Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Photographers I'm looking at

1) David Hilliard
~Each panorama being, three-four photos with moderately thin borders, separately contain a composition that could be used as a singular photo. I see that he puts more thought into each as a singular to create a collective panorama. His few vertical pano's are far more interesting with the perspective. Instead of just shooting three or four up and down in a basic area, he stays within the vertical, but moves around more.

2) Jesse Goff
~Also a pano photographer, he takes urban and landscape. He fill's the seamless frames with seductive lighting and a sense of place, being submersed in the view.

3) Daniel Hellerman
~Shoots HDR images with tweaked color saturation. HDR-High Dynamic Range/Multiple Exposures. Some of his composition involve oddly exposed lights and darks. I feel this works some of the time, but also detracts from the meaning.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielhellerman/sets/72157600928041783/

~D Holecheck

Three artists: Jessica Barsom

Three artists whom I feel a connection with and am inspired by are:

Nan Goldin--
What I admire about her work is how she was said to compulsively photograph her friends and her encounters. This is something I greatly admire. Her photographs are "the diary I let people read."

Minor White--
His beautiful black and white aesthetic.

Susan Meiselas--
her very interesting documentary work with strippers.

3 Photographers: by Kyle Mullane

David La Chapelle:
La Chapelle is one photographer I love looking at. The color in his photographs is always over the top and pops out at you like his subject matter. The quirky way in which he photographs people for example the last supper with Jesus being surrounded by rappers or Courtney Love holding a dead Kurt Cobain made to look like Jesus. He captures how we look at pop culture in a bizarre way.

Larry Clark:
The way Larry Clark photographed 'Tulsa' was great. He was with his friends in his hometown shooting his drugs and just photographed it. The pictures are sad yet no one in the pictures looks miserable, everyone just seems to be stuck in their hometown lost in their habits. Larry Clark is a photographer I do not always look at to inspire my work but I'm always looking at either way.

Gregory Crewdson:
I am a big fan of staged dramatic lighting and Crewdson is a master at this. He creates photographs of surreal American homes and neighborhoods. I really like creating lighting in my pictures and look at his work for inspiration when photographing.

Three artists I am looking at

The three artists I am looking at:
by Heather Saide

1) Gregory Crewdson
Crewdson's work really touches upon the little details and moments, which makes the narrative in his photographs. This is what I am trying to focus on in my work and it really inspires me to look at his photographs. Yes, a lot of work and thought go into just one photograph of his, but just that one facial expression, one motion, object, lighting; makes the one photograph a whole story. I also really like the way he uses lighting to signify different aspects of the environment of the photograph. I really want to try this but by using natural lighting.

2) David Hilliard
I just started to look at Hilliard's work and I became a huge fan. I love the way he uses color and the way he places his images. The panoramic are really beautiful. They bring up a question of narrative and time. I like how he puts spaces between the images that are supposed to go together. The gap becomes part of the story and makes it less obvious. It leaves the viewer more interested.

3) David LaChapelle
Lastly, I have always loved LaChapelle's work. I love how he makes stories and such strong, controversial statements. His colors are so vibrant. I always look at his work for inspiration because he is one of the first photographers I ever looked at.


Monday, March 30, 2009

Three Photographers

Don Shreve
shreveimaging.com

I was checking out Shreve for his exteriors when i was looking at architectural photography and I didn't like his subject matter at all. So I started looking at his interiors and I find the framing very interesting and I love his use of light (both subjects I need to work on). 

Andrew Doran
andrewdoran.com

I was looking at Doran's interiors and found them pretty boring and repetitive with all of the interiors I have been looking at. So, I looked at his detail work and although I don't like the selective focus or most of the subject matter, it gave me an idea of what I would photograph details of and what I should stay away from.

Nicole K.
photonicolek.com

I'm not sure of her full last name but I found her while looking for different framing of interiors. I don't enjoy her use of light but there are a few images on her website that helped me think of new ways to frame my subject matter. 

three influencial photographers

David Hilliard: Just recently I was struck by Davids work....His images pull you into a narrative and place you in environments that are very personal to him as they deal with relationships and actual recordings of life that he tweaks to make ordinary events seem chaotic. I am influenced by the quality of light he captures and although I am not making multiple frames to create one piece I am very interested in that process and through shooting my project I am now looking at the environment I am photographing my subject in as sections where I eliminate the pieces that show part of the subjects identity and find the pieces that encapsulate the subjects identity as a whole. Davids work is not only influencing my work for projects but also for my Large Format project I am working on.

