Finishing the book...

I finally finished the book. I don't know if I am really satisfyed with it. I think I will probablly to a few different versions after the class is over, to work off of the foundation of the book being printed now. There were so many more stories and perspectives I wanted included, to make my point clearly. Below are a few of the photos that didn'tmake it in the book, but I thought diserved to be seen:

MOPA - Balboa Park

Exhibit: FLESH
Artist: Gary Schneider
This exhibit contained mostly black and white photos - Geletin Silver Prints. I found the genetic self portrait portion the most interesting. I am not sure how the images were captured. I am pretty sure, based on my last visit to the dentist's office (to get xrays), that the images were captured digitally with medical photographic eqiuipment. When you read to the words that explain what the subject of the photo is, it has a real scientific quality. The exhibit seemed to me to be a fusion of medical photographic, microscopic, and xray technology with visual art. Taking something seen with the naked eye everyday and zooming in so closely that those same body parts take an almost abstract appearence. The photos of the body parts take on shapes commonly used in abstract 2D art. The body parts become just barely on recognizeable and fill the frame with bizarre and wonderful biomorphic shapes.
There was a series of images taken up close of just several different individuals' eyes mouths and ears. In this series piece the differences between the people are very obvious, then when you walk further into the exhibit there are microscopic pictures of an eye, ear drum, and hair, etc. At this perspective you can't really determine a difference in ethnicity, social status, economic status, or religious beleifs, one could even inffer that from this perspective you can see that there really are no differences among us as people, as creatures, animals. It was also interesting how each xray could tell a story about the kind of life the subject had lead. I'm sure that if I were a doctor I would read much more, but the images did imply this person lived hard or this person lived very conservatively, under glass, I found the images of the eardrum the most beautiful. The light danced across it. And a variety of highlights and shadows collected on this one tiny form bringing out and apperence of luster and glowing. I found it aesthetically pretty, I think it might be neat to see them hung somewhere liek a doctors office. It might bring some calm and appretiation to all the people in the waiting rooms, sitting there being afraid of what they don't understand about their own bodies. It might also help people appreciate the beauty of their bodies and encourage them to take care of themselves and to not be afraid of what they don't always completly understand.

Info on DONNA COSENTINO

Image Transfers
Donna works with a Nikon F3 and Scala black and white transparency film to create her Polaroid transfers. These photographs are made on her personal journeys to favorite locations in California such as Death Valley, the Owens Valley and Yosemite. She also photographs on travel adventures across North America in such diverse places as South Carolina, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Quebec.

The Polaroid image transfer begins with a color, or, in this case, black and white transparency (slide). It is copied onto 4x5 Polaroid Type 59 color film in a machine called a Daylab Slide Copier. After approximately 10 seconds the film with the copied image is peeled apart. The wrong side (not the positive image) is saved. (The image/positive side is thrown away or saved to later make a lift). The wrong/negative side of the peeled-apart film is then ‘transferred’ or pressed onto wet watercolor paper. Transferring renders a somewhat soft result. Different papers/receptors can be used and the resulting colors and textures can be quite varied. Imperfections are embraced. Each result is one-of–a-kind. Copying black and white film onto color film in this process renders colors from blue to brown and the artist strives for creamy warm and cool blue tones within each image.


Silver Gelatin Prints
Donna works with a Rolleiflex 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ Twin Lens Reflex camera built in 1959. It is equipped with a 3.5 Carl Zeiss 75mm lens. She uses Tri X 320 ISO film. She develops her film by hand.

Her prints are made in her very basic home darkroom. The enlarger is a Simmon Omega D2 variable condenser enlarger. She prints on an 11x14 warm paper base made by Forte using warm tone developer then selenium and tea tones the photographs for further duotone effect.

Ordover Museum – Donna Cosentino

I visited the Ordover Museum in Solana Beach today. At this museum, they normally have very bright color landscapes, but right now they are featuring all black and white photographs. One of the photographers exhibiting their work used digital photography. His exhibit was of portraits of people from India. These pieces were very impressive. The artist’s name was Lou Montrose and the exhibit’s name was “India in Black & White”. The interesting dynamic about the exhibit is most photos you see of India are flooded with bright and vibrant colors. The artist felt it would be interesting to use the grayscale to convey another kind of detail that is easily ignored with the colors. I thought it was an interesting perspective. (the image shown above actually was displayed in grayscale at the exhibit)

Another series here I found interesting was by Donna Cosentino. I was fortunate enough to meet there at gallery as well and she shared with me the processes she used to create her exhibit. She took the photos on a 35 mm camera and developed the film into slides. She then takes the slide and exposes the slide to Polaroid film. She pulls the film out, waits, pulls apart the to sections and throws out the actually photo part and uses the side with the transfer inks and stamps it onto Arches hot press water color paper.

The images are framed and matted in 12” x 16” cream colored matte and an inch thick cherry wood frame. I particularly liked the way the 4” x 3.5” images were framed in so much analogous colored negative space. This method encourages the viewer to look deeper into the photo to search for intricacies and details that may not be jumping out in the for-front. The subject of the series was of landscapes of forests, tree, and vegetation and one shot of a babbling brook and waterfall. The photos were taken mostly in locations within California state parks and forests. One photo was taken in Wisconsin and one in Quebec as well.

An interesting side note, the medium being used will not be able to be replicated for much longer. The Polaroid Company will not be producing the film or Polaroid transfers used to create this series. So in the future, a piece using this medium will be extremely limited and irreplaceable. It will be sort of a sign of the time that it came from. I thought that was kind of cool to think about.

Another interesting part about this medium is the unusual colors that come from it. This series uses all cool colors like blues, grays, and indigoes. It is a very subtle and natural looking gradation of color. Also it creates a very interesting light using the watercolor paper, kind of a creamy white warm light to contrast with the cool positive shapes and lines. The texture of the paper creates a very organic feel to the image. Especially since the series is of trees and woods and such, it is very appropriate. The grain of the paper enhances the image of the grain of a tree’s bark.

I also found the amount of craftsmanship and working with the hands to create this finished product to be a point of interest. When working in Adobe Photoshop there may be a detachment from the concept to the finished product you may loose some of that creative experience in building the printed piece. You loose a sort of hands on connection to what you are making. In Photoshop it is more visualizing an intellectual idea and finding ways to achieve the idea. It can at times take allot of guess work for the results of the actual finished printed piece from the screen to the product in your hand. I think this is an interesting dynamic. There is something a little more sterile about the printing of a Photoshop file. And perhaps something more intimate about the working with your hands and the developing of the negatives. I don’t know just something I am pondering. An idea to play with, definitely not something I know enough about yet to preach. And don’t get me wrong I love Photoshop. There have been many times when I have spent hours and hours on a piece and felt very intimate with the finished product but not every time. I don’t know, just food for thought I guess. All in all the Ordover Museum an interesting and educational experience.

Diane Willow

I thought her ideas about changing the enviroment with the electronically generated light was interesting. I also thought the concept of how each individual effects the surroundings of the installation peice. Because although nobody ever taught me in science class about somebody's "energy" changing the room or enviroment you are still very aware of it being true. If a freind comes into my house and his happy and excited to see me and talkative and smiling the energy of the room seems to lift and if my boss is angry and stressed out the rooms energy is down and actually more tired or stiffled from being productive. So she looking for evidence in a way to proove these concepts visually.

Jim Brandenburg

Woh.
Jim Brandenburg's story about his 90 day jouney was nothing short of inspirational.
Woh.
Speaking from the point of view of somebody who has a very short attention span and cannot wake up early, I completly look up to him and his focus and patience and commitment to his project. I loved how he needed work to rejuvinate him from all the working he had been doing. I loved how th epeople that were responsible forover working him in the first place could not help but fall in love with the reason he stopped working for him. How satidfying that must have felt. He had a very wise an experienced point of view to offer. As someone who has litterally seen it all, finding a new way to look at things and to not waste his time on earth. To be driven by an inner passion to find purpose in what you do and not just survival. He took only one frame everyday for 90 days in the fall in a forest outside his home in the North Woods of Minnesota. Visiting there in passing you might not be able to appreciate it as much as he. He was patient and waited for the perfect shot. He walked all over everytrail till he memorized the trees and the shadows.

While learning to take photoraphs I have sloppily just shot anythng and everything hoping that I would be able to get a feel for it, reaching for an understanding of the craft. I love his self control to be able to wait for the one and be so desicive. HE admits to not always being confident that the shot would be good, but an inner will to go on paid off genorously at the end of the 90 day project.

