David Hilliard

For years photographers have developed newer more innovative ways to expand their art. artist such as David Hilliard have actively practiced alternate photographic techniques. for example, the using of multiple images to create a larger, more encompassing photo.this style has been around but David has managed to make its own. Hilliard began by documenting his life and the lives of those around him, he seen it as organizing the unorganized. his works can be seen as a mixture of documentation and construction reality.

he says "The construction of panoramic photographs, comprised of various single images, acts as a visual language. Focal planes shift, panel by panel. This sequencing of photographs and shifting of focal planes allows him the luxury of guiding the viewer across the photograph, directing their eye; an effect which could not be achieved through a single image."
i enjoy that you get a good sense of surrounding yet never loose focus of the subject. it provides a little more information on the artists propose.

Frank Dituri

I stumbled upon Frank Dituri on the internet, and was drawn to the irony in his pictures if that's the word I'm looking for. He has numerous different types of images, but the ones I found interesting were his pictures of these women in a church. Now these are not just any run of the mill women going to church to confess there sins, but on the contrary these women seem to be sinning whilst at church. Now the only way I knew they were in church was because of the titles, which are, Kneeling at the Alter and In The Church. As you can see they are very well photographed, and in black and white film which I love. The composition and lighting really add to the surreal quality that his pictures seem to convey. What intrigues me is the message that he is trying to put across, which I can only guess at, like with all art. What is he saying by putting these women in scantily clad clothing or just underwear in a church? Are they confessing their sins by sinning, showing God who they are without apology. It's interesting to look at his work from the 70s and see how he has become so much more abstract in his photography. I enjoy looking a picture and having to stop and really look to see what exactly is being photographed. It's ok not to know what really is going on in the picture, and that's what I think make some of Dituri's images so appealing to me. There was also an image that was a close up of a woman's but, and it's title was The Behind. I'm not gonna lie I had to stop myself from having a laughing fit. I don't know if Dituri's intention was laughter from this picture, but I like when I can see a piece of art and laugh, and not have to take it so seriously.

Oliver Weber

When looking at work from Oliver Weber, nicknamed the "street photographer", most people are magically taken into his images. He has a way of capturing physical composition with emotional experience. this form of photo is greatly admired. Weber's work falls into the realm of documentary photography, the art of capturing moments. Ways in which to become successful documentary photographer one must posses certain qaulities that allow for the perfect shot. First, one must be aware of one's surroundings. Next, one must develop an eye for what might classify as a good photo. Finally, timing, and positioning can all play a factor in creating images that grasps viewers attention and tell a specific story. Composition, point of views, and capturing the climax of an event are also great tools used for good documentary work, especially by Weber. His photos focus on people in there natural,everyday environments. he feels it shows the current reality of untold stories. a lot of the reason i find his method interesting are because they resemble my own. Oliver roams and seeks out his subjects as they exist in the world. the images can be sometimes gritty,focus alot on underprivileged communities, but they brings voice to all those whose crises for help that have been drowned out.

Deborah Hamon

Deborah Hamon combines artistic forms of painting and photography to create beautiful images that are truly spectacular.the combination of these mediums stand alone but together creates a new reality that is rarely seen.
The Australians work aims to represent girls and there transition from adolescence to adulthood. She marvels at the complexity of maturity and wonderfully demonstrates it in her art. it also shows the playful nature of young people and the beauty of the innocence of children. These life-like photos/painting of these children at play are incredible portraits that will be admired for generations to come.
Harmon admits to using photo-shop as a tool for blending these two different works, drawing a bridge between them.
Her work has been show internationally and has won numerous accolades for her pieces. The next showing will be this summer, where she will be one of seven photographers the showcase their work in the new Mexican museum or art, ending august 1st.

Chenman is one of the young famous fashion photographers that I love. The reason why I love her work is as you see. All her work is not only about how fashion those model wear and how pretty they look in the image, but also she put a lot traditional elements especially Beijing elements in to fashion work. It’s not only to show off how different but also she is telling all those old building and subjects could relate to fashion. And she also put a lot painting technique and other art elements into her work. She is trying her best to annotation her own fashion through her work.

