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“Encounters” Makenzie Goodman

Makensi Goodman has been doing photography since 2014 and continues too this day. She is also currently an assistant professor at Appalachian State University. She has had a myriad of different photo series with a common use of sandy or desert areas or places that have been abandoned or very old. With that, she also mainly focuses on rural areas instead of more urban areas. This is particularly seen in her series, “Encounters”

"Arrival" Encounters 2024

Upon fist look at Mekenzie Goodman’s work for their “Encounters” series remind me of old black and white alien movies. Both for its limited color pallet, but more so the imagery used. She mainly took pictures of the desert, the night sky, and desolate places. One piece in particular that reflects this is one titled “Arrival”. The title fits the piece with the setting being a desert with the night sky in view with a bright light at the end of a road. It feal like a flying saucer had crashed landed on the road. The same goes for “Visitor 1” which is a picture of foot prints in the sand. This looks very similar to the pictures taken on the first moon landing of the astronaut’s foot print on the moon. I really like the feeling the photographer is trying to convey in the series as it feels like a series of photos take by someone trying to document alien sightings. It also properly conveys the moods that they were trying to set as many of the pictures feel desolate and creepy, especially the pictures taken at night. Delving more into the artist herself, she seems to have a fascination with geographic locations and considering she was raised and lived in desert areas, it feels like this series was inspired by her fascination with the surrounds around her. Especially in terms of a place’s history and mythology. Knowing this series was further inspired by the location’s history is even more fascinating. More specifically, this series focuses on the stories, mythos, and history of Majave Desert and she even recorded a video of her interviewing these people and posted it on her web site.

This hits even harder as another source of inspiration for Goodman was her previous job archiving and taking picture of sites and artifacts in Death Vally. Seeing and archiving different societies in the desert helped inspire her to explore the stories the people who had claimed to see UFOs as she wished to document these modern stories in Majave Desert.

"Visitor" Encounters 2024

Overall, I love this series with its attempt to look like old picture and its emphasis on not just the desert environment, but also, how it makes the viewer feel like they discovered or the photographer discovered a other worldly being with this series. Its almost telling the viewer a story and in a way, it is as the imagery was inspired by the stories of people who claimed to have encounters with UFOs. So, in a way, this series feels extra personal to, not just the people’s stories and how they felt, but also the history of the Majave Desert that is being shown to the viewer.

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“America by Car” by Lee Friedlander

“America by Car” by Lee Friedlander is 10 by 10 inches wide and tall and it is a series of black and white pictures created by Lee Friedlander and depicts various parts of America from the inside of his car. He visits different lands marks, towns, and people. It was very little text, mostly describing his methods of taking his pictures. He also mentions that the series and the book is dedicated to his deceased friend, John Szarkowski.

Lee Friedlander was born in Washington has been creating photography for a very long time and started his career at 14 in 1948 and he boomed in popularity in the 60s and 70s. Looking at his other works, the black and white look is a staple through out his work. Not only that, but he has primarily taken photos of settings and people. Often making the setting feel lived in or visited, even with pictures with no people as in comparison to his other pictures, it feels like a place lived in or that had people.

I think his pieces creatin an interesting tone. Bothe his overall work and the work shown in the book. In the book specifically, it really feels like different parts of America are shown and not just the very well-known landmarks. He shows houses and cities of various sizes and different architecture that might be influenced by different factors. On top of that, we also get a sense of time as we see the weather change in different ways, however, this might also have to do with the changing biome. We see him driving in a desert and in a different photo, he might be driving in the snowy mountains. Not only that, he also took pictures of different people as well. I also feel there is a bit of dichotomy from the various places he visited in comparison to the fact that he stayed in his car while taking the picture. It pushes to the view that they aren’t there physically and like there is another layer dividing us from the different places in America. Overall, the series reminds us how big the world is by showing how different parts of our country look in comparison to others. Like his overall work, his pictures feel lived in and dictated by the people living there and fully alive. He mentions how the series is meant to reflect the visuals of America and show how big it is, both in size and culturally and I think he does an amazing job.

Friedlander, Lee. “America by Car.” San Fransisco, Fraenkel Gallery. New York, D.A.P./ Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. 2010

“Lee Friedlander”. Frankel Artist. https://fraenkelgallery.com/artists/lee-friedlander

“Lee Friedlander”. International Center of Photography.            https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/lee-friedlander?all/all/all/all/0

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Photography Zine Proposition: Vignette of Figures

            I’m not sure how long this assignment will take to complete and how long it will take me to make it into a zine. So, for the sake of time, I think I will take photos of the figures, plushies, and toys that I own in different situations and small stories. I thought this would be fun because these figures are something that I like to collect or hold on to. I have a few different types of figures that I can use from old toys that I don’t play with anymore, figures that I can set up in different position to imply different situations, and more. I was also thinking of crafting some sets and props to make the picture more visually appealing and so it isn’t the same background in my home. Also, to make the story clearer and the settings and props can help imply what is happening. I have taken a few pictures already and I wanted to play with composition and camera angle more in order to play with the tone of the pictures.

These series of pictures I took while playing with angle to convey different tones, one is angled upward and the face of the character in the background and the character in the foreground are one are side by side. However, the other picture in angled down ward and causes the figure in the background look smaller. It gives the feeling of both characters having some sort of conflict with one another.

In this picture, I wanted to make it look like the figures in the back are following the figure in the forground. I also turned the lights off in my room and used a white light above to try and create an ominous feeling to the setting. These are just a few of the pictures I took for an example of what I want to make.

With that said, I will be constructing the setting or using different parts of my house or ware ever as a setting for the characters to be in. I will also use a combination of natural light and light from my ring light or a different electronic light source.

Overall, I want to create little visual stories that viewers can get immersed and invested in what they are looking at. I also want to make this series because it involves using figures and such that I like, a lot of them from shows, movies, games, and more that I like.

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I choose one Do and one Don't to talk about from Andy Adam's and Charles Traub's Do's and Don'ts of Photography.

I think the photos I took well represent the fallowing Do's. I wanted to experiment with different camera angles and mess with the focus to make a dramatic looking piece as well as to play with different compositions. Also, I wasn't sure if one looked better than the other, so I took multiple before calling it a day. That way, I have more pictures to play with as see side by side what looks the best. As for the lest do, I designed the props that the characters are near because I wanted to imply a story with these three.

Again, I think both are useful as taking multiple pictures can be useful as instead of being stuck with one mediocre picture, you can compare multiple of the same thing and see what's best. Or, experiment with setup and camera placement. Also, designing or having more creative control of what you are photographing can make sure you get a good photo.

Personally, I really love glitching effects in photography and film. I love messing up a picture to make something new. I suppose this Don't may have a point if it was just a filter layered overtop the picture. However, I love messing with the colors, contrast, duplicating it then morphing it then mess with the colors more and play with different types of layer types, like multiply or overlay.

On top of that, messing with a picture to this degree may mean something different depending on the artist intention or how they distort the picture. Not only that, but you can get effect that look creepy or even ethereal, again, depending on what you are going for in a picture.

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JeongMee Yoon

JeongMee Yoon is a South Korean photographer and was born in Seoul and Studied and got her MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She is especially renowned for her photo series that she created in 2006 “The Pink and Blue Project”, which was also around the time she got her MFA. This was not her only well-known series, but it is the first one that comes up when you research her. These series of photos immediately draw the eye with their child like imagery of assortment of toys, books, and other things meant for kids. Not to mention, they are separated by color and also reflect a gender disparity between things meant for children with girls’ toys being mainly pink and boys’ toys being mainly blue. But that is just the surface level part of the project. Overall, it shows the view that consumerism and commercialism have on growing minds through media and the things they are trying to sell.

Not only dose this series show a disparity of gender ideals with color, but it also shows how companies market their products and make their products for different genders by making toys pushing stereotypical female and male roles. For example, toys marketing to girls tends to be thing like toy baby dolls and cooking or cleaning appliance while toys marketed to boys tend to have depictions of sports equipment and trucks. Not to mention the clothing, things like clothing is also shown to be extremely gendered as the blue pictures depicting things marketed to boys only depict shirts and pants while costumes tend to be things like superheroes. The pink side however has frilly shirts and dresses and skirts while costumes tend to be things like Disney princesses.

Again, this shows the things that are pushed on impressionable minds in a subconscious level by making these hard lines of what is considered for boys and what is considered for girls and also subconsciously tells them what roles are for girls and for boys. Not only that, but it also limits them at a young age what they are exposed to, again, with the aforementioned line that media reinforces, saying what is and isn’t things boys and girls can like.

On top of that, not only dose it shows how this effects children, but also how they are affected later on in life as the other versions of JeongMee’s series shows the people in theses series show them growing up and while the pink and blues are less prominent, there are some traces left in their life. Showing how this kind of marketing can influence our growing minds and overall mindset of gender and gender roles.

Looking at her other series, she relies a lot on color and obvious compositions that more immediately draw the eye around the picture. With the aforementioned “The Pink and Blue Project” utilizing single dominant colors and pattern from the different toys, cloths and other objects. Looking at the pieces from afar reminds me a lot of larger scale photos that are created with smaller image photos.

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Yoav Friedlander

Yoav Friedlander is a is a Jerusalem photographer whose main body of work consist of dealbated buildings and objects and places void of people. Throughout their different series, his work dose not have a single person in them and I think it makes a more impactful punch as they often give the feeling of desolation, like walking down the street but not seeing a single soul. It makes the viewer feel like they are the only person in the world. Even with the few pictures in his repertoire that include people, none of the pictures he has made include more than one person.

His “After the fall” series include pictures of dilapidated old building and figures, like an old pizza shop sign, heaps of scrap that was once a building, or an abandoned building plastered with graffiti. Like mentions before, it makes the settings feel like the world its self is abandoned, like there are no people around to take care of these places. This reminds me of a few things, considering the title and imagery, it makes me think of a fallout or an apocalypse. Consequently, giving me a similar feeling when I see things from the “Fallout” game series as many of the imagery also uses older objects and memorabilia and styles with similar state of decay. It gives a feeling of a time long ago that has been lost.

Even with his series like “A Form of View” that has a lot cleaner imagery, the things he photographs still feel like they are in a state of abandonment. Many of the pictures include empty rooms, like someone wants lived there in a long time or some one packed up and moved out. Even pictures of the most modern architecture looks like no one has come near it for a long time since it was made, hence why it looks somewhat clean, only really being touched by the weather.

With other pictures in mind in this series and the previous one mentioned makes this series hit a lot of harder. Some of the pictures also include imagery of toy soldiers, military weapons, miniature cars and objects on fire and one in particular of an empty house with bullet holes and a soldier silhouette make the world in this photo series feel like the after math of a war. With the different imagery in mind, makes it feel like these places were emptied of people because the place go turned into a battel field or that people are no longer alive in those places. Because of this, it makes the setting al the more desolate and depressing as a result.

Then there is his series “Behind the Zoo” ware it is a series of photos of small, desolate metal enclosers with dim lighting. Not to mention, some of the pictures have things like animal food bowls and small cages gives the feeling that this is meant to be a place for animals to be put into. However, these places are not suitable enclosers and look cold and sad. It looks, again, abandoned and looks more like something you would see in a back ally than a zoo or anything like that.

Overall, his work gives a sense of cold isolation and desolation. Not to mention, it hits a lot harder as as he grew up In Israel during the Gulf War so his imagery of delipidated and torn buildings and his series like "After the Fall" and "A Form of View" most likely reflect his mental state while growing up and how it has effected him as an adult. Conveying said feelings through his art.

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Photo Scavenger Hunt

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Danielle Owensby's Devine Comedy

Danielle Owensby, or Deo, is a photographer who focuses on surrealist imagery that focuses on trauma, memory, especially the emotions old memories evoke in a person. This is reflected in her work for her “Devine Comedy” Series. This series was particularly interesting to me. Both for the subject matter, the surreal imagery, and the title of the series and of each picture. The series it’s self is based on the book “The Devine Comedy, Dante's Inferno” which is about Dante making his way through limbo then through hell as he finds his way to heaven. Dante goes through the different rings of hell that represent the 7 deadly sins. Each picture subsequently represents this as well and the other rings in-between the main rings. This was fascinating to look through as I read the titles of the pictures and connect them to the text as I had actually read the book. Because of this, I have an extra layer of context and I really like this actually.

"Inferno: Lust"

For example, the Lust picture doesn’t have figures of naked people or anything obviously phallic, however, cloth swirling together in the wind. This reflects what happens in the book as the people in the ring of lust are tangled together, swirling around each other in the wind. There are also pieces that are not obviously referencing something from the 7 rings, but instead, other plot beats from the story. For example, “The Pathway Lost” picture has a figure lying on a tree branch. Considering the imagery and title, this is referencing the first part of the story ware Dante has lost his way and is trapped in limbo that is represented as a dark forest. This is meant to represent how he literally lost his way to heaven and his soul is stuck.

With that said, that isn’t the only thing that inspirers her work. Another aspect that rings through, not just this series, but her work overall is her experience as someone in the LGBTQ+ community. With that and the inclusion of biblical references, she tells a story and feeling that a lot of people who grew up in a religious environment face as they figure out who they are. Especially in an environment that is against their gender or sexual identity. On top of that, this series specifically expresses her experience growing up and figuring herself out, going on a path of self-discovery similar to Dante.

This is emphasized with the visuals again, “The Pathway Lost” could represent her feeling lost and alone on her early journey of self-discovery. In “Their Wrath” has her standing on a section of land with small rocks with crashing waves with a mirror to her stomach, reflecting the waves Infront of her, making her seem hollow. Considering the river in the ring of wrath and this picture, this makes me think that she has experiences a lot of anger trying to figure her self out and facing the hardships that she has faced, all said anger inside of her.

"Inferno: Self Violence Freed"

There is also “Self-Violence Freed” considering the imagery and context, it makes me feel that she has overcome her pain and out from the form she was forced to take or she was born into. Overall, I love how she ties this story to her own experience as Dante's journey is meant to represent the human experience of our journey through life and to a good life, some people get lost and go down the wrong path while other people work through their pain and become better people.

Looking at this series and her other work, it really does strike a cord with me. It makes me reflect on my own memories and how different they are to when I first made them. Especially my childhood memories that I thought were happy but actually weren't.

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Karen Jerzyk

Karen Jerzyk photographs consist of surrealist imagery that utilize bright and saturated colors in some shape or form. This is emphasized with the imagery she uses, some implicating a hyperpop gory visage of a girl’s intestine strung about or story book life imagery of branches overtaking the setting with fantastical mythical looking character. A majority of the time, these pictures have a single dominant color that takes up a majority of the piece with hints of different colors. Overall, her pieces have another worldly and dream like look and feel to them, especially with her use of old and discarded objects as props and using abandoned places as a setting and modifying it to a degree to fit their image. With that, anyone can interpret different meanings behind the pieces, like a dream. This can be seen with her color series ware she makes an art piece room by making it a particular color and creating a wide range of scenarios that make each piece different from one another. Even when seen her “Color” series ware one color is the emphasis of the piece, the themes are different but again, giving a sense of whimsy with the odd imagery.

Then her other series, like the “We are All Ghost” is a series of spooky pictures of abandoned or old houses with a bed sheet ghost in front of it. With the child like costume and the spooky setting, she states how they brought back feelings of childlike wonder with the cute novelty of a well-known and simple costume in these settings. Personally, it makes me think of trick or treating as a kid on a fogy Halloween night.

Her older art was more traditional with photography of model poses and was more realistic. This changed with her shift in mindset after the loss of her father. With that, she used photography to visually explore her thoughts feelings. A story or situation is implied with in each piece; however, the main thing people take away from looking at their piece is the emotions they draw out of viewers. Personally, her work again reminds me of a dream like state but not just in a surrealist form, but what it feels like to walk around in a dream and what it is like to remember your dream after the fact, including the emotions and thoughts you felt. I believe it is also her use of abstract figures of creatures and almost cartoony pop art looking figures.

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Amy Lovera

Amy Lovera Study-Zoe Rose.pdf Full PDF of my research blog

As I was first going through the surrealist genre on lens scratched, Amy Lovera’s work was one of the first pieces that crossed my eye. Apon first look, she uses an analog method of photography and seemed to use a particular chemical process to give the final result look like a black and white silhouette. but not only that, the contrast between black and white isn’t too harsh as there are shades of grey in different parts of the photo and more so gives the figures and shapes a ghostly appearance. After looking at her other works, she has some more traditional photography pieces, however, what ties all her series is that they seem to tell or evoke some story of story to the audience. This is emphasized with her statements when talking, not just about this series, but her overall work. Her “Securing Shadows” series has been showing in many different exhibitions like in the Institution of Contemporary Art and even in other exhibitions in different countries. the specific method she uses is silver gelatin photography which is good for black and white pictures, however, with the chemical process and her use of light sensitive paper, causes this ghostly visage as the photo becomes overexposed.

“Luna” Silver Gelation Photography, 50x42

 “The Days Are Long” Silver Gelation Photography, 42x50

This emphasis of this style is enhanced with the overall message and motifs of her pieces relating to memory, especially her experience as a mother and seeing her children grow and those times when her children were younger being past memories know. Another reason why a lot of her pieces involve some sort of child like element, like toys or pictures of children playing. A particular piece of hers that reflect these elements is a piece from her “Securing Shadows” series “Paloma” 42 to 32 inches that depicts a young girl running in the grass while holding a stuffed rabbit and chasing a bird. On top of that, with the aforementioned technique to give it an illusion of a ghostly image. Not to mention, how the elements are put together look like something out of a picture book. As mentioned before, she likes to tell a story with her photography and uses her images to imply what is happening with very little to no dialog. For example, her other series like “Girl and Bird Detective Agency” which tells a story of a girl and a bird who solve a mystery and feels very much like a children’s picture book. Then there is her series “The Anomaly of Wishes” that tells a story of a woman who finds a book left by her mother talking about how wishes do come true and the mothers study and experimentation with this theory.