I also loved the bit of the film were he talks about coming home after walking miles for a day and gets his wife to shine a flashlight on the waterfall in there back yard and says sometimes you just have to make the shot. I don't know if that makes it better or warse, but there you go. Sometimes you just have to make the shot.

Lastly one of the things that made a big impression on me about watching the film on Jim Brandenburg was how he was able to make a direct conection between the subject of what he was photographing and the positive impact on saving the subject, which was this natural preserved forest area. That because of his photos he was able to ensure that the forest would stay the way it was untouched be people or abused by people because of the powerful story he was able to tell in the photos. A wide range and large number of people feel compelled to perserve nature and feel a connection to the outdoors through the photos that they might not have had before they saw the photos. I think that is just amazing. That is something I hope to accomplish with my photos. I want to be able to show people the things about themselves they might not see until lookinhg at the photos. I want to be able to change someones point of veiw or behavior for the better by seeing my photos, save life in a sense. It maybe overly ambisious for my first project ever. But like Brandenburg I won't get very far by doubting myself so I may as well try. :) Sounds cheezy, but it is true.

Graciela Iturbide at the Getty Center in LA, CA

So I know that the Getty Center in Los Angeles is not oon the list of place we are supposed to attend during this course, but it just happened that I found myself there a nd walked through a fascinating photo exhibit. The exhibit was called "The Goat Dance: the photographs of Graciela Iturbide".
The artist's media of choice was black and white photography. The prints were called silver gelatin, I think. There were quite a few pieces there that made a lasting impression on me. The first one that struck me was a photograph of what seemed to be a million birds exploding off of a telephone wire, in the middle of a bleak empty sky, in the middle of a bleak empty town. While looking a the photo, I couldn't help but think about the moment that it was taken. What the sound must have been to here all those hundreds of birds leap off the wire. Did the sky grow darker from all their shadows? What made them jump in the first place? What made them all gather there in the first place? Where could this be? Is this what the photographer intended to take a photo of? Or was she actually looking for something else entirely when it happened? Was entirely staged? I guess it would kind of have to be, in order to have the shutter speed just right.

The series of her photography I found the most interesting was about the cholas and cholos that belonged to a gang in East LA. They are candid shots of the gang members in their local stomping grounds. Shots of the women mostly. With their “family” and their children. They stare into the camera proud of what they are and what the represent. Brandishing their gang signs by contorting their fingers in such a way towards the camera. And through their pride and gang uniforms nd their hardness and caluosnesss behind it all you could see somewhere in there eyes a mourning. A mourning aloss of something. Mourning a loss of their identities. Though they are proud of what they represent for reasons I am not sure all of them were sure of, they did not know who they were. I don’t think they even knew who they were supposed to be. All they are sure of is that they are need be tougher, stronger, meaner, and better than the other gangs.

I don’t want to over labor that topic, but their was something I learned by soaking in this work. This is the kind of photos and truth and clarity that I want my photos to have. I want to be able to show the true condition of the drinkers and those around them. I want to show them in how they seem so proud of their state and at the same time I want viewers to be detect the things under the surface in the people and the characters are experiencing. Or I guess not experiencing in a sense… The things they are masking with the achohol. The feelings they are numbing while being drunk. I want people to ask questions when they look at the photos. I want people to ask something about the people they see in the photos. I want them to be able to detach from themselves in the other person’s story, and ask themselves questions they might be afraid to ask themselves about themselves. By the time they have gone through that process, they can find themselves seeing the similarities between themselves and the character. And in that moment they won’t have to lie to themselves. They will feel safe in being truthful with themselves for maybe a moment, and maybe in that moment it can change their lives.

That’s what the photographic exhibit of Graciela Iturbide made me think of. It was a fulfilling and inspiring lesson that gave me more drive and motivation to shoot photographs. It brought into focus what I have been looking for.

Richard Misarach

AS we are going into the project of photographing a panaramic of a landscape is work seems most appropriate. His work covered a broad spectrum of different styles of photography from people to clouds. He does an excellent job of really drawing you into every scene. He gave his landscape photos a very surreal effect, without using any photoshop effects. Though you know by the title what you are looking at you really have to take another look to tell right away what the photo is of. I like this about his work. I think that is my favorite kind of photography. The kind that makes you stop and think.

