Modern classics

Paul Plews created this series of work entitled 'Modern Classics' in 2003, as a way of reinventing classical portraiture for the digital age.

I've come up across this body of work in previous years, however I've never looked at it in such detail as now.  The images look fantastic, and Plews has clearly achieved what he set out to do in creating photographs that look like paintings.

The work really lends itself to what I'm doing in the assignment, as there are clear links to the works of Vermeer and also Rembrandt.  Again I'm really drawn to the little details within the images, such as the various objects placed within the various frames.  Apparently Plews wanted the objects to signify such things as greed, pride and dignity etc.  And for me this adds so much more to the photographs, giving the audience a much wider context in which to view them.


 

As a series they work really well; the models are always facing the same way, the light and colours are always the same and the similar features appear in each image.  I think this is something valuable to take from these, as with the Vermeer work we are being asked to produce our own series of works in response.