IDEA POST: 2/25/2010 Thinking about my work

I just had my meeting with Paul yesterday and it is hard for me to think of other things but my project and how I am going to go about shooting. I have been thinking about the artists Paul told me about and how they manipulated landscapes in the way that they did. One photographed one location multiple time to capture all the blooms of a garden and put them all together in one landscape photograph that showed all the flowers in bloom at once. The other artist would photograph one location for several hours and composite chosen people and objects into one photograph. Both artist created these artificial landscapes.

I guess time is something that people will never be able to see, we know it is passing and we see things change but we never actually see time. I guess time is a lot like wind. We see clouds move and trees sway with each gust but we will never actually be able to see the wind.

This image is one of Scott mcfarland's where he took many photographs of one garden and showed everything at once all in full bloom/ growth.

For my project i am envisioning shooting an image of a tree, idealistically shoot in a perfect composition, with just a small subtle change, one portion or side of the tree will show a transformation from bare branches to buds starting to form leaves.
I also image shooting the ocean, and capturing many boats going by and showing many boats on the horizon at once.

I like how the artist I described above created imagery that was slightly off that makes the viewer wonder what is going on. That is how I want to effect my audience. Through the subtle clues i them to realize that I am showing time passing.

NEW ARTIST POST: 2/22/2010 Mile Coolidge

These photographs are from a series called "Street Furniture" by Miles Coolidge from 2008. I was immediately intrigued by these images because of the perfect/imperfect compositions they have. I mean a perfect composition because the subject (the furniture) are lines up perfectly in the photograph, but they are imperfect because they make your head turn when you look at them. Typically everything we look at you find your balance off of the horizon line, in these image the horizon line is screwed and the viewer tries to see it the correct way (usually by turning the head to make the horizon straight).

The questionable positioning of the elements in the photograph raise questions. I question why they are off balance and why the furniture is in the locations they are. Soon I realize these pieces of furniture are someones trash. Like seeing photographs of abandoned houses, these abandoned pieces of furniture make me wonder why they are being discarded and i wonder what memories are attached to these items.

IDEA POST: 2/17/2010 Death

It is really funny how things come around and influence the things we are working on. I am taking a Religions class called Death: Myth and Reality. In it we are studying what death is, and what death means in different cultures and religions. In the last class session the whole class was crying by the end.... I mean everyone. We were discussing euthanasia and the pros and cons for this controversial medical procedure. We were discussing situations where the patient is terminally ill and does not want to wait for it to get worse. We watched a documentary about this old couple, the husband was sick and losing muscle function quickly. He chose to be medically killed. I don't want to use the word "kill" but there really is not other word, but this is the act of being put to sleep and then given  medicine that stops the muscles from performing. Before the man was put to sleep, he told his wife, "Don't worry you'll know where to find me, I'll be at the Milky way and Little Dipper." Oh my gosh, I cried so hard.

But anyways One of the big points of this lecture and the class so far is about the meaning of life and the reality that cannot truly know the meaning of life until we know the meaning of death.We know what happens to the body when we die, but what happens to the consciousness??? Death is absolutely a huge part of our lives, we fear death, we fear the unknown.

Death is unpredictable. It can happen any time to any one. Our fragile bodies carry our consciousness, does our consciousness die with the body in death? I was occasionally taken to church as a child and Im not even sure what the Judio/Christian traditions say about where the consciousness goes. I know that every once in a while a hardcore religious person will approach me and ask if I am going to Heaven or Hell. How do we know what exists?? I think all these thoughts that are unconfirmed and we will probably never know the anwsers are the reasons that death is feared. I hope I learn not to fear death.

A book for the religions class is call "How we die" by Sherwin Nuland. She writes this book to tell us how we are most likely going to die and in doing so, suggests how we can live a fuller, more meaningful life. "'Oh Lord, give each of us his own death." This book is about the doors, and the passageways that lead to them; I have to tried to write it in such way that insofar as circumstances allow, choices may be made that will give each of us his or her know death." ( pg xvii How we Die)

For my project I want to really be able to speak about the value of life, not from a religious standpoint, but from a realistic awareness of the short time that humans live for.

