Croix Gagnon / Frank Schott

Frank Schott is a photographer who collaborated with Croix Gagnon to photographically reconstruct a dead inmate who donated his body to science. Each image is constructed by shooting long exposure shots of an animation held up by an assistant. The animation represents the data set of the male cadaver, featured on the Visible Human Project. Variations in the movement of the computer create different shapes of the human body during shutter exposure. What I think is interesting about this project is that it seems to express the ghost of the dead prisoner through an artistic aesthetic. It uses fine art as a tool to reconstruct a dead body, a task normally taken on by those in the scientific field.
Project 1231

Larrie Thomson

Larrie Thomson is a Canadian night photographer I found online. He takes long-exposure shots to enhance the color and intensity of his work. He primarily uses moonlight to light his subjects. I am interested in long-exposure night photography, particularly of the solar system. Some of his photographs feature the stars in motion over a period of time. You can see the streaks of light that stars make across the sky as the earth turns. I always appreciate an artist that allows you to see the world in a different light after viewing his or her work.

Andy Tan has done a lot of editorial work and is based out of the Netherlands. What I love about this particular photograph is that it doesn't look like a portrait so much as a landscape of a human. Particularly on her right side, where the light creates just the smallest highlighted lines to give the contour of her face. There's such a dramatically intimate look about her with the dramatic lighting and soft lines about her lips and nose. There is a subtle variation in the colours, especially around the shadows, where it fades into an almost green shade, which I find mesmerising. Also, as far as consideration, I love the faint contrast between her lips and face that shows how much he [or possibly she] took care to insure that the make-up did not create a bright, poppy contrast.

Andreea Anghel

I saw this photo a while ago and it has been one of my favorites ever since. I don't think Andreea Anghel is that famous of a photographer but in my opinion she should be. All her work is beautiful, she also does a lot of mixed media art and uses her degree in graphic design to alter some of her images. The subtle tones through out the whole photo, just make it such a relaxing image for me to look at. There is also a bit of contrasting colors on her fingernails on the right hand. Thats something that I over looked several times before realizing it. In my opinion this photo is a perfect representation of color and light. The crop was also a really nice choice, not having eye contact makes the photo less about who it is and more about what is in it.

Tim Navis

Tim Navis is a great photographer because the variety of his photography. He is versatile as a photographer and he proves that he isn't confined to the definition of a specific photographer. He does editorial shots but also travel, portraiture and landscape photography. What draws me most to him is that he is commited to his series and has such a wide range of subject matter. My favorite series that I saw was his collection "Aria Hotel". He works a lot with double exposure, Long exposure and Bokeh photography. This series has movement, light and color. He is definitely someone that I am inspired by for this assignment coming up. This photograph drew me to him most.T he lines that are created through light create movement. The multiple layers in his photographs add depth and really make the photograph unique. His other series are strong as well. He really seems to embrace light and uses it to his advantage.

I would definitely check him out- http://www.navisphotography.com/

Mark Mawson- Mark is a really intresting photographer. He has a lot of commercial work but his best stuff is deffinatly his personal stuff. In everything he does you can see his love for color. Some of my favorites are his underwater stuff. They're perfect examples of how much attention he pays to all the color he has in his images, right down to the nail polish his model is wearing. I've tried underwater photography and it's really hard to get the light to do what I want. In his photographs the light is always in the perfect place in the composition. I also think it's really intresting the way he uses light as more of a second subject than just an element.

Fine Art Photographer: Joseph Szymanski

Joseph Szymanski is a Fine Art Photographer that I recently found online. Looking at his work I found one photo in particular that I enjoyed. Being introduced to our project of light and color and how they interact. I thought that although this photograph is in black and white, there is so much value within this image. The main light source, the window, which is extremely bright and surrounds the subject of the photo leading up to the patterned carpet to the foreground which is distinctly darker. This photo of his does a great job representing light and color.

