Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Passage of Time
"The very expression ‘the perception of time’ invites objection. Insofar as time is something different from events, we do not perceive time as such, but changes or events intime. But, arguably, we do not perceive events only, but also their temporal relations" (Le Poidevin, Robin).
"It is humbling, after all, to realize how insignificant we really are. Yes, we have the gall to change our planet, and threaten all living beings on its fragile surface. But, still, in the grand scheme of things, we’re a grain of sand in a vast and beautiful ocean. We’re totally irrelevant. I find this to be oddly reassuring and calming" (blogs.discovermagazine.com).
Tomaschoff, Gideon, Stuart Reid, Odon Wagner, Rafael Wagner, and Laura Peturson.Passage of Time: Gideon Tomaschoff. Toronto, 2006. Print.
One of my earlier posts was about time. This post is a bit different from the ideas I had last semester. I was more interested in photographing immediate changes in environments, over a short period of time. Like photographing trees or grass as the wind is blowing. Now I'm thinking more about the passage of time, over many, many years. When I think about that, I think back to the ghost towns and abandoned buildings I photographed while traveling cross-country. We've been talking too, about how my images suggest a passage of time and places where people once settled, only to leave. Traveling and passing through places momentarily is what I have been thinking about a lot. There's something sad and bittersweet about these places. They are places where families may have convened and businesses flourished. It's interesting to me, to think about those people and how their lives have changed since they left the place I'm photographing.
"It is humbling, after all, to realize how insignificant we really are. Yes, we have the gall to change our planet, and threaten all living beings on its fragile surface. But, still, in the grand scheme of things, we’re a grain of sand in a vast and beautiful ocean. We’re totally irrelevant. I find this to be oddly reassuring and calming" (blogs.discovermagazine.com).
Tomaschoff, Gideon, Stuart Reid, Odon Wagner, Rafael Wagner, and Laura Peturson.Passage of Time: Gideon Tomaschoff. Toronto, 2006. Print.
One of my earlier posts was about time. This post is a bit different from the ideas I had last semester. I was more interested in photographing immediate changes in environments, over a short period of time. Like photographing trees or grass as the wind is blowing. Now I'm thinking more about the passage of time, over many, many years. When I think about that, I think back to the ghost towns and abandoned buildings I photographed while traveling cross-country. We've been talking too, about how my images suggest a passage of time and places where people once settled, only to leave. Traveling and passing through places momentarily is what I have been thinking about a lot. There's something sad and bittersweet about these places. They are places where families may have convened and businesses flourished. It's interesting to me, to think about those people and how their lives have changed since they left the place I'm photographing.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Stacey Evans
Stacey Evans is somewhat of a local artist. She studied in the Art Foundation Program at VCU and received her B.F.A. in Photography from Savannah College of Art and Design in 1995. She works as a professional photographer; working with small businesses, publications, and educational establishments. She teaches at the University of Virginia Art Museum, Piedmont Virginia Community College, and St. Anne's Belfield Middle School.
"TRAINSCAPES is a photographic exploration of the American life and landscape from the vantage point of an Amtrak passenger. The photographs observe history, capture the present and suggest future possibilities. They exhibit the atmosphere of varying days, structures found in the built environment and patterns of nature" (Stacey Evans).
"At a specific moment my goal is to frame bits and pieces of the world passing in a fraction of a second. My photographs express how our land is developed through the power of human interest and force of nature. As an artist I search for the unspoken story" (Stacey Evans).
This photographer was actually recommended to me, I had never heard of her or her work. Looking through the work on her website, I was fascinated by her Trainscapes series. Each photograph was taken from a moving train. I have always liked photography because of its ability to freeze time. Creating a whole body of work from a moving train is really appealing to me. I really liked her quotes, listed above. Her ideas kind of tie into things I have also been thinking about with my own work. She talks about her work "expresses how our land is developed through the power of human interest and force of nature." That relates to my work and trying to capture places that were once used by people and then abandoned. My work is based on travel and going through places, always being on the go. Evans's work is definitely inspiring to me as I continue working on my own series.
"TRAINSCAPES is a photographic exploration of the American life and landscape from the vantage point of an Amtrak passenger. The photographs observe history, capture the present and suggest future possibilities. They exhibit the atmosphere of varying days, structures found in the built environment and patterns of nature" (Stacey Evans).
