Assignment 6: Final Images & Statement

For these images I was trying to see what effects I could achieve in camera, and then taking those photos and putting them together to create something even better. They all work with the idea of complexity and the feeling of multiple dimensions. In all the photos, there are details that you may not initially see, but the more you look the more you notice. I like the confusing, complex nature of the photos along with the sense of depth they have that leads to a series that can be interpreted in different ways depending on the viewer.

In-Class Activity Photos

3-D image:

                      

                                                        Noun: Disturbance

Homelessness- Action Verb:

Rearranged:

Serene-Adjective:

Time

Written Statement Part 2: Assignment 5

Everyone seemed to like the way that I combined the photos to create images that were indiscernable. They liked the colors that came out of the images. The black and white photo came across well too. The photo combination was liked, and it was looked at as something deeper. Its mystery became intriguing. I think how the colors printed didn't work well, so I need to be careful how much I distort things so they lose clarity in the future. I could make this a larger series by focusing on the manipulation and bright colors that were created by playing with light.

Blog Prompt 26

1. This weekend I was out taking photos and although I have some interesting ones that I want to work with, I feel like I have only gotten half of the photos I need/want for the project so far. I also feel like I only have photos from one category I wanted to use for my project- a lot of outdoor photos. I will be able to change this by working more on some of the light reflecting objects I would like to try photographing and also by starting to work with the photos I have taken so far in photoshop. I feel like this would help let me know what I still need/am looking for. The positive side is that I have some photos I think I can work with, and the negative is that I am worried I am going to stick myself with different versions of the same photo.

2. The opposite of my project would be very clear and crisp photography. It would be of very definable and relatable moments in life. I could work this into my project by making abstract images that people feel like they can relate to.

3. A consistent visual element of my project I hope is to have some manipulation of camera functions to make the photos have distorted lighting/scenes that turn out to be more artistic and resemble paintings more than they do photographs. I may want to make some just be distorted and not look like a painting too. The opposite of this would be to have very strict photographs that clearly defined a scene. I could try working this into my photos by layering somehow to have parts of the scene be very definite and clear against my distorted photos.

4. brightness, mixture, blurriness, strobe lights, memories, pops of color, variety, non-standard, quirky, manipulated, layers, bold, different perspective, texture variety, humanity, shapes, intimate?, expression, line interplay, abstract.

5. At the "deepest core" I like this project because it is creative. I wanted to try and push farther how I manipulated photographs for the last project. Once I really got working on those photos I really started enjoying myself. It was the problem solving of layering the photos and having them turn out or not, and being surprised at what I could come up with. The one black and white photograph that I did last time also has me flirting with the idea of trying to get into something psychological with the meanings of the photos as well. This multiple dimensions like feeling is something that interests me.

6. If there were no restraints I would travel around to capture more beautiful scenes to use in my project. I would work with capturing things like the sunrise, sunset and other natural drastic lighting situations to then manipulate. It would be neat to alter these scenes some so that they were blown out at times, or given a melted look. It would be neat to have more amazing scenes to work with other than the city I live in.

10. I assume that I am going to be able to capture new exaggerated/"blown out" lighting scenes like I was able to create for the last project. I also assume that all the photos I have so far will be able to come together to make something cohesive and strong. I assume that I will be able to get what is in my head into a photograph.

12. If I removed the lighting aspect of my project, I would probably end up with more of a deep, confusing, hidden meanings photography project. It would be interesting photographs that were compiled together in unusual ways.

15. In a dream I have had many times, it is chaos. The location is this weird house that is part library, part department store, part big kitchen, slash a CLUE like house. It is my birthday party at first, I am young, but then things take a turn for the worse. There are people I need to run away from in the house, so then it becomes a chase around this oddly set up house. I could try and re-create the locations in this dream and put them in my photos or I could try to convey the emotions I have with being chased in the photos.

17. I could connect my images physically by turning them into a 3-D box to be displayed. I would connect them conceptually be techniques used and general composition of all the photographs. I could make my photos disconnected physically by making them all of different sizes and not displaying them close. Conceptually I could use different techniques with lighting for all and not use layering in all of the photos.

Assignment 5: Written Statement Part 1

For these images, I tried to make my images about distortion of boring objects and turning them into something of more of a painting quality. For the black and white image I was still focusing on the distortion, but it is more focused on an eerie psychological projection. I wanted it to have the feeling of a scary movie/psychology tests/insane asylum. It wasn't my intentions when taking the photograph, but the more I played with it the more that is what it felt like to me, so I tried to enhance that by laying over it a photo I had of clouds and a photo I had of a road surrounded by trees on a mountain. For the image that has the swirling/flower like pattern(that is really my purse) I really wanted to play up the texture and make that more interesting and complex.
  To make these images I started with just moving my camera lens while taking photos of odd things around my room. I liked how they were turning out so kept taking more. In photoshop I liked how I could enhance them in either direction and still like how they looked. This is what made me decide to work with them. I then wanted to add more to them so I started playing around with different ways to layer them together. It started when I was trying to layer two separate photos I had of the distorted painting I did. I wanted to enhance the dimensions I was pulling out of them. This wasn't working how I wanted because they had two different background tones, so I started playing around with other photos. Once one photo turned out, I started trying layering on the other images I was considering using. I then just worked with matching the colors and opacities until the photos meshed together well.
  I was hoping to just try something new with these photos and work with more of the tools we had been learning to use on photoshop. I haven't really done too much outside of camera raw this semester before this.
This grouping of photos fits more into the photos as art category that I have seen among early photographers and then more contemporary photographers. None of the photos capture the moment as it was, or for what an object really is. I don't think that these photos address any issues outside of their physical context in a very deep manner. It was more about experimentation.

