Photography

final proposal

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:09:11 -0400

This project is an examination of double exposure, which is two or more individual exposures to create a single photograph. Part of what inspired me to go for double exposure was to play more around with my images I took with my camera and another part of me was inspired by double exposure images that I have seen on the website, Tumblr. I saw on my dashboard that someone rebloged some images of nature with a woman’s face, as if the flowers had a face. I wanted to take some images as if there were ghosts around, so I set up the tripod so that the exposures were the exact same (the wind made it hard to) so that it would look as though there are two of the same people with the same background. Some of the images seen have my model create movement and capturing it as if her soul was reaching out of her or leaving her. In one of the images shows the model sad, and another picture of her happy, as if to tell a story or show that the model’s soul is mocking her. While some of the images that I took were just two completely different pictures with different exposures and backgrounds and just overlapped them, in order to create the effect that the trees had eyes, to make it mysterious and creepy.

I used the program Photoshop in order to create the double exposure effect, since my camera does not allow me to do so. I overlapped the images and then changed the opacity of the top layer, making the picture as though it is slightly see through, so both images show. I wanted to have fun with this project by making my model seem as though she is just staring at herself in a creepy way, or staring at herself (as seen in some of the images) along with putting two images together to make one interesting and picture (such as a moth over my model’s lips). I want the viewer to feel something, whether they like the idea that they should try something new or think about what all 12 pictures have in common (isolation comes to mind). I was trying something new with experimenting with double exposure photography and just having fun editing the pictures. Enjoy!

final part 2!

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:27:00 -0400

final part 2!

final part 1

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:26:00 -0400

final part 1

Artist

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 21:47:00 -0400

Sophie Calle is a French contemporary photographer and writer. Sophie Calle is known largely for works combining texts and photographic images. She is also known for her detective-like ability to investigate people lives, through pictures. A particular set of pictures from Sophie Calle that caught my eyes along with using her detective skills was The Hotel Series. Calle got a temporary job as a maid and once the guests were gone, she would investigate who these people are by going through their stuff and photographing it. “She made a piece of work about her imagined ideas of which the hotel guests were, based on their personal belongings”. This shows that Sophie Calle was very involved with her work and personal when she went through the trash and letters of the people that stayed. Since she was also a writer, she combined her notes of what she believed was going on by her photos. For example if the comforter was moved, she would take note. The photos are taken in black and white, which to me means simplicity and focusing on the shape and shadows of the objects. Since there is no color, the viewer focuses more on the objects and the story rather than losing interest if the photos were taken in color. The simplicity of the black and white images is easily over conquered by the risk and detective work of Calle, which makes the objects of the tenants much more interesting. By viewing the pictures from Calle’s Hotel Series, the viewer is also intruding on the guest that stayed there. We can see the trash along with the clothes the guest has and can even make up our own ideas as to what is going on. These images show the viewer not just other people’s belongings and trash, the images tells a story of Calle and her risks and thoughtfulness into creating a detective story. Calle also draws me into her work because even though it is still, it speaks and questions can go into one’s head as to what is going on?

HDR photos

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:05:40 -0400

HDR photos

light painting photos

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:50:57 -0400

light painting photos

inspiration

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:54:00 -0400

inspiration

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:49:00 -0400

inspiration

practice of double exposure

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:24:36 -0400

practice of double exposure

sense of place part3

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:55:00 -0400

sense of place part3

sense of place part 2

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:44:00 -0400

sense of place part 2

sense of place

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:41:00 -0400

sense of place

When I arrived to the Tampa Museum of Art, I was not sure what...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:03:00 -0500

When I arrived to the Tampa Museum of Art, I was not sure what art pieces/exhibitions were going to be there. The first exhibition was Romare Bearden: Southern Recollections. The collection had many works of African-American art. Some of his artworks were in a collage style and to me is a unique was to express yourself. The collages Bearden made seemed so simple, yet so complex. You could tell that some of the images came from magazines because there are just random eyes places onto the persons face. Some of the shapes of the peoples’ heads were just colored paper cut into shapes. I my favorite piece from the exhibition of Bearden is Fish Fry-1967. This perfectly represents the collage style and how Bearden takes an image from somewhere else and alters it to create something else. The people are over exaggerating, from being huge, to some of the characters being too small. The pieces also have an African feel to them by the looks of the people’s faces how they somewhat look tribal and the rich colors used.