"At a specific moment my goal is to frame bits and pieces of the world passing in a fraction of a second. My photographs express how our land is developed through the power of human interest and force of nature. As an artist I search for the unspoken story" (Stacey Evans).
This photographer was actually recommended to me, I had never heard of her or her work. Looking through the work on her website, I was fascinated by her Trainscapes series. Each photograph was taken from a moving train. I have always liked photography because of its ability to freeze time. Creating a whole body of work from a moving train is really appealing to me. I really liked her quotes, listed above. Her ideas kind of tie into things I have also been thinking about with my own work. She talks about her work "expresses how our land is developed through the power of human interest and force of nature." That relates to my work and trying to capture places that were once used by people and then abandoned. My work is based on travel and going through places, always being on the go. Evans's work is definitely inspiring to me as I continue working on my own series.
Stacey Evans, Smoke Stack, 2007
Stacey Evans, Lofts, 2007
Stacey Evans, Tanks, 2007
Stacey Evans, Mississippi River, 2007
Side note: Evans is not backed by a gallery; however, she has had numerous shows all across VA and some in GA.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Darkroom
"In the end, it isn't nature that one responds to in this work so much as the craft of the darkroom, and this response only reinforces one's feeling that nature, in this case, is somehow being "used"-that it may be only another resource exploited in the interests of a technological feat" (Richard B. K. McLanathan, Gene Brown).
"Only the camera is allowed to pass into paradise in order to bring back evidence of its superior attributes-superior precisely because of their untouched purity and their distance from the dead hand of human intervention" (Richard B. K. McLanathan, Gene Brown).
McLanathan, Richard B. K., and Gene Brown. The Arts. New York: Arno, 1978. Print.
This post is in reference to my last meeting. We had talked about working in the darkroom for awhile and I'm finally starting to get everything together to make that happen. What I had been doing last semester with the homemade paper was my way of being able to do more than just take an image. I've always been really interested in painting and knitting and other hand crafts. I like being able to work with my hands and make something happen. I love photography but sometimes I want more. I haven't worked in the darkroom in a long time, besides processing film occasionally. I'm excited to get back in the darkroom, mixing chemicals and messing around with my paper. The darkroom is such a sacred place to me. It's more to me than just being in the dark, printing images. I enjoy touching the paper, smelling chemicals, feeling the air from the ventilation shafts. It's all part of an experience, one that I think ties into my work and the whole experience that my images give me.
"Only the camera is allowed to pass into paradise in order to bring back evidence of its superior attributes-superior precisely because of their untouched purity and their distance from the dead hand of human intervention" (Richard B. K. McLanathan, Gene Brown).
McLanathan, Richard B. K., and Gene Brown. The Arts. New York: Arno, 1978. Print.
This post is in reference to my last meeting. We had talked about working in the darkroom for awhile and I'm finally starting to get everything together to make that happen. What I had been doing last semester with the homemade paper was my way of being able to do more than just take an image. I've always been really interested in painting and knitting and other hand crafts. I like being able to work with my hands and make something happen. I love photography but sometimes I want more. I haven't worked in the darkroom in a long time, besides processing film occasionally. I'm excited to get back in the darkroom, mixing chemicals and messing around with my paper. The darkroom is such a sacred place to me. It's more to me than just being in the dark, printing images. I enjoy touching the paper, smelling chemicals, feeling the air from the ventilation shafts. It's all part of an experience, one that I think ties into my work and the whole experience that my images give me.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Meg Birnbaum
Meg Birnbaum currently lives in the Boston area. She works as a graphic designer and photographer. She first started using the Holga in 2006 and has continued to use it as her primary camera ever since. Birnbaum attended a year long Photography Atelier at Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study. She has had solo shows in Japan and New York and group shows in the U.S. and China. Some of her favorite artists are Francesca Woodman and Frantisek Drtikol.
"From her botanical photos to her scenes from county fairs to her almost fantastical world in the "Fly by Night" portfolio, Meg's work stimulates our imagination and our memories of events both lived and only dreamed of..." (Paul Giguere)
Birnbaum "creates otherworldly B&W images of everything and everyone, often shooting with a plastic camera to create atmospheric stills" (dailycandy.com).