After I knew about her and her work I start to love fashion photography. It is not my not been seen as art, but more commercialized. To me it is another type of art too. She is not only famous in China but also really famous in the fashion word. She and a really good reputation from movie stars and famous models whom had worked with her. They all said she did a really good job to express the virtue and beauty of everyone of them. Her successe is my goal to achieve my dream.

I am so happy to introduce you my friend Josh Zhang. He is a photographer, a teacher and also close friends of me. In the time I start love photograph, he have touch me a lot about how to open my view of this amazing art world and some time give me a lot knowledge of how photography is. Here I would like to show you some of his work had posted on national geography website.

All those image have perfectly showed his ability and how different from his image and other Chinese photographers. I guess maybe because he has been study aboard in Austria and also study from a lot foreign photographers. All his image seemed more meaning behind the image itself. And the way he uses natural light recourse. Another reason he image is really different is because his cultural background. He knows China better then other and he does combine both western and eastern elements together to tell story in his pictures. Most of his image on National Geography are took in some town of China, all he did is tell a story of normal people how those people’s life is. That s really strong element that photographer need to have.

Joel Sternfeld- Walking the High Line

Joel Sternfield's series called walking the high line, shows a paradox within New York City. The High line was created in the thirties to lift freight trains off of the crowded New York streets. Seventy years later it is all but abandoned (with hopes to make it a park in the future). As of right now, the high line is a pristine, overgrown grassland within a concrete jungle. This is the paradox that Joel works with. In a place where the only nature you find is man-made nature (central park), the high line is uncontrolled-left up to the plants, this is very evident in Joel's photographs. What is so pleasing about Sterfelds photo's is the surprise that they created for me. Not once would i have though that such a place would exist in New york city, where everything is controlled and made to specification. To this extent it sits as an oasis, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, away from humanity. Although the city is still visible from all around the highline, is searves and an area unique in a city of uniformity. this is the beauty of the pictures. Nature cannot be stopped, and decay will always happen- that is just a matter of life, and for all of humanities efforts against chaos, it still creeps in, and this is what Joel sternfeld shows with this series.

Of all I am most excited about this photographer, Christi Neely, her work reminds me of what I find myself wanting to do. Its always nice to see stuff that reminds you why you yourself enjoy being behind the camera. Some of her work plays a great deal on forcing the eye to see things like perspective, contrast, or sharpeness. But she also using many different techniques in her work. She also plays with not the true image itself but more of letting the viewer decide what they want it to be. I loved this train picture she had altered with color to draw your eye back into the background but also it appears the majority blurry though there is sharpness in it. It makes your eyes wander through the photo to see what you can find in it. She also had a lovely piece that is very similar to that of cars at night with a long exposure. The light she used was that of like she tried drawing with it but the source was not a car. The orange yellow tones of night light fill the frame but also is pleasantly surprising beautiful. It is not something you can say what it is but enjoyably pleasant to look at. It feels warm and playful, but also skillfully technique wise done.

I got to meet this lady named Babara Bradley, who has been traveling around the world taking pictures of other countries. Her work is beautifully done with color and lighting its amazing to look at these prints in real life. This picture is from a really bad camera I had with me and I wish it did justice to her work. The color pops out at you not soley because the richness of the subjects, nor do they look like they have been saturated. But the way she has used light from where she is paying special attention on she wants it to portray her subjects. Of the work I got to see the one on the far right was way too amazing. I wished they were slightly larger in size but they still can be appreciated. The subject I am sure is impart of a tradition of the culture but the light that surrounds her is not a flash source but captures this feeling of you have invaded upon something secret. The unknown light highlights the clothing of the garment over this individual just right that you almost have to second guess it. I am hoping she does some more work and a show soon.

