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.”
……………………………...

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>

Re-Shoot Blue and Brown Prints

Two Dynalites, umbrellas

Lighting Final Project Inspirations

Jeff Enlow multi-exposure nudes with polaroid 4x5

<http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/11/01/jeff_enlow_parallelograms_is_a_series_of_multiple_exposure_nude_images_shot.html>

_____________

Duane Michals: Who Am I?

_____________

Jon Berger Ways of Seeing Part 2

Implied narcissism, male gaze, female exploitation, identity

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1GI8mNU5Sg&noredirect=1>

Lighting: Product: Process Holiday Series

Light Table

Lighting: Product: Magazine

Two dynalites with umbrellas

Senior Reading Response # 5

1.) Kristen Hoving: Working Stone

I really enjoyed Kristen Hoving’s series on the rock quarries of Vermont. She documents the mining of limestone deposits, an old practice that has expanded over centuries. I love how she plays with scale, dwarfing tractors and large machinery with massive shelves of stone to make a point about the dynamics between man and nature. The most dominant feature in the images is almost always the ancient rock looming over the comparably flimsy manmade tools, but at the same time, the great scars in the landscape and missing chunks of rock are a reminder of the power of humans over the environment.

I thought this series was a good example of deep exploration into a topic. I feel I’ve seen some diverse views of the documented subject, yet the images are cohesive as a series. To me the photos speak about the complex relationship and history between man and wild. I love that they also present a kind of beautiful destruction that verges on the grotesque, as the earth is broken into with a methodical violence that is a bit disturbing, and yet visually pleasing.

2.) Tracy N. Freeman: Quiet Revels

I liked the main idea of this series, but it left me a little unsatisfied. I love Freeman’s abstraction of natural elements into ambiguous shapes, colors, and textures. Some of them reminded me of Kristen’s vertical landscape photos because they have a similar zen-like quiet about them, while also putting the viewer off a little by distorting or masking the actual space. However, I felt like the idea could be explored more. The series felt a little bit repetitive to me, which might have been helped by a greater variety in different angles, light qualities, distances, or approaches to the material.

3.) Jane Fulton Alt: The Burn

This series caught my attention because I’ve been working with smoke myself. Jane Fulton Alt photographs controlled prairie fires, making pictures of burning vegetation and landscapes obscured by smoke. The themes of life and death and the idea of liminal and changing space in this series are some things I’ve been thinking about with my images as well. It’s interesting to see how someone else handles the material of smoke, and it definitely inspires me to continue experimenting.

The color palette is really stunning, mostly cloudy gray and monotone with pops of angry yellow and orange flame. I love her use of the square format, but the few long horizontal pieces are particularly striking in their sense of motion; the rectangles feel more open ended and cinematic than the squares, which, although they also play with space within their frames, seem like more self-contained compositions.

Laura Hennessy Used Book Art

http://www.manifestgallery.org/about/schedule9.html