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Sun, 19 Apr 2009Reviewing Ashley's Portraits
[www.goshen.edu...] -- I really enjoyed Ashley's portrait assignment for a
number of reasons. First, I enjoyed how she
seemed to capture the essence (or atleast part of it)
of her subject. I think a lot of this has to do with
the guitar she is holding, but also her facial
expressions in the different photos. Furthermore,
the patterned background for some reason also
adds to this for me. I am not sure why, but maybe
because it seems earthy and feminine and I can't
help but think that might reflect part of who the
subject is.
In terms of the photos themselves, I love the both
the black and whites and the colored photos. The
colored photos have a very warm feeling which
again helps capture personality. I also think that
the crops on the photos are very well done. And
although you can't see all of the guitar or the
subject, you still get the idea. Also, the cropping
adds to the unique feel of the photos along with
some of the angles chosen. I also really like the
high contrast in a lot of them, although this might
just be a preference of mine because I like photos
with high contrast. But I don't feel like it is over or
under done, it seems like the right amount. I can't
imagine them differently, which is a good sign.
I can't even really pick a favorite because I am a fan
of the entire series. I feel like as a unit, they are
really cohesive and well done!
Posted at 13:17 #
Thu, 16 Apr 2009Bill Atkins
[www.billatkinson.com...] -- Atkins is a nature photographer who developed an
interest in photography at a very young age. At the
age of ten Atkinson received a magazine which
contained nature photos. He pit them on his wall
and found that he felt inspired and nourished by
them. From that point on, he had a fascination with
nature photography and has currently been a
photographer for forty years. He wishes to
celebrate nature with his photography. In his artist’s
statement he says that he tries to reveal the hidden
beauty in nature through close up details and
landscape settings. These two very distinctive
characteristics mark Atkins’ work. He takes
creative control of his work by using the digital
printing process.
Bright and saturated colors really mark his
photography. A lot of his work also has very strong
lines. His most recent work looks more like
abstract paintings than actual photographs. He has
also been recently experimenting with patterned
shots that make his photos look abstract.
His work really has a fantasy feel. It makes the
viewer feel as if they are there in his landscape
shots. The flowing feel on some of his water shots
really capture movement and that fantasy/creative
feel. His more abstract photographs leave the
viewer questioning and allow them to apply their
own interpretations.
Posted at 13:25 #
Zana Briski and Kids with Cameras
Briski studied documentary photography at the
International Center of Photography in New York.
After she completed her stay there, she made her
first trip to India to produce a story on female
infanticide or the abortions of female fetuses. She
returned to India in 1997 to document prostitutes
in the red light district of Calcutta. This was the
very beginning stages of the creation of Kids with
Cameras.
Kids with Cameras came out of the relationship
Briski developed with the children when
photographing the prostitutes in the red light
district of Calcutta. The children of the area were
very interested in how the camera worked and
Briski began teaching them about photography. In
2000 she began a three year series of workshops
that took place every week with the children. Here
is a quote from her website describing what she
taught the children. “She taught them camera
basics, lighting, composition, the development of
point-of-view, editing, and sequencing for
narrative. The goal of the project was to provide a
safe place for the kids to be themselves, learn, have
fun, and in the process, come to believe in their
own self-worth.”
The time Briski spent in Calcutta was documented
by Ross Kauffman and was edited into the
documentary “Born into Brothels,” which has won
over 25 major awards.
Officially, Kids with Cameras was developed in
2002 in order to raise money and awareness for the
children. To do this, Briski sold the children’s
photography from the workshops, held exhibitions,
attended film festivals, and published a book of
their work. With some of the funds, she also
attempted to get them into schools and out of their
negative surroundings.
Briski’s work has now been extended and other
dedicated photographers have started developing
the program in other areas where poverty, abuse,
and conflict are rampant such as areas in Jerusalem,
Cairo and Haiti.