In-Class Assignment: Projection

Assignment 5: Rough Images

Blog Prompt 25

1)Bridget Farrall: I like that she kept a consistent subject. The tone fits well with her subject of old, abandoned looking houses. Her views emphasize natural lines and details which helps to unify the focus within the subject. She has good lighting and manipulation of tone within the monochromatic sepia color choice.

2) Vegar Abelsnes: He captured the scene well. By downplaying the color of the background trees/capturing this naturally helps to make the birds stand out. Allowing the birds to be caught in motion, not blurred makes the scene even more beautiful and surreal. The angle of the scene was chosen well.

3) Mitchell D. Cohen: His work came across as abstract photography done well. You feel like you are looking at something up close. This causes you to focus on the colors and texture and makes you wonder what the subject really is. His photos have a muted harshness to them.

4) Mark Berndt: I like the first six images that he submitted. The sepia/black color scheme is attractive. The photos feel like they are from the past and of somewhere exotic. There is a sense of travel photography in a way that captures the real feel of the location- not just the obvious scenes to photograph. I like his style and perspective.

5) Udo Spreitzenbarth: This photo has great lighting and is an image that feels like it has a story. I love that he chose to put this and black and white. The framing in this photograph I am also drawn to and think it affects how you see the scene he created.

6) Karen Weiss: She was able to capture the same subject-women- from multiple angles. Some of these are typical, some are more unusual and yet they work together well as a set. These photos give you a feeling that she would be able to do multiple different types of photography. She has consistently good lighting and layout.

7) Sita Mae Edwards: These photographs turn the body into pure form. Through posing and the use of shadows/lighting she emphasizes body shapes in a way that gives a sense of solidity and strength. Her photos are able to emphasize the male and female form in the same way, which produces unity in the set. These photos are beautiful.

Class Assignment

Assignment 4: Written Statement part 2

Interpretation: Some people liked my photos as postcards and others thought that they would work better as movie stills. Gilbert Grape was my favorite comparison. There was a general agreement that some of my photos should be lightened. Some people liked how I had altered the colors and others didn't, there was also some differing views on the placement choice of my focus subjects. Overall, they seemed to like the simplicity and solitude that these photos gave off.


Evaluation: I would play around with printing some of my images lightened up,  but for what they are/were I like them. I wouldn't really alter them much. I think that what I did is not something that is necessarily meant to be attractive and therefore is going to produce different reactions. I did another copy of the farmhouse lightened later on and I like it, but it does give off a different mood. I think that they work together well as a set though.

Extension: For a larger project I would extend these photos into a collection of capturing pieces of my surroundings, or America giving it a road trip like feel. I have this book "Boring Postcards" and I think it would be fun to capture it in the same way that the photographer did in that book.

Blog Prompt #24

A. The first link I went to was Nikki S. Lee's and her Hispanic project was the first thing to come up on her page. The photo displayed was very up close and had a sense of being candid. You feel like the photographer really just went out walking around and took photos of people that they encountered. If I was to re-create this on a smaller scale I would like to emulate the idea of having natural looking photographs and of a specific group/ a set of groups, but I would want to just do different sets of groups. I would want to shy away from the ethnic groupings and instead get groups like homeless people, and neighbors, people I see in my daily life, etc. I think it would be a neat addition to then have a statement from each person that I have a photograph of. I would like to have something recorded from them such as if they could say anything or have anything known what would it be, or maybe something about who they are as a person.
       The second link I went to was the Joel Peter Witkin site. A photo I was drawn to from his front page was "The Beginning of Fashion in Paris" (2007). It is a less busy, less gruesome piece that he has done, but I feel in its simplicity it has a lot of room to move from. I would like to re-create this photograph using a Barbie and adding to the moderately plain background he chose more items that would be a part of the process of designing clothes such as fabric, more sketches, etc. I think this would add more visual interest to the background. I would also like to play around with incorporating the background into the figure (Barbie) in the foreground.

B.  For my self-proposed project I haven't 100% decided on what I want to do. I was considering extending the photographs I have taken of people around town, and that I know and turning it into a portrait project. I have enjoyed taking photos of people and trying to capture who they are this semester. I have also enjoyed some of the ugly landscape photos I have taken and was also considering seeing where I could go with that. If I didn't do one of these two things, I would want to attempt something virtually different from anything I have done so far this semester. Maybe an idea that I have had in the past but haven't had the resources or reasoning to do. I am still very undecided, and figure I now have something to plan!