“Paloma” Silver Gelatine Photography, 42x32

After looking at her pieces, this series specifically, it makes me think of experimenting more with my mediums as it may result in an interesting piece of art work. I often find myself feeling stagnant when I am doing a particular art for too long, so experimenting with a new method or medium might do me some good for me and my overall art. On top of that, I might need to study more on photography and especially the chemical processing that goes into burning the image. While I know there is a chemical process that goes into to putting the image on a Polaroid and such, I am not completely sure of how that said process is meant to look like, especially for this class.

Breault, Douglas. “Amy Lovera in Conversation with Douglas Breault.” Lens Scratch, Fine Arts, Photography Daily. January 23,2024

https://lenscratch.com/2024/01/amy-lovera-in- conversation-with-douglas-breault/. September 1, 2024.

Lovera, Amy. “Securing Shadows” AmyLovera.com.            https://www.amylovera.com/artwork-1/project-one-ephnc-zt86d. September 1, 2024.

“Amy Lovera”. Spenational.org. Society for Photographic Education.  https://www.spenational.org/members/amy-lovera. September 2, 2024

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Weekend Photos 8/25/2024

This was one of my first attempt with my camera. I was initially having a hard time, even when I had the instructions in front of me. I am still not sure how I got it to take a picture, It seemed to work best when I pointed the cross hairs at a light source. This was not my very first picture, I was getting upset with the camera and took a blurry picture I didn't mean to take. After that, taking pictures was smooth sailings.

This is me sitting at my computer reading over the instructions of my camera while watching Youtube.

After that, I got relaxed and watched more Youtube with a small bowl of chips. Overall, a somewhat lazy Saturday.

I took this photo on Sunday and it is the outfit I chose to ware out to shop with my Mom and Step sister. This was difficult to take because I put it on my bed and I could not get a full picture of it from the original angel, so I had to stand on my bed to take it and I had to stand on the side of the outfit. In hindsight, I should have put it on the ground to take a straight on picture. Also, as I was standing on my bed, I almost fell. Also, for some reason, when exporting the picture from my camera onto this post, the photo was rotated so the outfit was upside down. I don't know why that is, but I had to fix it by downloading it onto my computer and rotating it to normal.

After getting ready, I unfortunately forget to take pictures of the Walmart we went to since I am not to comfortable taking pictures in public, so I forgot to take any there. After that, I made sure to take pictures of the Barns and Nobel that we went to. We were there to find my step sister a Spanish dictionary for school. I actually tried to find a book for one of my other classes. Unfortunately, they did not have the book.

In Old Navy, we went to shop for clothing were I bought some Halloween themed shirts and cargo pants. Not much happened, I mostly wondered the store. Again, I was nervous tacking pictures in public and I avoided taking any with people I didn't know in them.

This picture was taken at at Dick's Sporting goods were my Mom was helping my step sister look for bicycles. They didn't get one and they seemed to be having a hard time finding a bike. In all honestly, I was not paying attention to much as I was fiddling with my camera. Again, I tried to not take any pictures with people in them, this was an exception because the person on the right is my Mom and she isn't in the picture to much.

Once I got hope, I took a picture of the pile of the things that I had bought during my family's shopping trip. I was planning on making a clearer picture, but by the time we were done, I was tired from walking.

In these sets of pictures, I am doing some further experimentation with my camera and how my bedroom will look without and with the flash on. I noticed that the flash on this camera is extremely bright and easily illuminates the area. However, It also makes the picture look flat depending on the setting.

This is further experimentation with my camera as well as seeing how my room would look with the lights I got at Target.

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HELLO

My name is Zoe, I'm a 2d animation major and I am making this blog for my photography class. In this class, I hope to better understand photography and about lighting, color, and more that I might not know that I can implement into my art and animation. I hope to break into the animation industry and maybe one day produce my own show. I also would like to work on video game or comics. My future is pretty open to possibilities.

I like drawing, animating, playing video games, reading comics, and watching animated tv shows.