I chose Megan Birnbaum as this weeks artist because of her exclusive use of plastic cameras. I really like her imagery, especially her series Corn Dogs and Blue Ribbons. That series was shot at state fairs. I love her images because of their nostalgic, old time feeling. That's part of the reason I shoot with the Diana, because I love that nostalgic feeling I get when looking at my photos. I think it lends a hand when I talk about places where people have been that have been abandoned and left to rot. When I look at Birnbaum's work, I think of memories of times past. I feel almost wistful when I look at her work. That's the kind of feeling I would like to elicit with my work. I think I'm getting there, especially with my images from out West.
http://www.thoughtsonphotography.com/to_p_0041_interview_with_meg_birnbaum
http://davisortongallery.com/
http://www.megbirnbaumphotography.com/index.htm
"From her botanical photos to her scenes from county fairs to her almost fantastical world in the "Fly by Night" portfolio, Meg's work stimulates our imagination and our memories of events both lived and only dreamed of..." (Paul Giguere)
Birnbaum "creates otherworldly B&W images of everything and everyone, often shooting with a plastic camera to create atmospheric stills" (dailycandy.com).
I chose Megan Birnbaum as this weeks artist because of her exclusive use of plastic cameras. I really like her imagery, especially her series Corn Dogs and Blue Ribbons. That series was shot at state fairs. I love her images because of their nostalgic, old time feeling. That's part of the reason I shoot with the Diana, because I love that nostalgic feeling I get when looking at my photos. I think it lends a hand when I talk about places where people have been that have been abandoned and left to rot. When I look at Birnbaum's work, I think of memories of times past. I feel almost wistful when I look at her work. That's the kind of feeling I would like to elicit with my work. I think I'm getting there, especially with my images from out West.
http://www.thoughtsonphotography.com/to_p_0041_interview_with_meg_birnbaum
http://davisortongallery.com/
http://www.megbirnbaumphotography.com/index.htm
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Confusion
Side note: Sorry for posting this so late Lauren!
"Almost all the ideas we have about being a man or being a woman are so burdened with pain, anxiety, fear and self-doubt. For many of us, the confusion around this question is excruciating" (Andrew Cohen).
"As one gets older one sees many more paths that could be taken. Artists sense within their own work that kind of swelling of possibilities, which may seem a freedom or a confusion" (Jasper Johns).
Camp, Joseph L. Confusion: a Study in the Theory of Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2002. Print.
This post is in response to my mid-term critique. After the critique I felt more confused than I ever have concerning this work. I'm not really sure what to think anymore, whether or not the same things are still important to me. Meditation, which I used to rely heavily on, isn't as big of a part of this work anymore. When I photograph different environments I take time to acclimate to my surroundings but I'm not actively mediating anymore. I guess being in the environment and just shooting photographs is a way of meditating for me now. It gives me a chance to really look at my surroundings and concentrate on the things that are most important to capture. In a way this post is a tool for me to figure things out, to rationalize things and bring things up to myself that I hadn't really considered. My plan for now is to keep on shooting and keep experimenting. After seeing the Kathy Rose lecture, I'm really focused on trying to let my subconscious take over and figure things out when I'm done.
"Almost all the ideas we have about being a man or being a woman are so burdened with pain, anxiety, fear and self-doubt. For many of us, the confusion around this question is excruciating" (Andrew Cohen).
"As one gets older one sees many more paths that could be taken. Artists sense within their own work that kind of swelling of possibilities, which may seem a freedom or a confusion" (Jasper Johns).
Camp, Joseph L. Confusion: a Study in the Theory of Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2002. Print.
This post is in response to my mid-term critique. After the critique I felt more confused than I ever have concerning this work. I'm not really sure what to think anymore, whether or not the same things are still important to me. Meditation, which I used to rely heavily on, isn't as big of a part of this work anymore. When I photograph different environments I take time to acclimate to my surroundings but I'm not actively mediating anymore. I guess being in the environment and just shooting photographs is a way of meditating for me now. It gives me a chance to really look at my surroundings and concentrate on the things that are most important to capture. In a way this post is a tool for me to figure things out, to rationalize things and bring things up to myself that I hadn't really considered. My plan for now is to keep on shooting and keep experimenting. After seeing the Kathy Rose lecture, I'm really focused on trying to let my subconscious take over and figure things out when I'm done.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Maya Deren
Maya Deren was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film theorist during the 1940's and 50s. She was also a choreographer, dancer, poet, writer, and photographer. Deren started her schooling at Syracuse University and graduated from New York University. She got her M.F.A. in English Literature at Smith College. She was a key figure in the creation of New American Cinema, highlighting personal, experimental, and underground film.
