Video for Art Project

I made a holster/belt for my art practices class. In addition to this after choosing the name and idea for a commercial, gave my photographs to my dear friend Benji and as a result, he made quite the rad video. Feel free to laugh at me cause I totally did. :) Have fun with it!

https://vimeo.com/63714004

Ideas for Photo Project

Abigail Reynolds

I find Abigail Reynold's work to be a great solution to modifying and enhancing a photograph. This image in particular, I am the most fond of. A few projects back, I incorporated paper folding by working with origami. Granted, I had to have more skilled origami makers complete the unicorn and chicken, but it did give me an appreciation for the kind of work that goes into paper folding and an appreciation for the aesthetic. This may be why the folding and shaping of the paper in this photo appeals so much to me. I regret that I have just seen her work because I would have attempted this technique on the last project. This does give me ideas for the final photo project. I think methods like this push photography into the next level and make them more of an art piece that can be appreciated on multiple levels. For people who argue whether or not photography is an art, they would have to rethink that logic when the art gets pushed even more through artistic modification.

Custom filters we created in class.

Rephotograph Diptychs.

Initially, I had driven to Galisteo and Santa Fe to do my rephotographs. My rephotograph of the plaza was not as interesting as the Galisteo and Northrop Hall photos I had taken, so I omitted the Galisteo church from my selection. When I went to the archives, they informed me that the Galisteo photos were in the Santa Fe archives and it would be expensive and time consuming in order to acquire them. This forced me to look for a new photo. As  result, I found the flagpole incident photo. This worked out better in the end because I felt like this photo was much more dynamic than my previous choices. The original photos are so powerful that I wanted to contrast that high energy with little to no energy. This is why I also chose to leave people out of my rephotographs. Hopefully, I accomplished my goal of creating two opposite moods to exaggerate the high energy of the old photograph to create a more powerful overall impact. The first photograph shows the construction of Northrop Hall and the building from the same angle as it stands today. The second photo was more challenging due to the addition of the front part of the building of Johnson Center, which covers the building in the original photo. I got as close I could to the vantage point and tried to match the location of the 1970 flagpole incident as best as I could.

Mark Klett & Byron Wolfe

The amount of detective work that goes into the reconstructing old photos of the Rio Grande Canyon is immense. It makes sense that Klett and Wolfe chose to collaborate on this project. Making sure the scale is close, the lightning is identical (timing), and that the angle is correct, are all crucial elements in creating a well done rephotograph. I liked how they took the old photographs and post cards and would insert sections of the new photographs within them. Will we be able to do this in our project? It seems like that would be more of a technical challenge and would captivate the viewer more because you get to compare the two photos as one distinct piece instead of two separate images.

Andre Kertesz

  Although I really enjoyed Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's and Man Ray's work, I found Andre Kertesz to have an overall greater appeal. I found all of his photos to be lovely on some level. He seems to capture humanity in a way that tells a story. He reminds me of what it means to be alive. What a beautiful experience life is and how intriguing people are. He is also very creative and I find magic and life in his photos. His photos are alive. They are memories and youth made immortal by the lens. People and places, frozen in time. In a time where there was momentum and high energy. I think of lives as flames that burn brightly, but burn out over time. In some ways his work is uplifting, but it is also heartbreaking because these moments and some of the people in these photos, have been lost with the passing of time and we are left with the ghosts of what they once were.

Diptychs

Bill Jay

Bill Jay's article, "the Thing Itself", delves into how aspiring photographers should view and create their work. On some levels I agree with what he is saying, but I also think that what I enjoy in photography is the free flowing aspects of viewing life through the lens. It takes a great deal of work and vigilance, but for me personally, I have to balance the work with fun and play. What I am taking from his article is the focus on trying to make one's work genuine and honest. I will also make it a point to focus on developing a better perception so that I can start seeing things in terms of photography. He uses the violinist as an example of how hard work and time are crucial to building a skill. I have also read about outliers in society that are successful and a big part of their success is how much time they put into their skill or craft. In order to be proficient at what you do, the skills and a careful eye need to be developed over time. This takes intent and focus. It's one thing to take a photo, but another thing to capture something of impact. Bill Jay is guiding us into the direction that will allow us to accomplish this or have a better understanding on how this is done effectively.

Carrie Mae Weems

       Looking through the list of artists, I felt the most moved and impacted by Carrie Mae Weem's work. I felt that her photography has a great deal of meaning. It is very powerful in the sense that it instantly had me thinking about the content of her photos. One in particular that stood out to me was, "The Healer". The healer shows a Cuban man working on the body of what I am guessing to be a hardworking mother or provider. Most of the images we see in popular media are unrealistic views of woman and in this image I am not bombarded with photoshop corrections or a ghost of a human. I am looking at a real person with a story or message. Weems offers honesty and humanity, but shows the struggle as we make our way through life. I respect her work because she is so brave and wants to be as true to her message and to people as she can be. These are very admirable traits. 

The photo itself is rich in hues, light, and texture.  Her decision to position herself so she gets the view of the back of her subjects created more depth to the photo and shows she has a good sense of composition. Controlled chaos always appeals to me in a photo and I appreciate it when people are able to balance everything going on in a photo to create a certain kind of balance in the photo. There is also a certain nobility and grace that I see in this image. The grace of the woman as she leans her head forward and strength that you can see emanating from her person. Overall, I enjoy the honest beauty that is portrayed in this image. We are often trained or directed on how we should interpret beauty. As a result, seeing something so genuinely beautiful can get lost if we have not cultivated our perceptions to the true beauty in life that we may become blind to. Looking at Weem's work reminds me what honest and powerful work can achieve that more contrived photography cannot. To do this kind of work takes a great deal of strength and courage and I admire Carrie Mae Weems for being able to create such evocative work.

The power of chi through motion.

Stories of home.