Guns Of Cinema

I should have been an artist. Wait.. i’m young, it’s probably not too late. Check out this “art” by LA based James Georgopoulos:

Profound purpose statement:

“Guns of Cinema” is a fearless compilation of iconic cinematic gun images. These works carry a theme that confronts controversy, questioning what makes this object inspirational – the same object that has the ability to protect and take away freedoms or the power to alter history and threaten or destroy lives.

LOL yea.. pretty boilerplate.

So as you can see, James Georgopoulos’ “art” amounts to taking pictures of prop guns and putting them in front of high contrast solid color backgrounds.  He then enlarges the pictures and gets prints made that are several feet across, and through that becomes rich. This guy is a genius… *slow clap*

You can visit his website – JamesGeorgopoulos.org

I’ve been to a handful of famous art museums, and there is definitely crap like this that any joker can do.  On the other end of the spectrum there are the incredibly complex/skilled pieces; I have a lot of respect for those those artists.

Thoughts?


Comments

45 responses to “Guns Of Cinema”

  1. MrMaigo Avatar

    Looks like Counter Strike models

  2. Skinner Avatar

    Meh..

  3. “I’ve been to a handful of famous art museums, and there is definitely crap like this that any joker can do.”

    Art really isn’t about the technical skill or difficulty of making the image, sound or whatever, rather it’s about the effect of it. It’s conveyance of meaning, ideas, feelings, or other ways to influence another person. Any idiot can be trained to make an image look like how it’s supposed to look. However, it takes a certain skill to show someone things they haven’t seen. That’s where the actual “art” lies. Even museums, and people who make a lot of money making, selling, or critiquing art don’t understand this all the time.

    That said, these are a poor concept from the beginning and that’s why they are terrible.

    1. ENDO-Mike Avatar
      ENDO-Mike

      I know what you’re saying Ed, but my thought is why is James Georgopoulos (and those other people that do crap art) so special that they can make a living off of something that requires so little actual skill? Is it because they just went ahead and did it, and guys like you and I didn’t? Do they have rich friends with great connections? Are they masters at marketing themselves, their ideas, and their products? Could be all of the above I suppose.

      1. “Is it because they just went ahead and did it, and guys like you and I didn’t? Do they have rich friends with great connections?”

        I’d say you hit the nail on the head right there. Along with the mastering the marketing of themselves. “Oh, he/she is so edgy and trendsetting.” They could sharpen a pencil and put the shavings on a piece of paper – attach some BS explanation of what it represents – woila! Art! $$$.

        Same goes with the high society fashion industry. Hip or edgy??? – http://style.mtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/paris-fashion-week-ss2012-paco-rabanne.jpg. Well, I’d like to think it looks more like the ‘special’ girls were allowed to dress themselves today.

      2. Is it because they just went ahead and did it, and guys like you and I didn’t?

        I think it probably involves, to a large extent, a delusional overestimation of how special or unique the art you’re producing is. Reasonable people would realize that it’s nothing special, and wouldn’t try to pass it off as something noteworthy. But if you have some misguided sense of uniqueness, and convince yourself that it’s something extraordinary, it must be much easier to convince other impressionable people how special it is! I wonder how much of the “art” community really enjoys what they see, and how much is just stuff people rave about because they think it’s supposed to be edgy or make some profound statement about society or some other bullshit. God damn hipsters beatniks.

  4. carlos Avatar

    guns are cool. art is cool. this is gay. who is paying this clownbag to sniff his own farts?

    1. People who drive Toyota Prius

  5. Oh my FUCKING GOD. The pretentious hipster bullshit geiger counter just pegged off the charts. And I am a film student, I know pretentious hipster bullshit when I see it. This ass clown just proves that ANY fart napkin clip art can be “modern art” as long as you are douchey and pretentious enough.

  6. DanTheViking Avatar
    DanTheViking

    I hate the human race.

  7. bima86 Avatar

    wow.. an S&W bottle opener, cool !!

