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This exhibit was like something I’d never seen before. It was odd, and because it was odd, it was unique. It took a little while to understand what was going on. At first, I just saw a lamp and a chair and a table, and I thought, “this is a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?” But then I looked harder. I examined the photographs on the wall, and I realized that the lamp was in all of the images. This was the lamp’s story. On the wall, leading up to the exhibit, the artist included scans of her sketchbook. The scans showed their concept work and ideas for the project and how to tell the story. I really enjoyed being able to see their thought process for the work.

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Spectrum - 

For this project, I went thrifting and found outfits composed all of one color to adorn my models in. After that, the process really got hard: I had to take the photos and mask out the original background the best that I could, and create a new one to match the color, as well as do some color correcting to make the outfits closer to the same shade of their assigned color. Masking the hair was the hardest part, no surprise. 

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Tonight, I gave my presentation on Loretta Lux. She was born in Dresden, Germany, and primarily makes photo montages using children. Lux adds the backgrounds and props afterwards, working digitally. I chose to give my presentation on Loretta Lux because I found her work quite enchanting. Not only are her subjects a little unsettling, and her photographs very surreal, but I am attracted to pastel colors.

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Gifs are photos in motion in a way that videos are not. For this project, I immediately thought of the elevator. What signifies motion better than an elevator, who’s purpose is to move up and down, and has doors that slide closed? The context of the gif makes the viewer anticipate the movement that is about to envelope the subject, while also exposing them to horizontal motion which masks the subject. 

Making this gif was very easy, but mostly because I’ve made gifs for fun in the past. I went ahead and made this gif black and white to add to the melancholy feeling of the motion. 

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Lorna Simpson — For the Sake of the Viewer

This photo book was full of striking (but very obscure) messages. Every photo included was part of a collection or set that spoke a particular message that Simpson wanted the viewer to understand. A lot of the work was repetitive in order to stress the meaning. 

I like the idea of using a blank page to push the viewer’s eyes to a photo on the right. This type of layout emphasizes the photo and gives it space to breathe. It is an aesthetic I can get behind.

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Final Project Progress-

So far, I have contacted my models (9 in total) and gotten their clothing sizes. I’ve assigned a color to each of them and have started to find single colored clothing for their portraits. Above is a composition that shows my progress on 5/9 of the colors. On the left are the clothing items I have gathered so far, and on the right is the model who will be wearing them. 

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Passage-

“the act or process of moving through, under, over, or past something on the way from one place to another.”

In order for there to be “passage”, I there must be something to pass through. For my video, I chose to use Light to signify passage. The camera moves from the light into the dark hallway, and then back out into the light again.

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Final Project Proposal- 

Recently, my favorite artist is a 21 year old singer from the UK. One of the things I like the most about her is her branding: intense Color. Vibrant colors, and big blocks of them surround Sigrid and everything she does. All of her content matches in this way. Color blocking has always been one of my favorite looks. I would like to explore this with photography, as I have with art, and try doing some portraits that are each themed with a specific color, like the portraits of Sigrid above. 

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Last week, we had the pleasure of attending a talk by Cig Harvey. It was fascinating hearing a professional photographer talking about her work and her lifelong lifestyle (she’d be offended if I said “occupation”) of photography.

Something about her photography is enchanting, and I realized what it was towards the end of her talk. All of her photos are fantastical; they are vivid, and almost imaginative. Some of them look like they had to be the result of some creativity and masterful photoshop...but Cig Harvey does not believe in photo collage. She doesn’t believe in altering the photo, or adding to it. Though plenty of her compositions could so easily be created in photoshop, she finds what seems impossible in the real world (the photo above being a perfect example). That is what makes her photography so epic to look at it: it’s all real. There are often times when something miraculous and beautiful happens in life, and it seems like it could be straight from a movie, or a child’s imagination...those moments exist on a very thin line, a line between fantasy and real life. Cig Harvey’s work seems to tip toe along that line, and evens sometimes dance. 

I leave you with a quote from her talk—

“For me, it’s about finding it in real life. The world is magic.”

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Name: Thomas Age: 20 What made them laugh? I told him, “You’re just jealous because I can grow better facial hair than you.” 

This day was particularly hard for shooting. It was rainy, and I did my best to brighten the photo in post and do some color correction. The worst part of it, though, was trying not to get my camera wet! Because it was so dreary outside, it made shooting indoors impossible: the lack of natural lighting did not sit well with my camera. 

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Name: Danny Age: 19 What made him laugh? I started singing the Danny Phantom theme song.

I found Danny lurking in the Student media offices. He works for RadioUTD, and we had a cool discussion about music. It was interesting to make “friends” with someone who was just across the office this whole time. It’s crazy how separated we can be from people who are so close by. 

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Name: Alyson Age: 18 What made her laugh? We both pretended we’d known each other for years, and started to talk about our “mutual friend” Kathrine.

I took this picture today at lunch time, using my tripod. Alyson and I actually really hit it off. We swapped numbers, and I think we are going to be friends after this project. She thought the project was very cool, and the idea of spreading laughter on campus was a very positive plan. 

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Time Passing - A Tale of Recovery

These pictures tell the story of a young girl, as seen from her desk and bedside table as time passes. She is in recovery for her mental illness, which isn’t specified. You can see her progress through the before and after as she gets her life in order and her relationship ends. The replacement of the fallen pill bottle with a daily pill box signifies her getting her life back on track and being more organized. I chose bright and blue for the after photos, and darker lighting for the before photos to show that her perspective of life has gotten brighter. 

My inspiration for this piece was the books included in the photos: We Are Okay and Perks of Being A Wallflower.

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Makayla Ferman, before and after Photoshop

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Matt Strack, before and after Photoshop.

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Social Photography - Reading 5

The New Yorker starts by quoting Susan Sontag, “Today everything exists to end in a photograph.” The rest of the article backs up this sentiment. As an example, Google switched their focus on photo editing software from PC to mobile. What does this tell us? Photography, as a media, is switching to mobile. 

Visualizing Social Photography by Lev Manovich explained the progress in computational visual sociology. Knowing that researchers are creating maps of photos taken all over the world cements the idea that photos are being taken everywhere, and at such a high volume that we can see a clear picture of where, who, and what people photograph. 

Photography is more a means of communication than ever before. Photos are used on social media to enhance the meaning of what we have to say. Everyone takes photos, and everyone has access to photo editing software that was once only available to the best Photographers. 

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Cotton - Reading 4

Charlotte Cotton writes about how contemporary photography attempts to capture a full story in a single image. This practice, tableau, replaces the use of photo series to tell a story. Tableau is often considered to require as much effort as traditional painting. Some of the photographers, like Liza May Post, even has sets and custom-made clothing created for her work.

Though at it’s most extreme, I could see how one of these tableau photos could take as much effort as a painting. However, even at its most extravagant, I have a hard time believing that a very-very-intentional and detailed photograph would take as long and as much meticulous effort as a very-very-intentional and detailed painting.