Dana Stirling "Cache Memory"

Dana Stirling's series captures everyday life in the hopes of capturing memories. Her photos are colorful, possibly to help reimagine the memory being depicted. Stirling writes, "Over the years I have heard of my parent’s memories and stories. I remember hearing of snow, youth and happiness. Stories of happier days. The stories held on to the memories of times that I wasn’t a part of, and portraits of family members that always remained anonymous to me and their faces where no more distinct than any other person in generic photo album. These stories were supposed to be my heritage." I appreciate Stirling's emphasis on the everyday life and how it forms her own identity. She takes these ordinary objects, photographs them, and makes them a part of her history. Looking at this series, it makes me want to possibly include more "everyday life" photographs into my series.

Here is an example of how I want to do my photos. I wouldn't reveal this much of the body and the model would be nude (this was just experimenting). I'm thinking of outlining just the sides of the model or just the spine...things like that. I haven't decided if I want to show tattoos or not.

Rachel Jump's "Origins"

Rachel Jump is a Chicago-based photographer. Her recent series "Origins" depicts Jump's attempt at piecing her family back together. She spent her childhood in countless households, which led her to develop a "fragmented idea of home." Later on, she began questioning how her identity was shaped without a point of origin. She photographs this series in the hopes of reconnecting her family by taking the photographs in the same places that divided them. 

Jump's series is composed of black-and-white intimate images. Her images create the sense of searching, such as the photographs of the figure holding the lantern and the figure looking out of the window. She also uses fog and blurry pictures to create a sense of the unknown.

"At the core, I think the process of making art is a search for meaning."
Gregory Crewdson

Transgender Youth Portraits

"Belgian photographer Farida Lemeatrag embarked on a journey that would lead her to tell the stories of twenty-five transgender adolescents and youngsters through a series of intimate and vulnerable portraits born of mutual trust and collaboration. Lemeatrag became involved with the subject after reading a story about a transman and his experience; in the two years between that article and the beginnings of Transgender Youth, the account never left her. Often, they might not have the support of their families, their friends, or their romantic partners. As the photographer puts it, it’s “a period with many doubts,” but she’s hoping to change that by changing the way the global community approaches the subject; when faced with these vulnerable and courageous youngsters, she hopes that prejudice and ignorance will give way to respect and empathy."

Withdrawing from that brief background, this is a start on how I would like to start my series. Although Im not doing it for a cause of awareness she still captures some insight within their community. Im not really sure of any other way to detail the reason behind these portraits that focus on facial structure, but I'm sure once I start shooting the more ideas and reasonings will develop. Ive just noticed that within the the LGBT community that old of "masculine" or "feminine" facial structures tend to fall on either sex, again, this idea may not sound as strong now but once I start producing more Im sure more things will develop. I also noticed on a technical stand that most of her subjects aren't looking directly into the camera and are shoot from the chest up, very great to keep in mind with, but I would prefer my subject look straight into the camera to connect with the audience . I will do a lot of experimenting wishing the lighting studio and maybe push my idea either into their home.

http://www.featureshoot.com/2015/08/intimate-portraits-give-voice-to-transgender-youth/

Proposal

I have a few projects in mind this semester but the main one I want to work on is a continuation of my Mutt project. I'm thinking of switching it up a little though for convenience sake and shooting people with not the same background/ doing environmental portraits because the background I used is super heavy and non-portable. I have a few side projects I would like to work on as well. The first idea is doing portraits of my sorority sisters in letters accompanied by a stereotype or something of that nature. The second idea deals with body issues and I want to take implied nude photographs and use paint as a physical manifestation or stain of insecurities/ body issues. I haven't gotten a chance to take any new portraits yet. I've mainly been setting everything up but hopefully I can have some new stuff posted nest week!

I've changed my idea a little bit. I've decided to not have the model wear pointe shoes. I am just going to have the model completely nude. I don't want the entire body visible. I want to just highlight certain parts. I just learned a new lighting technique that is similar to "light painting". It is where the shutter is held open while light is painted onto and object (or in my case a model) with a wand or flashlight, and where ever the light is placed, that is what will be visible in the picture. When you are done painting the light you release the shutter. This can be done with other off camera lighting but, in my case I want the studio to be completely dark. So, I want to have a black background and only highlight certain parts or curves of the body. I practiced this technique the other day. Now I just need to find a model.