Semi-Contemporary Photographer: Winfred Evers

Winfred Evers looks at photography as material made conscious. A lot of her work involves combining and distorting images, leading to very abstract work. Yet she also has multiple portraits that are editorial quality and very crisp. She is not limited to one distinct style ability, yet after looking at her work you can see what she prefers to do, how she interprets photography. She does her own fine art photography while also compiling photos for stock image websites like Gettyimages, etc. and doing campaign photography. She has had personal exhibits, group/collections exhibits, and her work has been in catalogues. She was born in 1954 in Haarlem, the Netherlands. Evers attended the Free Academy, in The Hague, Netherlands from 1973- 1976. After reading over her website she comes across as a very eclectic and constantly changing personality. 

Historical Photographer Presentation: Gertrude Kasebier

  Above are examples of her studio work, and the top photo is from her series on Native Americans.

    Gertrude Kasebier is an American born woman, living between 1852 and 1934. She was raised in the plains territory of Iowa and Colorado until the time she was a teenager. She was educated at the Moravian College for Women in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She later moved to New York City with her mother and by 1873 she was married. She went on to have three children. In 1888, when she was in her late thirties, Gertrude enrolled in the Pratt Institute to study painting and photography.
       By 1897/1898 she opened a studio and became a portrait photographer. Her work became quickly recognized and Alfred Stieglitz made her a part of the Photo-Secessionist Group. Her work ended up published in his magazine Camera Work along with a few others. One group of photos that she is well known for is her series of photos of Native Americans. She photographed nine Native Americans, and attempted to show the blurred experiences between traditional and contemporary times.
    Gertrude's work typically used relaxed poses and natural light. She emphasized the light and dark qualities of her photographs, and allowed the subject to take up most of, if not the entire frame. She also manipulated her work in the printing process. She would alter the surface of her photographs giving them a painting like quality.

Re-Creation 5: Re-created Constructed Reality

Original Photos:

Re-Creation:

I put my own spin on the style of photographer Jan Groover. The photos I seen of hers were all of simple  subject matter, and seemed to attempt to make objects like food and silverware interesting and artistic. There was an emphasis on abstract set-ups as well. Photos with other subject matter seemed to keep a focus on lines and simplicity. She was trained as a painter and uses her art background to make historical art references in her photographs. Groover was born in New Jersey in 1943.

Assignment 4 Final Photos and Written Statement Part One

When I took this photo it was a beautiful day out and I wanted to capture what I was seeing. I loved how the bare trees looked against the sky, but through my choice in only including a portion of the trees and lamp post I feel that I captured the simple beauty in what I was seeing. I tried to include just enough to let the viewer get this feeling. I think this perspective is unique because I was around a lot of buildings, etc. so I had to focus more on excluding things to get the shot I wanted then on what I was trying to include. This photo was not planned out, but was just a part of me going out to take photos and capturing the things that interested me, and my surroundings from my perspective. I like capturing scenes that are simple yet beautiful and can be related to by the viewer and yet make them question where the photo was taken at.

This photo was taken from the car window while I was on a road trip. We were driving through and stayed in many cities that shared names with countries and well known large cities in other countries. I tried to capture some of the signs, etc. that had these names on them because it became a joke throughout the trip. We hadn't planned anything ahead of time and last minute decided to go on a road trip and so every time we went by a well known place we would say "Hey, we went to ____!" I chose to include this photo in this set because of its simplicity and the alignment in one corner similar to the above photo of the trees/lamp post against the sky. It also fit into the color scheme that seemed to be appearing in the photos I ended up choosing.  

This photo was another out the window photo. On my road trip I started to see numerous farmhouses and barns in the middle of the fields. I found it ironic compared to the more commonly placed front of the property farmhouse in the North. These houses looked so desolate and yet almost serene. I didn't want to pass this whole phenomenon by and so captured it. It fit well into my theme of odd simplicity and framing for this set of photos. It also made the transition from side framed photos to center framed photos. 

This photo came out of experimental cropping when I was working with a group of city scene photographs. It contained elements of all of the previous photos that I had chose and fit nicely into the set. I feel like there is really a lot going on in this scene and yet it is still so simple because of the center placement of the lamp post into the frame. It becomes your focal point instead of everything that is going on in the background. It is a simple photograph that has a lot to say. 

Blog Prompt 23

1) I construct my identity by the choices that I make, the things that I do, etc. I also construct myself by how I look because first impressions do make a difference. I perform my identity by in practically the same way that I construct it. How I look and act is the performance of what I have constructed.

2) My environment is constructed because each place I go has decided on the image they want to have and manipulate their space to best display this image. Furniture, paint colors, design layout, etc. all affect this image and therefore the type of people that are attracted to that place and that limits the environment.

3) Many daily parts of the physical environment are constructed through landscaping and construction. The environment shapes itself and then on top of these naturally constructed spaces people come in and alter these things making them even more unreal and "constructed" to fit a purpose.

4) In my life I would consider more intangible things to be real and physical things to be constructed. Who the people I see are is real- or at least real to me, since you never know how much of what a person projects is something they want to be more than what they fundamentally are. Physical things that are a part of my everyday life are usually altered and unnatural and therefore I see them as constructed.

5) It would be neat to use people to create a scene in which you mix historical events with everyday life scenes, and show in the photograph how unreal it is, and the surprise of both groups at the others actions.

