E2 - Kleinveld & JulienOde to Picasso's 'Portrait of Dora Maar'2023
2023
About the Item
- Creator:E2 - Kleinveld & Julien (American)
- Creation Year:2023
- Dimensions:Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 12.9 in (32.77 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Framing Options Available
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New Orleans, LA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU105212272752
E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
As the photographic duo E2, New Orleans natives Elizabeth Kleinveld and Epaul Julien seek to remake images from art history to reflect their own experience of the contemporary world. Tackling icons from the great masters like Botticelli, Manet, Rembrandt, and Van Eyck, they recast instantly familiar images in a distinctly modern manner, breaking them free from centuries of historical context and placing them firmly in the present.
Kleinveld and Julien were introduced when each showed photographs in the traveling exhibition, “Before (During) After: Louisiana Photographers Respond to Hurricane Katrina,” for the storm’s five-year anniversary in 2010. They quickly realized a shared interest in matters of social justice and racial and socioeconomic inequality, which this natural and man-made disaster had brought into focus. Soon after, they began working together on In Empathy We Trust, an evolving photographic project seeking to examine contemporary social issues through the lens of art history.
The journey from the original germination of an idea to a completed E2 photograph is long and complex, often taking six months to a year. Both pre-production and the shoots themselves take place on two continents, as Julien lives in New Orleans while Kleinveld resides in Amsterdam. As such, the planning and execution of their shoots involve months of collaboration, with countless emails and phone calls exchanged. Kleinveld and Julien begin their process with online research and by visiting museums throughout the United States and Europe, searching for compelling images that resonate with our contemporary experience. They then seek to change the context of these images, replacing the original figures with contemporary stand-ins from all races and backgrounds, to more accurately reflect the diversity of the world around them.
Once an image is selected to be “remade with a twist,” they begin to find sitters (preferring artists, actors, and friends rather than models) representing a wide range of marginalized groups — African-American, Asian-American, LGBT — who have not seen themselves equally represented in media and art. After sitters have been selected, E2 begins the work of sourcing costumes. Their European shoots have involved costumes from the Dutch National Theatre in Amsterdam, Dutch costume maker Bert Nuhaan and Studio Pietro Longhi in Venice, while their hometown shoots in New Orleans are a bit less glamorous, seeing them employ sources varying from thrift stores to friends’ closets.
The photographs themselves are the product of careful planning and production rather than chance — more Gregory Crewdson than Diane Arbus. Each shoot is a carefully orchestrated production, featuring up to a dozen sitters, as well as lighting, costume, staging and more. Kleinveld and Julien’s work as E2 sees them each taking on a myriad of roles, from auteur to producer to subject. The finished product is a result of intense collaboration and teamwork, with both Julien and Kleinveld taking turns behind the camera. After the shoots are completed, the work of post-production begins, where extensive digital collaging of subjects and background is often required. They often employ artists such as Italian painter Marco Ventura to hand-paint the backgrounds of their images, further blurring the lines between both photography and painting, and present and past.
In a world that is becoming increasingly stratified along religious, cultural, economic, and ethnic lines, E2’s photographs apply a new interpretation of icons from the past, making them more inclusive for the multicultural world we live in. E2 does not seek to make demands, but to pose questions: why shouldn’t Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring be Asian? Why can’t the iconic image Washington Crossing the Delaware be adapted to show the first President as an African-American woman? For it is in these answers that we find the lingering doubts and biases that we often do not dare to acknowledge.
Find original E2 photography and prints on 1stDibs.
(Biography provided by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery)
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New Orleans, LA
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
- AlignBy Trenity ThomasLocated in New Orleans, LAedition 2/7 TRENITY THOMAS is a self-taught photographer who has also experimented with painting and sketching since grade school. As a photographer, he has worked in a myriad of ge...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Blue MovesBy Trenity ThomasLocated in New Orleans, LAedition 2/7 TRENITY THOMAS is a self-taught photographer who has also experimented with painting and sketching since grade school. As a photographer, he has worked in a myriad of ge...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Blue Right EarBy Trenity ThomasLocated in New Orleans, LAedition 1/5 TRENITY THOMAS is a self-taught photographer who has also experimented with painting and sketching since grade school. As a photographer, he has worked in a myriad of ge...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Blue Left EarBy Trenity ThomasLocated in New Orleans, LAedition 1/7 TRENITY THOMAS is a self-taught photographer who has also experimented with painting and sketching since grade school. As a photographer, he has worked in a myriad of ge...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Blue Left EarBy Trenity ThomasLocated in New Orleans, LAedition 1/5 TRENITY THOMAS is a self-taught photographer who has also experimented with painting and sketching since grade school. As a photographer, he has worked in a myriad of ge...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- See You ClearBy Trenity ThomasLocated in New Orleans, LAedition 1/5 TRENITY THOMAS is a self-taught photographer who has also experimented with painting and sketching since grade school. As a photographer, he has worked in a myriad of ge...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Cristiano Mascaro, Corcovado, Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilBy Cristiano MascaroLocated in New York City, NYCristiano Mascaro Corcovado, Christ the Redeemer (detail), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1990 60 x 60 inches Edition of 2 Archival Pigment Print Signed,...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Black and White Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- VersaceBy Greg LotusLocated in New York City, NYGreg Lotus is an American fashion photographer based between Miami and New York. His work can be found regularly in the pages of Italian Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, L'Uomo Vogue, and so ...Category
2010s Contemporary Color Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- SpaghettiBy Greg LotusLocated in New York City, NYGreg Lotus Spaghetti, 2014 Fashion Photography Greg Lotus is an American fashion photographer based between Miami and New York. His work can be found regularly in the pages of Itali...Category
2010s Contemporary Color Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Tropical Storm 7, BrazilBy Sergio RanalliLocated in New York City, NYArchival Pigment Print - UNFRAMED 27 x 40 inches - edition of 15 40 x 60 inches - edition of 10 48 x 72 inches - edition of 5 Ask us for custom framing options. CHROMA presents...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- 'Emergence' Photo collage. Woman, Female, Dancer, Iconography, MonroeBy Sophia MilliganLocated in Penzance, GB'Emergence' Limited edition archival photograph. Unframed, hand signed and numbered ________________________________ From your cocoon my darling, Your wings are emerging: Delicate ...Category
2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography
MaterialsArchival Ink, Archival Paper, Giclée, Archival Pigment
- Shoreline, BrazilBy Sergio RanalliLocated in New York City, NYArchival Pigment Print - UNFRAMED 27 x 40 inches - edition of 15 40 x 60 inches - edition of 10 48 x 72 inches - edition of 5 Ask us for custom framing options. CHROMA presents...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment