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Cig Harvey

The artist that I presented on for class was none other than, Cig Harvey. After we had gone to see her as a class I became a bit more interested in her life. She had explained part f her process and view on photography, a small part about her life, but I felt like there was more to the tale.

And in the words of Cig Harvey herself, “I am very interested in finding magic in the real world and photography reminds me that this world is amazing.”

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Final Project - Select Five

The above pictures are my favorite five from the photobook that I put together. Not necessarily the best of them all, though one of them is the one that I think came out the best, but they are my favorite.

My project was a fun process to go through for this final, probably because of the personal nature of my theme. Every picture represents something dear to me that has help build me as a person. A friend, a place, an important item.

I don’t want to give away too much here though. The full majesty of my photobook will have to wait for class.

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Women’s Works

For my art event, I went to an on campus art gallery for Women’s Works. There were several different kinds of media in attendance among the pictures, but the ones that grabbed my attention the most out of them were the three photo pieces that you pass just as you walk into the gallery. That’s not to say that the rest weren’t interesting pieces, because there were many there that were more interactive, held my attention just as much, but it was Victoria Olivia’s work that stuck in my mind the most.

Victoria’s pieces in the gallery are referenced as ‘a celebration of identity and affirmation of self’ by the information brochure. From what I saw, I think that is an apt description. Each photo is apparently of and activist that she works with that has been put into a border mimicking that of stained glass and votive candles. It makes one think of those in the picture as saints and powerful figures.

If you look closely too, you can break down how she is putting the people in the photos at the center of it all. Light shining out from behind contrasts them against the rest of the picture, borders around the edges keeps the eye from easily leaving the photo, and each person literal has a halo around their heads. But honestly, it was more the symbolism than the composition that drew me in.

Around the edge of each picture are quotes, I’m not sure where from, that have to deal with the subject matter. The colors around the border change depending on the significance of the subject, and overall I just think that each of this is a really powerful piece.

All in all, I had a great time looking around the gallery for the time that I was there, and I’d say it was worth a look to anyone that was on the fence about going.

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Final Project Progress

So, during my final project, I actually somewhat struggled to find all 15 photos. Not because there wasn’t much to work with, as my theme was basically people, places, and things that have held, and still hold great value in my life. A lot of it though, I tended to bundle into one picture to fit into one photo. So as I went along, I started breaking them up to give more emphasis to singular subjects, and get more images out of the subject.

The two above are my old college, which is where I met several long term friends that I still hang out with today, and my first dog, Cinnamon, who is 16 years old now. These aren’t the final photos, but they are definitely ones that I considered. You’ll get to see the others at a later update.

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Gifs

So, despite several tries to work around the problem, I sadly could not get the gif that I had made for class to save correctly, and therefore could not upload it here. But, in the time I spent making it, I certainly did once again get a feel of the differences between still images and moving ones.

Still images are great at capturing a moment. Freezing it in time and keeping it preserved to take forward and show others. Moving images take that philosophy and string it together. Taking several moments and pressing them into one motion, one series that works similar to an image does, but has more moving parts. There’s different problems between moving and still imagery, but in all honesty one simply seems like an extension of the other. Moving photography takes up, where still photography leaves off.

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Olafur Eliasson - Sonne Statt Regen’

Olafur’s photobook was an interesting one to be sure. He starts off his series of images with a tiny picture on the first page, offset from the center. It starts things off small, quiet, and getting the reader thinking of what is going on. Has them looking at things more closely to understand. It sets a mood of curiosity for the book.

And as the pages turn, this curiosity is certainly met with images that grow more and more curious. Some pages have large photos next to smaller photos to help with emphasis, while others are a series of small photos, and some images span two pages. I believe this is to constantly shift the reader’s focus so that the emphasis used continues to be effective and doesn’t dull with repetition.

There are other pages though, that are left blank on purpose. More than likely as section breaks between photo sets. Keeping them somewhat sectioned off to help with the flow of the book. As well, Olafur actually shapes his photos along the way and then uses them to construct new images, out of his old images. It’s an interesting take on things, causing the reader to look even further at the details. Though, it is more than likely a technique that I will not use myself for my final.

And lastly, the entire book uses no captions. No titles, not artist comment, no words. Because using any of that, would break what Olafur is attempting to do. he constantly has the reader look at something from a new perspective. And that, is something to learn from.

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My Cornerstones of Life

So, last week I gave a somewhat rough idea of what I wanted to do with my final project. Now, I have a more polished version of it. For my final project, I still intend to do something very personal, as I have come to enjoy staged pictures with narrative and deeper meaning. In fact, I am planning on writing accompanying words to go with these pictures if I am permitted.

For my project I intend to take a series of pictures that represent the things in my life that have shaped me into who I am and have had a great impact. For example, the pictures above represent three rather key points into who I am. The first is a picture of my first dog, who is going on 16 years old and has taught me a great deal in life. The second is a picture of my gaming consoles, which is where my inspiration to pursue my chosen career came from. And last, is my Dungeons and Dragons handbook surrounded by all the characters I have played in the last couple years. Which have ties into why I love writing so much.

I want my pictures to have impact, and to do so I intend to work with varying lighting effects, how things are set up, and composition in general to create a specific atmosphere. There’s a lot I want to convey, and I want to share the stray of how I got here today through these photographs.

That is what I intend to do for my final. And hopefully I will have enough skill to pull it off.

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‘Passage’

There are many things that come to mind when I think of the word ‘passage’. A rite of passage, passage on a ship, a mountain pass. But none of these are what come up first. The first thing I think of in this case, is the ‘passage’ of time. Time is always there, always moving, and we can only ever look back on it, always moving forward without a way to stop.

And there is a reason I went with a timer for my show of passage of time. I could very easily have just watched a clock or stop watch. However, in this case it didn’t fit my immediate thinking. Because passage, the passage of time to be precise, to me is something you worry about. You know the time is ticking by, know that it won’t stop, and we worry whether we will have time for everything we want to do. Though, in some cases we are looking forward to what is on the other end, promises of rewards waiting for us when the time ticks to a specific end.

Passage, to me, is time. And time is something that is all around us and effects everything we do. We can worry about it, be elated by it, it can be the cause of many things. But it will never stop passing us by. That, is what I think of when I think ‘Passage’.

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FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL: The Most Important Things In My World

For my final project, I would like to take the idea of using a series of images to tell a story, to a bit more of a personal and grander scale. Throughout the course I have enjoyed both telling a story through without words, staging shots, and using something that has personal meaning behind it. So for my final, I wold like to combine these things together.

My basic idea is to take a series of pictures that describe the things that are most important to me, the things that make up my world and make me who I am. Now, speaking in a more structural based way, I intend to utilize my knowledge of staging composition and putting it to good use. My pictures will portray a variety in their composition, lighting, and contrast, but all tie together in the end to make a ‘bigger picture’ so to speak, in telling a story.

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Waiting for my cat to move so I can get up. This might take a while #pnm3379 #instagramproject3379 #thelifeofwaiting #lovingpets #needtogotobed

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Waiting for food to cool down. The hardest part of eating #pnm3379 #instagramproject3379 #thelifeofwaiting #ramenislove #cooldownfaster

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It's interesting to think of the difference between video and a still photo. Both have immense impact, but in different ways. A photo is a single frame, a second in time that has been frozen and preserved for all to see. It can be staged to tell a story, just capture a fleeting moment, but it also is still a single moment. Where as a video is a collection of these moments. It has a broader scope, but also has more to worry about. Each moment needs to flow into the next, and there is a greater risk of it breaking, of the point not getting across. Yet, it could also hold a draw that is incredibly powerful if it all comes together. - Also, waiting for clothes to get done in the washer sucks

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Syd and the Porcelain Floor by Cig Harvey

The first thing that I noticed about this piece, that anyone probably notices about it, is the abundance of white and a small speckling of color that stands out among it. That small color spot being a little girl in a pink dress and a few miscellaneous objects. And because of this obvious color contrast, it is her choice to use so much white that intrigues me.

On one hand, it focuses the eye and draws it to the little girl. However, it also isolates her, in a way. Giving a bit of a lonely feeling. And her expression leaves me wondering whether she is waiting for something. Yet, the white also makes the rest of the room hard to make out, obscuring details, even making it look like there is no floor. Effectively trapping the little girl in this white room as she waits for someone to come and take her away.

I really liked her use of white in this picture. It conveys a lot of meaning, and gives you something to think about as you look at it.

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Project 1

My intent with these photos was to express the day in the life of myself. The daily grind, so to speak, the routine that I seem to follow every day when I wake up until I go to sleep. It’s a step through time, seeing the scenes in which I was present up until I am in bed once again, where I both end and begin my days. Getting ready for the next routine.

I intended to lean on the subject of the unseen, as we did for our last assignment, and take pictures of places where I had just been. Using the items in the photo to make it plain what I had been doing at the time before leaving that ‘stage’ in my routine.

My lighting choice was one that I accomplished with only three of my pictures, at least fully. I was going for a brighter point of light to cast out on the picture and create a somewhat harsh contrast between lights and darks. My only mistake was not waiting until later in the day for sunset before taking a picture of my car. I chose this because I found that it gave the picture the character that I was looking for. Made the items, the props, the subject, stand out form the rest of the picture while providing interesting contrast.

I framed each of these within a square so that they would feel more like looking into a window onto a scene.Though I am not sure if that particular part came across well. My inspiration for this was simply reading the theme modern life. It made me think of a documentary on someone’s life, and how more times than not we find ourselves doing the same thing day in and day out. Under everything there is always a routine.

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In Class Photo Manipulation

Before

After

Before

After

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The Unseen

The unseen, something that is missing. A photo that has been constructed specifically to make the audience wonder what and why something has taken place by manipulating the scene to leave clues as to the answer; whether blatant or subtle.

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Reading Response: Photography in the Future and Social Photography

We were assigned two readings this week, one of which speaking of the possible future for photography and how machines may play a much more critical part, and then how in recent years people have mapped the rise and constant flow of photography as a social dynamic.

The article, for me, was probably the more interesting of the two. It spoke of ow we already store billions of photos a day, which leads to trillions and beyond by the end of a year. The insinuation of how many photos are probably out here is overwhelming. But, what Malik said that interested me the most was the fact that machines are already using algorithms to try and mimic how we take photos. And Google and others are already working on making that program better.

At the very end of the article, there is a line mentioning that eventually the desktop photo software may be nothing more than outdated nostalgia brought out to remember the old days. But in that lies another, possibly more disturbing assertion. If machines do eventually master the art of photography, will that art be lost to us as humans once we have a device that can do all of that for us at the push of the button?

And with what the social photography reading mentioned, with the massive amounts of photos, where they are taken, by whom, and all of that. With a device that can take photos for us, will we even need to really travel to these places ourselves anymore? What individualism will photography have when it is all done by machine?

It’s possible also, that I am reading too much into this of course. But in the end, the question is, will the future of photography stay in our hands, or will it be a lost art that is left only to the old masters and zealous hobbyist?