From Maya Deren:

(All of this goes for photography as well, I think).

Nothing can be achieved in the art of film until its form is
  understood to be the product of a completely unique complex:
  the exercise of an instrument which can function,
  simultaneously, both in terms of discovery and invention.

 This dialectical complex, in turn, provides the emotional tension which propels any given work. To lean too heavily to one side or the other of this polarity is to take an easy way out and risk aesthetic impoverishment. Rather, the contradictory nature of cinema should be wholly embraced. Out of greater difficulty comes a potential for greater reward:

  This very profusion of potentialities seems to create
  confusion in the minds of most film-makers, a confusion which
  is diminished by eliminating a major portion of those
  potentialities in favor of one or two, upon which the film is
  subsequently structured. An artist, however, should not seek
  security in a tidy mastery over the simplifications of
  deliberate poverty; he should instead have the creative
  courage to face the danger of being overwhelmed by fecundity
  in the effort to resolve it into simplicity and economy.

Laurie Anderson

Anderson photographed men who cat called her on the street. Her artist statement says it all:

“As I walked along Houston Street with my fully automated Nikon.  I felt armed, ready. I passed a man who muttered ‘Wanna fuck?’  This was standard technique: the female passes and the male strikes at the last possible moment forcing the woman to backtrack if she should dare to object.  I wheeled around, furious. ‘Did you say that?’ He looked around surprised, then defiant ‘Yeah, so what the fuck if I did?’ I raised my Nikon, took aim began to focus.  His eyes darted back and forth, an undercover cop? CLICK.”

Through this piece she was able to take the power away from her male pursuers, giving them a momentary fear that they might be caught for something.

You can check out more of her work here.

responsibility

I think right now, my responsibility as an artist is to show people the significance of the mundane, not necessarily because it actually is significant, but to call attention to the fact that meaning is something we project onto the things of life. Meaning can exist anywhere, within anything, so long as we continue to open ourselves to the possibility of it. I find meaning in the possible connections between objects, places, actions--there has always been this orgasmic "aha!" moment when I see two things and realize they share something, whether or not what they share makes sense. It's free-association, just neural cross-wiring, and it motivates me to keep going. It fuels the passion that makes me excited to exist, even if only for a second or an evening. Right now, my responsibility lies in sharing this way of viewing the world in an attempt to make others excited about life. If enough of this happens, there will be enough passion and curiosity to power our survival, whether that survival is physical (in that our biological species will continue to grow and travel) or it resides within our accomplishments and expressions.



As a side note, if you're interested in neuroscience there's this amazing lecture that delves into the neurophisiology of art, the possible biological/electrical reasons why art exists for us humans. It's extremely fascinating, and I think every artist would benefit from reading :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/lecture3.shtml

Danny Lyon

Lyon is a largely documentary photographer (and filmmaker). He was born in New York in the early 1940s and is known for his documentary work about the civil rights movement in the 60s. While many photographers began rejecting traditional photojournalism in the 60s, Lyon embraced both the poetic potential of the medium as well as the significance of raising awareness about political and cultural situations, which I think is important. This approach/style is called "New Journalism," and calls for the photographer to completely immerse himself and participate in and with the subject.

These two photographs were taken during Lyon's trip to Haiti in the 80s.

This one belongs to a series he made about bikers.

and this one's just cool.

Jeff Bridges

We all know Jeff Bridges as an actor, but did you also know he was a photographer!?!?!?!?!

His work rocks. He uses a panning 35-mm (Wide-Lux) to shoot...panoramic scenes. Lots of his work documents the films he's been in, which is pretty neato, like a Jeff Bridges Scrapbook...exactly what it actually is. His photographs have been published in a book called "Pictures" which you can find on the 4th floor of our very own library.

and his website is really adorable, you should ....cHecK itOutT.   --->

Michael Lease

Michael Lease is an adjunct professor in our photography department. His work is highly personal in content, his images are very intimate. He pushes the idea that his work isn't necessarily meant for "contemporary eyes," but instead for future audiences. In his artist statement, he mentions that his work encourages (at least hopefully) thoughts about how time injects meaning into the mundane: 

these images ask the viewer to take the time to look, empathize, and consider that with time all things matter.

This idea is particularly present in his 2003 piece/ongoing work For The Lack of Words, a growing archive of subjective moments--a catalog of friends, family, and inconsequential situations that, he hopes to prove, will mean more over time through different eyes.