A local photographer that has stretched the boundaries of the traditional portrait is letting her work be observed down on lark street. Keira Lemonis new series for 2010 follows an eerie feeling most females dread to ever be in. The images craft-fully done to display the to meaning of the situations she has placed her images in. The emotional connect you have then with the subject sucks you within each photograph. Not only do the images stand strongly by themselves creepy elevator music from a small old fashion radio is blasting in the corner of the small room.

The images vary in size when on display but each of them are powerful regardless of how they are printed. Each subject significantly relates to the other but each are the focus of their own. It is almost to the point that you can not look away but you feel desperate to as well. The series is strange and creepy but it also stands out, make you remember her.

Even her other work holds true to making an impact on the viewer. Keira also has done wedding and other side work but her sense of hold the camera and finding the beauty is not the traditional comerical shots. She aways a new life to enter traditional photo's.

Stranger

This group of picture named “Stranger”and I didn't show all the pictures. Theses photos were taking by Benoit Paillé, a Canadian photographer that I saw on flickr. He is “the best photographer on flickr” and for sure after you saw his work you will think he is amazing.

Most of his photos are portraits. And mostly the person that he took is someone that he never met before. Through his camera you can see a lot different people, different character, behind those people you can have a lot imaginary space to build up the whole image. In his image, a lot people were involved in, different jobs and class. You can tell how his personality is.

His image are really sharp and most of the time his image composition create a strong information that we only pay attention on the person that he took not anything else. And the color on his images is my favorite part. That yellowish green color also construct the mystique of the image it self and also the person he took.

I hope that every will enjoy his extraordinary work and learn form him.

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson's work has always fascinated me, I had even tried to echo his work with a high school photo project, but needless to say it did not work out how I envisioned it. The way he sets up his photographs is the same way a director would go to set up his movie stage. He is meticulous in setting up his picture, with the way everything is placed and the lighting must be perfect. It takes him about a month to do one photograph. In an interview who talked about how museum dioramas interested him, and how he was struck by the still image and the limitations of the photograph. The last part is what I would say draws all photographers to making their art by conveying a message through one moment. What I get from Crewdson's images is a horror movie like feeling, as well as the unknown. His photographs raise more questions than answers, which I think is key to his work. He also creates his own world , which I thought was appropriate for our last project, but I don't think I would ever want to be in his world. It seems that all of his subjects have the same expressions on their faces, it's almost like they are not truly existing as if they are already dead. Both pictures on the top have a couple in them, the one on the right you can only see the woman and just the man's back. In the image on the left you can see both the woman and man. What's interesting is that all of these people's faces are looking down and away from anything that is in the room, as if they are in their own world.

Sebastião Salgado

Salgado is a photographer that could be described as a photo-journalist. He travels around the world taking pictures that are as beautiful as they are tragic. One of my favorite of his bodies of work is one that he took of a gold mine in Brazil. He was able to capture the filth and oppression that was the everyday life of these workers. A part of Brazilian life that the country did not want the world to see.
The composition of the images is visually appealing. The image shown here on the right titled "Going Up," is shot in such a way that the we as the viewer actually feel like we are one of the workers. You can imagine the effort it takes to get out of this mud pit that these men had to work in everyday. The mud is so close to the bottom of the frame that it seems like we can just step into this world.
The details that Salgado captures is so acute that it rivals that of Ansel Adams. The musculature of the men is so defined that you can see the strain they are exerting. It is this closeness that the viewer feels to the subjects that has made Salgado's work so influential in the world of photo-journalism. I have always been drawn to this type of photography, because of the artist's courage to go out there in the world and show the public things that those in charge would rather leave unpublished. And their ability to go into these harsh environments and at the same time create artwork that is so moving that it can start that spark of outrage needed to commence change.

Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe is best known as a shock photographer. His X Portfolio is the most notorious of all his work and also the most well known. What most people don't like to admit is that even though his images are shocking, or could be considered obscene, it is also shot in such a way that one can't help but admit that there is a beauty and universal aesthetic in his work.
One example of this idea is "Joe," a photograph from his X Portfolio. At first glance, the viewer will either be taken off guard by the beauty of the composition and lighting, or be taken aback by the fetish content. But the image is only shocking to those individuals that do not take part in this lifestyle. For the man in this photo, this is part of his life and would not be shocking, but seen as a way of self expression and sexual freedom.
The beauty is in the careful positioning of the figure and the way in which the composition is lit. The figure's arms and legs are positioned parallel to each other in such a way that the angles created draw the eye into the image. The detail that Mapplethorpe is able to achieve in the highlights and mid-tones of the image is masterful and is why is images have been appreciated by the art community.
Mapplethorpe may not be everyone's idea of a great artist, but what he has been able to do is make people see the beauty in a subject matter that is sometimes hard to accept. He was able to make people appreciate the aesthetic quality even if they weren't a part of that world.

Annette Messager

I recently had the opportunity to visit the MoMA and it was there that I was first introduced to the work of Annette Messager. I was first drawn to her series of work named "My Vows" because of its unique installation. This piece consists of close-up and partial images of body parts that, when put together, don't make up a whole figure, but instead create a collage of mixed bodies in a confusion of identity. It is unable to tell what parts belong to whom. The piece acts as an inclusive representation of humanity. These works also adopt some meaning from the artist's Catholic upbringing. The large assortment of photographs of the body bring to mind the images left at sites of religious pilgrimage by the religiously devoted.
Messager had created her own aesthetic work by combining the flat, smooth surface inherent in a photograph with organic materials such as mesh and string. It is this combination that takes Messagers work out of the realm of being strictly visual and gives it sculptural aspects as well. Each individual image is hung by a single strand of string. Messager arranges the images into shapes such as a circle, a heart, and a spiral.
The images themselves are also visually interesting. Each picture is black and white with a black background and high contrast that makes the objects stand out. The images are also framed in black which further enhances them. This black and white aesthetic is one that I have always been drawn to and Messager pulls it off beautifully in her work.

Philippe Halsmen

Philippe Halsmen had a wonderful imagination. This shows through most of his work on many different levels. He can show his playful side in photo collections such as the Dali Atomicus, where he used different techniques to hold up furniture around the room to make it appear as if it were levitating. He even has a reative side as to use naked women to create a skull shape with Salvador Dali again another photographer that would be good to base an imagined reality project off of. He is more famously known for his work with Time magazine and his portrait work. He is really able to get into the minds of the people he is photographing and this is really evident in the photograph of Salvador Dali who is most famous for his surrealist art work. Dali would paint things to appear in ways that you know they couldn’t actually appear one of his most famous works is The Persistence of Memory and it features drooping clocks in the desert. Halsmen was able to paint a beautiful canvas with just women in a way you would never think to paint women or that women could be used to create an actual object.

Rob Gallella

You don’t have to see much of ron galella’s work to understand how harmful it is to photography as an art. It’s people like him who give photographers a bad name. Ron Galella is one of the most famous paparazzi photographers out there. His work is nothing special, essentially stalking different celebrities as they do every day average citizen things. I love candid photos but these candid photos are done all wrong. They use stalking as a method of taking the picture and the celebrities can do nothing about it, they are powerless against the paparazzi. I do not care where a celebrity is shopping for their groceries, I do not care where they went on vacation nor do I care who they are cheating on who with. Since Ron Galella was one of the earliest successful paparazzi I blame people like him for Americas obsession with celebrities. Yes I do understand that people “know what they are getting into” when they become a celebrity, but I do believe that some people do it just for their passion for acting not for the fame and the glory. The fact that it has become normal and acceptable for people to chase down famous people such as princess Dianna and kill them since they can not escape means that our world has gone too far. Photography should be an art, it should take time and have meaning. The only meaning behind these photos is money and a sick obsession with actors, actresses, athletes, and heiresses.