Collier Schorr

This photographer had some very interesting ideas. The last words in the movie I remember her saying were, "There is no moving forward unless you put something out there, unless you unveil something that has been repressed."
I thought this comment was most interesting when addressing the cultural enviroment in Germany now a days years and years after world war 2 and diary of anne frank. Putting yourself in the shoes of the people that film and photography have taught us to hate and look at as villians. Picturing as just another person.

I found this idea interesting because when you don't look at it in such straight rigid terms. Black and White, good and evil, victims and villians, even feminine and masculine....you are forced to think more about the things we have in common. How we are closer alike really than we are not. And it isn't just the way things are, but the way we are taught. There are more things in common in the human experience than we see what it is moving all around us. And she has put it on pause for us.



Her photography was centeralized around teenage boys. Capturing the thoughts, motivations, and experiences that these boys obtain while growing into men. What makes them mascculine? this question was asked and left to the viewer to answer for them selves when looking at the photographic work.

The thing I found myself asking, while listening to all the fascinating thoughts she was articulating was, would I be able to have any of these thoughts on my own? Would the photos suggest these ideas to me if I had never heard her speak? I think not. Is the reason I would not have thought that way by looking at these photos because society and culture has already imposed some other ideas in my mind? Is it a product of me knowing too little and not having enough culture? Or perhaps it is something much more simple than all of that. Perhaps things in my own life experiences cause me to think diffently.

Of all the work we have looked at together in class, I can say this is the first time I looked at it ans said, "Wow, you know, I really didn't get it. I really missed what the artist was try ing to communicate here."

Thinking about my photo book...

So after some thought and experimenting with the house pictures I have come to the conclusion that the photos of the house are going to be kind of boring. I don't have enough ideas that motivate me for this topic. I am going to move forward with my original theme. Studying the life of a drunk. What makes them tick, whats it all about, what the price is for addiction.

All this week I have been getting new ideas of things I want to try. Things I want to use in the book. One ideas is to take filmstrip series. quick shots one after another of stupid things drinking causes people to do. almost like quick little 5-7 shots that tell a story of a situation.

I also had the idea of using sobriety tests in a kind of black on black or light duo-tone for the backgrounds of the pages.

For text I might pull from lyrics about addiction. Or quotes I have heard people say about there addiction. Especially quotes that are perfect examples of the depth of denial involved, along side a photo of an apparent problem.

I was also thinking of setting up a tri-pod and tape and having an exact shot of before - clean -fresh and then an after - hung over-spent-depressed. I think there are lots of cool possibilities in photoshop for this. Basically I feeling a real strong pull to keep goin gdown this direction.

Roni Horn

I found her work to be very intelectual. I liked how everything she did had a very very detailed inspiration and purpose. I liked the simplicity of her work. Whole photos of the surface of water, zoomed in portraits of just a person's face, or a bird, or a room. She breaaks down the simplicity of a scene and allows you the time to sit back and analyze it.

She sid in the interview I just watched that her work is moved or inspired by her surroundings. She likened her experience with photographing water as that most of the time she is pursuing a subject to photograph. Almost hunting that subject. But in the case of the water, it is pursuing her. She is the one being hunted. She also had some instalation and sculpture peices of text and words she wrote. The words never seem to be com[lete thoughts. She doesn't want to tell you exactly what to think she just wants to start the process of thinking. And that she found defined herself. That she was always trying to define unkown concepts with metaphors of words and visuals, but as she defines them she does not want to extinguish the unknown, but she wants to destinguish what is known.

Her work seemed very natural and wether you liked it or not, it is hard to ignore. Something about it sneeks into your mind or subconcious.

Canon Art Museum - Nationl Geographics Portraits

I went to the National Geographic portraits exhibit yesterday. It was a very interesting exhibit. It had many pieces that have become iconic now. The thing that made the biggest impression on me was how the color photos were all from before Photoshop or digital photography, but the colors in the photos were so intense. It was amazing to me how the rich colors of the people and the backgrounds were all captured in real time and with lighting. The photo of the girl in Afghanistan was the most profound. The green and red complementary colors extenuate one another. The motion of the background, her shall, and her hair perfectly framed her face and made the green eyes piercing. Besides being aesthetically brilliant, I am not sure what the meaning of the photo was supposed to be. To capture some sort of emotion the subject was feeling, perhaps? She seems a little scared or apprehensive. She seems anxious, paniked. Like she is hiding perhaps or that she is about to get up and run away.At any rate, the exhibit was very interesting. The black and white that were 100 years old were like having an opportunity to back and time and look at another person from the past in the eyes. Each piece had its own individual, beauty, quality and point of interest that I could go on.

