Fully Postmodern: Defining My Practice by Defining an Artistic Movement As a young artist, recognizing and being aware of your photographic practice is extremely important; it allows you to understand the ways in which your work fits into the broader context of Art and the ways in which your work works. I have been studying and practicing photography since I was sixteen, but it wasn't until my university studies began that my practice began to mature and evolve, and I began to feel more like an artist than I had ever felt. This evolution is largely due to engagement with art theory and criticism. Over the course of my study, these investigations led to the realization that as postmodernist art; my practice must include political and critical elements to be relevant to contemporary artistic practice. Postmodern art belongs to the movement of postmodernism, a reaction against the principles and practices established in aesthetic modernism and an evolution of critical modernism. This essay will introduce my work to show you how my practice works and to demonstrate its place within postmodernism. -Modern. I will show, through the discussion of photography as art, how artists and academics critiqued the paradigm of Modernism to such an extent that these discussions gave rise to artistic movements that would liberate art from its traditional medium-specific conventions. These discussions were based on the socio-political responsibility that art could and should have, leading art to aspire to mean something more than something purely visual. I believe the function of photographic art is to be socially and critically aware and used to stimulate discussion about personal, sociological and cultural politics. If the images are...... in the center of the paper...... I AM A BEAUTIFUL POST MODERN ARTIST. Bibliography Journals (1987) McPherson, H. Post-Modernism- Ruckblick or Marche En Avant? Grundberg, Andy. (1986). Nan's sad ballad. Artforum. ?? (??), ??Books (2004) Wells, L Eds. Inside the white cube. In, Photography a critical introduction. London: RoutledgeBarthesMarzonaArt in TheoryEdwards, S. (2004). Photography outside of conceptual art. In: Wood, P. and Perry, G Themes in contemporary art. London: Yale University Websites Gale, M. (2007-2011). Already ready. Available: http://www.oxfordartonline.com.lcproxy.shu.ac.uk/subscriber/article/grove/art/T070990?q=ready-made&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit. Last accessed March 30, 2011 Willet, J. (2011). Phases of Cubism: Synthetic Cubism. Available: http://www.arthistoryunstuffed.com/phases-of-cubismo-synthetic-cubismo/. Last access March 30th 2011