Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Monday, October 28, 2013
"The Kids are Alright" Addison Gallery Exhibit
1. Compare and contrast the two photographers that were randomly given to you.
Lisa Lindvay and LaToya Ruby Frazier. These two photographers had the same bodies of work in terms of pertaining to a mothers role in a family and how much a mother holds a family together. Both artists have a sense of concern in their photographs, and as sense of real documentation of how certain aspects of life are affecting those families. They both also use their photographs in a more psychological sense than anything. In Lindvay's work, she focuses more or so on her siblings and father, and how they are filled with a sense of emptiness within their household now that their mother is ill. She captures the sense of absence, even though there are people in the photographs. Frazier's photographs focus on herself, her mother, and her grandmother as a whole. She is trying to explore the relations between them, as well as expressing their life experiences and how changes in her community affect them. Frazier is searching to find what a mother/daughter relationship is.
LaToya Ruby Frazier
2. Choose one or two artists whose work you connected with the most. Describe why the piece spoke to you. Did you have an emotional response?
Rona Yefman's work struck my interest most while walking through the exhibit. I continuously kept on going back to look at her two photographs exhibited. What caught my attention initially was that they weren't photographs of what looked to be families, nor did they convey the same reactions from me, like I felt towards most all the other artists. The piece OWLS with the two people in it spoke to me most because I find it so incredible that she is trying to discover the difference between genders, while in the process breaking these gender normalities our society is programed to see. She makes the viewer think about what and who they are looking at, forcing us to open our mind up and freely view these people for who they are. She brings up questions and debates in this particular photograph, which is something I strongly admire in a photographers work. Ever since I was younger, I have never understood what is so wrong with people being something other than "the social norm", man loves woman, woman loves man, man acts manly, woman acts womanly. I've felt so strongly about this to the point of getting in debates and arguments with family members and friends. The way i've always viewed it is how does this affect me or you in any way? And i've always come to the conclusion that it doesn't affect me or anyone other than the people in that situation. To see her working through these pieces and making people look at these and accept it, or even start a conversation about it is really bold to me. I researched more of her work and came across a video of her discussing her thought process, which was very interesting to listen to.
Rona Yefman
Rona Yefman 'Owls'
3. On a more critical note. Choose a piece that may have given you a negative emotional response or perhaps a piece that should not have been in the exhibition. Be descriptive in explaining the piece and why you had this response.
Justin Kirchoff's 'Burning Tree' 2009 photograph to me just seemed to not fit in this exhibit. There is a man standing next to a burning tree, and due to the exposure time the motion of the smoke is blurred. I shouldn't be thinking about it only in this way, but after seeing all of the other photographs by different photographers I noticed was able to make small connections to each of those pieces. This piece to me wasn't very interesting to look at in terms of subject matter, there wasn't anything in the photograph that I felt a connection to. I like to get some sense of emotion when I look at a photo, but there was no emotion evoked when I looked at this.
Justin Kirchoff
4. Do you take photographs of your family? Why or why not? When you were young, who took the photographs in your family? Do you have a favorite family photograph?...if so please describe it.
My family can be pretty stubborn when it comes to taking their photos, so I have become pretty stealthy when photographing them because they always try to pose. Ideally I would love to take candid shots of them all the time, but they are too worried about looks to let me do that. My Grammy has always been the one person though that I try to photograph most, even though she hates her picture being taken most. She has been one of the most influential people in my life, so being able to capture how I view her is important to me. Recently she has become very ill; it's been hard to see her in the condition she is in, but I would like to photograph her as much as possible while I can. My grammy was always taking photographs of my family growing up, and then when I could get ahold of a camera I would run up to my family and take photos of them as well as myself. My favorite family photograph is probably one of my Papa and I when I was younger. It was Christmas and I was sitting on his lap in our living room with a Santa hat on, while he was reading me my favorite story, The Polar Express.
5. What three observations can you make about the entire exhibit, other than the obvious facts that it was about family and photography.
- The photographers had strong connections with the subjects in their photographs.
- Mostly all evoke an initial emotion in the viewer looking at their photographs.
- This exhibit embodied a wide range of moments that all of us experience at some point in our lives, allowing us to relate and connect.
6. Has the exhibition changed the way you think about making photographs? Why or why not?
I wouldn't say changed but rather encouraged me to think about the people in my life or that I pass by daily who interest me that I want to photograph and make it happen.
