Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Photographer presentation 5

Anne Hardy



Born in 1970, Anne is a British artist best known for her large-scale photographic work of unusual interior spaces. She earned her MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art in 2000 and works in London.
Anne's images appear to be photographs of existing places but are actually carefully constructed sets, created by her in her studio, which she photographs. Subject matter includes junk she has found in markets, urban skips or jumple sales. the type of objects she chooses have ranged form antlers, brightly colored cables, old xmas trees, light bulbs, basketballs, baloons, test tubes & butterfiles. Anne puts these everyday objects together and transforms them into unusual almost dreamlike environments which critics describe as unnerving with themes of abandonment and desolation.




Angela Strassheim



Born in 1969 in Bloomfield, Iowa. Before recieving her MFA from Yale in 2003, Angela became certified as a forensic photographer. She did crime scene, evidence, and surveillance photography in Miami and, while working in New York, photographed autopsies. Her first exhibition work was a photograph of a naked woman on an unkempt bed who had committed suicide, and subsequent photographs feature a hospital x-ray room, a body in an open casket, and a bloddy surgical saw. but many of Angela's vivid color photographs depict less dramatic, even banal, objects and figures, and she identifies her subject matter as "the Midwest and the middle-class American family with the dog, etc." yet the lessons of forensics have lingered, and scientific detachment, meticulous symmetry, and clinical lighting pervade each of her images. I think her more recent work is very interesting focusing on scenes from life of her family and friends. they have mysterious yet timeless quality about them even though they are very average events.


Blog prompt 22

Crazy. It seems like a ton of work that I can't even wrap my mind around, let alone their motivations to take on such a project. It is truly amazing what technology can allow us to do but my question is why photograph a real scenario, make it digitally, then make it from materials after that? I guess I would like to see the final outcome to get a better idea what it looks like.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDYDxWSjVJw

thesis midterm







Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Blog Prompts 20 & 21

#20 Describe some common aesthetic/formal qualities, content, and conceptual threads in “snapshot” photography.

I love the spontaneity in snapshot photography. It doesn’t feel manipulated or set up, its raw and fresh. I think that’s what makes it so strong conceptually as well as aesthetically. Its content feels real therefore it’s stronger and more appealing, people can relate to it more than a studio set-up.

#21 Brainstorms! (In an effort to expand, improve, push your thesis projects further, pick 5 of the following to discuss.)

a. Ideas sometimes grow out of irritation. What is a negative thought you are having about your project? What is the opposite of this negative thought? How could you implement a change in your project so that this negative thought will subside?
Negatively I feel like I’m just decorating old work and would love to shoot new work but conceptually this weather does not fit with my piece so I’m kind of stuck in boredom and feel like I’m making myself work on it at times instead of wanting to dig deeper into the project. Opposite of this thought would be that I should look further back into photographs and embrace that they were taken in the past and maybe find older images I have forgotten about to use or go through Grandma’s millions of photos. I think doing this would help me get back into the project.

d. Type twenty words or phrases that relate to your project.
Home. Nature. Life. Family. Friendship. Beautiful. Flowers. Lessons. Words. Sayings. Folky. Old. Snapshots. Keepsake. Scrapbook. Book. Friendly. Light. Sunny. Antique.

e. At the deepest core, describe why you like this project. Dig deep!
It reminds me of my childhood and allows me to revisit that time in my life and relate back to a book that I grew up with and put my own impressions on it. Also, it allows me to go back into pictures and design a layout to make them work with, add in type & textures. This aspect of the project relates to my interests not only in photography but also graphic design.

f. Expand your project. If time, money, materials, etc would not affect you, how would you expand your project?
I would love to go on location in various place that have sunshine! Unfortunately Michigan sucks right now for the look and feel I am going for in my images so I’m forced to use past shot pieces which I do not want to do. For my project I envision fields, flowers, forests, lakes etc.


g. Contract your project. What would it boil down to if squeezed and contracted to its simplest form?
Life’s beauties and lessons.

photographer presentation 4



Koto Bolofo was born in South Africa in 1959 and raised in Great Britain. Bolofo has photographed and made short films for magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair & GQ. He has created advertising campaigns for companies including Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Dom Perigon. He is said to be one of fashions most individual and iconic photographers. When asked about his approach and process of picture taking Bolofo replied, "Before even beginning to take picture I find an idea in one's head and think it over in 'motion' like film directors. My brain searches for characters in the labyrinths of my mind. Once that is established the goal with my camera is to achieve a timeless photograph which has an emotional quality to ones eye and not produce a piece of 'throw away art'."






Richard Avedon was an American photographer whose portrait photographs 'helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century', as quoted from the New York Times. He also photographed patients of mental hospitals, the Civil Rights Movement, Protesters of the Vietnam War and later the fall of the Berlin Wall. Born May 15, 1923 in NYC to a Jewish-Russian family. Avedon started his photography career at a department store and was quickly discovered by Alexey Brodovitch at Harper's Bazaar. In '46 Avedon set up his own studio and began providing images for magazines including Vogue & Life. Avedon did not conform to the standard technique of taking fashion photographs, where models stood emotionless and seemingly indifferent to the camer. Instead, Avedon showed models full of emotion, smiling, laughing, and many times, in action. Avedon was always interested in how portraiture captures the personality and soul of its subject. As his reputation as a photographer became widely known, he brought in many famous faces to his studio and photographed them with a large-format 8x10 view camera. his portraits were easily distinguished by their minimalist style, where the person is looking squarely at the camera.







Arnold Newman was born March 3, 1918 in NYC. An American photographer noted for his 'environmental portraits' of artists and politicians. Newman attended the University of Miami studying painting and drawing with an introduction to Modernism. Unable to afford continuing after two years, he moved to Philly to work for a studio making 49cent portraits. His time there taught him the importance of interacting with his subjects and allowed him to develop his technique. Newman found his vision in the empathy he felt for artists and their work. Although he photographed many personalities such as JFK, Picasso, Marilyn Monroe, Mikey Mantle & Audrey Hepburn he maintained that even if the subject is not known, or is already forgotten, the photograph itself must still excite and interest the viewer.