More photographers on videosss

I just thought some of you might enjoy this!

http://camerabag.tv/

1000 photos assignment

I think that we had to take 1,000 photographs because it's a way of pushing ourselves, and you can't grow and learn without doing new things. I think that most people, and definitely me personally, had never had an assignment to take that many photographs. To me, this presented an opportunity to try new things and to apply what I learned technically in the first class to my work. Towards the end I was mostly worried about getting the number of shots, rather than trying so hard to produce a quality image. Interestingly enough though, this pushed me to use what was around me and to try new techniques like light painting that I had never tampered with before. They weren't amazing pictures by any means, but I tried something new and in that way, I grew as an artist.

I believe that by rating every single image, we are forced to look at and analyze every photograph that we take. Normally, I would just delete the ones I didn't like, but now I'm forced to view them and click a button that says I don't, which leads me to wonder why? Why did I give this photo the single star of shame? By realizing what I dislike about those images, I'm providing valuable insight for myself on what to improve on. Likewise with the images I do enjoy, I can start to even see trends and patterns in what makes a photograph pleasing to me.

1000 Photos

I think we were had to take that many photos so we could see our diffirent strengths and weaknesses. I've never had a huge bulk of images like that before so I was never able to see patterns like I could in this assignment. If I hadn't taken so many images I don't think I would've realized that I trust what my camera says too much, or that I'm more comfortable shooting verticlly. Looking through all the images and rating them was time consuming but I think it's going to save a lot of time in the long run. Now I know which ones were successful and which ones wern't. I can go through and see them all togeather and once I've rated them I'm able to see why some are four-five, and why some only got one.

Why 1000 photos?

We were asked to shoot 1000 photos for practice. I thought of it as a learning exercise. I personally, had never used the manual setting on my digital camera and like many others in the class, needed practice. This assignment gave us an opportunity to get used to the camera while taking pictures of whatever we wanted. I also believe we were assigned this to get used to taking pictures. The amount of pictures needed made us go to places we normally wouldn't and gave us an opportunity to experiment with new ideas and new settings on the camera.

Rating every single picture was boring, however I think it was also a good exercise. Going through every picture forced us to review EVERYTHING. Usually I skip over pictures i immediately don't like, but having to rate them made me think more in depth about the photograph. By doing so, it should be easier to find the best ones by looking at the rating and hopefully easier to group.

We need to get used to shooting the camera all the time, in different situations, different times of the day, when you have an opportunity to take a great shot, you need to be prepared, and taking 1000 images just got me warmed up for the rest of the semester. Its great practicing, and its the best way to learn. Especially in this digital era, we can manipulate and play with the exposure, so why not take advantage of shooting all the time, and being able to fix your problems first hand. Looking back over your photos that you take is very important. I take a lot of photos and don't care about how many I'm taking and don't worry, the ones that are overexposed and underexposed or really blurry, I delete, but I usually keep all of them and then upload the photos right away and decide then which ones are better then others, I would rate them but I just think it takes way too long to do it so I don't, but it's a good habit to start doing. Honestly, I just make a folder that has my "best" work, but its still good practice, and helps organize your work a lot easier.

1000 Images

I have been using all manual settings on my camera for a few years now so I was already familiar with it. Even though this exercise wasn't useful for me in that way (other than for good practice which is always necessary), it was very useful for me to go through my photos after taking them and take notes on them. The note taking was very helpful because I was forced to notice similarities and trends in my work. As I mentioned in class, I noticed that my strongest images had more negative space. Now that I'm aware of the lack of negative space in many of my images, I can actively look for negative space. The other thing I noticed is that I am attracted to diagonal lines. Trends like these can be fixed or at least noticed in the future.

I think we had to rate them to realize what intrigues us in a photograph. When we know what intrigues us we can look for it when we are photographing. It's all part of the process of being intentional!

helen's answers!!

why did i have to take soooo many photos?
practice, practice, practice. that is the real answer. it helped to get aquainted with how everything in a camera is connected. one must learn the beauty of aperture and shutter speed and iso and exposure before anything else can be set forth. with taking so many photos, i have set myself up continuing my photography, but in a whole new realm. a more realistic, sensitive one, that is. i felt more in touch with the camera and felt each photograph more my own.

why did i have to go through all 1000 photos and rate them all?
i had to rate them all because that can help sort out which apertures and shutter speeds may or may not work well together. again, it was a practice. it helped me acknowledge what types of angles and perspectives i primarily shoot for. it helped me learn that i shouldn't be repetitive and instead should plunge into something new and unfamiliar.