  8. NikonMikon Avatar
    NikonMikon

    Did you guys see the Glock (g19 I am assuming) that Angelina Jolie used in SALT print? The HAEL is up with that barrel hood?!

    http://jamesgeorgopoulos.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/full__0011_joliesalt.png

    Also holy shitballs the real Star Modelo B that Sam Jackson used in Pulp Fiction!

    http://jamesgeorgopoulos.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/full__0012_pulpfictionsamjackson.png

    I want one so bad pretty much because of Pulp Fiction.

    found a youtube video showing the guy and talking about the guns and why he did this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX5aJ_6KvZo

    also found out that the glock19 is for sale: 3400 dollars. Blank firing only.
    http://www.thegoldencloset.com/merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=P00613

    1. ENDO-Mike Avatar
      ENDO-Mike

      Maybe that chamfered barrel hood on the g19 is due to the fact it fires blanks? Maybe they are not strong enough to easily unlock the barrel downwards like on a regular glock.

      $3400?! I could buy a lot of g19s for that!

      1. NikonMikon Avatar
        NikonMikon

        Yeah I realized it after the fact. It’s probably direct blowback converted. I watched a shitload of videos with that guy and he explains a lot of cool shit. Did you know you have to hold blank guns like that G19 WAY more firmly than a real firearm? They’re very very sensitive to being limp-wristed. You pretty much have to statue them.

        1. JonMac Avatar

          What videos do you mean? Sounds interesting.

          1. JonMac Avatar

            Doh, I’ve just realised what you mean – the other vids in his channel.

            1. NikonMikon Avatar
              NikonMikon

              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H26qgfHUAA
              that and part 2

              He talks about how difficult they are to shoot without failures. I think mostly in part 2

    2. ENDO-Mike Avatar
      ENDO-Mike

      I just watched that video now too and I noticed the “Salt” glock trigger isn’t reset. That would bother me forever if I owned that. haha

  9. Well, as a photographer, I can tell you his lighting is crap… And I’m certain that he is shooting these on white, and adding the colored background in post. Lame…

    1. ENDO-Mike Avatar
      ENDO-Mike

      There are some pictures of the process on his twitter page https://twitter.com/#!/georgopoulosart . He basically prints out the shadowy picture of the gun and then adds the color behind it when he mounts it on the board.

  10. If only there was a real photographer that could make guns look cool… that could make art using firearms…..If only…

    Oh….wait….

    Maybe Oleg should be in a few museums.

    1. bima86 Avatar

      well there is this, it’s not a photograph but it’s better than the one above (in my opinion) >> https://www.everydaynodaysoff.com/2011/06/09/still-life-paintings-with-weapons/

    2. NikonMikon Avatar
      NikonMikon

      Oleg sucks and he’s a weirdass fucking creeper.

  11. If this guy is an artist, Oleg Volk is a Master.

    1. Jusuchin (Military Otaku) Avatar
      Jusuchin (Military Otaku)

      Ichiro Nagata might be his sensei.

  12. Church Avatar

    What exactly makes this a “fearless compilation”!?

    1. DaveP. Avatar

      Dude, this is a LAtard ‘artist’: simply admitting that handguns don’t automatically come with a Klansman’s hood and wouldn’t attack him all by themselves probably took a bit of courage.

  13. DaveP. Avatar

    Waitaminute. He whips out this pretentious-as-hell bit of screed about how guns are so powerful and historically important… then he puts up a pic of the tarted-out revolver from “XXX”?
    Geez, if it had been Lee Oswald’s Carcano from that Oliver Stone movie or one of the rifles from “The Patriot”- movies about how men with guns really did make or change history- I could see it. But this? Why not put up a pic of one of those double-barreled lasers from “The Black Hole”?

    1. NikonMikon Avatar
      NikonMikon

      You’re implying he wouldn’t jump on those guns from the patriot or the carcano immediately…. He’s partnered with that chick who has connections in the prop industry. It simply cannot be done if the rifles are destroyed or in private collections that she has no idea where they are…

  14. I think The Painted Word, Tom Wolfe’s book on modern art, is a cautionary tale for some, and for others, it’s a how-to manual.

    Seriously, go out and buy/borrow a copy. It’s the best book I’ve read on the downfall and decline of modern art, and it’s written by Tom Wolfe (The Right Stuff, etc.) so it’s also a fantastic read even if you’re not into art.

