Artist Lectures

Patrick Kelley

His photographs capture his entire surroundings, 360 around and up and down. It is an impossible space because we cannot see all of this at once like the picture is showing. It must be manipulated on a computer. We have to move around to see everything and the only way for a camera to capture the entire space is to take multiple pictures. His work shows us everything, not just pieces like photographs usually do, so in a sense it is more realistic. If we were to go where the photo was taken, this is everything we would see, it is distorted, but it is everything. It does not really have a frame like a regular photograph, which only shows us one view of the place.

Richard Avedon Lecture

Frank Good year talked about how Avedon took his pictures and how he treated the people he photographed. It is interesting how he can capture such a personal portrait of someone when he only wanted a few minutes with the person and did not want to get to know him or her. He tried to have a "brief, intense intimacy" with each person and he did not tell them what to do or how to pose. I guess this could capture the truth of a person better than a posed portrait or one taken by someone who knows the person well because Avedon does not have any previous ideas of the person or who they are or should be in front of the cameras.

Paul Roth talked about Avedon's work and how it changed throughout his life. Avedon's pictures challenge people's belief that they know famous people. He photographed people when they were not at their best. His portraits were a surprise to the public because they usually saw famous people at their best.

"Annie Leibovitz at Work"

Here is a new a book by Annie Leibovitz from amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375505105/ref=amb_link_82707291_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-1&pf_rd_r=1QGPH4BTFHB9ZK47VGWR&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=464184351&pf_rd_i=1

For the semester long project, my partner and I focused on watermen and the impact of development on their careers. We specifically looked at St. George's Island. It's about twenty minutes up on Rt. 5, a little bit past Tall Timbers. It is a really beautiful area that shows the change in the county. There are plent of nice, new houses built up next to old shacks that are falling apart. Its worth taking a trip up there.

Anyway, my partner and I interviewed a waterman, Shelley, whose family has been in the business for generations. My partner interviewed and I took a few pictures. During the interview, I was reminded of the Richard Avedon lecture. In the lecture, the speakers dicussed Avedon's tendency to photograph standing on the side of the camera to have a more personal shoot and capture more realistic portraits. I could definately sense that Shelley was conscious of my photographing, and I'm not sure that he was completely himself. I tried to get involved and make him feel more comfortable, and I could tell that he was beginning to relax by the end of the interview.

I was also reminded of the lecture when I printed the photographs and showed them to my partner. She was in the frame with Shelley, and some of the images which I thought captured the two of them best she disapproved of. This brings up the different motivation of the photographer and the subject. I wanted to capture the sene in which I thought that Shelley and my partner looked most natural and most like themselves. However, my partner was more interested in looking "good." This, from my experience, is very common. I think that, in this sense, it is hard to please everyone. The subject has a different perspective on the image and although the photograph may be wonderful by many standards, if the individual does not feel that they look their best, they will likely be unhappy. Kissinger, for example, asked Avedon to "please be kind to me" and various individuals were unhappy with their portraits. However, many of these portraits are seen as great photographs by other individuals. This is an interesting concept and it experiencing it first hand helped me to understand.

my gallery talk

This work is a series of photographs titled “Time Away.” Not all of the images in the series were displayed in the gallery today due to space restrictions. The photographs were produced by shooting with a medium format camera, scanning the negatives into the computer, and printing them using a laser inkjet printer. The images form a narrative without a concrete plot. Some of the images are portraits, while others come across more as landscape images with figures in them.