Elliot Erwitt

How do you define photography? Is it merely taking a picture with a point and shoot? Or is it snapping a shot with a piece of equipment that already has disposable in its name. Photography can be self expression, or a glimpse at reality for others who might not be able to see things from a first hand point of view. A photographer should open their lens so that the world may see what they see, they should publish their photos so that others who do not have the ability to travel may see what else is out there in the world. But more importantly photographers should put their work out there so we as a society can take a step back from ourselves and see the whole world in the greater picture of things and not just what’s right infront of us. Because if you become comfortable with a situation then you become jaded to it and when you become jaded towards something then you stop caring and you should never stop caring.

Elliot Erwitt is a famous photographer that mainly worked in black and white photography. A picture that almost everyone is guaranteed to have seen is his “segregated Water Fountains” a photo that appears in countless US History Textbooks. I am a child of a generation that did not have segregation, to me segregation is just a piece of history that I wasn’t a part of . Just stories. However, it is photos like this photo here, capturing a colored man at a water fountain that is blatantly not equivalent to the water fountain next to him labeled “white”

Besides that Erwitt has many other beautiful candid pictures of different people ranging from president John F. Kennedy to Arnold Shwartzenager. His use of lights and shadows helps create astonishing pictures with very distinct silhouettes.

He has a photo collection called Phototoons and although I am not a strong advocate for this collection I do believe that it would have been good to use during the imagined reality project. He took simple situations such as men looking at art vs women or a bird in comparison to an airplane and you got that there was humor behind his photos. Some of the photos in this collection that I did not like were the photos where he replaced a human head with a bulldogs head.

His portrait collection of strangers has a very interesting feel to it I can’t tell if he knew all of these people in it and each scene was set up or if he just went into different neighborhoods and took pictures candidly of people. Capturing the simplicity of children in the moment without them reacting to the camera is very hard and i believe he did it in a beautiful way.

Alan Ostreicher- Untitled

Alan Ostreicher's "Untitled" project extracts abstract ideals from the real world. All of the photographs in this project are of wavy lines and random shapes, but they are for the most part recognizable as an object from everyday life. One photo is of power lines, and another is of white paint on a wooden fence, but even with these photo's noticeably being these things they still hold an absract quality to them. And this is where Alan Ostreicher succeeds with "Untitled". To take everyday objects and view them differently through photography is one of photography's most redeeming and explorable qualities. The ability to express the world the way you want to others, is where the art in photography is. And to this extent Alan Ostreicher, controls this ability. Many of the photographs that are not discernible immediately seem to be glass with paint on it, in different patterns. This also is another use of photography's main aspects, the use of light. by painting a clear object in different fashions, the light that creates the photograph changes and becomes something more. And this is where the art lies. Alan Ostreicher takes the world and shows it through his vision to create art. By using both the natural world unchanged for his photography, and the created world of his glass panes, to create the same aesthetic quality throughout, he bridges the gap between objects intended for art and objects with practical purposes, and he shows that art can be accomplished in both ways, you just need to know where, and more importantly, how to look.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Another photographer whose work I've always thought was very intriguing is Japanese artist, Hiroshi Sugimoto. Unlike my last entry on Larry Clark, my interest in this photographer's work stems directly from the visual aesthetic that the photos have rather than the content in the pictures. The two bodies of work that Sugimoto has done that I find the most interesting are his works done on thaters and a body of work called "Seascapes". The theater project contains many images that look similar to the one I posted above. What sugimoto does is use a very long exposure in the theater while a film of some sort is playing on screen. The result is a bright white screen and a very nicely illuminated theater. Using the light from the screen as the only light in the picture really makes for some interesting light and shadows in the final image.

