Final Project.

For the final project I tried to find a similar characteristic between all of the past photographs I had taken for each of the projects.  And it seems that all of them have a touch of mystery, and darkness. But I'm not sure how to make a project out of mystery and darkness that is still cohesive and that makes sense to me. I've been thinking about setting up different scenes to tell a story, but that's not really something that appeals to me. I like finding pure moments in nature that I can capture with my camera. So I've decided that I want to make my final project about light, and our relationship as humans to light and how light can invoke different emotions. Also, the relationship between natural sunlight, and man-made light sources. 

I've also been trying to come up with how I'll display these images. I want them to be large. Because most of them will be "landscape" portraits. But I was thinking of using the transparency paper, and printing all of the images on one giant sheet.  From there I want to construct some sort of make-shift lamp. Either by using an existing lamp and fastening the sheet of pictures onto it almost like a lamp shade. I'm not sure how this will all work as of yet, I'm working on the lamp structure now, and trying to figure out the best way to display the pictures. 

I'm not sure if any of this even makes sense yet, but I'm hoping once I finish taking all the pictures that everything will sort itself out. 

Assignment FIVE

With this project I wanted to try to be a little more comical instead of dark and mysterious. So I decided to do fake mugshots. I searched through hundreds of mugshots on google, trying to figure out what to do. I found that in most mugshots the people aren't usually holding the number identification card, but I chose to have the people in my photographs hold it because then it became more of a tool of expression.

I tried replicating the horrible lighting most mugshots I saw online had, I used the flash on my camera and arranged a few lights around the subject so I could eliminate shadows, and create a dull, flat, image using my flash. In Photoshop I deleted the original background because I was using the wall in my living room which was a weird off-white color and had a odd texture. I chose a grey background because it's not distracting and it forces you to really focus on the subject. I also added bruising and blood to all of my subject's faces, and after doing that I realized that when viewed together these pictures could almost tell a story.

After looking at the final project all together, I like it a lot more than when I first started. I like the mystery behind mugshots, and I wanted each person to tell a different story only using their appearance. The way they stand, the facial expression, even the way they hold the I.D. card can all come together to form an idea about what happened to them.

Assignment FOUR!

 

When I think of portraits I usually am reminded of straight forward, posed pictures of people. So with this assignment I wanted to go in the opposite direction. The portraits I took are very up close, in your face, detailed pictures. They're not taken in a studio, or posed in any sort of way. You can see the imperfections in each person skin. But I think being photographed in this way speaks more about your personality and who you are then if you were to get studio pictures taken.

Most people don't pay attention to the little details of others or of themselves. My whole objective was to amplify the small "imperfections" we see in ourselves, and others, because those imperfections are what makes us who we are. I also tried to stay away from photographing eyes straight on, because I wanted to leave a little mystery in the pictures. You can't see the whole person's face and that really makes you wonder what they look like.

I used the biggest aperture I could because I wanted the viewer to really just look at the person's face, or one small detail about them, I didn't choose to do black & white because I love all the different skin tones, and you can see how imperfectly perfect some really is.

Tim Flach Photography.

A few weeks ago I came across this AMAZING animal photographer, Tim Flach. All of his work revolves around animals, and animal portraits. It's almost strange seeing animals being posed and having their pictures taken like they were human, and I really love that. I love comparing animals to humans because you find that we really aren't that different from each other. Some people think animals are insignificant and dumb, but they're so intelligent it's mind blowing. I mean, I have 2 pet rats and when I have them out and I'm playing with them, I'll put them on the other side of the couch, call their name and they'll come. Most people think rats are gross and not intelligent, I obviously know otherwise. I think Tim Flach really represents animals in a positive light, and the range of animals he photographs is amazing. From dogs to bats to jellyfish, he's got it covered.

http://www.timflach.com/

Even if you're not into animal photography, his site is definitely worth checking out.

Assignment 3

For this assignment I chose to document my house. But, you're probably thinking otherwise. I chose to document my house, but I wanted to do it in a very unconventional way. So, I incorporated my dogs into it.The reason I wanted to do this was because I feel like most people take their pets for granted. As humans we have the power to travel and go to far away places and see so many amazing things, but after all of that we come to our pets. Our pets who stay in the same house for their entire lives, eat the same food, and their only job is to love their owner. You could leave for weeks, and your pet would still be happy to see you when you came home. They forgive easily, and love unconditionally.