I understand this work as being about slowness of perception and careful awareness of our surroundings and about respite and a break from routine. My world, and almost everyone else’s, is chaotic and fast paced. I find myself longing for a chance to slow down and rest. I rest at night, yes, but I don’t rest my senses per say and I definitely don’t rest my mind because I am not slowing down enough. in we are constantly inundated with visual and other sensory information. This flood of easily attainable stimulation and information causes us to pay less attention to our surroundings. Why work to obtain information when so much is just given to us, almost forced upon us, via television, the internet, magazines, food packaging, etc? I fear that this phenomenon will expand to have more negative effects on our senses and ability to perceive. Thus, I aim to create photographs that give a sense of slowness that causes the viewer to engage with them more fully. With the work I am trying to call upon viewers to slow down, savor moments, and pay closer, more careful, attention. I often do this by eliminating information from a photograph by specifically highlighting through selective focus and cropping what I want the viewer to engage with.
(talk about focus in Kanga and Uphill- allows for confined reading, full experience of only one aspect)

I also want the images to convey a sense of rest, similar to that which is achieved on vacation. However, I do not want the images to read as snapshots that were or could have been taken on a vacation. During a critique it was brought up that the images were reading in this way because of their uniform size and printing. People felt as if the photographs were moments that had been captured and were being played back, as if in a filmstrip. In order to move away from that reading I though about how the way I present the work effects the meaning. For this exhibition, I am tackling this through size. Changing the sizes of some of the images helps to convey that they are more or less important to the series and in conveying my ideas. I think that changing the size of some of the images causes them to read less like snapshots because they will not be so repetitive, as snapshots from vacations often are. It also causes the reading of the series to slow down because the larger images will take longer to process.

I am taking on a more minimalist approach; give the audience minimal information and make them do work, in this case with their eyes. I don’t want to rock the viewer’s world by making a bold, loud image. I want the viewer to use their senses and become more invested in the world that is already present.

"Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye" (2003)

Hello fellow photographers,

  I hope everyone's project is going smoothly.  Anyway, I watched this documentary on Henri Cartier-Bresson, exploring his life and work.  It tells the story of how his photographs shaped the emerging field of photojournalism. This is one documentary you won't want to miss!  Here is my response to the documentary:

Henri Cartier-Bresson photographs are from all over the world such as the United States, France, Germany, etc.  He was always interested in the actual shot.  He never enlarged the photo because he liked the original shot.  In my opinion, his images are so powerful and mysterious.  He focuses on capturing the perfect moment in time and place.  Other photographers in the documentary have learned a lot from looking at Cartier-Bresson's photographs.  One mentions that there is a mysterious link between the people and the things around them because his photographs, people are doing some kind of action.  In my opinion, one picture that I was attached to was the photograph of the children playing in front of the Berlin Wall.  There is this sense of innocence surrounding the reality of violence relating to the Berlin Wall.  

 

While running through his photographs, there is a musical feel to them.  Piano music is playing in the background throughout the documentary and there is one point where he is pretending to play the piano while look at his photographs, which was pretty interesting to me.  It is interesting to me because of the way he moves his head while look at the photographs; it is similar to how a person plays the piano.  The hands moving across each page of photographs relates to the hands moving across a piano.  It reminds me of the years I spent playing the piano as a young girl.  

 

Here is a quote from photographer Arthur Miller: "America is a place of extremes.  If you look at these extremes, it can be tragic."  Looking at his photographs taken in the United States, we are being reminded of our history and culture.  In my opinion, a lot of us may forget about our history and photography is an excellent reminder of that history.  Cartier-Bresson photographs every aspect of extremes Americans faced throughout history such as the Great Depression, World War II, segregation, etc.  I agree with what Miller says because it is both tragic and powerful to look at these photographs and be reminded of American history.  

In conclusion, Henri Cartier-Bresson is probably the most influential photographers in photography because he increased the emergence of photojournalism as well as inspired a lot of upcoming photographers of his time.  His photographs have a structure to them.  He expresses his love of geometry through the discovery of lines and rhythms.  He believes that geometry is the foundation that makes a good photograph.  I agree with him because there is sense of perspective in his photographs as well as imaginary lines.  In all, Cartier-Bresson is telling us about himself when telling about the world through photography.  