Why 1000?!

I think that shooting so many photos was a good lesson on how to use our cameras. I have been shooting with my camera for over three years now but actually going out and shooting so many photos forced me to think of new ideas and concepts for my camera. I learned that I liked more conceptual shooting rather than blatantly shooting objects. I think this assignment was about learning from experience. I feel like I got a chance to start over and really learn about

myself and photography. In the past year I feel like I lost my need to photograph. I really enjoyed this project because it forced to me back into photographing daily. I also think it was a great way to experiment with different exposures, shutter speeds and ISOs. It was a general assignment so I felt the need to get creative with the settings of my camera, lighting and subject matter.

Why do I have to look at them all and rate them?

Looking at and rating the 1000 photos helps me be critical with myself. I found myself giving out more 2s and 3s stars rather than 4s and 5s stars. I think it is true that you are your hardest critic. I think that we had to do this in order to be able to be proud of our best works and learning from our mistakes in our lower quality works. I think that this gave me the opportunity to reason with myself why each photo deserved its rating. I think it is important to be passionate about a good photo that you have taken.

Why so many photos?
 At a basic level, I would say that we needed to become acquainted with our cameras. Since digital cameras have made it so easy to photograph mindlessly, it was important for a lot of us to understand how to function our cameras. But I would say that it was also important for us to see the themes in our composition and content. Possibly, we could make note of a prominent subject of ours and perhaps why it fascinates us. While I learned to quickly adjust my shutter speed and aperture settings as well as choose different ISOs, I also made note of a common theme as far as composition and content: a majority of my photos seemed to be of things that were forgotten or left behind, and a lot incorporated narrowing the frame to exaggerate how far forward the subject was.

Why do I need to look through and rate them?
I need to rate them because it is important to recognise my strengths and weaknesses. Also, I will be able to more easily notice any compositional tactics which I may have found interesting at the time but perhaps realise are overdone in my body of work. In addition to being able to view my photos as a massive collection, I can see what works or doesn't work in different settings. This way, I can remember how to treat lighting and exposure in different situations and adjust accordingly as well as have a quick point of reference by sorting through all of my pictures by rating.

1000 images

I believe that we were made to take 1000 images because the instinct to bring a camera wherever you go needs to be ingrained into our heads. As photographers, our mission is to capture life. I, personally, always feel as if the best opportunities to take pictures happen to me when I've left my camera at home. In addition, the assignment inadvertently creates a reflex action on our part of adjusting the exposure quickly and efficiently. Operating the DSLR on manual mode should be second nature to a photographer; something he/she doesn't even think about.
Why were we made to rate every image? I think we were asked to do that because it gives us a start to making a routine when uploading the photos. Also, you will be able to call up all the 4 or 5 star images quickly instead of sorting though the crap pictures you've taken to find the gold. It makes you really LOOK at the image in order to judge how successful it is. It's a good way to self-critique.

Why did we have to take 1000 images ? Hmmmm, my guess would be to get use to taking a lot of photos, incase we weren't already. For me this assignment made we think about what was around me all the time, at every second. The hardest part about this assignment was getting started, but once I started 1000 came up sooner than I thought it would.

Looking through all of the images made me see my strengths and weaknesses, so when I went out to shoot again I kept those things in mind. It also showed me some things I wish I did slightly different, which helped me take my time and and really think about framing and angles. Rating the image is helpful for me especially because sometimes I have a problem critiquing my own work. Which is something every photographer needs to learn how to do.

Why did I have to take so many photos?

I think that the reason why we had to take so many photos was to get to know our cameras and the settings on the camera. As I shot more and more pictures I became a lot extremely comfortable with the settings on my camera. I also noticed when I should be using certain apertures, white balances and ISOs. These settings became much more natural to me as I shot my photos and when a problem occurred with these settings after a few shots I knew how to fix the settings to take a better photograph. Taking these photos really helped e to figure out my camera.

Why do I have to look at all of my images and rate them?