This next image is from his "Seascape" project. The images come out looking very minimalist. They all consist of 50% ocean and 50% sky, with the horizon line almost directly through the center of the image. Normally I would think that I would get bored of images like this that don't really seem to have too much going on, but there is something about the simple quality in these images that really keep my interest.

http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/

One of the photographers I chose is Anita Andrzejewska. I discovered her work from the website Mindy sent us. Her work is pretty versatile, she photographs people and landscapes. What drew me to her work was her use of lighting and that she uses black and white film for these pictures. It does give me hope when I see professional photographers using film because that is also my passion. The picture I included has a very old feeling to it, and not only because it's in black and white, but it has such grace and elegance. I love her style of taking portraits, because she doesn't always include the subject's face, like in the picture here. I love the wide range of tones in her pictures, and the subtle hint of highlight on her lower face and neck and how the fabric fades into darkness. In some of her other portraits that she takes of different women I get a sense of the sensuality from these women that Anita is purposefully trying to capture. It is interesting to see the contrast of her photographs and her animations that she does for children and graphic design. Her animations are a lot more contemporary, as opposed to her photographs which look like they were taken over fifty years ago. To me black and white photography is very important, and I feel that film is the only way you can get such beauty with the range of tones, and the graininess that film is known for. I really admire her for sticking with film, she even has her own darkroom where she does the printing, and I would really love to these images in person some day.

Larry Clark

One photographer I have always been fairly interested in is Larry Clark. There is nothing too specific technically about his photographs that make him stand out over any other in my opinion. His shots are very nicely done black and white images, but nothing beyond that in a technical sense. The thing that really pulls me in with Larry Clark is the subject matter within his images, specifically in his book "Tulsa" (which the image above is taken from). The book consists of young adults from Tulsa, Oklahoma taking part in some very risky activities. Many of the photos show drug use involving needles as well as sex and violence (many photos with guns). What makes these photos even more interesting is the fact that Larry Clark did not just take the pictures from a third person perspective, but also involved himself in the activities. I guess you could say involving yourself in that probably isn't too healthy, but it makes for a good story! The fact that Clark did that brings a new feeling to the photos. You can tell that his subjects are very comfortable with him being around seeing as they are allowing him to take pictures of them doing some illegal things, and catching them in some very vulnerable positions. That comfort level is interesting because it brings you into the photographs and into an environment that most people wouldn't like to find themselves in. Clark's other work is all somewhat similar in content to that of "Tulsa". He published another book called "Teenage Lust" which is supposed to be representative of his teenage years through photographs of others. This book again contains pictures of the same types of things.

http://www.larryclark.us/

Question?!

Hey I know Mindy will know where this is but I am not sure if she will see it before hand. Does anyone know the name of the gallery that Mindy mentioned to us in class Tuesday with the modern artist. I know she told us about it but I can not for the life of me remember or find it!



Also MFA SHOW today! It at the campus museum and I'm pretty sure it opens tonight! I'm going to stop by see what they have been up after 6ish if anyone wants to join me!

My favorite photographer (maybe of all time) is Sally Mann. I realize this is very cliché but I the way she captures images of her children reminds me of my childhood growing up by the lake. I think that Mann’s photography shows a euphoric kind of simple lifestyle. Her photography illustrates the life I would like to live. She really captures the emotion and naiveness of childhood, she photographs her children in such a pure and beautiful way. I love how a lot of her photographs how an underlying social meaning such as sex, puberty, fertility, death, etc. I think that Sally Mann has real eye for photography. I like that she uses a large format camera. I also enjoy that fact that Sally Man uses black and white photography as opposed to color. One of the main reasons I like Mann is because she brings a new style to photography, its not just the same old portraits. I think her book Immediate Family is a cool and interesting way for her to have a photo album of her kids. I think people who put down Mann’s work or call it child pornography are seriously delusional. Childhood is a time to be free and natural and not worry about the responsibilities of adulthood. I think it would be a cool project for Sally Mann to do the same sort of project with her grandkids one day. I do not think she should try and recreation the photographs she has already done but create new ones. The kind of summer kids live without television and video recapture in the present.