YouTube Video on Street Photography

Hello fellow photographers,

   I found this YouTube video on Street Photography by Felix Lupa, a photographer from Israel.  His images look so powerful; he captures the perfect moment.  Enjoy it!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sev2zzZLTs&feature=related

http://www.felixlupa.com/ (Here is his website) 

final written assignment

Oh yeah everyone... don't forget about the 3-5 page written assignment for this class. I almost forgot! I think it's due on the final presentation day, but I might be wrong. Does anyone know?

Never buy camera batteries again!

Ok, so I just got out of my chemistry class and we were talking about piezoelectricity. I will attach a short explanation from Wikipedia, but essentially it is created by pushing two poles (same energy sides, like in a magnet) together. When the weight is lifted off, the poles will push away from one another since they repel naturally, and create electricity! They were talking about using them in cell phones because they can be small or anything else where movemet or sound vibrations will actually cause the battery to charge. For example, if you have this piezoelectricity in your camera, and you move around to take pictures... the movement will charge the battery! Or if you have a digital camera, you will never have to recharge the battery again. I know chemistry and photography is interrelated, but I just thought this was really cool. Sadly, it's really expensive and the government is fooling around with it, so it's kindof off limits to everyone else. Here's hoping for the future thought!

Wikipedia excerpt:
Piezoelectricity is the ability of some materials (notably crystals and certain ceramics, including bone) to generate an electric potential[1] in response to applied mechanical stress. This may take the form of a separation of electric charge across the crystal lattice. If the material is not short-circuited, the applied charge induces a voltage across the material. The word is derived from the Greek piezein, which means to squeeze or press.

The piezoelectric effect is reversible in that materials exhibiting the direct piezoelectric effect (the production of electricity when stress is applied) also exhibit the converse piezoelectric effect (the production of stress and/or strain when an electric field is applied). For example, lead zirconate titanate crystals will exhibit a maximum shape change of about 0.1% of the original dimension.

The effect finds useful applications such as the production and detection of sound, generation of high voltages, electronic frequency generation, microbalances, and ultra fine focusing of optical assemblies. It is also the basis of a number of scientific instrumental techniques with atomic resolution, the scanning probe microscopies such as STM, AFM, MTA, SNOM etc, and everyday uses such as acting as the ignition source for cigarette lighters and push-start propane barbecues.

Megasonic cleaning uses the piezoelectric effect to enable removal of submicrometre particles from substrates. A ceramic piezoelectric crystal is excited by high-frequency AC voltage, causing it to vibrate. This vibration generates an acoustic wave that is transmitted through a cleaning fluid, producing controlled cavitation. As the wave passes across the surface of an object, it causes particles to be removed from the materials being cleaned. The technology was originally developed by the U.S. Navy as an element in anti-submarine warfare.[2

Final Project Proposal

Hello again,

   I want to clarify what my intentions are for the final project.  If I was not clear at the critique this morning, I apologize.  Here is my plan: I will have 5 photographs depicting space that have personal meaning to myself; 3 of these photographs will be areas on campus that I am familiar to me as well personal meaning;  the last 2 photographs will be areas off campus that I have explored for the semester long project.  So, thats it for now.  Good luck!  

"Motozine ZN5 Makes Pictures Equal to Calls"- NY Times

Hello fellow photographers,

   I found this interesting article about this new camera phone and its features.  I figured I would go ahead and share it since camera phones have been brought up in class; everyone seems to laugh when the subject is brought it.  The beginning  has a funny satire.  Take a look at the cartoon below the title before you start reading.  Pretty funny!  

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/technology/personaltech/04pogue.html?8dpc

NY Times Article on Ray Mortenson

Hello fellow photographers,

   Here is a wonderful article on photographer Ray Mortenson called "Crumbling South Bronx as a Muse."  During the 1980s, Mortenson photographed abandonment in the South Bronx of New York City.  His photographs are so powerful like they are taking us through history.  It relates back to our semester long project.  My partner and I focused on abandonment in St. Mary's County.  Enjoy it!  

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/arts/design/01brok.html?_r=1&ref=design