My family has had a lot of pets in the past, and they've all fit perfectly with our personality as a family; except for these dogs. Now, don't get me wrong I love these dogs with all my heart. They're the sweetest dogs on the planet. But, they are pure bred bird dogs. So they're very energetic and full of energy whereas my family is very laid back and relaxed. We like to hang around the house, and our dogs like chasing chipmunks. So I wanted to explore that relationship as well. None of these pictures have my family in them so I wanted to create a feeling of isolation.

As you can tell, all of these pictures were taken at my house, but from my dogs' perspectives. The kitchen, the dining room, living room and patio are all displayed here how my dogs see them and what they do everyday in these places. I chose to present these pictures in black and white because I didn't want any distractions from the different colors, I just wanted you to focus on the dogs, and how they're seeing/reacting to each environment. Plus I wanted to kinda give off a 'film' feel, instead of them looking like they were taken with a digital camera.

Old News.

Walking into the gallery I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The photos Jeff Sprang has taken throughout these years were for a news journal, and not really for an art gallery. But in my opinion they were all view able in an artistic way. Each photo had it's own story, and they were all unique, ranging from a portrait of a blacksmith to an arm wrestling contest. They were so interesting I couldn't help but try to place myself in that moment in time and try to wonder what brought Mr. Sprang to this specific place at this time.

"Telephone Lineman School" was the photo that really caught my eye. At first I wasn't sure what was going on. The description reads "These men, training as telephone linemen, are passing a basketball from one to another. The purpose of the drill is to teach them to trust their safety equipment." The picture is taken looking up at the men while they're in mid-toss. The poles are arranged in a circle, and probably quite high up. The men are only attached to the poles by some sort of leather-looking, thick strap with foot holds. They all have on helmets, gloves, work boots, everything they would need if it were a real life situation. It's in black and white, which I think is perfect for this picture because the white sky makes the men on the poles really stand out.

When I look at this photo, I get a sense of anxiety. I can just imagine being up on that pole, who knows how far from the ground, and having to trust a single strap to hold me up. I'd be terrified. But looking at most of the men, it almost seems like they're enjoying themselves. They look relaxed like they really do trust their equipment, I guess they have no other choice. It's also interesting to see the comparison between something terrifying like being strapped to a pole some unknown number of feet from the ground, and tossing a basketball between friends. It's like comparing a poisonous spider to a tray of warm cookies. It doesn't fit. But the way this picture makes me feel is why I love it so much. It makes me feel like I'm right up there with those men, tossing a basketball around. It's scary and enjoyable at the same time.

Assignment Twwwwwoooooo :3

Frame

Vantage Point

Detail

Fast Shutter Speed

Slow Shutter Speed

Hand Held At Night

Night With Tripod

f36

f5.6

Flash

The Thing Itself

My interpretation of "The Thing Itself" is more personal. For example, the picture above has special meaning to me, this is my house where I live with my family, and it also has my sister on the right hand side. But if a stranger were to look at this photograph (or my actual house), in reality they would just see a house and a random person, and maybe they would think it looked cool. But they wouldn't have any sort of personal connection. Also, my version of reality is very dark, and fantasy-filled. This picture of my house it's dark, and mysterious, most people wouldn't want to associate those adjectives with the place they live.

The Photographer's Eye

I really love this reading by John Szarkowski. At first be begins talking about how photography could become art, "Paintings were made - [...] - but photographs, as the man on the street put it, were taken" (pg. 1). I love this quote, because it almost sounds as if he's making photography out to be a bad thing. Szarkowski goes on to say that anyone who's anyone could become a "photographer". "Silversmiths, tinkers, druggists, blacksmiths, and printers" they all learned how to use the machines like the daguerrotype and took millions of pictures. In the 19th century new advances were making photography easy. If something caught your eye, you'd take a picture, no thought about it. But is that really art?