6) My cousin and I used to have this amazing Barbie house that was handmade and beautiful. If we still had it I think it would be fun to use to re-create household scenes within it.

Blog Prompt 22

This concepts they are working with in this particular video are amazing and sad at the same time. If you are able to come up with all the photos you can think of and have them created instead of having to really go out and find these things, it could be the end of involved photography. How long will it last and be new and not take over? It also takes away the truth to a moment. On the other hand, the technology they are working with seems to be an answer to a lot of problems photographers encounter. It is like the television, and other digital technology- do the benefits outweigh the costs?

Blog Prompt 21

A. News related photographs always play with camera angle to change how you view the subject being shown. They also have the advantage of being able to chose what photos they print and affect the general publics idea about a person. Many people shown in the news are not people that most people will see photos of somewhere else, so what they see is what they get. This concept becomes important when it comes to political campaigns.

B. Snapshot photographs are usually some of the worst photographs people will have of themselves. It almost becomes about the wrong parts of the photograph that make it so memorable. Half a face missing, the view up your nose, only half the group smiling while also having their eyes open. Snapshot photos really let you in on what was really going on, not what you wanted to stage.

C. Advertisements are all about the editing. One way or another it is guaranteed that whatever they are selling is going to be more appealing in the ad then in the store or when you get it. Things are typically enlarged, and always at the best angle. The imperfections are always taken out.

D. Stills from movies are typically iconic moments for that film. They are high in intensity and emotion, intending to make the viewer interested. They are typically images that can be put onto a poster and categorize the movie.


E. School photos, whether group, or individual are great for capturing time. They always have some sense of made-up along with the reality. On picture days people go above and beyond to look good, but yet half the time the photos still end up not turning out. This is a great aspect I feel of the school photos.

F. I am not sure if I really understand stock images...I looked it up and I looked in the dictionary...will need to visit the website you gave us to really have enough of an understanding to answer this question.

G. Lighting is the key in fashion photography. The women are made to be desired, which sells the product because you are made to want to emulate the models. That is the goal at least. Everything is also very dramatic and done up from everyday life.

H.  Paparazzi shots are a mixture of capturing celebrities at their best and worst. It typically depends on the article, if any, being put with the photo. They are commonly from weird angles, candid, and can be made to be interpreted however the journalist wants.

Ruth Thorne-Thomsen: Photos

Semi-Contemporary Photographer Presentation: Ruth Thorne- Thomsen

Ruth was born in New York in 1943. Her schooling consisted of a BFA in painting from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1970, a BA in photography from the Columbia College in Chicago in 1973, followed by a MFA degree in photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1976. She also had training in dance in the 60's and toured with a dance company for awhile. Clearly expression through art is key for her.
    Ruth describes her work as an "environmental collage"and it has been compared to works of 20th century surrealism. Ruth primarily uses a pinhole camera to create surreal landscapes by juxtaposing real environments with collaged images and objects. Sometimes the props in her photos she makes herself. The key to her process is combining the pinhole camera with paper negatives to create a soft-focus effect.

Alexander Rodchenko: Photos

Historical Photographer Presentation: Alexander Rodchenko

His life spanning from 1891 to 1956, Alexander Rodchenko was a Russian artist, photographer, and designer. He was known as a leader of the new Soviet art after the revolutions in 1917. Yet from 1930 on he was somewhat ignored. He studied art in Kazan in St. Petersburg, and then in 1915 moved to Moscow to join the "avant-garde" circles around Malevich and Tatlin. He was said to be the most significant of the Constructivists; in 1921 forming the First Working Group of Constuctivists along with a few other artists. He formed this group because he believed that artists should work in factories to develop new things in design and production. It was a more practical application of their creativity and abilities.
  Rodchenko's first work in photography was creating photomontages for magazines between 1922-23. During this time especially he did a lot of design work. From 1925 on he focused on developing himself as a photographer. He was published in many magazines and used his work to illustrate Russia's progress. His photos also documented the social and political life of Russia (Soviet Union).
  Rodechenko thought photography would be the artistic medium of his era, which is a reason he became a part of it. Adding previous experience, he made design an element in his photography and worked with camera angles, extreme foreshortening of perspective, and close-ups of details. Over time, Rodchenko's work spanned to posters, magazine and book designs, advertisements, photojournalism and documentary photography.

R04

Original:

Re-creation:

    I had a hard time finding the original photo that I wanted to show that would actually let me save it to my computer, but this photo works well enough. My idea behind the re-creation was to show the Tennessee that you would send home on a post card and the parts of Tennessee that are more "real". After being to a few state parks, the "ideal" Tennessee does exist, but it is not the whole experience when traveling, or if you were to live there. This is the part I wanted to show with my re-creation.

Written Statement 2: Assignment 3

For all of my photos in this critique I was surprised how others responded. There was more focus on the animal photos than I would have expected, since out of all the photos I had up, they were not the ones that I felt made/could have made the most of a statement. The railroad photos also gained attention for the lines created in the photos and the framing. The contrast between black and white was also noticed.
   I feel that for this assignment framing is something that is working well in all of my photos, and not keeping all the photos in a "set"/thematic hurt me. I would like to focus in more onto something and enhance one idea instead of being attracted to many photos that I love.
   For a larger project I would like to take something like my billboard photo and capture more scences that have an urban art theme or work with natural lines/shapes. I would also like to combine the ideas in photos like my railroad photos and the lighter photo to capture something raw and rough about people.

