Thursday, November 12, 2009

11/12 Idea: Composite


To be honest, Im not so sure what i think about this image. it is a composite of about 7 images. Each of the moment of he murder, or of the finding of the body. The composition is not doing much for me. It does not make me think of death nor does it have a particularly strong distinct feeling. To me it come a bit across like a jumbled mess.
Maybe that says something. Maybe this is the kink in my hypothesis. The answer to the question.
--------Are these moments so contrived and manipulated that they all look the same--------
If the answer where in this image it would be no. besides being dark, it does not have an overarching color pallet. So where does this leave me.

lost.... Well kind of. This is just more incentive for me to shoot more. and more. playing with both the blur and the image.

Artist Lecture: Shimon Attie 11/11

http://www.artnet.com/artist/1730/shimon-attie.html

http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/attie_shimon.php




I found Attie's work to be different from the other artists that have lectured. I'm not really sure if i would classify his work as political as I would say culturally aware. To be honest I am not even sure that that is the right description. Attie's work to me deals with people and personal experiences. The work above shows projects old east Germany before the war, onto the post- Berlin Wall east Germany. This body of work touches on the idea of collective memories. The images deal with place and time/the new and the old. The lives and history suggested in the projects provides for me an emotional contrast to the seemingly dead and abandoned structures of the present.


Attie's series The Attraction Of Onlookers, was the most profound in my opinion.It is a depiction of the welsh community that lost almost all of its children in a man made avalanche. It isn't a real sentimental view on the town that was so devastated, but a view truly for the people that want to know or travel there. It is a comment on those that feel the need to visit and know the people in the town. I think this piece works much better than his piece with Nascar. It seems more sincere, not so forced.

Artist 11/9:Robert Irwin

http://www.pacewildenstein.com/Artists/ViewArtist.aspx?artist=RobertIrwin&type=Artist&guid=f924c6fa-a6c4-486e-979d-b3bdd1bbdae6





Robert Irwin is an that basis his work on the basis of the ability to interpret information and surroundings from light and space. He is one of the pioneers in the minimulist movements in the 1970's. I think his work is eloquent and subtle. He has an ability to manipulate light and the perception of that light in such a way that is almost shockingly beautiful.

His work comes across so simple visually, yet that i think is what makes him brilliant. In reading his book Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, seeing his work takes on a whole new perception. Because his work is so subtle, it for me has become a way of understanding and experiencing his work.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

11/5 Idea: Decisive Moment

the murder
Henri Cartier-Bresson is considered the father of modern photojournalism and a master of candid photography. In 1952 he published a book, The Decisive Moment. In it he stated "There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment". In 1957 he was quoted in the Washington post saying "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."

Right now in my work, This moment is key. In reality I am shooting moment that will happen again and again, replayed and edited for repeated views. But there is something about these moments that are internally ingrained within each other, new episode or not, the same moments happend again and again. varied only slightly.

11/2 Artist: William Eggleston

http://www.egglestontrust.com/

Troubled Waters

Troubled Waters, 1980

Troubled Waters

Eggleston’s work often dwells on the qualities of light, reflection, and color on different surface textures. Although most of his work has a very distinct fascination with color for some reason I find myself very interested in his series titled "Wedgwood Blue" They are simply shots of the sky. Its this series where you can see not only his interest in the ordinary, but his extraordinary fascination and sense of the mundane. After reading the introduction to his work I grew more intrigued. I've never been one to like imagery like this before, but like everything it is the idea, the thought behind the work that makes it so appealing. I'm sure if you went on flicker right now you could search sky/clouds and a million of these would come up. Maybe that is why I like them so much.
"He was excited by the touches of blue between the clouds abd by the intensity of light. His attitude was one of exploration. He applied methodical discipline to the quality of blue."Mark Holborn, August 1991, London, out of the book Ancient and Modern by William Eggleston.

Wedgwood Blue, 1979

Idea 10/29: Choices

As I move along with my work after mid-critique I have a lot to think about. Not only do I have a billion ideas running through my head at one time but i have a billion options. This work has so many places to go. At this point in the game I feel like my options for works are limitless. There is so much to mess up and at the same time so much to choose from. Working out ideas is like gridding out the NYC subway, one line after another.

One thing that really hit a chord though was the idea of the decisive moment within all these genres. There is a point that all of these shows have in common. example:

Crime Scene
- CSI ( miami,nyc), Bones, Law and Order (all spin offs)
-the murder: the body, the crime that propels the show into being. this is the moment that these shows depend on. This is what they need to have a show.

By using and collecting these "moments in time" I do not need to depend on my camera to blur the image for a color pallet, instead I can use it for its pure purpose. By compiling the images onto each other hopefully i can come up with a single mood, a distinct moment in time.

It was also suggesting that I look at the Nealson Ratings. Looking at what is viewed when/what is viewed the most. Mapping out all this information is quickly becoming a task all its own.

Artist 10/26: Uta Barth




Uta Barth’s work questions traditional functions of photography, by using the blur she channels Julia Margret Cameron whom used the blur to focus on the spiritual elements. Barth changes our perception of what we are looking at. The imagery is so generic and commonplace, scenes of living room walls and street corners fields and trees, they could be anywhere, taken by anyone. Yet it is the way she photographs them that sets them apart. Her work is visually almost empty. She focuses on the unoccupied foreground space to emphasize the photographs as containers for light and color.
I find this work so inspiring as I move deeper into my own conceptual work. Her colors are muted yet so rich at the same time. The purity that encompasses her work has a distinct calming effect. In my work i hope to accomplish quite the opposite, I hope to use her as a platform to create works that make the viewer uneasy and question something that they see probably everyday on the television.


http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/artist.php?art_name=Uta%20Barth