I think the reason for looking at all the images is to figure out as a Photographer what I am interested in. I figured out that I am interested in photographing graffiti, old buildings and textured surfaces. Looking at them I also noticed that I took a bunch of the same compositions but, I changed the settings to figure out what photo I would like the best out of the bunch. Rating the photos helped me understand which photos I did like the best. It also will help me in the future with organizing my photos. While rating my photos I also noticed that a lot of my photos were out of focus, over exposed or under exposed. Using the rating system I gave these photos ones and realized that I didn't take a lot of pictures that I adore.

1,000 Photo Assignment Response

Why did I have to take so many photos?

I had to take 1,000 photos because it strengthens many of the basic skills I have had to learn in the first few weeks of studying photography in a structured environment. In my case, I was forced to learn through experience the basic controls of my camera, such as aperture, shutter speed, and white balance, as well as learning my way around shooting in RAW. In addition, having to take a large quantity of photographs by a certain deadline forced me to open my eyes more than I ordinarily would to opportunities for photos.

Why do I need to rate all my photos?

Rating my photographs forces me to reckon with the quality of each image. Taking the extra small step to assign a rating to something makes you think about it in such a slightly critical way that you may form a more developed opinion about it. If it isn't what you like, your assigning a rating compels you to think, "This deserves one star because..." instead of just deleting and not thinking critically about your work. On top of that, seeing what you rated highly could tell you about what you gravitate towards in a way that you might not see, or conversely, what you have been doing poorly that you might improve.

Fun times with a 1000 images!!

Taking 1000 images allowed me to learn what my camera can do and how to better utilize it. I learned that when zooming into your subject not only does it bring everything closer to you so your aperture automatically changes it gets smaller. It gave me the opportunity to better understand shutter speed, and the use of different apertures so I can better determine what to use without relying so heavily on the light meter in my camera. It allowed my work to be freer and not staged which is what I’m use to and made my work feel care free and fun. Taking my camera with me helped me to capture a wide range of subjects from buildings, plants and people. Concepts started to flow on what I might want to do as a final project. Most importantly I learned that my Yankees cap photographs better than a Boston Redsox cap LoL.

Going through 1000 images lets me see what images were successful and the images that weren’t. Looking at each image allowed me to begin a process of how to manage, view and store the pictures that I take. By placing stars next to the picture that I feel are good images allows me to filter on what pictures I like and if I need to enhance any image I can easily find the ones that might need the most work due to how there ranked. Looking at each image via the cpu let’s me get a better idea of where I would like to go as far as a concept, composition, subject. The preview on your camera can sometimes not translate to a full complete image due to its size. Viewing them in Adobe Bridge allows you to gain better detail of what you’ve captured through your lens.

WHY!

Practice makes perfect, right? Taking a thousand photos forces us to do stuff. It forces us who are particular and picky about our shots to just snap the shutter. It forces us to set particular shutter speeds and apertures and ISO’s, constantly, always aware of them. It forces us to work on impulse, as a noun – to kind of be aware of our spur-of-the-moment shutter-snapping and why we do it instead of the usual, “oh, hey, picture!” Time management was a huge factor of this too, teaching me that if I see it and can make something out of it, snap a picture! Rather than being too considerate of my shots, for assignments like this one.

I don’t like judging photos from thumbnails or small versions of the image very much, but I think it was good for me because it forced me to preview everything that I took. It also sort of helped me develop how to rate photos and what to base the ratings on. When looking for a style or a certain composition, previewing and rating thumbnails helps us see everything. I think rating prepares me for what is to come – hundreds upon hundreds of takes are often shot and maybe we need to begin to develop quick judgment at first, then knowing when to review what images. Plus, it’ll come in handy when searching through for an image/images.

One Thousand Photos

I think that the reason why we had to take 1,000 photos was to become more comfortable with our camera's manual settings, and to learn more about ourselves as a photographer. By taking this many photos, one is able to examine what subject matter, compositions, colours, and other things of that nature that they are drawn to. I learned that I have a fascination with old and decaying buildings or objects. Also, taking 1,000 photos in manual mode makes figuring out and setting the exposure, aperture, and white balance a quicker process. It's only natural that after doing something 1,000 times, that one becomes much faster with it. Another reason for taking so many photos might just be so that we, as a class, could learn to "see" the world in terms of art, and not names/specific objects.