"Although her eyes indicate distrust, she is not desperate to escape her domestic space, but she is not entirely comfortable immured behind the glass. This image symbolizes some of Deren’s most significant initiatives in experimental cinema" (Haslem, Wendy).
"It foreshadows her experiments with superimposition and the juxtaposition of disparate spaces. It is an image that suggests the most compelling themes of her film work: dreaming, reflection, rhythm, vision, ritual and identity. Like Cindy Sherman’s film stills, this image represents a poignant and hesitant moment, but unlike the photographs, Deren’s still shot belongs within a dynamic, kinetic narrative" (Haslem, Wendy).
I chose Maya Deren this week after we discussed her work in my weekly meeting. I remember seeing her work in a film history class and being struck by how eerie everything looked. She was the first female experimental filmmaker that I looked at. I really like the sound design within her films, especially her film Meshes of the Afternoon. There is no sound in the film, just the soundtrack which was done by Teiji Ito. Rhythm plays an important role in the film, it speeds up deliberately at certain times. I really enjoy the surreal nature of her work and it inspires me to make my own film work somewhat surreal, kind of like the work of Pipilotti Rist. Her sound design is also really inspiring, I myself really enjoy messing around with rhythms and heavy beats within a sound piece and seeing her work made me want to revisit my sound pieces and rework them.
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/deren-2/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0220305/
Maya Deren does not have an artist website, the closest thing to it is an IMDB page that was made for her.
"Although her eyes indicate distrust, she is not desperate to escape her domestic space, but she is not entirely comfortable immured behind the glass. This image symbolizes some of Deren’s most significant initiatives in experimental cinema" (Haslem, Wendy).
"It foreshadows her experiments with superimposition and the juxtaposition of disparate spaces. It is an image that suggests the most compelling themes of her film work: dreaming, reflection, rhythm, vision, ritual and identity. Like Cindy Sherman’s film stills, this image represents a poignant and hesitant moment, but unlike the photographs, Deren’s still shot belongs within a dynamic, kinetic narrative" (Haslem, Wendy).
I chose Maya Deren this week after we discussed her work in my weekly meeting. I remember seeing her work in a film history class and being struck by how eerie everything looked. She was the first female experimental filmmaker that I looked at. I really like the sound design within her films, especially her film Meshes of the Afternoon. There is no sound in the film, just the soundtrack which was done by Teiji Ito. Rhythm plays an important role in the film, it speeds up deliberately at certain times. I really enjoy the surreal nature of her work and it inspires me to make my own film work somewhat surreal, kind of like the work of Pipilotti Rist. Her sound design is also really inspiring, I myself really enjoy messing around with rhythms and heavy beats within a sound piece and seeing her work made me want to revisit my sound pieces and rework them.
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/deren-2/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0220305/
Maya Deren does not have an artist website, the closest thing to it is an IMDB page that was made for her.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Self
"The third dimension, that of reflectivity, derives from the human capacity to make both the world and our own existence objects of our active regard, to turn a kind of mirror not only on phenomena in the world, including our own bodies and our social relations, but on our consciousness too, putting ourselves at a distance from our own being so as to examine, judge, and sometimes regulate or revise it" (Seigel, Jerrold).
"The universe of objects and their relations that science makes intelligible to us appears as it does because of the way our minds work in giving order and stability to the raw data of sense-experience'; it is a world we create" (Seigel, Jerrold).
Seigel, Jerrold E. The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe since the Seventeenth Century. New York: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print.
This is something I brought up in my meeting earlier today, this idea of incorporating myself into my images. I'm still trying to figure a lot of things out, like who I am or what my purpose is and what my art means to me and other people. I've been really confused for a lot of this semester and I think I had the idea to incorporate myself into my images to make more sense of how I feel and maybe give myself a sense of purpose. After talking about it in the meeting though, I feel a lot more confident that even though I'm not physically represented in the image, the image represents me and the experiences I had in that place. Another person could go to the same spot and they couldn't take the same image I did. That's what makes my experience unique, it will never be experienced again. Just showing my collection of photographs shows off a whole collection of experiences I have had and those are specific just to me.