VISITING ARTIST 2/16/2010: HANK WILLIS THOMAS

You cannot deny the power of an artist that is truly truthful, honest and inspirational.The Hank Willis Thomas lecture was just that. Thomas was so truthful in the way that he spoke and just utterly honest it as hard not to be entranced by his work and by his words.Thomas started off the lecture with a quote from Carl Hancock-Rus that expressed that there is not such this as "black" and "white." "Have you seen a white person before?," Thomas asked us, " you haven't."

Thomas's mother is a Photographer and an Art historian. He was really influenced by his mother but did not decide he wanted to be an artist until he was grown up. They did a beautiful collaboration piece together called, "Sometimes I see myself in you" where they combined their portraits together.

Sometime i see myself in you, 2008 Digital C Print 50" x 21"

Thomas's work as so much to do with branding. Branding with the interest that simple advertisement and imagery can build a billion dollar business. Thomas appropriates branding techniques to convey subjects of race, class and history in a easy to read and convey form. Here are a few examples where Thomas uses common advertisements to make a statement about the relationships or today to the times of slavery. Specifically the practice of branding of slaves, and the way that we are all branded by name brands today.
           
Branded Head, 2003, Light jet print, varible                      Scarred  Chest, 2004, Lightjet Print, varible

Hank Willis Thomas's work ranges from pieces like the ones above to ones where he deals with advertisements from years past, he deals with the beauty of black women and how the trends change. He works with concepts risen from the murder of his close cousin. The best thing about this artist is the way he speaks and how he is not looking for justification for things that happened in the past, but he makes connections between the past and things today. If anything I think this man is a bridge to understand the difference, or more the like lack of difference there is between people of different colors or backgrounds. We are all people.
At the end of his lecture I think we were all amazed by the video called "Along the way." It is a portrait of America. Watch a piece of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-1AZi7AUzE

VISITING ARTIST: 2/15/2010 Paul Pfeiffer

Morning After the Apocalypse, video installation, Paul Pfeiffer, 2003

Today's lecture was with Paul Pfieffer. His work deals a lot with photography and appropriated imagery and video. As he was speaking about his work, I often found myself very confused by his intent or the reasonings to why he create some of his odd pieces. 


One series called "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" is a series of more than four images of basketball players. Pfeiffer appropriates that images, and erases the contextual information for the photography, moving the figure to different areas of the court. The images of these players are interesting because they are of high tension moments for the players. I was confused by Pfeiffer when he said that the name of the series really had nothing in relation for the work. But later I read in an interview on Art:21 that he used the name from a historical reference of the history of evolution. He said that he was interested in the combination of the history of evolution with the dramatic ending or scene being displayed in the photograph.
It make me wonder why he didn't give that explanation during this lecture.


Pfeiffer really showed a great variety of work that spread over a good period of time. He works a lot with the ideas of erasing identity from images. I really admired his project in the World Trade Centers where they filmed eggs hatching and the chickens growing up in real time and played it back in real time on the televisions in the World Trade Center. When he was speaking about the video I pictured in my head something beautiful and graceful but when he showed a clip from it you see that it is a little rough and intense because it is very close up and ground level with the chickens. I think he was trying to remind people of the cycle of life but I would be interested to learn peoples reactions to the imagery.


Another work that I admired was the "Morning After the Deluge." In this work he took two real time videos of the sun rising and falling and turned one upside down and butted the horizon lines together. The end product was a beautiful film show the sun set and rise at the same time. The sun stays in the same spot on the frame and the horizon line moves up and down the page.


These two piece I have described really remind and influence the work I am working on now. Because I am focusing on appreciating everyday and realizing the time going by, these two works reflect the idea of the cycle of earth never ceasing.