7. Define these printing terms:
Pigment print- When you use pigments of color instead of dyes. The pigments are affixed on the surface of fabric by synthetic resins which are then cured making the pigments insoluble. They pigments are applied in the form of water-in-oil or oil-in-water emulsions which in result produce bright colors.
Cibachrome print- The dye destruction process depends upon the bleaching of dyes that are formed wholly in the sensitized material, rather than formed during processing.
Chromogenic print- Some of the material that forms colored dyes upon development, the silver image is bleached out, leaving only the dye image.
Giclee/Iris print- Computer-controlled prints in which tiny droplets of ink are projected from nozzles onto paper.
Lightjet print- Three digitally controlled lasers (red, green, and blue) simultaneously expose the emulsion of the archival paper. Each laser varies in the amount of light used, to produce specific colors for each pixel.
Inkjet print- Computer printing process that creates an image by propelling droplets of ink onto the paper.
Lisa Lindvay and LaToya Ruby Frazier. These two photographers had the same bodies of work in terms of pertaining to a mothers role in a family and how much a mother holds a family together. Both artists have a sense of concern in their photographs, and as sense of real documentation of how certain aspects of life are affecting those families. They both also use their photographs in a more psychological sense than anything. In Lindvay's work, she focuses more or so on her siblings and father, and how they are filled with a sense of emptiness within their household now that their mother is ill. She captures the sense of absence, even though there are people in the photographs. Frazier's photographs focus on herself, her mother, and her grandmother as a whole. She is trying to explore the relations between them, as well as expressing their life experiences and how changes in her community affect them. Frazier is searching to find what a mother/daughter relationship is.
2. Choose one or two artists whose work you connected with the most. Describe why the piece spoke to you. Did you have an emotional response?
Rona Yefman's work struck my interest most while walking through the exhibit. I continuously kept on going back to look at her two photographs exhibited. What caught my attention initially was that they weren't photographs of what looked to be families, nor did they convey the same reactions from me, like I felt towards most all the other artists. The piece OWLS with the two people in it spoke to me most because I find it so incredible that she is trying to discover the difference between genders, while in the process breaking these gender normalities our society is programed to see. She makes the viewer think about what and who they are looking at, forcing us to open our mind up and freely view these people for who they are. She brings up questions and debates in this particular photograph, which is something I strongly admire in a photographers work. Ever since I was younger, I have never understood what is so wrong with people being something other than "the social norm", man loves woman, woman loves man, man acts manly, woman acts womanly. I've felt so strongly about this to the point of getting in debates and arguments with family members and friends. The way i've always viewed it is how does this affect me or you in any way? And i've always come to the conclusion that it doesn't affect me or anyone other than the people in that situation. To see her working through these pieces and making people look at these and accept it, or even start a conversation about it is really bold to me. I researched more of her work and came across a video of her discussing her thought process, which was very interesting to listen to.
Rona Yefman
3. On a more critical note. Choose a piece that may have given you a negative emotional response or perhaps a piece that should not have been in the exhibition. Be descriptive in explaining the piece and why you had this response.
Justin Kirchoff's 'Burning Tree' 2009 photograph to me just seemed to not fit in this exhibit. There is a man standing next to a burning tree, and due to the exposure time the motion of the smoke is blurred. I shouldn't be thinking about it only in this way, but after seeing all of the other photographs by different photographers I noticed was able to make small connections to each of those pieces. This piece to me wasn't very interesting to look at in terms of subject matter, there wasn't anything in the photograph that I felt a connection to. I like to get some sense of emotion when I look at a photo, but there was no emotion evoked when I looked at this.
Justin Kirchoff
My family can be pretty stubborn when it comes to taking their photos, so I have become pretty stealthy when photographing them because they always try to pose. Ideally I would love to take candid shots of them all the time, but they are too worried about looks to let me do that. My Grammy has always been the one person though that I try to photograph most, even though she hates her picture being taken most. She has been one of the most influential people in my life, so being able to capture how I view her is important to me. Recently she has become very ill; it's been hard to see her in the condition she is in, but I would like to photograph her as much as possible while I can. My grammy was always taking photographs of my family growing up, and then when I could get ahold of a camera I would run up to my family and take photos of them as well as myself. My favorite family photograph is probably one of my Papa and I when I was younger. It was Christmas and I was sitting on his lap in our living room with a Santa hat on, while he was reading me my favorite story, The Polar Express.