The next question is, why did we have to go through and rate them all? I believe that the act of going through my work and rating every photo, really taught me to see how hard I am on myself with my pictures. I was also able to see trends, such as what types of photos I was continually trying to make work even though I only rated them one or two stars. Another reason for rating all of the photos is a bit more technical. Simply put, the photos are much more organized when they are rated. It's really nice to be able to only look at the photos I have rated 4 or 5 stars (AKA my best photos), and not have to continuously scroll through all of the rest. It's so much more direct. While I didn't enjoy the process of rating them all, I see it as a necessary evil.

-Rachael Quick

Going through 1000 pictures.

I believe that the reason we were asked to take a minimum of 1000 photos this past week was for us to practice the act of photographing in itself; to make it, if not already a habit, almost like an automatism. I also think this assignment was an efficient way to start learning how to see (by that, i mean actually S.E.E, look, study &such), to accustom our eye to picture thing, through a frame and lense as well.

Furthermore, looking back and rating these photos one by one (ignoring the fact that it is indeed! very time consuming!) gives us the opportunity to analyse our ways of photographing; our use and arragment of composition, colors, light and all other various effects. We get a better idea of what we like and what we want as a final result. Plus, we can also discover new things; new concepts or new technics that could be interesting as a next experiment.

So my point: All is beneficial!

Lynsey Addario

In the last year or so I have come across Lynsey Addario's work a few times. She is one of the well-known current photojournalists. I have seen her work in several magazines and have stumbled upon her work online, too. She tackles serious subjects like war in the Middle East,  self-mutilation, and Tuberculosis.

Technically, I am attracted to her use of negative space. One thing I'm beginning to realize is the strength of negative space in a photograph. Another thing she really has mastered is using color to add to a photograph, but not to rely on color as the subject of the photograph. Often times color is given too much importance. 

Speaking just on how her work makes me feel, I am blown away. Her images are shocking and concerned. I can tell how much she cares about the issues she is shedding light on. I admire her sense of purpose and duty in sharing her work with the world.

Alex Stoddard is only 17, but his photography is nothing short of breathtaking, at least in my opinion. He goes all out on his self-portraits to not only illustrate the concept in his head, but to do it well. He started off with a '365' project, where he took a different self-portrait every day. At the beginning, he didn't even know how to operate his camera beyond the auto setting, and didn't really shoot for a concept. He let his art lead him, and now has a stunning variety of original and inspirational conceptual self-portraits.

Splash is a great example of how he's not afraid to go all out for a good photograph. He's not concerned about looking good, so much as getting an emotion or concept across and I believe that this is shown strongly through this particular self-portrait.

Torbjorn Rodland released a book of his photography in 2008 entitled "I Want To Live Innocent." I discovered this book in the library and when I opened it this photograph was on the first page. I love the creativity of this shot and how well it is executed. In my opinion it's perfectly framed, close enough to see the detail and far away enough for the image to tell a story. This photo was featured in one of his shows in Los Angeles entitled "Heads, Hands, and Liquids." The falling drop of goo coming off the apple is something that gives the photo something so much extra. Without the drop, it still would have been a good photo, but that detail takes it to a new level for me.

When he took this shot, in my opinion he made all the right choices. I think this being outside using natural sunlight was a much better choice the making this a studio shot. Thats how most of his work is done, in his entire book I didn't see any photos that were taken in a studio. Plus using a child instead of an adult represents so much innocents, which made me think about the tittle of the book and why this photo was on the first page.

