Senior Response # 4

Make up posting: Ways of Seeing by Jon Berger

I really like these videos. I watched them for the first time in freshman year 2D Foundations, and keep coming back to them periodically. The one that strikes me the most has always been Episode 2, about the female in Western Art. It seemed to put into words what I’d sensed myself about the objectified and marginalized status of women in society, but could never articulate. Which is strange because the words are coming out of the mouth of a man living in the 1970s. Still accurate, in my view.

I think it’s interesting that photography and older art forms, painting especially, are so intertwined, although many people don’t realize it. Photography was influenced greatly by painting, but painting was also profoundly affected by the invention and popularization of photography. The reproduction aspect was something I hadn’t thought of in depth before. We live in a time when pretty much everything is reproducible; does this make us take things for granted, including art? Maybe. But the ability to share instantly across the world seems worth it to me. 

Senior Reading Response # 8

Top 11 Things Photographers Wish They Learned in Photo School

Looking this article over, I think we learn a lot of these concepts in our Photo department. We certainly talk about marketing/branding ourselves, although I think it would be a great idea to include a whole class focusing on photography as a business, and about small business practices. Number 7, “You don’t have to be Perfect,” is definitely covered, because we have a faculty with diverse views of what a “finished” product can or should look like, and who encourage us to tray and fail in order to learn.

I feel that number 8, “Where to find story ideas and things to photograph,” we talked about in Senior with Rebecca earlier in the semester, but is one of the major and recurring struggles in photography, and Art in general. Inspiration and motivation are foundational elements of our work, and must be constantly reignited. It can seem like in order for a series to be successful it has to be about a big, global issue, but that’s not the case. As one photographer stated, “the best stories are the ones that are right under your nose. The stories in your community.”

Senior Reading Response # 7

Edge of Vision by Lyle Rexer

One main idea I took from this reading is that whenever you make a photograph you’re playing with the difference between a “rendering” and an “expression.” Over the years I’ve come to realize that photography is inherently conceptual, no matter what form it takes, because of its relationship to the “real” or physical world, our world. On page 32 it says a photographic print is a reconstruction of the world, and I agree. You can’t escape the individuality of humans, even when they work mainly through a machine.

I tried to think of another art form that is related to photography in its dependence on the existence of another, preexisting material (in photography I would say the most basic preexisting material needed would be light, and from there you add whatever the subject(s) is/are, if any). I quickly thought of casting: the sculptural mold as a 3 dimensional brother to the photograph. I wonder now that 3D printing is steadily becoming more common what the implications will be in the future for photography. It might already be possible (I don’t know much about 3D printing) but I envision the ability to pull a set of digital photographic files into a program and end up with a printed model of the subject, probably even in color. As it says in the reading, photography has always been an investigative act, a medium that melds experimentation, science, and artistry. First there was photosensitivity and the invention of fix; then reproducible prints via the paper negative; then smaller and better cameras; color film; finally, digital cameras and software; I think it’s possible that 3D printing could be one of the next big things to change the direction of photography, as all these things have done in the past.

Julian Mauve "Lonely Window"

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/julien-mauve_n_4276863.html?utm_hp_ref=arts>

An idea like this has been in the back of my mind for a while. Like these a lot

Lighting Self-Directed Final

Selections from First Shoot 

One and Two Dynalites, Diffuser, Umbrella

Senior Reading Response # 6

The Photographer’s Eye Intro by John Szarkowski

I think it’s hilarious (and fascinating) that as early as 1893 people were complaining that the “ease” of the photographic medium had spawned,

“an army of photographers who run rampant all over the globe, photographing objects of all sorts, sizes and shapes, under almost every condition, without pausing to ask themselves, is this or that artistic?”

This poor guy had no idea what was coming less than a century and a half later.

I also love the idea that Szarkowski presents at the end of the intro: Photography’s history has not been a journey but a growth, “not linear and consecutive but centrifugal.” I definitely feel that in my own work. Looking through my past photos in order to put together my autobiographical presentation, I’ve noticed themes, subjects, aesthetics that have returned in my recent pictures, usually unconsciously and in different iterations, that I used much earlier on. I think that’s part of why I often feel overwhelmed or lost. The medium is vast and I want to explore as much of it as interests me—which is a lot. So I often feel like I lack direction and perspective overall because I’m thinking about my work linearly. But thinking about a photography practice as growth and exploration of potential, instead of a linear movement toward an end, is more comforting and freeing for me. It allows me to sort of justify the variety of subjects and styles I work with, instead of stressing about making work that “looks like mine.”
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Update: This is only slightly related to this post, but it's awesome:

<http://www.fastcocreate.com/3021463/how-historical-paintings-would-look-if-their-subjects-had-mobile-devices#1>