George Eastman Show at State Museum

I went to the State Museum and saw the George Eastman show. I thought that the George Eastman House Collection was amazing!! So many big names and such a diverse collection it was breath-taking. I do wish they had a few more modern photographers such as Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, or Gregory Crewdson. I really enjoyed the Edward Curtis pieces at the show. I think his re-creations of Native America life are a beautiful portrayal and exquisite way to pay tribute to the Native Americans. Seeing his photographs up close was so much more powerful then seeing them on a computer screen. Esipermi-Comanche was a beautiful portrait of a Native American man. It gives me an overwhelming seen of serenity but at the same time makes me feel guilty for what the European settlers or “our” ancestors did to this lovely people. It was also great to see another one of my favorites Margaret Bourke White there. Margaret has such an eye for framing, geometry, lines, and point of view. I really enjoy her fascination of industrious things and the way she captures them. I also like Bourke White because of her ability to be very versatile as a photographer. There was a good example in the exhibit of her versatility via the photograph entitled At the time of the Louisville Flood. The picture not only depicts irony and a political stance but also is nicely thought out and photographed. Bourke White had a good eye for seeing photographic opportunities. While I saw many of my old favorites such as Robert Frank, Edward Weston, Lewis Hine, Coburn, etc I also found a few “new” favorites. The first one being Lawrence McFarland and his photograph entitled Wheatfield. It was so beautiful and pure but at the same time almost abstract. The movement in the photograph was so rhythmic and brilliant. I also thoroughly enjoyed Paul Caponigro’s image called RTNE 44 Vicinity. The framing was terrific as well as the contrast. I also believe it was a good way to portray the ever modernizing America and the flashy, gaudy things Americans think are great. Another photograph I really enjoyed was Untitled # 2810 by Todd Hido. I thought the light of the trailer was great. Hido romantized a trailer making it looking peaceful and like inside was a nice place to be, safe from the night. The large format really did a lot for the piece as well. I think the show, as a whole was a perfect range of photographers and different photographic styles. I thought it was just great and have already gone back to see it for a second time.

Andrea Modica

Andrea Modica is a modern photographer. She got her bachelors degree at SUNY Purchase and her Masters at Yale. Andrea Modica shoots pretty much all of her photographs staged. Modica’s photographs have a certain eeriness or gothic, wasteland style to them. Modica shoots some of her photographs sort of out of focus kind of pictorial-ish, like the early work of Margaret Cameron. It is like she is making these gothic, run down scenes more idealized and whimsical even though the images are still disturbing to a degree. Modica’s photographs although depressing contain beautiful lighting and contrast. Her subject matter ranges from mostly people, to landscapes, to animal cadavers, etc. The overall theme of Modica’s work is probably death or desolate. Overall I think Modica’s photography works very well, especially her work in Treadwell and Fountain. Modica pays very special attention to lighting, the lighting in her images is always beautifully done. Modica also pays attention to the framing enhancing her overall composition. I love that she invents and creates her scenes. Modica’s work extracts an emotional response from the viewer. Her work is not only visually appealing, but also its oddness makes you want to keep looking. The fact that Modica uses a large format camera makes the detail extraordinary. I think Modica’s overall inventiveness and attention to the detail of the composition makes her photography not only visually interesting but work as art photography. I enjoyed her work overall, I think that she is a very brilliant photographer and cannot wait to see her future work.

NY Expressive Arts Workshop

NY Expressive Arts Workshop is holding a free workshop class that is to introduce people to the upcoming year long program. The free workshop days are June 18 and July 17th. It is a year program that happens one weekend every month that is suppose to be a pretty intense program. I know its not really a photo class, but alot of us are dabble in drawing and painting as well as photo. It is suppose to be an excellent program that teaches a bunch of different techniques. The teachers are well trained, most in art therapy( Elizabeth!) and each one has a different type of art method. I have heard its a really good opportunity for whoever is going to be around plus its free. Although there is an application process.