Terry Richardson

Terry Richardson evokes a reaction in almost anybody who is aware of his work, whether it is positive or negative. Personally, I believe that Richardson is a scummy, dirty old man who drops any sense of professionalism in the studio. However, I like his style of photography. He brought a new angle to fashion photography, shooting more minimal and personal sets with models rather than grandiose and conceptual events, encouraging them to bring out their personality rather than to frame the merchandise. That's what I like most about Richardson: his photos are filled with energy. Take this photo of the late Amy Winehouse. She was always a wild person, and it shows. She leaves almost nothing to the imagination, what with the obvious symbolism of having a cock between her legs. Richardson is known for his graphically sexual content, and he really makes this image gross, frankly. Her teeth are on display, her manner of dress is something akin to what you'd see late at night on the Vegas strip, and there's something about the sterile bright white background that gives it a serious contrast to the content. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing. The lighting is so harsh and her pose is so crass that it just reeks, which speaks volumes about the kind of person that Winehouse is/was. Her personality is captured very well. The relationship between model and photographer is very important, and Richardson connects very well with people. Terry Richardson may be disgusting as a human being, he may rub people the wrong way a lot, but he embraces himself shamelessly and wholeheartedly and his work shows it. He is genuine. Genuinely gross, perhaps, but genuine.

matt stuart

i honestly don't know many digital/color photographers. so i had to randomly search for some online. i came across matt stuart. he's simple. he's raw. he's real. he allows life to settle down, to capture this street photography. i feel like we had similar styles, as well. as matt states: "I can’t hide behind lights and technology, I am reliant on a small Leica camera, patience and lots of optimism. But what I get in return is the chance to make an honest picture which people know immediately is a genuine moment and which hopefully burrows deep into their memories."

i found this pigeon photo with people walking to and from who knows where to another destination. this pigeon has purpose. the pigeon is dignified, right alongside these business workers or whatever they may be. the use of color is fantastic. everything is so minimal, mostly being kept to blacks and greys. but the feet of this pigeon completely pop. this is simple street photography, but all the more accurate. it's more documentation than an art, i'd say.

This photograph is by Gilad Benari, and is titled "A Reflection of Romance." Gilad Benari is a free lance photographer from Israel that I have been following for a long time now. Recently, he has been experimenting with natural reflection, usually found in puddles or bodies of water. He takes the originally image and flips it vertically, so that it looks like the reflection is "reality," and reality is the reflection, if that makes sense. In this image, much like the others like this that he has done, the reflected image has a dream like quality. It looks as if those people are in another dimension, almost. The vivid colours and hazy appearance of the reflected image make it seem as though it is not even real. Then, at the bottom of the reflection, is the reflection of their shoes, which looks perfectly normal. This lets the viewer know that it is, in fact, real. The part that I love about the way the image is flipped, is the metaphor I get from it. It is as if the photograph is telling the viewer that this couple prefers their own surreal world to the real world. Their world (or at least, that is how I interpret it) is on top, which makes it more important. The real world, AKA the image of their shoes at the bottom, is small and on the very bottom. It seems insignificant. I also love how, in the reflection, the couple is really the only thing you can make out. Everything else just looks like some mysterious, colourful shape. One thing I do not like, is the orange text on what I presume to be stairs. At first glance, it looks like a timestamp from a point and shoot camera. It might be because it is text, or it might be because of the orange juxtaposed next to a mostly red and blue/purple photograph. It could even be both. Also, I used to hate the railing being there, but now I love it as it shows the viewer even more strongly that the bottom of the photograph is reality. This photographer, along with a few others, have inspired me to try more with angling things, or messing with settings, or anything really, to make photographs seem a bit more surreal.

-Rachael Quick

Inspiration Photograph

Ignacio Torres is more recent than most photographers. He graduated in 2010 from the University of Northern Texas with a BFA in photography but currently works in New York City. His whole body of work was just so inspiring and motivating to me. He works not only with photography but he experiments with cinemagraphs. Cinemagraphs are photographs that are .gif files in which there is isolated movement. It has both film and photography aspects to it. I think that his work over all is diverse. He works with photographs, cinemagraphs and film.

As I was looking to find a photographer that I actually appreciated I stumbled upon his series called “Stellar” on the Internet. Usually I would have just continued to stumble upon other artists and kept one in mind but his work demanded further exploration. This is one of the series that involved the cinemagraphs. The series is all about human movement and how it relates to the universe. My favorite thing to photograph is a person because I am interested in movement, emotions and culture. He photographed his subjects as in an ethereal sense as they float in some of the photographs. He also uses the environments around him such as the sun to make it look like his subjects are protruding out of the sun. He uses some kind of dust or sparkle in his photographic series to mimic a galaxy. His work is not something that can be described through words to understand. As the artist describes this series he says that it “…began from the theory that humans are made of cosmic matter as a result of a stars death.”