5. What three observations can you make about the entire exhibit, other than the obvious facts that it was about family and photography.
- The photographers had strong connections with the subjects in their photographs.
- Mostly all evoke an initial emotion in the viewer looking at their photographs.
- This exhibit embodied a wide range of moments that all of us experience at some point in our lives, allowing us to relate and connect.
6. Has the exhibition changed the way you think about making photographs? Why or why not?
I wouldn't say changed but rather encouraged me to think about the people in my life or that I pass by daily who interest me that I want to photograph and make it happen.
7. Define these printing terms:
Pigment print- When you use pigments of color instead of dyes. The pigments are affixed on the surface of fabric by synthetic resins which are then cured making the pigments insoluble. They pigments are applied in the form of water-in-oil or oil-in-water emulsions which in result produce bright colors.
Cibachrome print- The dye destruction process depends upon the bleaching of dyes that are formed wholly in the sensitized material, rather than formed during processing.
Chromogenic print- Some of the material that forms colored dyes upon development, the silver image is bleached out, leaving only the dye image.
Giclee/Iris print- Computer-controlled prints in which tiny droplets of ink are projected from nozzles onto paper.
Lightjet print- Three digitally controlled lasers (red, green, and blue) simultaneously expose the emulsion of the archival paper. Each laser varies in the amount of light used, to produce specific colors for each pixel.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Artist Lecture: Henrieke Strecker
Henrieke was incredible to listen to and get lost in her stories pertaining to why she creates the photographs she does. Photography is so much more than just pointing the camera and pressing a button. It is less about documenting a moment, but giving account to the small movements in life and experiencing the meditation of waiting. She focused not so much on the processes of creating her photographs, but her philosophies, spiritual beliefs, and life experiences. This was refreshing to hear, because so many artists get so fixated on the technical aspects of their work, when to me personally the emotions being evoked by the audience and the artists ideas and passion for their work means so much more. She allowed me to reflect on my work and really think about what it was i'm trying to say. In her early work, she said she was doing a lot of self portraiture and her mother made a comment about how she only took photos of herself. Her response was that she was trying to discover herself through these photographs. I was able to relate to this as most artists can, but I have been doing many self portraits recently and still don't know what they mean to me.
Henrieke talked about what is essential in life, to use your intuition, and to let time flow through the camera as it does through oneself. I believe in each one of those comments, mainly for the reason that they all relate to how we live our lives and go through every day. She made a statement that there is no difference between life and art. This couldn't have hit me any harder. My art helps me to make sense of my life, as well as making sense of other artists lives. It allows me to open up my mind and body and embrace the aspects of life I most love. This artist lecture with Strecker became more about the philosophical, spiritual, and experimental qualities that are embedded in art for me. While I admired her physical work, I more deeply admired the language of her work and the way she spoke of it.
Scouting Locations for Narrative
I road my bike around to some of my favorite spots in Portsmouth that I can best envision my narrative photos. There are some places I still haven't gone an shot yet but will scope them out as soon as possible. Some of these places I plan on using some artificial lighting such as the LED lights and the Tota lights. I do prefer using natural light for many of my photos such as early morning light, so that may be an aspect in some of these photographs as well.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Persona work in progress critic
In the responses I received from the class I was very happy with the feedback,and was helped to realize a few improvements I can make in these photographs. I was suggested to move the position of the camera in order to view my form from different angels. I think this will help give the photos more variety as well as create more ways of expressing my body and movement. Many asked why I did my photos in black and white, opposed to color. Honestly, I just prefer black and white photography over color, but will be interested to try and see how they look in color. I think the reason I prefer black and white is because in B&W for me, there is more focus on the subject and emotion in the photography instead of the colors of the subject and background. The last recommendation I noticed from a few people was to try taking the photos in a different location to give more variety in the setting. Different settings will definitely be something I try more of, but these photos were taken in my bedroom, which is the environment I planned for them to be in. I plan on shooting more in different areas in my bedroom. Overall I'm still working out the kinks in this project, I had done a set of self-portraits last fall which embody the same kind of awkward, playful, seriousness and I'm continuing shooting to try and figure them out myself. I'm a pretty outgoing person, but still have my own self-concious qualities that I think about. Hearing back these responses from the class really helped me to start realizing the meaning behind my own self-portrait photos.
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