  15. Not going to comment on whether this qualifies as art…but keep in mind, someone…somewhere has a velvet painting of dogs playing poker hanging over their fireplace. But, I bet this “art” collection is getting him a ton of ass. Which is cool…if you’re into that sort of thing.

  16. dave w Avatar

    I used to look at this stuff and wonder why i didnt get it, then i realized there was nothing to get.

  17. Whammy! Avatar

    Modern Art:
    “I can do that.”
    “Yeah, but you didn’t.”

  18. hydepark Avatar
    hydepark

    So once again the real artwork and mechanical beauty of functioning firearms is purposefully drowned out by some arbitrary bullshit deemed “art”

  19. NikonMikon Avatar
    NikonMikon

    Ok I seriously don’t get why everyone is hating on this guy. Are you fuckers into guns or not? They are pictures of iconic guns. Sam Jackson’s Star Model B from Pulp Fiction should be a pretty kickass gun to all of you considering he calls it Mr. 9mm and everyone thinks its a 1911. They used the 9mm Star because 45’s back then were hard to cycle reliably in film. Little tidbits like that are what makes firearms in movies cool to me. Beyond that, its a fucking iconic gun and to have a print of it that is pretty much just the gun on a colored background is hardly pretentious, I think its simple and I’d have one of these in an office if I were a firearms-related company. I don’t fucking get you fags…

    1. Whammy! Avatar

      Hahaha, you care about what people say on the Internet. Kill yourself.

      1. NikonMikon Avatar
        NikonMikon

        You replied thusly. How clever you are…

    2. JonMac Avatar

      I’m with you man, I don’t get the hate either. Although the backgrounds aren’t to my taste, massive prints of movie guns are a reason all its own in my book.

      1. NikonMikon Avatar
        NikonMikon

        Exactly. I think it would be sweet if he had the mini-gun from Predator too. Maybe the m60 from Rambo. This art is about the guns and how they’re iconic. It baffles me how people in the comments are so opposed to it. Being that we’re all firearms enthusiasts, we all get excited when we see firearms in the movies… I just don’t get it.

        1. hydepark Avatar
          hydepark

          Replace the word guns in your posts with props and I’m a little more on your side.

          1. NikonMikon Avatar
            NikonMikon

            Not all of them are props. They used real AR-15’s and M-16’s in Scarface for example..

  20. Cartridgeholder Avatar
    Cartridgeholder

    Art like this is mainly about interpretation more than anything, but I do agree that this is a lazy exhibit. Take picture>put against unicolor background>????>profit

    1. OftheArk Avatar
      OftheArk

      Occasionaly, they forget to apply the picture, and just sell the unicolor background. While its complete bullshit, it sells well. I’d like to think that there are some artists who realize the bullshit, and just do it to sell it. The person would be cool.

  21. WOW…a lot of the comments sound like they come from bitter souls who can’t get anyone to notice their “art”. True artists appreciate anything creative as art. The simple act of creating something that no one else has, makes it art. Whether you like it or not, is up to the viewer or listener or audience. It takes a lot of cojones to get your work out there and stand behind it. As far as Mr. Georgopoulos’ work, I have seen it in person and I have seen his process for creating the Guns of Cinema series and I can tell that most of the commentors here don’t fully understand it, as it is a very lengthy, and extremely painstaking process. It takes a lot of negotiation to even get access to those guns and when he does get access he very often is only given a couple of minutes to set up the shot and take the picture. From that picture, the silver gelatin development process takes place (the artist does this himself) and then the image goes into full production mode wherein each image in hand painted with multiple layers of custom colors (difficult to work with car paints and blended acrylics) and this process can take 50+ hours for each one. Once that’s done, he builds the structure that the image will be mounted to and he hand applies multiple layers of thick resin. In all, each image can take up to 80+ hours to complete.

    This takes a lot of precision and patience. As an art fan and collector and patron, I appreciate any process that results in a unique creation as I know that each artist’s process is uniquely their own. I truly do not understand when fellow artists don’t support one another. It’s stupid and petty.

    Support your own community and it will support you. That’s how it works people. Find a market to speak to and it will support you. If you don’t, then good luck making a living doing what you love.

  22. Also, I wonder whether you have copyright license to include these images in your blog? Because without those stunning images to support your words, I doubt you’d get many eyes on it.