One photo of this series that I like best does not seem to have a name. The subject is a jumping man interacting with the dusk’s sun. I love the interaction between the two subjects. I love that the almost silhouetted figure is in a dramatic pose that causes a lot of tension. I love that the photo is so simple but because of the small animation with in it, it because busy and full of drama. I love the aspects of the galaxy effect but I think that this photo is stunning and forced me to stare at it. Ignacio Torres is definitely one of my new favorite photographers and I look forward to his future work.

If the Cinemagraph does not work please go to his website and check on this photo and his other work. http://ignacio-torres.com/projects/stellar/

Inspiration

Being new to photography I don’t have any favorite artist but this class is challenging me to find and explore artist in the field.

So I’m searching and searching looking at pictures and whose the photographer, reading and learning more about their work and their beliefs as artist and I stumble upon Carrie Mae Weems. I found her art in place I would never have thought to look at “Life + Time” blog but here she was with some of her most current work entitled “Slow Fade to Black” which is homage to great African American singers like Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson and so on. Her work spans many mediums, photography, printing, video’s and she touches several topic in her work family relationships, gender roles, the histories of racism, sexism, class, and various political systems.

This one piece I drew to the most it may have been because I’ve used the image before or it could be just the words that she use’s to correspond with the image. Whatever it was I’ve gone to the site to look at it several time taking in the color choice that was used and asking what if anything did it represent the blood from being whipped what ever it is the color seems to evoke an emotion none the less from anger, sadness. The image alone speaks volumes but the addition of her words that’s etched into a glass frame brings life to the piece.

I’m glad to say I’ve found a new source of insperation and a fellow artist to follow and learn more about. Checkout this PBS specail she was in talking about the collection called “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMo5ki2dvb8&feature=player_embedded

Brad Carlile has very colorful photographs. When I first saw his work I instantly fell in love, its not really my style but the colors and layering of the double image in this series, Passage Perceptions, is beautiful. Its funny I thought the images were digitally manipulated, but I was wrong they are all done on camera/film. He uses a medium format camera to make multiple exposures. The shutter is open at various times through out the day to create the vibrant colors. I really enjoyed his photography especially his Passage Perceptions series, and I agree with his concept. His concept was actually really understandable and I really like the way he came up with his idea, it made sense, how the colors are true, with no manipulation, very well done.

This was in his artist statement for Passage Perceptions: "...The Dalai Lama wrote that as your insight into the ultimate nature of reality is deepened you will perceive phenomena as illusion-like. I have created a world in my photographs to create both a feeling of wonder and to have the viewer participate in the exploration of these experiences."

Cole Barash has done a lot of snowboarding photography, which is one of the reasons I started looking into his work. I really respect that he still uses film for his personal shoots (or when companies are okay with it) and tries to show more than just what an athlete can do. I love this shot in particular for a few reasons. The way he incorporates diagonals does something really interesting, in my opinion, since it makes it more about the board and the action than who's doing it. This doesn't seem to be about vanity or selling anything. Instead, he uses the high contrast to keep only the silhouette, which I find really beautiful. I think he's managed to capture more about the sport of snowboarding and the passion in its practise that gets lost in the advertisement inherent to professional snowboarding. His snowboarding series is at http://colebarash.com.

James Maher is a street photographer from New York City. His website jamesmaherphotography.com, is where I discovered his work not too long ago. At first Photography was a hobby while in college for Maher. However as his passion grew much larger as he learned more about cameras. He took classes and went back to school to study Photography. Now he works as with assisting commercial photographers as well as his freelance work.