Christian Moll Blog Post 1

Ok so I am still on the fence about what to exactly do for my project. Though i have come up with one idea that I think could be a success. I  would like to do portrait shots of peoples reaction when being tasered. My only problem I am having is finding the meaning behind the process of doing portraits like this. Any input would be helpful with new ideas and or advice for this project. I feel it might be a bit of a hassle trying to find subjects willing to be in this series too. 
Bettina von Zwehl   Check her Page out!
She has done some series similar to this, with making her subjects wake up at odd hours and immediately photograph them. Another one she has done  is making her subject sprint a series of  laps and then photograph them tired and exhausted. 

Elliot Ross

Elliot uses a lot of natural light in his photos, none of the photos have the use of a flash in any of the pictures. A lot of the pictures are spur of the moment, and do not seem like they were planned out. He uses his light in a very unique way, and the pictures are very soft, i would like to figure out what kind of camera he used. The colors play a big part in the composition of the pictures. They are very earthy, and natural in a sense, nothing is harsh, or over done. Much like Dorthea Lang, and the FSA Elliot is doing almost the same thing, and show casing how the modern day farmer lives. A lot of the pictures have religious symbolism intertwined in the subjects, since a lot of farmers religious beliefs play into how they think that the new season will go. Many of the farmers would pray for a good season, and would feel that their season would depend on prayers to God.These images are a new take on the work that the photographers from the FSA had done. Many people forget that there are still farmers out there, and that people are still trying to make a living that way. With the way the economy is today, and the way our environment is shaping itself who knows how much longer people will be able to feed their families, or make a living, and this is an eye opening exhibition of how people are still trying to survive. 

First Attempt

Okay, so far I have only gone out to shoot one time.  This Friday I went to downtown Norfolk to attempt street photography and boy was it a challenge!  I bet it would have been better if I hadn't gone so early in the morning, but I wanted to capture some interesting light.  Also it was cold, no one was out.  I'm having some doubts about the street photography idea, but I plan on trying again at a different time of day.  My original idea that I was leaning towards was to have a singular figure in a setting and to find people and create a series of people who appeared to be outsiders.  However, while I was shooting I noticed many places were not even open yet so I ended up with a lot of shots of empty locations.  I feel like this could work if I choose to go in that direction.  I think removing figures from the images might shift the affect a bit.  But I think having a photo absent of any figures would get the message of isolation and disconnect across.  Below are some shots that I took.  What do you guys think?

I'm also considering creating a series of re-staging some of Edward Hopper's paintings as they were my source of inspiration.  I think that has already been done but I think it would be challenging and I can add my own twist.  Maybe I could re-visit these locations and try to re-create elements or a snippet of the paintings instead of creating a replica.  What do you guys think of this idea?


My original inspo (Edward Hopper paintings):

All feedback is appreciated! Thanks!!

-Bri

Updates - New Camera

Hey Guys,

So I wanted to post a quick update. I went out shooting last week and they look good so far. I haven't had a chance yet to go through them, pick out specific ones, and edit them yet but hopefully I'll have some shots up in the next week.

More great news, I got a great Cannon camera bundle from Amazon :    http://www.amazon.com/T5-Camera-75-300mm-Telephoto-Accessory/dp/B00OR80KZQ/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GZ3SB5JC3VTJAXTT4Z6

and I found a Cannon shutter release clicker which I should have gotten soon but it's going to come in handy for shots that need precise timed exposures instead of trouble shooting a ten second timer.

Finally, I have been reading more into the book and it's such a great read because its so logical and well thought out. Some of the things mentioned in the book are so practical because we've been following methods of developing photographic series' since as early as Photo II.

Schwartz mentions the protocol to what a body of photographs consist of. She organizes the topics in an interesting order from project development to getting recognized in gallery showings; the what to do and what not to do. I found it awesome that there are such places as residency programs because it made me think about a time after graduation when you're not always in a photo class, what can you do to get the creative juices flowing again. It's as if these programs are like retreats to get away and focus on your work and that's awesome that exists.

I like that she identifies Artist Statements and Project Statements because they go hand in hand but help clarify matters from the artist to the project. I found the whole section on Artist Statement to be helpful especially with examples on good statements verses bad statements.

So that's all I've got for now, but I'm really excited about this series I'm making. I plan on going out several times this up coming week and having a good couple of images picked, edited, and ready to presented on here.

Thanks Guys!

Project Proposal

Hey guys!!

So I just finished typing up all my thoughts on an interesting project idea and I thought I'd go ahead and post it on here. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos yet, but I'm excited about starting. Let me know what you think! Thanks.

