any forests or trees between the huge fields, acres and vineyards. Every single square mile seems to be cultivated by human hand. Strict geometrical structures dominate and nature´s charming wilderness has already disappeared. Nonetheless I like this picture of a vineyard "in motion" very much as it corresponds to my preference for playing with geometrical structures very well.

Growing Our Own Food I - "The Grave"

First Harvest

I can´t remember how long ago I decided to prefer organic food. Being vegetarian since childhood my bill of fare for a long time was limited on mashed potatoes, rice, bread, polenta and various kinds of deep frozen vegetables. I am still horrified thinking about the times when searching the menu in a restaurant without finding anything eatable aside from cut-up and sugared pancake with raisins and apricot dumplings. Time passed by until dumplings with egg and baked mushrooms showed up on menus, on which I wasn´t keen anymore after stuffing myself with it for years. Finally I have learned that I just had to accept my fate growing up in a culture being obsessed with meat.

Lemon´s Excursion 2008

The situation turned out to become even worse when I noticed that apples didn´t taste like apples anymore, that apricots tasted like water with a whiff of bitter citron. Not really a surprise after being picked unriped and travelling hundreds and thousands of miles cooped in refrigerators. Even simple bread wasn´t made from flour, salt, leaven and water anymore. More and more bakeries converted to convenience blends.

Windfall 2008

For whatever reason it was obvious to grow our own food when we came to Hungary. And this is how we started:

"The Grave"

Whenever I am talking about animals my husband´s thoughts are focusing on how they would taste being roasted. He is confident of driving me crazy about that. Now, even though drenched in sweat, he is digging over the black and fertile but compacted soil bit by bit. It´s hard work and at the end a tiny acreage occurs, looking quite ridiculous (and also a bit like a small grave - to be honest : - ) amidst the former large acre. But it was just a modest beginning. At this time we predominantly were busy with renovating the houses. After removing a lot of junk from the compost heap the former owners had left, we cover the patch with compost soil.

Compost Heap left behind

My husband grew up on a farm and has learned much about farming in early life. But I am just a rookie and never wouldn´t have dreamed of gardening or farming. Now I hold some small bags of vegetable seeds in my hand, waiting to plant the first carrots.

Summer Travel

A cloudless blue sky,

the air shimmering over wide open spaces,
scorching heat with a gentle breeze,
a summer break.

Time to dive oneself into breaking waves and being washed ashore:

Blue 1995/2008

Time to rest at a shady and quiet place, dreaming of fresh fruits:


Italian Impressions 1995/2008

Time to have a little chat and let things pass by:


Seven Hills 1997/2008

Time to celebrate the charmingly scent of salt and of the big wide world during a walk along the beach after sunset:


Open End 1999/2008

I hope you´re having a great summer!

Colors Are Finding Their Way

I am so excited. Our efforts to recultivate the old garden are rewarded by regrowing grass and flowers in multiple colors. Instead of removing the soil as proposed by "experienced gardeners", we covered the ground with grass clippings several times to convey soil organisms. This turned out to be the perfect treatment and saved a lot of money. Now one plant is paving the way for the next one. The following year the grass already is growing vigorously.





Nature definitely has a will of it´s own and a big sense of humour! It happened at the end of May that we discovered little sunflower plantlets all over the garden without having planted them. Why did this happen? Maybe for several reasons. First we were feeding birds with sunflower seeds in winter. Some of the seeds tumbling down the birdhouse found proper conditions to grow. Second some seeds ended up on the compost heap and have been disseminated again together with soil. Since June small and big ones are taking pleasure in life and are savouring the sun. Here are some of them:

Sunflower I

Sunflower III

I love the fun poses they often display:

Sunflower II

In front of the garden wall long-established coneflowers are flowering again:

Indian Summer I


Indian Summer II

Daylilies have been successful flowers in rural gardens for a long time. They flower for one day only. But new buds keep developing - producing a long run of simple, elegant trumpet shapes. I took some of them growing in front of the house and replanted these robust beauties inside the garden in a light woodland setting. I gambled but were quite sucessful in the end:

Day Lily