Next to the Bearden collection is the Don Zanfagna: Cyborgs exhibition. Zanfagna created Cyborg Notes, which is a strange collection of about 70+ pictures of futuristic images that show how DNA is transferred, since all of humanity’s sexuality is gone and problems DNA mixing can cause. It is very interesting because in each of the Cyborg Notes, there are penises or boobs along with very detailed lines. As the pictures move in increasing number, the pictures are more detailed. Some of them in the in the later time period have rainbow colors and some take on a collage style, of having nude woman that came from a magazine, for example Cyborg Note 124. For some reason, I enjoyed Zanfagna’s collection; probably because of its dark humor and because of how he uses mix mediums.

John Cage’s 33-1/3 - Performed by Audience was a fun interactive exhibition that had record players in a circle that allowed the audience to get a Beatles record and mix it up with other records. However the sound was very loud and kind of annoying. Basically it was more enjoyable for the ears to listen to one record. Afterwards the next exhibition was Realism: Selections from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection. I found the realism paintings more interesting than the live in your face/action pieces. For example the realism painting by Davis Cone called Sam Eric and Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1982 was beautiful. The details were perfect and the color gradient from light the dark to make the shadowing of the colors look more realistic. It almost looks like a photograph. Meanwhile, Coo, 2003 Fiberglass Sculpture and DVD Projection created by Tony Oursler, freaked me out. It was just two eyes and a mouth saying weird things and I hated it. The last exhibit had some of the abstract paintings by William Pachner. His paintings were full of color and random shapes. Some of the paintings showed sadness and I believe hatred, such as The Sacrifice 1962, because of the red colors and how they appeared to be like blood dripping down. Other paintings were more peaceful and had softer colors. After reading the information about how he lost 80 members of his family to the Holocaust along with the train in his paintings to mean the journey of death, this shows how hurt Pachner is.

Over all I believe all of the exhibitions are very interesting and different.

Reading Assignment 2

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 15:30:06 -0500

Barrett opens with how to describe photographs or any artwork, by simply describing what the viewer notices and to tell another aloud what they detect. Descriptions can answer questions such as, “What is here?” “What am I looking at?” and “What do I know about this image?” By answering these questions, one is obviously describing the picture, along with pointing the obvious or not so obvious out. In the reading, Barrett gives many examples as to why one may want to describe a piece of art. For example, art critics must use descriptions, not just to describe the picture to those who have never seen the artwork, but description is also used to support the critic’s interpretation and judgment. Critics obtain descriptive information from two sources, internal (within photograph) and external (other sources). This is helpful for critics to describe the photograph by simply attending to what can be seen within the photograph and looking up the artist to gather descriptive information that can increase the understanding of the photograph and to understand what is not so obvious in the photograph.

Throughout the readings, Barrett explains valuable information in order describe a photograph by simply describing the subject and subject matter, the form, median, style, comparing and contrasting other works from the artist. By knowing how to describe a piece of art, one can get to know a piece of art and appreciate it. Barrett’s helpful advice to describe a photograph can also make the viewer look at the photograph in a different way, rather than just starting though the picture. One can identify what they see and insight others of what they have missed out by not looking closely at the photograph. Describing photographs and other artwork can also make the viewer a well-rounded person, by understanding what the artist sees, what the critic sees, and also what they see in the photograph. By reading what Barrett has to say about describing photo pieces, I know that this information will come in handy when other students present their photographs in class and when I go to any art museum. I will be able to describe their art work based on what I see and others can speak aloud of what they see. This can help me better understand and appreciate other people’s artwork.

