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.