Photo Proposal :  “. . . and along came Effy”

            The most important part of this series I will be doing is pulling the elements together from my two previous series “Character” and “Who You Are”. In these two series, I have shown elements such as exploring the “Tableau”, incorporating cross-dressing or gender identification issues, having multiple appearances of a singular subject in one photo, and having a good sense of character development. Considering the form of the photos, I have done images that tell a story in one photo and in diptychs or triptychs. My goal for Photo Seminar II is to create series that will incorporate all of these elements and if possible other elements as well such as long exposure shots at night.

            The series itself is going to be a series with characteristics of Emma Powell’s “Svala’s Saga” and “Alice in Wonderland” where we have a central character, Effy, who we’re forced to confront and be brought into her world of coming and going strangers as she prowls the streets full of drug addiction, drunken nights, and smoked-up mirrors.

            I plan to use a lot of natural light like I’ve been doing but also planning to shoot and capture ideal times of the day such as early morning sunrise, the golden hour, and overcast dismal days since they would create beautiful compositions and work well with the subject. More importantly, I plan to use the night as a main time to shoot since its ideal for the character, its ideal for great compositions, and it’s a new element to add to the style of photographs I create. Depending on how the photos come out, I may leave the day time photographs black and white to bring out details, to stick to a darker cinematic feel, and reflect the characters personality.

            Locations I have thought about for this series are several places I’ve been to already in my past photo making experiences such as Sandbridge, the Waterside docks, and the ferry to Portsmouth. I will explore new places such as downtown Norfolk where there are many nighttime venues always lit up and full of action, even beautiful cathedrals. Also, the VA Beach oceanfront is an ideal location where I want to shoot because I’ve been there so many times to explore and shoot and I know there are several ideal locations to feature activity of the main character Effy. Ideal places would be the 4^th st Jetty, Rudee Inlet, municipal parking lot, under the Rudee Inlet Bridge, and a great idea shot from a distance in front of the Ocean Breeze gorilla statue. There are many places that will be incorporated but another element that’s important in this series is breaking away from isolated natural places because my characters are not fantastical fairy tale characters; they’re realistic subjects.

            With all of this said, there is a possibility of buying a new camera with a telephoto lens, my own tripod, but most importantly a shutter release clicker since I would most likely be in a few images, along with various wigs, hairs, make-ups, and attire. Hopefully, I’ve covered everything that’s significant and this will be a great series to complete for a final photo class and a bright photography future.

I emailed the syllabus and Schedule. Please read them over and come to our first meeting with any questions about what is expected of you. I have only scheduled 4 official meetings after the first week. We will have to coordinate and find days and times to meet outside of our scheduled time as almost everyone in the class has another class at the same time.

This is going to be a busy and productive semester. You have a lot to do and you have to keep your own schedule and get it done. I know you can all do this.

Also, we have two big events this semester. World renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky has a show coming to the Chrysler and he will be there for the opening. You will all attend. It will be great! If you do not know his work look him up and watch the movie about him "Manufactured Landscapes". It might be on Netflix but also I have it.

Also, Mary Virginia Swanson will be giving a talk here at ODU (we are hosting it!!) It will take place on
feb 17th in the Art History classroom and it will be open to the public so I need you help to make it a success. Look at her website and you will see what a great connection she is and how lucky you are to get the chance to meet her in an intimate setting. http://mvswanson.com/

Monday we will meet 4-5 and Wen we will meet 4:30-7:00 and I will order in pizza for us. Please adjust your schedules to accommodate this. Thanks and I look forward to seeing you all again…..Greta

Hello and welcome to Spring 2016 Photo Sem 2!
This is your class blog you will use it to write about your progress on your proposed project. It is important for your grade that you blog every week by Sunday. This is how I keep track of your progress. This is how your classmates see what you are doing and are able to give you constructive feedback.

The first week of class (both days) we will meet in the photo work room about 4:00. The majority of you are taking another class scheduled at the same time as this but I have arranged with your professors to let you out early. When you are done come to the photo work room and be prepared to stay late. During these first two short meetings we will find an alternative time to meet that works for all. I will explain everything when we meet.

Also you will be getting this same info in an email from me so I make sure everyone gets this information. Because this is a piggybacked class Blackboard will not be available so all of our correspondence will be via this blog or a class email list.

I am really looking forward to seeing what you accomplish this semester!

See you next week.....Greta