Szarkowski explains that painting was expensive, all the materials needed, all the work put into painting something that was meaningful and important. But not the same thought was going into all the pictures being taken, "photography was easy, cheap and ubiquitous, and it recorded anything" (pg. 2). You could take more pictures in a day than a painter could paint in a year. It almost seemed like back then photography was the poor-man's version of "art" (if it even was that).

There are 5 issues that Szarkowski addresses:  The first one being the subject of the photograph. He goes on to saw that the subject and the picture were not the same thing. I agree, when you're taking pictures of something it's not always going to turn out to look exactly like it does in real life as you're standing in front of it. The second was detail. That the photographer isn't really telling a story, but more like leaving a trail of clues with his photographs. The third was frame, the photographer's subject was never fully contained in the picture, "the edges of the film demarcated what he thought most important" (pg. 4). The fourth issue was that of time. He goes on to say that photographs are moments in time, I fully agree with this. I've always thought of photography as capturing moments in time. I love the way he explains long exposures as "partial failures", because I love long exposures (when does correctly). The fifth and final issue is that of vantage point. Pictures can be taken at certain vantage points to give off different emotions and make the viewer feel a specific way. It's all about the angles and taking pictures from different views than just normal eye level.

Assignment 1 Photographs! :)

unwelcome

blood

margaret

Materializing New Space

I really really liked the fact that we had the opportunity to listen to Kelly Urquhart and Jaime Kennedy tell us about their artwork before we got to see the exhibit. It was very interesting and really surprising hearing what their artwork is trying to convey, because it was different from how I viewed it. But that's probably how it always is.

I felt like the relationship between the birds with wing suits and those without was almost like a dictatorship, and kind of scary. But at the same time it was really whimsical, the way they combined real life photographs with drawings and digital manipulation. It's like a fairy tale, with a dark ending. My favorite pieces were the different versions of nests. It kind of opens your eyes to animal intelligence because those nests weren't very far off from what birds could/ and have really made from found materials. The instruction sheets with drawings of birds were, in my eyes, the most depressing of the pieces. I just felt a sort of hopelessness. Almost like the birds were being forced into these suits.

Kelly and Jaime said they approached their art as a way to answer or ask questions they have about the world, but my interpretation was that of an advanced and more aware animal race. And how they solve problems within their ecosystem/environment. But I could also see it as humans making these suits and forcing birds to wear them in order to basically become bird slaves to the humans. Obviously both of those theories are different than the artists' intentions but I think that was the best part of the lecture, was seeing how differently people think and what inspires them to create beautiful artwork.

Description/Interpretation.

This is photograph of a person's mouth and part of their nose, wearing red lipstick, and smiling. You can see there is a little bit of lipstick or something on their teeth. They have a smaller upper lip, and a slight over bite. You can see all the creases on their face from smiling so big. Also, you can see all the little hairs on their upper lip and cheeks. The nose is slightly out of focus, and you can just see where the nostrils start. A bit of their neck is exposed in the lower left hand corner, and diagonal from that you can see a tiny part of their earlobe. Their head seems to be turned as if they were looking over their shoulder.

In my eyes, the person in the photo seems to be a man. The shape of the nose and lips look rather manly to me. The way he is grinning kinda looks mischievous also, like he's hiding a secret or has pulled some sort of prank on someone. I think the way it looks like he's turning his head back and grinning is whats mischievous to me. I don't know why he's wearing lipstick, maybe as a joke, or maybe as a choice, or maybe it was part of the secret. It kinda looks like he's wearing dentures too, the gums above the front row teeth look a little too dark, and the tooth second from the back on the left side looks like it's about to pop off, either he's wearing dentures or he has some sort of dental problem.

Overall, it doesn't look like a staged photo, but not really an accidental one either. I think the photographer purposely took this picture, but maybe it was of a friend one night, or at a family get together. In my mind it looks like a picture of one of those "you-had-to-of-been-there" stories.

A Memorable Photo...

My grandparents are standing on a beach in some coastal city. They've got their arms around each other's waists, and my grandma is looking up at my grandpa with a huge grin on her face. My grandpa is looking at the camera; smiling. I have no idea who is behind the camera, or what year it is (but I'm guessing somewhere around the 60s/70s). This picture is so important to me because it gives me a little insight on who my grandparents were before I was born. They're happy to be in each other's company and that's all that matters to them.