Written Statement 1: Assignment 3

 For this assignment I had photos of multiple different concepts turn out, which is why I printed off more than than the required four. I wanted to show a few of my favorites from the different ideas that I had worked with or captured. I am not sure that it was the best idea to have so many photos with so many different moods for critique, but I wanted to get feedback on my different ideas.

  My idea for the squirrel and duck photos that I printed had initially just been about capturing the ducks that live behind my house. I thought it would be a good subject for contrast against the snow, and provide a new subject matter. Since I had photos of fake animals, I figured it was about time to have some of real animals. When I went outside it was as if the other animals all realized that I was taking photos and started becoming almost theatrical for me. That is how I ended up with the squirrel photo. I chose this photo in particular because he looked great against the snow and I thought how I had captured his motion turned out well. He was a ways away from me and I just used my zoom lens to get different views. I then cropped out some of the surrounding items in the original photo to keep the focus on just the squirrel. Then, I moved on to taking photos of the nearby ducks, also staying a distance away and just using my zoom to get closer in on what they were doing. While I was outside, the ducks were very active and interacting with eachother. They were diving into the water for food, getting angry at eachother, etc. I chose to use this photo because I was happy to catch such a clear photo of the duck in flight. Also, he wasn't really flying far, so I was happy to have caught the moment at all.

The two railroad photos I turned in were re-creations of photos I had from years ago. It was a perfect time to re-create the photos because the snow allowed me to show a dramatic change in time. I also feel that the snow helped to create a more intense mood than had been previously captured in the originals. I was motivated to re-create these photos because they each had something just odd enough about them to be interesting, as well as being able to be interpreted in many ways. I thought it would be interesting to see how others saw the photos.

My photo of the lighter and incense came about when I was taking photos of things around my house. I had been working with the intimate spaces prompt and was carried away. As I was going around the house, I started to try and capture some of the objects from unusual angles or capture things that weren't usually thought of as something to take a photo of. This photo fell into that group. When I went through my photos later, I fell in love with this photo and therefore had to use it. The lighting, perspective, and smoky coffee shop feel all captured my interest.

The billboard and trees photo that I turned in came out of a photo that was initially just an add in. It wasn't a photo that I had multiple of or a photo that I had really focused in on. I have really enjoyed the bare trees against the sky lately so started working with the photo because of that. The billboard also created its own set of interesting lines in the frame. Once I enhanced the blacks in the photo it became a keeper for me. It had a rough feel similar to the lighter/incense photo that I am attracted to.

Blog Prompts #19&20

#19: Can you think of anything that:

1) As for things that should not be photographed, I first thought of how it is not allowed to have cameras in public restrooms. This is an area that I agree should not be photographed-it is too personal to become public under the pretenses of safety and is sad if it actually has to come into question. As far as other things not being photographed, I am not sure if it is easy to say. There are things that I can think of that I wouldn't want to see a photograph of, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be photographed. I believe that things are inappropriate to photograph only under certain situations.

2) For things that cannot be photographed, similar to my above answer, I do not know if there is anything that cannot be photographed. Only things such as physical in-capabilities preventing a photo from being able to be taken due to something such as location, laws, or privacy issues should prevent a photo from being taken. If photos aren't taken then things become lost over time.

3) I do not want to photograph pretty obvious things such as things that go down the toilet, chid pornography, etc. As I am sitting here trying to think of other things I may not want to take photos of, I am torn. If an opportunity came up, it could be an experience to take photos of something that I may not have thought of to take on my own. Therefore, I don't want to extend this list.

#20: Describe at least 1 photograph that you can take for each of the following "place" prompts:

1) In a "synthetic" place such as Disney World I would like to take a photo from almost the ground level looking up. I think this view would exaggerate how crowded the place is, as well as how it must look to a small child. I would hope to capture a bigger ride in the background, along with a mix of people. I would keep it in color, since in such a place, color is usually a main attractor.

2) For something from my imagination, I would try and set-up this department store like library scene that has been a part of a dream I have had multiple times. The setting is actually this large house that has very unrealistic connections between its spaces, along with the spaces being unrealistic in themselves. The library room is odd and haunting though, which is why I would want to use that as a photo.

3) For a placeless space such as the internet, I would probably layer photographs to create one photo. This would not only capture multiple aspects of the technology behind it and internet use, but would give a sense of its structure. I would try and use some digital coding like images, photos off different computer screens, and photos of computer parts-inside parts.

4) A public space I would like to photograph would be the downtown of a city. I love how there are remaining pieces of the past in the downtown of most cities, and it would be neat to capture the past/present feeling of the buildings and the people going about their day. This photo would probably capture the feeling best in black and white.

5) A private space that I like taking photos of is someone's "work" area. For example, the place a writer writes his books, or a musician composes his music. The place that people go to get away and be themselves.

6) I think that outdoor photos that include the sky, and tree/field like settings usually capture a lost nomadic sense to our culture. If you were to include props into this setting, you could easily capture an out of place, rootless feeling. The setting just provides you with many angles to work with.