NEW ARTIST POST: 2/14/2010 Kenneth Josephson

Polapan, 1973, from Ken Josephson portfolio, 1973/1975

Chicago, 1964



Stockholm, 1967
 
Anissa, Chicago, 1969

New York State, 1970, from Ken Josephson portfolio, 1973/1975

Kenneth Josephson
Represented by: Stephen Daiter Gallery http://www.stephendaitergallery.com/
Website: none

When looking through the list of photographers on the Museum of Contemorary Photography website this artist was the first that i clicked on today and I was amazed from the start. This photographer was born in 1931 in Detroit, Michigan. He started used the family camera at age 12 and purchased his own 4x5 two years later. Josephson's work is straightforward and in your face and that is what i love about them. It is not hard to figure out what is going on in the images but it keeps the audience asking "why?" and therefore retains their attention.

I love the style behind the three photographs where another photograph is used in the composition. It sees to tell a story of a past or a future of the location. It also seems to tell a secret or a story, so something that once way. They are just really visually appealing to me. The photograph of the little girl is almost alittle confusing when looking at it because it is hard to figure out which way the image was taken, but that is something that keep the viewers eyes lingering on it and asking questions.

The other two of the car and the sewer cap, i love just because he found this kind of evidence in the environment. i connect with these because they touch with the way I think when i go out to shoot. I like to wander and shoot the unexpected and the unseen beauty.

I really enjoy the direct connection with the viewer that is created with the composition. I hope my images can relate to the viewer in a similar way.

IDEA POST: 2/11/2010 "Carpe Diem"

"Carpe Diem"

Everyone knows the phrase that means, "Seize the Day". It is actually from a longer sentence Carpe Diem quam minimum credula postero. The whole sentence means "Seize the Day, trusting as little as possible in the future."

With the project I am working on this semester I am thinking about this idea of seizing the day and not wasting or taking for granted the time that is given to us. Also during this semester I am taking a class called Death: Myth and Reality. Basically in this class we are learning about death and how different cultures deal with things in different ways. I have learned and realized that we (human) fear death mostly above other emotions. Death is mysterious and undefinable and there is no way to know what happens to a person when they die. 

I remember watching scary shows when I was a kid, and there is one scary show that I watched that has always stuck in my head and it was about a person dieing but they were still conscious of what was going one even though the were pronounced dead. In my Religions class we are learning about the Buddhist religion and their beliefs about death. In the buddist religion they believe that a person is cycled as they die, and there is a period of waiting time that is kind like Limbo. Its all quite confusing but the point is that they believe that the cycle is bad and to be released for the cycle one must reach enlightenment through karma. We watched a movie about Buddist monks who read books the dying men to help them transcend through the cycle and they continue reading even after the person is dead because they believe that the "soul" stays in the body for a period after death. I thought is was interesting how they believed the dead man could still hear him and that I always remembered a similar story from my childhood. 

Anyways I ranted about all this because I have been thinking about the meaning of carpe diem in relation to the mystery of death. We fear death, therefore we appreciate every day more, but what would we think of life when we actually knew the facts about death. We know what happens to the body, yes, but we do not know what happens to the consciousness. 

ttp://www.myartspace.com/viewer/picture/?pictureid=mkhtrumnra1lbwz1

this link goes to a Myartspace page of an artist from Northern VA. The website would not let me copy it. It is a painting and the image reminds me of a certain kind of limbo, all the people look like souls waiting for their next placement in the world or their enlightenment.

This topic makes me question the importance of everyday, and it makes me question if it is really important or if your life on earth is just another kind of limbo waiting for the next path. 

NEW ARTIST POST: 2/7/2010 Mark Ruwedel

Northern Pacific #15, 2006, Photograph

Central Pacific # 18, 1994, photograph

Union Pacific #34, 1995, photograph

DeathValley: Ancient Footpath Along the Shore of a Departed Lake, 1995, Photograph

Marc Ruwedel

website: unknown

Interview:http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/along_the_western_rails/

Gallery Representation: Museum of Contemporary Photography

"The details. The weather. Getting off the Interstates, far from fast food stops. Discovery, disappointment, getting lost, the occasional bear or coyote. Being alone. A sense of the histories inscribed on the surface of the land."

