The Saboteur by Todd R. Behrendt
Incorporating elements of collage and expressionism, The Saboteur is my response to hucksters who ruined the world economy with their rampant greed. This image is a silver gelatin print created in a traditional wet-process darkroom utilizing non-traditional techniques.
Website: Todd Behrendt
I wish it was darker. (Darker in tones, and also in meaning, but of course, the one would affect the other). I like the idea as you’ve written it but I feel you haven’t quite pulled it off. I love the splatter over the blacked out head. The intestines and the bits and pieces of this picture although I am not sure about the text and how it fits in. It looks rather like science jargon. Maybe it all needs to be a lot gorier. A lot angrier.
Have you ever seen Joel Peter Witkins work, not that it’s quite like this but it is dark and you feel that evil lurks there. I want to see more evil (or anger) in your picture. Well that’s what I think anyway.
BAD ASS
This is supposed to be photography?
I’m not making any judgement on what might conventionally define ‘photography’ but I like your image. I’d like to see some more context – whether this might mean more images or a written narrative, I’m not sure…
My reaction to this image is to feel some of the anger that is venting from a problem that we have all constructed in one way or another… we are compliant and that is (part of) the problem. This works for me.
SteveM
Jim. My guess is its a contact printed digineg, so…..yep its photography. welcome to the world.
I dont really really buy/care about the political angle behind this at all, but if it ever came as a 20×16 lith i would certainly have one.
john
I dunno. You can make love in a darkroom, too, but it still isn’t photography.
“You can make love in a darkroom, too, but it still isn’t photography.”
…. well it can be…. but that is something different
illustration.
just see it for what it is, or not.
discussions about whether this is photography (or not) are pointless.
Why don’t you just crack out of that mindset … its what kills photography, turns it into a scene that can only celebrates itself whilst everyone else is getting love for what they do, not what format they do it in.
Nothing is sacred. My God Capa faked his photos, Jesus was just a carpenter (and a poet).
I mean do you like it? Does it say something to you?
My verdict:
SHIT HOT TODD, SHIT HOT.
Well, it does matter if it is photography. This is a site for emerging photographers, not emerging graphic artists.
Hopefully, the greedy bastards won’t put the galleries exhibiting your work out of business… That’s all we can ask! :-)
Likes it:)
Love the idea and the use of collage to make your point, but I find the image to be unresolved. I’d like to see you tackle this again using more layers both physically and emotionally. If I hadn’t read the text I wouldn’t know to what it referred. Symbolism is great but it needs to be connected to some realistic content to be effective. Keep going…
Patricia
I feel like I want to say, “Rock it!”…so I will, Todd, you should rock the shit out of this. But…like others, I am a bit confused about the message or the intent. I love that you are using a darkroom experimentally, and abstract is awesome, but I need a bit more of your view explained, either with the employment of words or visual text. A dark faceless head explosion paired with exposed, almost x-rayed innards coupled with latin and scientific jargon, and then the message, “Find them!” is a lot going on without the context explained much. Kind of makes me think a confused Shepard Fairey…this isn’t to begrudge or belittle your intent..quite the opposite actually. I think that you have a lot of great really artistic ideas, but I think that you need to hone them into speaking one message per (compiled) image. The impact would be clearer and greater, and your intent more recognizable. Or, maybe, I just seek more explanation of this image. Either way, I love the artistic endeavor and approach you have decided to take. Just more explanation and exploration is what I would like as the viewer.
Like it Todd, like it a lot: well out of the box. As John Gladdy says, it belongs on the wall.
Best,
Mike.
I like the energy in this one. Reminds of different cover art for experimental music that I listen to. I bet Kim Hiorthøy should be a big inspiration for you, he’s made every cover art for the label Rune Grammofon: http://www.runegrammofon.com
“I dunno. You can make love in a darkroom, too, but it still isn’t photography.” <- funny.
I am definitely feeling that sentiment.
My two cents… A bit cliche. It's message is weak.
I feel like this is getting by purely on it's traditional darkroom process.
Maybe that's enough…
But what if there was no dark room, just a 'shopped' composition? What if I photographed a well lit, flat shot of one of my paintings cropping only the canvas? How about a scanned image of a drawing? Scanners are in a sense (it's a stretch I realize) a camera too.
I'm taking the piss, for the most part, but this photo brings up the notion that BURN is opening it's arms to Emerging Graphic Designers.
locus…
morphine..
pig…
displacement
antagonistic
secretion..
find them!
**
would like to see more layers,
more information..
the ink stops me…
interesting
and
complicated….
***
Love this! frustration, bile, pig-bled..great stand-alone imaging..keep it up!
Kathleen
I agree with the nay sayers. Not only is the message unclear and not very well emphasized, I find the message once I know it to be quite one dimensional and flat. I mean to lay the blame for the financial crisis at the doorstep of a few individuals is quite naive, though very convenient. I mean if we dont understand the full picture its easy to find some scapegoats and just blame them since we ourselves are too intellectually lazy to penetrate the issue beyond the surface. For me this is just intellectual laziness and a follow-the-herd mentality displayed here by this. I realize that Burn may not be the place to discuss economics in any real depth but as the artist maybe you should have created something that has a stronger foundation than this.