Barbra Kruger

Barbra Kruger is an American conceptual artist working in New York and LA. Most of her work is of black and white found photography overlaid by words and phrases. Her images are so famous that the white text over red background is now a trademark to her work. A lot of her ideas centre around feminism, consumerism and society. Kruger juxtaposes her images with text criticising society and the power of the media. The 1980s photographs she uses sort of has conventions of an advertising poster, reflecting the control advertising has on the community. Her phrases such as "I shop, therefore I am" is her opinion on how robotic our culture is; if you like shopping you are human, if you cannot afford to shop then you are not. The interesting thing about her photographs is, without the text they do not portray any criticism or opinions. But with the text you can see how it makes sense. She uses her text to change the meaning of the images. Like in the photograph bellow, the text is reflecting her views on war and the army however without the text the image is just showing a boy and his mother. Kruger interestingly quoted about her own work: "If you and I think that we are not susceptible to these images and stereotypes then sadly we are deluded"