Sally Mann: I have always been influenced by Sally Mann's work....Although her subjects are family and she already has a strong connection with them I am still amazed with the way she portrays that connection through her photographs. capturing this connection between subject and photographer is my main goal while creating this body of work, I feel to make the portrait more intersting that connection must exist. With my subjects I am not only thinking on a compositional level but also on a personal and conversational level which I feel creates more dynamic in the images I am making.

Aaron Ruell: I just stumbled upon this photographer, he has a ton of commercial images but his portaits and stong attention to color has tweaked the way I think as a I enter my subjects space. There are a handfull of his image where the space is so simplified but in a way still shows his subjects identity and on top of that he creates a narrative. The idea of simplifying the space in my photographs has caused me to focus more on my subject and the color of the environment surrounding them which in return creates a greater connection between the subject and myself.

Other influences:
Andrea Foti
Joel Sternfeld
Alec Soth
Laura Mcphee(portaits of girl)

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Three Photographers (and a painter)

I look at Wooman's work a lot.  She is where I draw a lot of my ideas from.  Her images are very sad yet contain an unquestionable beauty and timelessness about them.  She uses both herself and models in her images which I think is interesting because in the images where she is posing she blends in with the other woman, that is to say that her being the subject in the images doesn't make it so much about her, as about the emotion eminating from the photograph, unlike with other photographers (for example Lee Friedlander, whos self portrait work differs from his other bodies, the work is about him)   In her images there is an isolation of the woman in them which I like, a feeling of blending into the background, or woodwork, her images where she has blurred the subject make the woman appear ghost like as if they're not even there and give a sense of desperation.  

Wilke's work I look at less for the images and more for the feminist ideas with in them.  While I do not think the style of feminist photography used in the 1970's could necessarily be created today and hold the same meaning I find what she was working on very interesting and important to the progression of feminist art, particularly in photography (although Wilke was not limited to the medium).  I also enjoy the way she pushes the audience to question how they think about woman in photography (photographs), particularly with her series of photographs of "Snatch Shots" with ray Guns.  

I feel that McDonald and Woodman were working with very similar ideas with in their photographs, and I like McDonald for many of the same reasons I like Woodman when it comes to the emotions within their images.  McDonald, however, I look at because of the more complex locations she is placing her subject (herself) in.  Even without a person in the image the photograph would still be great, which is a problem I often find myself struggling with, making the background and location of the person as visually important and appealing as the subject.  

Although Edward Hopper is not a photographer I thought I should include him in this as he is the main person I have been looking at for this project, and with other bodies of work I have been working on.  His images contain a loneliness to them that I am drawn to, particularly with his melancholy images of woman.  


*I was unable to find an official website

Friday, March 27, 2009

just a reminder

bringing in NEW WORK every week to class is essential to making a great body of work. there isnt really an excuse not to have new work every week. i know for me, it is a struggle to make the time to go home every weekend and shoot but i make it happen. you should all be striving to have a body of work at the end of the semester you love and want to hold on to. for some of you junior is next semester and it could be a rude awakening to your "process".

remember the assignment laz gave you at the end of last weeks class, its important to be looking at artists, photographers or not, and know where you can relate your work back to and get inspiration from. i try to look at photo blogs every day and find new artists to look at and love.

new work next week and also if you are thinking or feel like you are in the place to start an edit, bring in everything you have shot. good luck and make awesome pictures!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

to Buck

Buck- 
I spoke with my grandmother earlier and she gave me Rev. Cheryl's email: RevCMinor@aol.com. Just let her know you are in a class with Bill and Jackie Mawhinney's granddaughter. They are really good friends. Good luck shooting!
Oh and the church is All Saints Church, 17 Clark St. Belmont. 

Sunday, March 15, 2009

post spring break!

i hope everyones spring break was relaxing, fun, and of course productive. im looking foward to seeing some beautiful and exciting work from you all. 

just as a heads up: the color processor at school was down today, and should be up and running by tomorrow "mid day". annoying and sad but if it isnt fixed try to scan negatives and get something on the walls.

enjoy the last few hours of spring break and see you all bright and early wednesday!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

week 6 approaches

i hope everyone had an awesome creating weekend. just to remind everyone 6 prints are due every class, ATLEAST. the walls should be overflowing with new work and new ideas every week.

work on your artist statements and come to class prepared to talk in every single one of your peers crits.

-betsy