OUDF501: Celebrity Culture

The lecture looks at:

• The history of celebrities
• The relationship between photography/film/TV and celebrities
• The cultural significance of celebrities
• How contemporary identity and celebrity are intertwined
• Contemporary icons as case studies

Celebrity photographers, male photographers were treated differently in photography.

Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince was an inventor who lived in Leeds and did moving image.

Josephine Balar was an exotic dancer, she has a pet cheetah and also spied as a celebrity dancer on Nazis and other powerful and influential people. In contemporary culture she has been referenced by Beyonce, she wore the banana dress and performed in a giant champagne glass for the song 'naughty girl'.

Clark Gable

• King of Hollywood
• US Army Air Corps during  WWII
• Became a stage actor as an American hero

Bette Davis

• Known for willingness to play unlikable characters
• married a man who claimed he had never heard of her.

Marilyn Monroe 

• Actress, Singer
• Relationships with Author Miller and the Kennedies. 
• Iconic sex symbol
• Her death freezes her iconic status as she died young.

Audrey Flack Marilyn 1977

In the tradition of the 16th/17th century Venita's painting where objects in the image have symbolic meaning.
Photo realism - airbrush.

Andy Warhol Marilyn Monroe

Her face becomes a mask as it is endlessly repeated in publicity and the news.
The idea that there is a different woman underneath ie. Norma Jean Baker prevails
Circumstances of her death seem to confirm/not confirm this simultaneously as she becomes ‘myth’.

Elvis Presley

Andy Warhol uses an image of him acting the classic American hero – the cowboy
Blurs our vision, reminds us that the image is all we can see
His home Graceland is a place of pilgrimage for fans, then a museum after his death.

John F Kennedy
Celebrity politician in his youth and has good looks.
Great TV speeches
Fashionable beautiful wife
His death in 1963 was not filmed by television cameras but by the public, to this day his death is a conspiracy.

Michael Jackson

The changes in Michael's appearance are interpreted as reactions to the abuse he and his family suffered at the hands of their father
He looks less like a his father by reducing his American features: nose, skin, colour, Afro hair etc.

Madonna
Material girl 1985
Postmodern recycling of the Golden Era of Hollywood
Pastiche of Marilyn’s performance of Diamonds are a girls best Friend in Gentleman Prefer Blonds (1953)

Lady Gaga

Post-Post modernism, changes her look at every appearance.

Her meat dress was a reference to Jana Sterbak (1987).

Barrack Obama

‘Pop’ President
His election seems to offer progress in American politics as he is the first black president
Young, good looking, musical
Employs graffiti artist Shepherd Fairey for his election campaign

Princess Diana 1981

Represents innocence and beauty as the truth of her marriage.
Reinvents herself as fashion icon as they begin to separate.

She got photographed by Maria Testino after she separated with Charles.

There are conspiracy theories about her death.

The paparazzi seem to be to blamed for Diana’s death in 1997 but our demand for ‘real life’ images of celebrities creates a market for these images which command huge financial rewards.

David Beckham
Contemporary ‘everyman’.
Beckham, he himself is as a brand.
Cross worlds of sport fashion and music.
Products include underwear, fragrance as well as clothing.
Overcomes private life scandals - he seems invincible.

Whitney Houston 

Her Death

Twitter

Since 2006
We can follow celebrities
Details of their home and private lives
We can find out immediately of their latest projects
Read their innermost thoughts
How do we ‘keep in touch with celebrities lives?
Whereas until recently we might have had to wait for the magazine to come out now we have direct unmediated link to the stars
This lack of mediation means that stars often make their own PR disasters.

EBay
Elvis’s Hair, $115,120 by selling a lock from the famous black quaff back in 2002.
Britney Spears gum was sold for $514.
Scarlett Johansons used tissue - $5,300 made for charity
during the golden age of Hollywood fans would have coveted a signature as it meant a real connection to the stars hand. In the age of technology the signature has lost it’s power and authenticity, it’s link to a unique identity.
Celebrity items on eBay- the price of a piece of celebrity? We don’t want to just dress like them. We want their DNA!