A photo that I particularly enjoy by Maher is one that was posted on his website on June 6^th, 2011 in the post “Outside of Pianos, Midnight, Stanton and Ludlow, LES”. This photo was shot with a tripod on the Lower East Side of Manhattan at 1/8 at F4.0, ISO 800 (83mm). There are many things that attract me to this photo. For one the subject is completely in focus while the background is extremely busy and out of focus. Maher accomplished this by setting up a tripod in the middle of a street at an extremely low shutter speed. I also really enjoy the lighting on this photo it’s warm and dim, while the highlights are bright and shadows are dark leaving a lot of contrast. It’s really interesting to see a street photographer that takes up close and personal portraits of everyday people in their daily routine and environment.

Jeremy Saffer is one of my favorite photographers, particularly for his band portraits and some live shots at shows. It took me a while to admit that I like this portrait, despite the subject. I could care less about this person, Andy Biersack from the band Black Veil Brides. I don't listen to their music and I don't appreciate the band's appearance and style at all - in fact, I should just say I despise them.
Anyway, on Saffer's blog he admitted that the intense color in Andy's eye is raw - no editing was done to make it any blue-er than it already appears. The contrast amongst the colors is made strong by this one part of the portrait. His pale, probably powdered complexion is a stark contrast to everything else, which is a deep black. The setting was some time after the band's set at this past Warped Tour 2011, so the piece-y, greasy look of Andy's hair only adds to his "I'm so badass and smexy and I want you to see that" glare. The sharp shadows created from the slight snarl in his nose makes this facial feature another strong part of the image, leading my eye from his eye to his nicely-tinted lips, to the rest of his slightly annoying, dark attire. Even the rule of thirds sort of applies here, helping the blue eye become the center of attention. Cutting off the top part of the subject's head works here and is something I have tried to do in whatever people-portraits I shoot. I think it's because the portrait can do without; everything that you need to see about this person is there.

Eric Cahan has this whole sky series where he photographs sunrises and sunsets all over the country. Each photograph shows a range of diffirent colors. I love how simple his work is, and the way he only concentrates on the colors. The way he includes the entire sky in his photos, not just the part with the sunrise/sunset really sets him apart. I can appreciate landscape photography, but I've never really liked looking at it. Cahan's work, while it's still in the landscape family, is really intresting to me. If I didn't know better, I'd never think his photos where of the sky. A lot of them look like a painting or a gradient of color. I think I like this photographer so much because of his simplistic approach and the way he's able to make a photograph look like an abstract canvas.

I use to skateboard when I was 13 or 14 years old; but pushing the board was as good as I got and my best trick consisted in getting on and off the board while it was still rolling. I never learned how to skateboard, skateboard - that stuff is scary maaan - but watching my teen fellows destroy the street furniture was wildly amazing.

Hugh Holland documented the golden era of California skateboarding between the years of 1975 and 1978. He photographed people like Stacy Peralta and Jay Adams rolling/surfing down the streets at high-speed or looping around abandoned swimming pools. The light, the warms colors and the fluidity of the movements he captured transmit a full load of energy and summer feeling; his photos simply send me far off daydreaming! &Above all, what I also admire in Holland's photographs is the fact that he wasn't allowed to think twice. There were no second chances and he had to take his pictures in the moment, almost instinctly. Something i'd like to be able to do more.

Your 1000 Images

I want you all to keep something in mind this upcoming week when shooting your five sets of 200 images:  this is about releasing the shutter over and over again so that you grow comfortable with your camera.  This IS NOT about creating a masterpiece.  If it takes you hour after hour to finish your first 200, for instance, you're taking much longer than you need to!  Truly, each session should be NO MORE than 2 hours.

See you all in a week and a half.

Shane

Photos I Enjoy - Rachael Quick

This is a photo I took during my first semester at AFO. It is titled "Breaking Through." I have a fascination with things that are destroyed or decaying, then photographing them to either look beautiful or interesting. It's very difficult for me to say it is my favourite photo that I've ever taken, but right now I really like it. My favourites tend to change.

This photo is called "Trying To Be..." by Oleksandr Hnatenko from September 2005. I found this photo randomly when I was about 14, browsing the internet. I fell in love instantly and over time, this photographer has become my favourite photographer. His photos either bring some sort of emotion out of me, or are extremely aesthetically interesting to me.