Stefan Sagmeister

I liked the series that the show towards the end that read something like, "Trying to look good limits my life." I find this to be very true. Not everything in the world looks good. This is truly limiting if the only things your designs focus on are the few "good" things out there. I did like how truly seemed to be motivated by a desire to not be bored or to allow his work to seem boring. That the content and the visual appearence were both very important to him. I also appreciated his analogy of the writer that would only use a few words. A story book would not be very interesting if it only contained a few words. So why would subjects of visual design be any different. I also really dig how he was into album covers. I like making those too. Just for freinds and stuff.

Playing with FREE brushes and fonts

SCORE!!! We just found a bunch of really good free brush, vector, and font sites tonight. Usually all of the free stuff is pretty lame, but this stuff is actually good. YAY! Check out the messing around >>>>

David Carson - Part 2

I think the comment he made in this section of the documentary that was most profound to me was: "Sometimes you have to be open to thing like [referencing with his hands to an accetate and tape piece he did with a portrait of a man's face]. Just because you come across things like this doesn't necessarily make them good. But you should be open to them."

I like this idea because I am taking a couple composition classes now and there are a lot of rules to memorize that make things look "good". I find it refreshing that there is still an infinate amount of possibilities out there to try or use even when you do have to observe the rules of "good". :)

David Carson

David Carson is a master at the art of typography. That means he can use fonts and the shapes of words to create an aesthetically pleasing composition. This is an important skill for any aspiring graphic designer to have. Because language and words are used in almost all mediums of graphic communication, knowing how to utilize the form and position and the different fonts as familuarly as David C. is imparitive. Here a few of his pieces that I liked the most.



I like this peice for its simplicity and the sheer ease of the reading.

It demands your attention and at the same time does not irritate.

Starting my narrative accordian card...

I decided to make my narrative piece/accordian card project about something that hits home pretty hard for me. I am documenting my alcohol abuse on the weekends.


It may seem cliche, but it is something I spend allot of my sober time (which is most of my time) thinking about. I ask myself a lot of questions like: why do I feel like this?
Why do I keep coming back to this? Why do I do this nasty thing that is so bad for me? Why do I keep coming back?



I do not want to glorify or glamorize binge drinking at all. Rather it will probably seem more like a cautionary tale. I actually want to tell the story about just how ugly it is.
At the same time, I want to find the answers to the questions I ask myself by documenting the moments that can be joyful.



I already have some theories about why I do it: stress, boredom, addiction, the fear of trying something new, perhaps the people I hang out with and my very close friends. Despite the theories I have already about it, it is my goal to tell the story about how I get there, why I get there, and the ugly after math of what a night of binge drinking does to me. I want it to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. It should be interesting.

Edward Burtynsky

The thing I found most interesting about this man's work is that he made me think about and visualize things that I haven't before. I work for a company and almost everyone I know works for a company that gets their products manufactuered in China. Yet I never thought of all the details involved in that kind of industrial manufacturing culture. I never thought about where do they live, where did they come from, how much coal does it take run one of those factories. I liked the concept he used of bringing to attention the the not so obvious part of a reality that is very obvious. And the tires i think was my favorite because it really evoked a feeling of infinite waste. I think that idea is pretty cool to think about. Not cool in the sense of YAY waste, more like what a cool way to make people think about it.

James Nachtwey

We watched a speach by James Nachtwey in class on Jan. 233rd. I found his work and story very interesting. His work was visiually beautiful, but the content was horrifying. It was horrifying to think that people are capable of treating one another like that. His work was also interesting in the sense that you could really get a feel for his compassion for the people he was photographing. You can tell in his work that his goal was not sensationalize the scenes and the gore, but to tell the subjets stories and to envoke and inspire the same sense of compassion in those that observe his work.

Woo-hoo! I am finally in Big Kid school!

Yay! I am so glad to actually be getting some where now and everything I learn is so much more interesting. The sky is the limit! This is going to be and is now amazing!!!