NYEA website : http://www.newyorkexpressivearts.com/

Anna and Bernhard Blume

Anna and Bernhard Blume are a husband and wife photographer duo, both born in Berlin in 1937. Their work is intriguing both because of its content and technique. All of their work they are the subjects of and featured in performing unfathomable tasks because of the laws of nature would normally prohibit them. Most people today who shoot with digital SLR rely a lot on photoshop to get the same kind of freaky quality in their work as the Blumes have. The Blume’s however do not use any kind of digital camera or editing devices in their work and all of their work is show with black and white film using a large format camera. Their work is unique because of its strange content as you can see from the images above. A great deal of their work plays around with the slow motion stop action affect one can achieve with longer shutter speed times. The second image show above is a very good example of possibly shooting with a slower shutter speed. I am going to assume that somehow the potatoes have been suspended in the air because they are the clearest and crispest things in the image while the figure (which is Anna herself) is clear for the most part until you get to her head and arms which are very blurry and look they’re moving. The images above this one as well look as if the potatoes where some how made stationary and the figure moving using a slow shutter speed to get this freaky effect. For the day that they were making these images this was pretty difficult to accomplish and it required a lot of time and effort to get that one shot. Rolls upon rolls of film had to be developed and sifted through first before you even knew if you had the perfect shot you were hoping to achieve, whereas today with the click of a button our image is presented right in front of us on a tiny LCD screen. While their work for the most part is very amusing and fun to look at and you can help but smile in wonder at how it was made the print quality and technique in the printing are amazing and largely go unnoticed because of how easy modern day technology makes image making today.

William Wegman

William Wegman is probably my favorite contemporary artist. The most obvious reason for my love would be the subject matter of his work, his gorgeous Weimaraners, however this is not the only reason. While does shoot his dogs and to many people just makes cute images with his dogs in funny costumes and poses, there is a lot more to it than that. For any of you that are reading this who have pets of your own and have tried to use them in projects, it is much harder than it looks isn’t it. Anyone that was in the intermediate class this semester or Mindy’s beginning class has heard a story or two about the monsters of mine that I like to call dogs. It is next to impossible to get them to do what you want when you want and if my two who pose and behave half as good as Wegman’s I would die a happy woman. I get a lot of inspiration from his work with his dogs. His work though is much more than just photos of his dogs, for example in his one shot Trainer, the image speaks volumes. His dog is depicted here with some kind of headdress and human clothes with human arms what appears to be a leash or tie out of some sort. This image is hilarious for its content but can also be interpreted to mean more and questions arise like why is the dog the trainer? Why is the dog half human? What does this say about the dog/owner relationship? When you focus on the image itself the quality of the photo is amazing. Taken in 1999 as one of his large format Polaroid images it is amazing. When you think of Polaroid instantly what comes to mind for me is a dinky camera I had when I was about 12 years old and the film came in packs of 12 and you had to wait forever for this tiny like 4x4 picture to develop. Looking at his work with the Polaroid’s, unless I was told that that was the camera the image was created I never would have know. Aesthetically the image is just pleasing to the eye because the lighting is very strategically used and the color scheme plays well with it.

Cindy Sherman

The work of Cindy Sherman for some reason always reaches out to me and I find myself drawn to her than most of the other artists we have looked at this semester and last. I think this is in large part because of the content of her work. She for the most part plays a different character in every one of her shots. Most of my work over the last year has focused mainly around my fiancé and my best friend and in each project the two of them have played different characters. This in my opinion is one of the strongest factors in her work, she can play all of these different characters and in every single shot portray a different woman, but the women are all the same. That speaks volumes when you think about what it says about each individual person perhaps being 5 or 6 different people all rolled into one fun crazy package. Specifically looking at her photo named untitled 276 we see a very interesting kind of character. Grotesque is the first word that comes to mind when I look at this photograph. This is largely because of the position and posture of the figure combined with her attire. She depicts herself in this shot with tons of make up to make her look very aged along with cloths that are very unflattering and a position that is very unladylike. The shot itself is not very pleasing to the eye and I think that is why I am so drawn to it out of all of her other work. Even though it is not very pleasing to the eye the photo just oozes sex and it is a real portrayal of what a real woman’s body looks like. It makes you really think about what real women are supposed to be like and because of that it is a very successful image.