Thoughts on Final Critique

I have learned a lot about myself this semester, personally and as an artist. My imagery has been dark for a long time, and as I mentioned in class it is reflective of where I am as a person. The reasons for this darkness are many, and the details are unimportant in this writing. What is important is I feel a change happening and I am ready to move on from that part of my life, leave the past behind.
The strongest images in my portfolio reflect this stage I am going through, and that has always been the goal of my personal work, to tell what has been my story. I think I have explored myself enough and the time has come for me to also turn my camera outward.
Technically, I have learned that less is more in terms of processing, and I have had the tendency in the past to overdo things in that area. Part of this is the result of ignorance about the real mechanics and effects caused by some of the editing tools, and part is simply curiosity. So my goal moving forward is to begin seeing things differently, which requires personal growth and change. Also I want to get back to making more universal images, telling the story and teaching myself yet again to see. This does not mean I have to abandon the influences, techniques and other inspiration I have had over the years, but rather that I need to expand my vocabulary photographically. In that regard I think that starting anew in these intro classes will help to ground and center me and get me back on the path I want to be on as a photographer. I am excited about these new opportunities and am looking forward to getting my head back in the game completely and totally.

Carmelo Bongiorno and Mario Giacomelli

Two photographers I admire and try to emulate at times are Mario Giacomelli and Carmelo Bongiorno.
They are both from Italy and both work in black and white. I believe Carmelo is still shooting film. I have actually developed a correspondence with him as I had asked him some questions for a report I did on him last spring and we have been chatting via email since that time.
Mario was known for his super high contrast black and white images, often reducing the tonal range to a shade of black and a shade of white with not much in between. He shot a wide range of subject ranging from street work, landscape, abstraction and the like. His compositions and point of view often added a surreal feeling to his images.This image is one of Mario's more famous images I believe and is a good example of the work I feel most drawn to.

Carmelo also works in black and white and his imagery is very surreal. I am impressed by his ability to make fantastic images not only in ideal situations but also in settings that would seem mundane to most. He has won many awards and gallery appearances throughout Europe. I can see the influence Mario had on Carmelo in many images. I like the controlled motion he uses and the fact that he can repeat and achieve consistent results show the mastery he has over the medium.

Slideshow Critique

I learned a lot from this assignment and I am really starting to appreciate the power of Lightroom. I actually had thought of doing stills to music in a similar fashion a long time ago when I was first contemplating going to college.
 To see it can be done so easily is nice.
My first attempt at producing one was about halfway successful. I shot many images for this before I came up with my idea to use text to touch on the caustic political environment we currently find ourselves in. I am also a huge fan of Hunter S Thompson. I was deeply saddened by his death in 2005 and I know he was a very outspoken opponent of Nixon and later George W Bush. I thought I could tie in part of his suicide note and the other images in a way that made it come together as a whole, but I fell short of this goal. I was influenced by Winston Smith the collage artist mainly, and so I created a background painting and collaged some text onto it for one of the images in a nod to him.
Another thing that weakened the piece was the fact that the images did not change quickly enough. I have to admit I was having problems with Lightroom finding some of my images, even though they had been placed in a collection in my catalog and not touched, when I came back the next day LR said they weren't there. That cost me 4 images, which took away from the consistency and also made the time each image stayed onscreen a bit too long. It irritated me but noone seemed to know what the problem was, and that is one aspect of LR I still find very frustrating.
Overall I was fairly pleased with this first time effort. I feel I produced some nice images as stand alone and a fairly interesting slideshow. This is definitely something I will use again in the future.

Slideshow Assignment

Objectives: My objective is to use images of text out of context to create a play on words relating to the political division in America.

Method:  I will shoot images of found text and try to put them together in a way that clearly conveys the message which should touch on the divisive state of American politics.

 

Inspirations: The use of image and text is nothing new, and there is a plethora of artists working with text in various ways. I tried to find two artists I had never heard of before. The inspiration hopefully will come in to play when it comes time to tie this together. I have to admit I found these guys after the fact but the have helped me refine the idea.

The first is David Smith, and seeing his book recently influenced my decision on how to approach this assignment on a more sub - conscious level I feel. The influence is straight forward: it was the red and blue text on his book cover.

My second choice is a collage artist named Winston Smith. He uses imagery from 1940s and 50s magazines for his collages. Apparently the Cuban Missile crisis scared the hell out of him because he touches on the issue of nuclear proliferation a lot in his work. He is very skillful at using text out of context and making his pieces look authentic to the period.

William Klein and Eliot Erwitt on Contact Sheets.

This blog assignment is unusual in that we are not really being asked to give thoughts on the work of these artists, but rather to touch on what we got from their commentary in the film Contacts.
I thought it was humorous that Erwitt opened by stating "One must never show their contact sheets" and followed with "Now lets take a look at my contact sheets."
The thing that stuck with me most from both commentaries is the themes of persistence and time.
Klein pointed out the number of images it takes to capture 2 minutes worth of time shooting at 125th of a second. It is 960 images if my math is correct. If you assume you will get a good shot out of every 36 exposures, thats about 27 usable images. Of course numbers aren't always so absolute, and at times we may get more or less good work per 36 frames. That seems consistent from what I remember about my film shooting days, I was happy to get 2 or 3 photographs worth printing from a roll.
The point is taken though. Photography is work, hard work. People seem to think that just because everyone and their dog has a camera nowadays that photography is somehow "easy". I would argue that the very fact that we are so inundated with imagery, much of it bad, makes it that much more difficult. It is easy to make bad images, but to make a photograph, that takes thought. Erwitt said as photographers we need to persist, to make just one more or 20 more images to assure ourselves the best chance for success. 
We need to be prolific as artists.