Contemporary Landscape Photographer Presentation: Wolfgang Tillmans

    Wolfgang Tillmans was born in Remscheid, Germany in 1968. He studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design. Throughout the years he has lived and worked various places, but since 2007 he has lived and worked in London and Berlin. He is looked at as a "chronicler of his generation" and makes the observer feel that every photo he takes is important, no matter what the subject matter is. He is also a photojournalist, and has worked for the magazine i-D. He became known for shooting London's street culture, the rise of gay pride and the nightlife of the clubbing generation. Interestingly enough, his first passion in life was astronomy, which he returned to some in some of his photos, such as those of Venus. Tillmans' work is focused on observation, perception, and translation. His work is about being able to bear reality. He doesn't have one repeated style, his work has changed over the years. He has an approach of trying to study something carefully and then reveal a greater essence of truth about it that doesn't have to have an exact meaning. He believes that every image should be significant and able to stand alone. In a review by Laura Cummings she states about his work: "...where you are, who's depicted, what exactly you are looking at: the answers are not always declared in the images." and "He is drawing your attention to the making, and viewing, of photographic images more than the things they depict." Wolfgang displays his work in a variety of forms and sizes commonly. Typically that is part of how he conveys the message of his show.


Some quotes from Wolfgang himself:


  "...art is always different from life. You can try to get close to the feeling of what it's like to be alive now, but the result of that is an art work, and that has its own reality."


"It's really the biggest challenge not to believe your own system, so the discipline is, strangely, to be undisciplined."


"Look at things the way they are."


"The experience of relative perception is something that keeps turning me on."

   'I don't want to get over you' - 2000

'Chaos Cup' - 1997

Historical Photographer Presentation: Gustave Le Gray

                        Brig Upon the Water- 1856.

             This photograph was an albumen silver print from a glass negative. It is also different in that it was made from a single negative, and later on Gustave Le Gray would use two negatives for one photograph so that he could get the proper exposure for both the sea and the sky. This photo was among the most famous and widely distributed photographs of the nineteenth century. It was popular in both England and France.

Born in 1820 in the Villers-le-Bel, France Gustave Le Gray was trained as a painter in the studio of Paul DeLaroche. He became recognized as a photographer, as photography was an emerging field at the time.  Le Gray established a reputation for himself with portraits, photos of the Fontainebleau Forest, and scenes of Paris. Gustave was also well known for his photography instruction manuals. He became one of the first five photographers to work for the Missions heliographiques, which was a government sponsored commission to document the state of repair of important French monuments and buildings. He also had a studio in France which was known for its lavishness. During the 1850's he taught many French photographers, many who are well-known today. In 1851 he was a founding member of the Societe Heliographique which was the first photography organization in the world. At his studio, Le Gray also offered printing services to other photographers. His studio had many wealthy clients but he ran up a debt with his studio, so between 1856 and 1858 he took more photos of the Fontainebleau Forest. These photos are some of his most famous. Eventually, the money he was making wasn't enough and portrait photography was no longer a venue for him so he closed his studio on February, 1, 1860. Portraits had become easy to mass produce and it wasn't something Le Gray was willing to do. By May of 1860 Le Gray took on a new adventure. Leaving his family behind, he set sail with Alexander Dumas to see famous places. Two months in, there was a conflict between the two and Le Gray was abandoned in Malta. He eventually made his way to Lebanon and then Egypt. He spent the rest of his life in Egypt-never returning to France- working as a drawing tutor to the sons of the pasha and continuing photography.

 Gustave Le Gray worked with the paper negative, and developed a wax-paper negative which gave him sharper focused prints. By 1851 he was also using collodion on glass negatives which increased the clarity of his prints further.

As for motivations, Gustave himself said: "It is my deepest wish that photography, instead of falling within the domain of industry, of commerce, will be included among the arts. That is its sole, true place, and it is in that direction that I shall always endeavor to guide it. It is up to the men devoted to its advancement to set this idea firmly in their minds."

Written Statement Part 2: Assignment 2

Interpretation: During critique there wasn't as much said about my images as I would have hoped for, but I am sure that had something to do with the fact that I was the last to be critiqued. It also means that nothing was amazing. If something would have been that great, it would have provoked a strong response- people would have felt compelled to really say something. Interestingly enough, people found that the photo of my back said more about the gender role than the other photo from that set. The realness of the bakery photos was something that made people like the photos I chose from that set.

Evaluation: For my images I feel that trying to candidly capture people is working. During our group critique I had a few more photos that I thought captured this well, but excluded because of no great response. Some of the photos I ended up choosing didn't have the same contrasts in lighting so I regret some of my photo choices now. I was trying to show them in pairs though, to not feel so all over the place. I think a lot of my photos had a grey range, but not a ton of white or great contrast. It wasn't large enough. I would try and change this in my photos next time. I would like to make my photos smaller when printing next time also. Or maybe have only one large statement piece. I was drawn to people's who were all the same size in critique.