Reading Assignment 1

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 15:29:16 -0500

When one thinks about the term criticism, one may think about either the positive or negative reviews of movies, artwork, or restaurants. For example, websites such as Rotten Tomatoes, rates movies based on 0-100 scale, letting the viewer know if the movie was “rotten” or “fresh”. However criticism is much more than just the likes or dislikes of the critic, it goes into a much deeper aspect, such as truly understanding art and its effect on its viewers. In the article, criticism is defined as “informed discourse about art to increase understanding and appreciation of art”. Although it seems that critics are hard to please and seems like art pieces do not receive appreciation, critics do try to ask themselves what they like about the art and try to understand it, but if they dislike the work, critics such as Schjeldahl, question themselves what they could have done differently or what they would like about it, if they liked it. It is important for critics not to only focus on the negative, but to try to turn it into a positive.

Critics truly love what they are critiquing, for example the article points out that if a regular person was to go to an art museum, the person would only look at the art work for a short time then move to the next piece. However professional art critics must view the art piece in a broader perspective to address the meaning and question the artwork. If more people would go out in the world and pretend to be a critic, they too can increase their appreciation of art and maybe even notice what the artist was going for. This shows that critics and artist have a very interesting relationship. Critics can be seen as the enemy or even a partner to an artist. This can be due to the fact that some critics will give you their honest opinion, but some critics are fair and will ignore their normal tastes.

As a beginning photographer student, it is important to understand criticism because my photos will be shown to the class and critiqued. It is important to take the criticism in to mind in order to improve my work. It is also important that if I were to critic other peoples photos that I should be honest and interpret their photos to truly understand to appreciate other peoples artwork better.

ART LECTURE 1:Hamza Walker

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 15:22:29 -0500

The lecture of Hamza Walker would have been more interesting, if I knew what he was talking about. The introduction made by the professor made the lecture of Hamza Walker sound interesting, but to be honest I was not fascinated. “Conspicuously Mute Documents: Photography In Spite of Politics” was the topic, but I was not sure if he what Hamza Walker was trying to say, that art is only political because of peoples opinion or if documentary photographs are dead because the pictures can be deceiving? Hamza Walker showed photographs from different artist and discussed them, but the only two artists that I found somewhat interesting were Allan Sekula and Julie Moos.

Allan Sekula is a documentary photographer known for the series Polonia and Other Fables. Hamza Walker showed pictures Sekula photographed a Smithfield plant, which is the biggest producer of pork in Poland along with being cruel to their pigs. Sekula photographed Smithfield in two different ways, one being a nice looking wheat field, which is a barrier to the hog plant. Also shown during the lecture was a photograph of three pigs belonging to a farmer, also taken by Sekula. Hamza Walker pointed out that this was Sekula’s way to question what we are allowed to see versus what we cannot. The pretty wheat field to me represents that there must be nothing wrong, but the picture of the pigs show that there must be something going on that the viewer is not allowed to see.

The next artist, Julie Moos is known for pairing up her subjects, for the viewer to compare them. However in the Monsanto Series, her subjects are farmers paired from husband and wife, brother and brother, and father and son. The farmers stand horizontally in front of their crops expressionless, and simple. The photos show a beautiful landscape with many rich colors. Her photographs of the American farmers show how they work freely of big companies. In conclusion I was lost at what Hamza Walker was talking about, I did not know if he was saying that documentary photographs are being silenced by politics and I wished that he used artist that I actually heard of, to make the lecture more interesting.

project 3

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:45:00 -0500

project 3

Project 3, copying Irving Penn’s still life

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:42:50 -0500

Project 3, copying Irving Penn’s still life

Photo

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:09:37 -0500

Photo

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:06:30 -0500