- The interviewer asked Ruwedel what we are all missing out on that he is taking in the photographs. The quote above was his response. 

Mark Ruwedel was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1953. 

"Combining photographs of ancient trails and remnants of 12,000-year-old ceremonial sites with modern tire tracks and roads, Ruwedel questions how different these intrusions really are. " This is a description of his work on the MOCP website. He compares how the environment changes and how things we have created, like train tracks and systems are falling away just the same. I appreciate these photographs because of exploration that seems to happen during the creation of them. 

I hope to echo this exploration in the photographs I create this semester. I want my photographs to seem to be something  people would walk by everyday but not notice. i want to bring the passage of time visually on top of my images. 

IDEA POST: 2/4/2010 "time"

Alice sighed wearily. `I think you might do something better with the time,' she said, `than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.'
`If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, `you wouldn't talk about wasting IT. It's HIM.'
`I don't know what you mean,' said Alice.
`Of course you don't!' the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. `I dare say you never even spoke to Time!'
`Perhaps not,' Alice cautiously replied: `but I know I have to beat time when I learn music.'
`Ah! that accounts for it,' said the Hatter. `He won't stand beating. Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he'd do almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o'clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons: you'd only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner!'
- Lewis Carroll's Alice in wonderland and through the looking glass.

http://www.shurupov.ru/time/
For this post I really wanted to research some different things about time. In the link that is above it is a scenario laid out for the reader. It tells the reader to imagine they had a bank account where $86,400 are put in the account everyday, but at the end of the day any money not used does not carry over, it disappears. Then we realize this really isn't about a bank or money, it is about each day and the 86,400 seconds we get each day.

 I enjoy both of these clips because they are simple reminders of the time we are given. This is how I want my art to function. Both of these propose a serious question and give a light answer but it leaves the viewer thinking about it.

NEW ARTIST POST: 2/1/2010 Beate Gutschow

Beate Gutschow

website: unknown

interview with Creative Face magazine: link to interview

gallery representation unknown.

About Beate Gutschow: She was born in Mainz, Germany in 1970. Gutschow went to the School of Fine Arts in Oslo, Germany, as well as, the School of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany. She is widely know and has show her work across Europe and the United States. She took part in an Artist Residency at ArtSway and has shown her work at the Contemporary Museum of Photography in Chicago.

About Beate Gutschow's work: Gutschow's works is really about challenging the ideas of truth and fiction. In this series, LS Gutschow has constructed images of landscapes. In the images of "natural landscapes" she has collaged images to create the perfect landscape based of the rules of painting landscape from the 17th and 18th century masters. The construction and composition of these images give us clues to the "created" reality that Gutschow is presenting to us. The nature landscapes are cast after painting from the 17th and 18th century while the building landscapes are fabricated and have no clues to an actual location. Also the building landscapes were shot with black and white film and the grain becomes an evidence to the changes in the imagery. Gutschow expresses that she wants the viewer to question it, to ask questions about what it is, what it can mean or be.  

 “Landscape (nature) never looked like this. In my work ideal means not to exclude the

ugliness, it means to construct reality.”- I like this quote from Gutschow because she speaks of creating Reality... instead of creating fiction or a false view.

"What's important to me is the relationship between reality and fiction. I'm also interested in the expectation we have of photography: that, no matter what else, photographs represent a slice of reality. At first glance my photos seem to do this too, but then you quickly sense that something's not right. What you see in these images can't be attributed to any particular place, and eventually you realise that this is not a homogeneous representation of reality. " - From interview link above.

I find that I really appreciate this work because it does make me question it. I wonder where this could exist and what the people are doing within the photographs. i found myself comparing the black and white building landscapes and the nature landscapes to each other. And I really like this artist because she is creating something that never existed in our world but she still calls is reality. It reminds me of my own work because I am trying to piece together scenes to show the movement of time. Even though she is trying to create questions of authenticity in her work, I am trying to create questions of time and where it all goes if you waste it.