dollseye

Beautiful work, J. Your DT girl is especially captivating, and in my mind works perfectly as the "It Girl" represented by articulated resin....hmmmmmm...........

I have had much much much brain fodder in regards to the fetishization of the uber-realistic dolls but have hesitated to post about it because I think people would be offended...but I'm truly...mindfed by the phenom.

Loved your comment Z, it made me laugh to think of her at all as an "It Girl", though I liked it nonetheless!

As usual, you find exactly the right words to articulate what I'm thinking, and the phrase 'fetishization of uber-realistic dolls' absolutely nails it.

I've been thinking this phenom. over quite a bit too and I bet you a ton of other people have also. If you happen to post something about it, I'd be all over that thread like a rash. I think, finally I've reached some kind of conclusion about it and realised that I only like 'realistic' looking dolls if I can make them look like dolls rather than people. Cos dolls is what I really like....anyway, I think we may have this conversation at another time in another place one day?!!!!!

Oh, I absolutely love these.

I really like setting my dolls up around the house as _dolls_ - flopped limbs, splayed legs, visible joints, the whole unstrung-puppet effect. I like "natural" poses - I make sure their feet don't look broken, for instance - but I LIKE their dollishness. I don't want little scale humans around, I want dolls; in fact, the bodies I loathed most and had to sell immediately were stiff, perfectly-proportioned action-figure bodies. I couldn't get a flop or slump out of them, so they had to go, ha!

And that's a huge reason I love your photography, and adore Edgy Touchwood and Tilda so much - you capture DOLLS, to me. By which I mean, in your photographs, I see an expression of what I enjoy about dolls: we perceive some kind of personality, liveliness, mobility, and softness in something that's actually hard, inanimate, and lifeless.

Short version: GUSH. ;)

Reading what you wrote here makes me really glad that I posted those pictures tonight. There's something great about knowing I'm not the only one who likes about dolls the things that you've described so much better than I ever could.

I clung to my Brothers Quay films for months and wondered whether I should lose the articulated doll habit and go right back to working with clay, or alternative kinds of sculptured characters.

But I know I'd miss those exact things which you described about the 'flop', the 'slump' and the mobility and softness.

The unstrung puppet effect - YES - that's IT!

Oh, it's very interesting to know that you like Tilda...

Thanks so much...

These "few things" are masterpieces! What you do when you don't have time? *falls dead*
Your backgrounds amaze me.

I always thought of your stuff as very realistic, maybe because they show real emotion? Who is doing uber-realistic stuff with dolls? I'd love to see. :)

I will be revisiting these, again and again. I really love them.

Oh, and by the way? You work the fuck out of those backgrounds. Genius every time.

Hey there . . . good to see you posting. :) I ALWAYS miss your voice AND your visuals. I really enjoy what you've done here. Pigs? Well I have no reocurring nightmares of pigs? Luckily? . . . my nightmares have always been few and far between, so I don't have that to draw upon. They (dreams or nightmares) usually manifest on a more psychic level instead anyway. Enough of my rambling.

As always your visuals of your dolls are compelling, stimulating, and really amazingly rendered. How the hell do you do it girl? The backgrounds!! **My hubby ALWAYS refers to you as Sister Quay and has pronounced you his most compelling doll photographer!! ;)

As for realistic dolls . . . well I have what I consider a fifty fifty mix of realistic looking dolls versus the more characterture styled doll. Lately, the more realistic dolls have been getting the air play. I find the fetishization of realistic dolls swings like a pendulum . . . give it time perhaps?

Push me out of my doldrums and dust my brain off . . . I think for the most part I've been languishing when it comes to dolls and photo taking in general due to real life this year. I need a shot in the arm I do believe . . .

I hope your work related projects come to a completion in a way that allows you to jump back into your creative play in 2008. ^____^

There you go again, taking my breath away.

Estella is a wonder.

I appreciate dolls that are doll-like. Sometimes they are more real, if that makes sense.

Wonderful images again Jesse - I'm always floored!
I have a fondness of pigs as I had one as a pet I 'caught'. He
was running down our driveway when I was a kid with his twin.
I caught him in the ivy by the driveway but his twin ran down the
road and I never saw him again. I raised him, took care of him,
took him for walks, sprayed him with the hose in the summertime...but I knew the inevitable would happen...so it does when you have 'livestock'. But I loved him and he grew to
be the biggest pig we ever raised. Yep....he lived a happy life.

These images made me feel good! ^_^

[kyotopunk]-

thanks SO MUCH for saying such GREAT things. I've been taking photos in the dark as the only time I seem to get right now is when my brain gets too tired for other things, which seems to be at night when it's dark. Most of these are 30 seconds or several minutes exposures.

It was Mary Madewell of bjd backgrounds who painted all but one of the backgrounds in the photos, the other one was a collection of vintage photos my mother sent me.

Ohoh yes, the realistic thing.... Well I've noticed some threads appearing on forums with the word 'realistic' in the subject line and much intense discussion about what people prefer. There are also the Minimee heads and the subject of realism seems to me to be something which has been occupying people's minds for a while. Some of the people who do faceups do modifications, working from photographs to see if they can make dolls resemble 'real' people too. Things seem really to have changed since I got my first bjdolls. Another phenomenon is the eyes, how much smaller the sockets seem to be getting. I think Dollshe were one of the first companies to reduce the eye socket size.

[Bel, impassive]-

Haha, thanks Bel, I hope Mary thinks so too!

[Keeley Keena]-

All of the backgrounds except the one made from vintage pictures were painted by Mary of bjd backgrounds. I can't recommend her work enough.

It took me a while to work the 'realistic' thing out fully. At first I think I was misled when people said that the more 'realistic' dolls are weirder and I thought therefore I must like them more as weird is usually something which interests me. But eventually I realised that I didn't really think those kinds of dolls are 'realistic' after all. Any kind of figure which has a symmetrical face with no creases or lines, pores, sweat or hairs isn't really 'realistic' at all and as for the bodies.... Well lets not go there!

When I saw some of Gillian Wearing's latest work where she made masks from casting people's real faces and then she photographed them wearing the masks, I knew for sure that I prefer it when my dolls look like dolls. Lifelike maybe, but most definitely dolls.

If I want 'realistic' I'd rather take pictures of real people, complete with their wrinkles and skin textures.

Thanks for your great comment KK, tell your guy it made my day hearing that.

[Nicky]-

you really said it. Yes. It totally makes sense and I like the way you put it.

Estella has just been there, nearby, and I like doing things with her, she makes these expressions so effortlessly.

Thanks loads for your comment

[Christy]-

that's such a great story, very sad but very interesting and moving. I suppose it's safer to have a dog as a pet, though it sounds as if the pig of yours had a very happy life. I could just imagine him as I was reading about him.

Thanks, it's very good to know that you saw the images and liked them