To rap up the information section, I will read the
missions statement of Kids with Cameras ---Kids
with Cameras is a non-profit organization that
teaches the art of photography to marginalized
children in communities around the world. We use
photography to capture the imaginations of
children, to empower them, building confidence,
self-esteem and hope. We share their vision and
voices with the world through exhibitions, books,
websites and film. By linking with local
organizations, we work to strengthen the children's
education and general well-being, providing
financial support through sales of their prints or by
developing our own homes with a focus on
leadership and the arts.--
Posted at 10:20 #
Tue, 31 Mar 2009Topics and Issues 3
I really enjoyed watching this topics and issues with
Gregory Lehman. I am not usually really interested
in architecture, but I appreciated how he
approached building his home with an art mindset.
I took two important ideas from listening to him
discuss his process.
Lehman made it clear that before building his
house he had no hands on experience building. I
found this interesting because taking on such a
large task without any experience seems like a set
up for failure. However, it seems that he just
jumped right in and educated himself on how to
build a house. I appreciated him sharing this
experience because often in life if I think a task
seems to large or there might be a chance for
failure, I rarely take it on. I am a bit of a
perfectionist, and although I am working on this, it
was nice to hear that taking chances in art and in
life can really pay off. His outcome was beautiful
and you could tell he was proud of his work. Now, I
don’t know if I am going to build a house, but I
know I can take on my own art without restrictions
and do what I feel is best and right.
I also noticed that several times Lehman
mentioned that when building the houses he took
extra steps to make the house more efficient, safe,
or efficient. He made sure to put extra foam in the
basement and worked around the trees so he didn’t
uproot any that weren’t completely necessary
despite the fact that sometimes it caused him more
work. To me, this just reinforced the idea that
sometimes you have to push yourself outside the
box and go beyond what you or others might
normally do. Extra effort produces higher quality.
Posted at 14:10 #
Thu, 19 Mar 2009David Librach
[www.redbubble.com...] -- This week I wanted to focus on a photographer that
offered unique views of the world. I was looking
for abstract photos, but found Librach in the
process and enjoyed his philosophy and his photos.
Some of them have an abstract feel, but for the
most part you can tell what is being photographed,
but again I really enjoyed his art philosophy.
Its clear in his photography that he enjoys taking
photos of everyday things that often we walk past
without a second thought. However, he shoots
them very close up and gives an artistic perspective
to those normally mundane things. In his profile,
Librach states, "I enjoy capturing the simplicity and
beauty that surrounds us in everyday life." He
believes that beauty can be found anywhere and
uses his photography to support this idea.
The pictures that drew me in were of close up
patterns that we see everyday, such as a brick wall
and clouds. These shots are very similar in that
they are very close up, cropped images. Variety
comes into his photography through color. He has
photos that are very analogous, dissonant, or
complementary, and also has photos that are very
intense colors verses his other photos that are more
subdued.
After exploring his photography a little more, I also
discovered that he dabbles in portraiture as well.
However, although the photos are a different type
of subject matter, the viewer can still see Librach’s
style. In the portraits I saw, there was a fairly tight
crop with minimal background.
Posted at 10:25 #
Mon, 2 Mar 2009Mark Delong
[www.delongphoto.com...] -- I went into this assignment looking for someone
who did celebrity photography or photography for
ads, and I have found both. Mark Delong's
photography includes a variety of themes including
celebrities, advertisement, editorials, beauty, and
music. All of his photography posted on his
website is portraiture.
For this purpose, I will be focusing and displaying
photos from his advertisements and celebrity
galleries. I think one of the main elements in his
photography is light. Light plays a large role in the
composition of the photos, most (if not all) of the
photos has very bright and lit. He also has some
black and whites, but for the most part his photos
are in color, with the light making most of the
colors bright and vivid. Another theme I noticed in
his photography is the fact that he uses tight crops
more often than not. He seems to favor having only
partial body shots in his photos, although there are
exceptions to this rule. I think this adds a certain
dynamic and sense of relationship almost to the
subject.