I love how he uses flash photography to highlight ordinary objects (a technique I mentioned in my presentation).

Freddie Wong

Freddie Wong, like the other two I just posted, offers helpful tips on visual effects for the low-budget filmmaker. He does lighthearted action films for youtube. I actually used his "realistic muzzle flare tutorial" for my last project.

Corridor Digital

Corridor Digital is a production company that frequently works with Bammo and Freddiewong. They make short special effects movies, and like the companies they work with, often post behind the scenes videos. Some of their effects are really cool, and they have substantial knowledge on making movies on a budget.

Weapons of Mass Production WOMP

Weapons of Mass Production is an indy filmmaker's goldmine. It's a youtube series devoted to exposing cost-cutting secrets to make your videos and photos look and sound awesome. They're based out of Bammo, a production company based out of California. They do a lot of lower-budget action and horror productions. You should definitely check out WOMP, and strongly consider watching some of Bammo's films. They often post "behind the scenes" videos on how they achieve effects, and they are very informative.

And here's one of Bammo's better short film series- "Sync"

Chris Verene

Chris Verene is that photographer I mentioned in class on Tuesday, who is also a performance artist. He takes photographs of his family's rural Illinois hometown of Galesburg for the past two decades. The photographs are unstaged and reflect a simple side of American life that might otherwise pass by uncelebrated.

According to my professor, who told our class to look him up for next period, he pretty much sells out his family for money. And if he really does, he must be doing something right because that work has been shown in museums like the Met and the Whitney and are adored by a big audience.

Here's his website!

Heidi Johansen

Heidi Johansen is a photographer and sculpter who works out of Norway. Her photographs aren't organized in a series, according to her website anyway. Most of them have a human subject, athough there are some landscapes.

Her sculpture work is very...interesting. It's whimsical and weirdly adorable.

Here is her website!

Charlie White

Charlie White is a photographer and filmmaker whose work has been shown around the world since 1999. His work involves teenage girls and the beauty of the body.
A series that he did called "Girl Studies" consists of animations, photographs, and his first film American Minor, which was selected to screen at Sundance in 2009.

Here's OMG BFF LOL animation series






American Minor was on Vimeo but it's unfortunately not anymore, which is disappointing. But here are some stills from the 35mm film:

Another cool series of his is his Teen and Transgender Comparative Studies.

Here's his website!

Tealia Ellis Ritter.

Tealia Ellis Ritter is an American photographer who was given her first camera at age six by her father,
subsequently, one of my favourite images of hers is the following (with the caption):

"My dreams are of my dad, alive doing mundane things" 

Her work explores a lot of ideas that I could really only sum up as "humanity" I really recommend you check out her stuff though:

http://tealiaellisritter.4ormat.com

Caspar David Friedrich.

Caspar David Friedrich was a 19th century gothic/romantic painter, who's most famous image is one you have probably seen before:

"The Wanderer" 

I like Friedrich's subject matter - how he takes these breathtaking landscapes and puts people in them - most of the time the people are so small almost to the point of insignificance: 

His use of scale in addition to the colours and the way they seem to blend into each other create really emotive, almost lonely images. I love how the sky always features a dramatic colour and how the light is present, but not overbearing.

Tewfic El-Sawy

Tewfic El-Sawy (there isn't much biographical information available online) is a travel photographer that mainly photographs Asia/India.

I love El-Sawy's use of colour - each image is really vibrant and a lot of his portrait work conveys a lot of information about the subjects, their environment and their relationship: 

telsawy.com

Final Exam

Thursday, December 13, 1pm.

Alan Sailer

Alan Sailer was undoubtedly inspired by Harold Edgerton in this series of high speed photos. He picked some really cool objects to photograph, especially the marble being shot through rubber bands. Surprisingly, he uses a one second exposure, but when the object is shot, a laser-beam triggers a powerful flashgun.

Check out more of his photos here.

Rune Guneriussen

Rune Guneriussen did a super cool site specific piece with lamps in nature. I love the bright colors she chose to have the lamps, which contrasts the environment nicely. The brightness of the lamps themselves also work really well, especially since he chooses to document the work later in the day.

You can check out more of his work here.

Ulric Collette

Ulric Collette is a Canadian photographer who alters portraits to explore genetic similarities in her subjects. In this series she splits the face faces of family members in half then combines the two halves to create a new portrait