Comments on two images from the first critique

My strongest piece was the one of my friend with the tattoos. I feel that the composition is strong and of all the sessions for this assignment I came closest to working the subject and location thoroughly. I was comfortable with him and he was willing to work with me. It also printed much darker than my edit, which didn't strengthen the piece.

The weakest piece was of the guy Billy. I should have committed to the white on white look if that's what I wanted. I don't really have much else to say about this piece.

A self portrait in words

Layoffs, unemployment, divorce and career change have been the dominating themes in my life over the last year or two.
I feel like I am finally moving ahead in my life, instead of working my ass off and getting (seemingly) nowhere.
That feeling has been pervasive for so long I sometimes feel like I am in some kind of dream, or somehow in a place I don't quite belong. I know that neither is true.
I put a lot of pressure on myself, yet I know that to work at my best I need to be calm and centered. I lose focus very easily if I am distracted or preoccupied. Therefore putting the kind of stress on myself that I have been lately can only be counterproductive. I am driven, I don't need to trash myself internally to provide motivation.
There is uncertainty in the future as always but at least now I feel like I am on the right path again.
It could be an out of the frying pan and into the fire situation, time will tell I suppose. I can only do my part and hope things work out.
In a nutshell I am a guy with hopeful outlook on the future, and I have had to work hard to be where I am. Thats not a new story and I know the work never ends.
As far as how others see me, that is interesting.

Two years ago I may have had a clear answer. I have changed so much I'm not really sure anymore. How do others see me?
Do I ask other how they see me, or come up with some notion of my own. I hope people see my dedication and work ethic. I could go on with this but it begins to go back to how I see myself. This is going to require some serious thought, so I am stopping now.

Nicholas Nixon

"When photography went to the small camera and quick takes, it showed thinner and thinner slices of time...."
Nick Nixon.
This is in reference to his use of the 8x10 view camera as opposed to the more convenient and portable 35mm his peers used. Thinner slices of time what a wonderful phrase, almost as if the man looks at time as if it were a loaf of bread, to be carved by him with his camera in any way he pleases. Looking at his work bears this out, especially the series of the Brown Sisters. It's strange how the concepts that seem quite simple, such as photographing a group of four sisters each year, can carry the most power. How will this series end? Will the photographer die first? So many possibilities. Perhaps it will end before anyone dies, or continue until it is no longer possible to do another shot. This touches on so many things as I look at the series of the women from the youngest going up to present day. We all go through this, as many before us have and hopefully many more after us. Youth, adulthood and irresistibly pulled forward by time as we move towards the unknown. So simple and so powerful.

Mary Ellen Mark

"I'm just interested in people on the edges. I feel an affinity for people who haven't had the best breaks in society. What I want to do more than anything is acknowledge their existence". - Mary Ellen Mark 1989.
She has done many kinds of work all around the world. Europe, Vietnam, sets of countless movies with some of the biggest stars of our time. And yet it is prostitutes in Bombay, leper hospitals, mental wards and the like that compels her most.

She is gritty and not afraid to get out in the field and do the work it takes to get the quality shots that is obviously her standard. There are stories out there, everywhere that deserve to be told. Her work reminds me of this. Whether you are working to document local life or wars and cultures half a globe away, it is all relevant.
Getting the chance to hear her speak at Richland was great. Seeing an artist present and speak about their work is much more powerful than online browsing, or even looking at books.

Henri Cartier Bresson

The Master of the Decisive Moment. That is how Cartier Bresson was introduced to me.
The first image of his I recall seeing is of the man leaping over the puddle, suspended in space in time with perfect balance and tension. This is typical of what I feel is his best work.
In the video he seemed less pretentious than I had imagined, especially when he talked about doing portrait work. It reminded me of times I have been shooting and talking to the subject, usually questions about their work or something I may pick up on while speaking to them beforehand. It is challenging, and while I may not share the same level of trepidation as Bresson seemed to, I felt a connection.
This comes back to time. The man has been dead six years now and here he is making connections with people as if he were in the room. That is the magic of his work, the suspension of time during that perfect moment when everything comes together.

What I hope to gain from this class.

For me I think technical issues are going to be important not only in this class but throughout my academic career. I have done a lot of shooting over the years on the streets, events and my personal work. I have always used pretty basic gear. Fairly slow, often times prime lenses. In fact the XSi I have now is the first AF lens I have ever used, and I am still adjusting in those times when I use it.
The point and the goal for me is to use as much, and hopefully the full range of gear that the school has to offer and understand how I can use these tools to improve my work, instead of the gear contributing to mistakes.
I think community is important especially among artists and I am happy to see that this school has people who are actively trying to build this up. It is a huge resource we should all take advantage of.