Extension: All of the photos I took I could see my self extending into a larger project. I think it would be neat to try and capture the "essence" of more people in a series of portraits. I would also do another project working with distorting body images or capturing someone's sexuality/capturing the asexuality of the human body. With the right people and resources either could turn out neat. Manipulating the body in photographs is a neat gift which is slightly harder to do with something like a plant. At some point, you have captured all there is to a plant.

Blog Prompts #16-18

"I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways." - Duane Michals

    This quote reminds me of the photographs that you see that make you want to stare at them forever. It also reminds me of some of the photographs we have had hung up on our walls over the years/still do. There is one that still is up that is just of this girls shoes. From the photo you get a sense about what type of person the girl was though. It captures something neat. This quote also makes me think of the difference between the photos people have hundreds of that they post on facebook and the photos that people have that really meant something. The photos you were trying to take for photography's sake. It is a change in mindset. I think that this effort is what Michals is referring to. 


"I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see."- Duane Michals.

  I am not quite sure how to read this quote. I wanted to respond to it because I agree in the importance of imagination. I think the only times I have problems with things is when I become close-minded. When you realize you are not even using your imagination and only looking at the problem from one perspective you see how easy the outcome can be if you just do something different. The whimsical sense of childhood imagination is something that is always a devastating loss because I believe that it is what contributes to the happiness that kids have. Michals second sentence is what I couldn't decide upon though. I understand what he is saying in the sense of your imagination is full of things that aren't solid objects in front of you, and that it is important. But at the same time, if it is your imagination you can see it, and therefore it becomes a tangible thing for you to try and express if you chose. 


"Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer-and often the supreme disappointment."- Ansel Adams.

Adam's quote reminds me of all the historical photographer presentations that we have had. I think this  quote is even more applicable to an older era. Then, a photographer was tested physically just to capture a great landscape photograph- no longer in the safe haven of their studio. It was a greater test of skill and patience. With the unknown so large and so many added factors to their endeavor, I believe this is why he also refers to it as a disappointment.  I also think that even today there are challenges to landscape photography, because it is still an uncontrollable environment. There are always going to be endurance tests, lighting issues, and the fact that you are trying to capture something that could be gone in an instant or changed (sun, animals, wind, etc.), and you can't go back always and have the moment the same as the last. 

R03: Memory

For my re-creation I worked with a memory from elementary school. There was a boy in my class that got a cow for 4-H and I was jealous because I wanted a cow! I used the top image to show this memory with a girl taking care of a cow, to represent what I wanted. To make it interesting I also took the Animal Farm  play on my memory and replaced me, the one in charge of my cow and the other animals, with a pig like in the book. I tried to make the pig look evil and the cow look like "what the hell" in the second photo in comparison to the soft neutrality in the first photo. I used natural lighting coming in from the window for my photo.

Part 1 Written Statement: Assignment 2

           I chose to show my photographs in sets of two, showing two photos of each setting. One group was from the bakery across the street from my house and the second was from my set of photos that worked with gender. I liked the two photos that worked with the gender prompt better, probably because I worked with them more and put more thought into them, but the bakery photos have a candid, raw quality that I also love in photos.
   For the bakery photos I just had to work with the lighting they had, but it turned out well because the cases had great lights that added to the overhead lighting. I also couldn't plan very well because my subjects were either not paying attention to me, or unaware I was even photographing them. I thought these photos captured daily life well in an un-idealistic way. They just showed people for who they really are instead of who they would like to show. I went over to the bakery to take photos in the first place because it has a great atmosphere. A whole bunch of old women work in there and it is family operated. I have also been in there enough over the past 4 years to feel comfortable asking to photograph.
      For the body shots that I used to work with the gender set/prompt I primarily used only one light source coming from the right side. Coming from the right also was a bit of light sneaking through my window blinds. For the photo of my back, I was working with the idea of body parts that are generally asexual. I just find the body an interesting subject because of how you can distort it so readily-the meanings behind it as well. I was working with the curves of the spine and the body lines following the lines created with the chairs structure. For the frontal body photograph with the clutch I was trying to work with the idea of how open we make our bodies. I was trying to capture this in a not very sexually appealing kind of way. That is why I chose to have the photo revealing and yet not really showing more than you may see of somebody on the beach. It is more implied, because you know there is nothing there to cover. I found that the blue tint enhanced the shadows and did a good job of keeping a soft feeling to the photo.

Blog Prompts 11-15

#11____Memory of a Place:
    The place of my past that I thought of first was a house I lived in while in the first grade. I moved around a lot growing up, so houses we lived in are easy to think of as time capsules. I don't know if there are any pictures of the house on its own, but there are pictures of things like easter, etc. that went on in the house while we were there. If I were to go back and see the house, and photograph it, I know it wouldn't have the same quality or fondness as it once did. There may be remodeling, or it could be falling apart, and whoever lives there now would show through by however they have it set up. A photograph if I was looking at it would only show the changes. In the past, it was just a simple white house, with 2 stories that is off of a semi-main road. It is right in town. It has a huge bathroom upstairs that was carpeted. The bathroom is almost like a bedroom turned into a bathroom. The tub has claw feet and was fun to play in. My bedroom had a little seat in the window that looked out into the backyard. The backyard had two layers, and was fun to go sledding in during winter because you would fly off the first level onto the second. The living room had wooden floors and there was a swinging door off the kitchen. It was a good house to be young in. In many of the rooms I recall, I think of things that my mother and I did together in them, besides my room where I remember making up my own books. It was something we did in class and I would come home and make my own by stapling together printer paper. 