I chose Delong because I was really attracted to the
lighting in his photos. I would say that almost all
of it is staged lighting, but I enjoy the brightness of
the photographs, and I am also attracted to the
contrast in quite a few of his photos. And lastly,
he seems to capture the spirit of his subjects in his
celebrity shots as well too which I appreciate.  
Posted at 23:11 #
Wed, 11 Feb 2009Masumi Hayashi
[www.masumimuseum.com...] -- I chose to write about Hayashi because I wanted to
write about a female photographer. I began by
typing in famous female photographers, and found
Hayashi.
Her work is really unique in comparison to other
photographers I have seen, albeit I do not know all
that many. Her work can be described as
panoramic photo collages. Which, according to her
personal statement, "explore the incongruity
between appearance and reality in the American
experience." The subjects she chooses includes
places that are contested sites or sites that have
been a location of conflict such as abandoned
places, American concentration camps, EPA, or
post-industrial landscapes. Her work is fairly
detailed and abstract and uses anywhere from 5 to
140 different photos. Below is a quote that
describes her process:
“To create her panoramic photo collages, Hayashi's
process is both systematic and open to change. She
begins at the horizon line, shooting approximately
two dozen photographs in a horizontal circular
rotation until she ends up where she began. She
then angles upwards, then downwards, continuing
until she has fully captured the landscape around
her. After she returns to the studio, she
collaborates with a printer to produce the
component photographs and begins the final phase
of assembling the collages."
The majority of the photos I viewed were fairly
muted in color with some sort of color pop that
draws the eye. Some were also fairly
monochromatic. However, there are photos that
are the exception to the rule. Those seem to be
her two favorite color options. The variety, of
course, is also a very important part of her photos
because although the collages are made from
pictures taken at the same place, putting them
together causes variances right next to each other.
I also think a very important part of her work is the
shape. Almost all of them are longer then they are
wide (panoramic). Again, there are a few
exceptions to the rule. I really don’t think the
photos would have the same feeling if they were
square or even the standard 5x7, 4x6, and so on.
It gives you a feeling that you are seeing things
that you otherwise wouldn’t, which I think relates
well to her purpose of creating art from places that
most people just find despair and conflict.
Posted at 21:47 #
Wed, 4 Feb 2009Tony Sweet
I chose to present Tony Sweet on my blog because I
am completely stunned by his work. I found him by
entering “sweet photography” into google just to
see what it would come up with, and his name
came up. His biography definitely intrigued me. He
started his career as a jazz artist and after 20 years
he decided to make the more towards nature
photography. One quote I found interesting about
his work was one that stated, “The improvisational,
spontaneous, and abstract nature of jazz are also
integral elements of nature photography.”
You see this abstraction very heavily in his
photography. I went to his site and still can’t
believe his work comes from photography. It looks
more like painting to me, which is why I searched
his whole site to make sure that they were actual
photographic images because I just couldn’t believe
it.
A lot of his work consists of nature photography
including plants, landscapes, water, rocks, and
many other things. The majority of his photos are
very colorful, and many have a sort of mystical feel
due to their blurriness and lines. Many of them
have a soft, fluid feel. For me, the lines in his
photos are also one of the main things that stick
out (even in the blurry photos).
I really enjoy that some of his work looks very
abstract, and you can’t really tell what it actually is.
It always amazes me that someone can take
everyday things and turn them into beautiful
abstractions and art. It gives the photo a
mysterious quality, and keeps the viewer guessing.
In his more recent photography, you see Sweet
branching out a little bit adding photographs that
captured buildings, walls, and vehicles (although
this seems to be a more recent branching out).
There were very few portraits. However, you still
see the same main elements of strong lines and/or
blurriness. That being said, the majority of his
work is still nature photography.
Posted at 19:19 #
Wed, 29 Aug 2007Construction and Sleep
The construction is right outside my room and I can't sleep. It is making me a very sleepy, irritable character.
Posted at 09:14 #
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