"The universe of objects and their relations that science makes intelligible to us appears as it does because of the way our minds work in giving order and stability to the raw data of sense-experience'; it is a world we create" (Seigel, Jerrold).
Seigel, Jerrold E. The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe since the Seventeenth Century. New York: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print.
This is something I brought up in my meeting earlier today, this idea of incorporating myself into my images. I'm still trying to figure a lot of things out, like who I am or what my purpose is and what my art means to me and other people. I've been really confused for a lot of this semester and I think I had the idea to incorporate myself into my images to make more sense of how I feel and maybe give myself a sense of purpose. After talking about it in the meeting though, I feel a lot more confident that even though I'm not physically represented in the image, the image represents me and the experiences I had in that place. Another person could go to the same spot and they couldn't take the same image I did. That's what makes my experience unique, it will never be experienced again. Just showing my collection of photographs shows off a whole collection of experiences I have had and those are specific just to me.
Kathy Rose Question/Response
1. Are you able to get your ideas across better when you do video/performance work as opposed to drawings?
2. Why is integrating yourself into your work so important?
I really really enjoyed Kathy Rose's lecture. First of all it was really inspiring to see her work on a big screen like that. I had looked at some of her animations and drawings on her website but nothing compared to seeing her videos blown up like that. I was most impressed with her sound design; it was really easy for me to become entranced with the images when the sound was so incredible. The sound is what captivated me originally and it kept me interested in what I was watching. I really liked a couple of things that she touched on in the lecture. She said that she didn't really think about what she was making, she just went along with what her subconscious dictated. She thinks about what she does later. Also, I liked how she didn't really describe her work at all. It kind of goes back to what we discussed in my meeting on Wednesday. The artist is responsible for their work but that doesn't mean you have to explain every thing that goes into it. I really liked how unpretentious Rose was as well. She didn't use "art speak" at all, which was really refreshing. She even brought up how "art speak" annoys her, especially words like contextualization. We talked about it in my Contemporary Issues class too and the conclusion that I came to was that it's important to be able to speak about your work so you can explain it if you have to and be able to talk to other people about it as well as for when you want to write grants or submit to competitions. However, I don't think "art speak" is the be-all and end-all of art. I really don't understand why there is kind of this divide between those who speak "art" and those who don't. Maybe it's about status or this idea that the more you give off this idea of being an "artist" the better you will be. I don't know, it's all pretty heavy stuff. Kathy Rose's lecture gave me a lot to think about as well as renewed motivation to work on things that I kind of let fall to the side, like my film and sound work.
2. Why is integrating yourself into your work so important?
I really really enjoyed Kathy Rose's lecture. First of all it was really inspiring to see her work on a big screen like that. I had looked at some of her animations and drawings on her website but nothing compared to seeing her videos blown up like that. I was most impressed with her sound design; it was really easy for me to become entranced with the images when the sound was so incredible. The sound is what captivated me originally and it kept me interested in what I was watching. I really liked a couple of things that she touched on in the lecture. She said that she didn't really think about what she was making, she just went along with what her subconscious dictated. She thinks about what she does later. Also, I liked how she didn't really describe her work at all. It kind of goes back to what we discussed in my meeting on Wednesday. The artist is responsible for their work but that doesn't mean you have to explain every thing that goes into it. I really liked how unpretentious Rose was as well. She didn't use "art speak" at all, which was really refreshing. She even brought up how "art speak" annoys her, especially words like contextualization. We talked about it in my Contemporary Issues class too and the conclusion that I came to was that it's important to be able to speak about your work so you can explain it if you have to and be able to talk to other people about it as well as for when you want to write grants or submit to competitions. However, I don't think "art speak" is the be-all and end-all of art. I really don't understand why there is kind of this divide between those who speak "art" and those who don't. Maybe it's about status or this idea that the more you give off this idea of being an "artist" the better you will be. I don't know, it's all pretty heavy stuff. Kathy Rose's lecture gave me a lot to think about as well as renewed motivation to work on things that I kind of let fall to the side, like my film and sound work.
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