#12____Memory of a Photograph:
  When I think of the past, I think of early childhood, I suppose because I am not that old yet. I cannot think of a particular photograph that I remember more than another, but after responding to the prompt above, I am now thinking of a polaroid photo of my mother and I at church on Mother's day. We went to the church with my best friend and her mom, it worked out well because we were best friends and our parents were best friends. We would always go do girl things together. The photo is simple. It was at the pancake breakfast after the service, and my mother is sitting in one of those old metal fold out chairs and I am standing up, leaning into her. We are both wearing dresses and I have my hair in two french braids. The photo reminds me of the things my mother and I used to do together and how we used to be so close. I have changed in that I am no longer that little girl and my mom and I do not get along. I haven't been back to that church in so long, I am sure that it has been changed since. A re-enactment of the photo would not be as special, because the girlhood relationship I once had with my mother is lost. We would also look very differently because we are both at least 10 years older now. 


#13____Human-Made Space:
    I most frequently see people interact with the land in city life. I see people litter, walking through snow and slush, building new things where there used to be land...but my favorite place to see people interacting with the land, and to be myself, is the beach. At the beach, you still see littering, etc. but there is more. Now you have people in the water, getting seaweed goop stuck in-between their toes, building sand castles, digging holes, just laying on the sand, going for walks along the water, climbing on rocks...
  For a photograph I would probably make some kind of structure out of beach glass that is found along the beach. It would look great outdoors as a structure, and is something that has  become a natural part of almost all beaches. Also, it is a piece of the beach that is hard to come across, and takes real dedication to procure a collection. This I think would show some of the beauty found on the beach and focus back on the beach itself instead of the people on it. 

#14____Unknown vs. Familiar Space:
  To convey the difference between a faraway place and a familiar place I would include different subject matter. In the familiar place I would probably take a closer up shot that included familiar people doing everyday things. Possibly a shot from Christmas would work well, or family members doing daily activities. You would have to show the connection between the subjects and make the location feel close and lived in. For my faraway place it would be ideal to have no people in the photograph, but if they were they should be distant, and just be in the photo, not a part of it. I would also try and take a wide angle shot to capture as much of the image as possible- to really show the location. Small islands are what I think of when it comes to places that haven't really been touched by humans, or the middle of the jungle. I would try and capture these places in both a familiar and faraway way. First, faraway to capture it as a whole, and then in a familiar way to capture what makes it unique and special. 


#15____In-Camera Collage:
This prompt makes me think of my Grandma's house, and my fiance's parents house. I have/do spend a lot of time at both of these places, and they, along with the people in them make up who I am. To create this photo, I would try and include the people I am in contact with in both of the houses in the photograph to make the scene more descriptive. I am not sure how it would work to capture the essence of what both of these places have meant to me...

Contemporary Photographer Presentation

Mona Kuhn: Photos from her Black and White 1996-2002 portfolio

Mona Kuhn- Nude Photographer

Biography: Mona Kuhn was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1969 but is of German descent. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California but spends her summers in France. She received her BA from Ohio State University, then going on to the San Francisco Art Institute in 1996, and afterwards went to The Getty Research Institute in LA in 1999.

- the photos that I chose were from her Black and White 1996-2002 portfolio.

Significance: Mona Kuhn has become internationally recognized for "her alluring renderings of the human form."

Composition: Kuhn does a great job with placement and focus when working with multiple people for a photograph. She frequently has photos with three people in them- one in focus and the other two not. The two people out of focus in these photographs always seem to be important to creating the scene or mood that Kuhn has set up. She also focuses on hands in many of her photos. Each of Kuhn's portfolios contains nature scenes that complement her portrait scenes. They show you the atmosphere of the location that the portraits were shot at.

Concept/Motivation: "Mona Kuhn's work is figurative. She is interested in redefining ways of looking at the body, as a residence to ourselves."- www.monakuhn.com

Method: Mona Kuhn is said to create works that are sensual but never overtly sexual. I think she does this with modesty in some of her photographs and taking the focus away from the nudity in others. It is not a raunchy sex scene or Picasso like. Her photos focus on appreciating the human form or capturing people's emotions/actions while they just happen to be naked. The people that she photographs are a part of her life, not models that she hires and this is reflected in her work. Some of her work seems to be something that she is just doing for herself. Her recent portfolio from Brazil was a personal journey for herself as she revisited the place of her youth and tried to capture pieces of the past (while ending up capturing things new to her).

My Opinion: I think that Kuhn has a knack for capturing people in a natural setting without it seeming forced or unnatural. You are able to focus in on the emotion of the scene because the nudity does not always overwhelm her photographs. I do not think that her photos do a great job of capturing her concept, but it still doesn't take away my ability to appreciate them. I think that she has great raw photos. They do not seem to have been digitally altered, or at least not to any great extent. I like her photos that seem more setup with an artistic focus on parts of the human form in comparison to some of her photos that have a larger focal area.