Color Photo at MSU
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Blog Prompt #24
Friday, November 19, 2010
Leica Fotografie International
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Blog Prompt #23 (the REAL 23)
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Blog Prompt #(originally 23, should be 22)
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Blog Prompt #21
1. In what ways do you “construct” your identity? In what ways do you “perform” in your daily life?
2. Describe some ways in which your personal culture and social environments are “constructed”.
3. Describe some ways in which your physical environment/space is “constructed”.
4. In your daily life, what would you consider to be “real” and what would you consider to be “constructed/fabricated”?
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Blog Prompt #20
“We therefore consume images fleetingly and randomly. It takes very special pictures to grasp and hold our attention. We need to be seduced by images that outdo reality through excessiveness—as in advertising and movies” (Constructed Realities: The Art of Staged Photography Edited by Michael Kohler). What do you think about this quote? How do you think that our lives are changing as the speed of our interaction with photographic images grows?
“But the term ‘Infotainment’ also implies this: with the gradual fictionalization of even the news, the old categorical oppositions of ‘documenting’ and ‘staging’, appearance and reality gradually dissolve. They are being replaced by a variety of hybrid forms for which it will be impossible, in fact pointless, to attempt to distinguish between fact and fiction. Even the accusation that ‘Infotainment’ is guilty of continuous ‘lying’ is therefore unjustified, for it is neither ‘true’ nor ‘false’. Like advertising, movies and all other genres that adhere to the laws of fiction, it works at a level beyond these oppositions—the level of ‘hyper-reality’, where reality is ‘simulated’.” (Constructed Realities: The Art of Staged Photography Edited by Michael Kohler). What are your thoughts on “Infotainment” and how it affects our lives? How does it affect the way we see and understand “reality”? How does it affect photography in general?
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Blog Prompt #19
1) should not be photographed? Why?
2) cannot be photographed? Why?
and
3) you do not want to photograph? Why?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Blog Prompts #16, #17, & #18
“I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways.” Duane Michals
“I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.” Duane Michals
“Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer—and often the supreme disappointment.” ~Ansel Adams
“Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.” Arnold Newman
“Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past.” Berenice Abbott
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Concatenation Show
concatenation
n
1. a series of interconnected events, concepts, etc.
2. the act of linking together or the state of being joined
3. (Philosophy / Logic) Logic a function that forms a single string of symbols from two given strings by placing the second after the first
L.A. is a cacophonous shimmering silicon wafer, a vast crust of technologically generated business, transportation and imagistic exchange. It rushes at high velocity through an endless grid of infrastructure that has become a hub for the global. This is a seemingly infinite source of material that runs by the senses--garish and uncontrolled. Most of it I rather like, but of course, so much is toxic and destructive. We need changes. Art that concatenates itself in an oblique complicity with the momentum of technologically produced chatter can be like a hammer that breaks the wafer or makes a crack. Such a breach constitutes a humorous and pleasurable possibility of "re-routing" for change without dictating to others what that change should be.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Blog Entries 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
#11____Memory of a Place: Try to imagine a place from your past. Do you have pictures of this place? Describe this place as you remember it. What might a photograph look like of this place if you were to go back and photograph it? What would it look like in the past? What would it look like to you today? Where are you standing in this place? What other items are in this place? What colors do you see? Are there other people or are you alone? Make a “written photograph” of this place using words/description.
#12____Memory of a Photograph: Which photograph from your past do you remember most? Describe this photograph. Describe how it makes you feel when you remember/think about this photograph. How have you changed? How has the place in this photograph changed? What would a reenactment of this photograph look like? Would you act or look differently if you reenacted this scene today?
#13____Human-Made Space: In the past, photographers who were interested in how humans impacted the natural landscape grouped together to form the New Topographics. “"New Topographics" signaled the emergence of a new photographic approach to landscape: romanticization gave way to cooler appraisal, focused on the everyday built environment and more attuned to conceptual concerns of the broader art field.” http://www.lacma.org/art/ExhibTopo.aspx
In addition, at the same time in history artists created (and still do create) “land art” in which they use materials found in the landscape to make sculptures that remain in the landscape. Many of these works now only exist as video recordings and photographic documents.
Pay attention to the number of ways in which you encounter humans’ interaction with nature and the physical land. Write these down. Using these as inspiration, describe an idea for a piece of “land art” that you might create that would be documented by a photograph. Describe an idea for a piece of “land art” that you might make in a man-made landscape that would be documented by a photograph.
#14____Unknown vs. Familiar Space: When photography was invented, it became a way to document and reveal the specific aspects of both familiar and faraway places. Imagine a familiar place. Imagine a faraway place. How would you use photographs to convey the difference? Can you imagine any places that have been “touched” very little by humans? How might you photograph them?
#15____Collage: Collage brings together two or more items that were previously separate. The resulting piece usually visually references the fact that they were once separate entities. Imagine an important place in your past. Imagine an important place in your present. Imagine who you were in both of these past and present places. Describe two photographs that you might take that could be collaged together to tell a new narrative about these important places and how they relate to who you are and were.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Blog Entries #8, #9, & #10
“My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph.” ~Richard Avedon.
“You don't take a photograph, you make it.” ~Ansel Adams
“All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this - as in other ways - they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.” ~John Berger
Monday, September 20, 2010
Blog Entries #5, #6, & #7
“Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.” ~Edward Steichen
“I just think it's important to be direct and honest with people about why you're photographing them and what you're doing. After all, you are taking some of their soul.” ~Mary Ellen Mark
#6 In your opinion, when is it beneficial, ethical, or appropriate to digitally alter photographic portraits? When do you think it is inappropriate or ethically wrong?
#7 Pay close attention to the types and number of photographic portraits you see in one day. Where did you see them? How do you think that the content of the portrait changes based on the context in which you see the image (news, facebook, magazine, advertisement, television, youtube, etc)? In other words, what is the difference between the portraits you see on facebook vs. those on the news? What is the difference between the “viewpoint” of the photographer in each situation? What is the difference between their “intents”?
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Blog Entries #3 & #4
“Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be.” ~Duane Michals. Do you agree or disagree with this quote? Why?
“If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera.” ~Lewis Hine Do you agree or disagree with this quote? Why? Describe situations when photographic images reveal “the story” (as compared to words). Describe situations when words reveal “the story” (as compared to images).