Blog prompt 26

Brainstorms! (In an effort to expand, improve, add complexity, and push your final projects further, please pick 10 of the following to discuss.)

1. What is the “opposite” of your final project? How can you rework your project to include the “opposite”?                    I could create images that are depicted with the lighting as the main subject, and having figures that help bring out the light.
2. What is a consistent theme/visual element in your project? What would be the opposite of this? How can you implement that into your project?  The consistent theme in my project is the manipulation of light, possible I could manipulate the darkness in some of my photos to create a eerie and mysterious effect.
3. At the deepest core, describe why you like this project. Dig deep! I really enjoy photographing people, and I believe that minimal lighting with direct lighting on the figure brings out the beauty of the human form.
4. Expand your project. If time, money, materials, etc would not affect you, how would you expand your project? I would photograph several people over the span of their lives to create a montage of their life.
5. Contract your project. What would it boil down to if squeezed and contracted to its simplest form? The form of lighting.
6. What would your project look like 100 years ago? What would your project look like 100 years in the future? 100 years ago would have been difficult to do because of the long exposure times. But in the future I could see new technology playing a big role in lighting, and the different effects that one could create with it.
7. Remove something from your project. How does it change? Removing the figures from my project would leave the mind to wonder what the context of the image is more about.
8. Think of one of your most memoable dreams. How could you add elements from this dreams to your project? One of my most memorable dreams is playing with my older brother when we were younger. I could create a dream effect through lighting, and light painting to make this possible.
9. How would you connect your images physically and conceptually? How would you make them disconnected physically and conceptually? I could connect these both physically and conceptually by either using similar subjects or similar lighting. To break this I could use different variations of both.
10. Name an artist/photographer/designer/videographer who would love your project. Why? Lindsay Adler would love my project because she uses the same idea to abstract the human form and brings the human form back to the simplest nature, nude.

In class assignment...

Assignment 5 Final Images

Composition: I used framing to emphasis the subjects and the beautiful landscape in the background. I kept the lighting to a minimum to focus on the figures and the landscape at once.

Concept: I wanted to create a violent, humorous, and romantic scene all at once.

Method: This was during my trip in California with my girlfriend and we made plenty of videos like these just for fun. These were all very spontaneous.

Context: I could see this being related to social issues on what people expect out of relationships.

Motivations: The only motivation here was to create something fun to remember.

Interpretation: No one really viewed this during the critique because it was set up at my computer. However, a few people did watch it and the only reaction I received was it was violent, cute, and romantic all at once.

Evaluation: Apparently the emotional value that is taken away from this piece is working well.

Extension: I could see this as a series of stop motion films, narrating my life.

Composition: I used framing and cropping to create this unique multiple personality constructed identity.

Concept: This image is about a constructed identity that everyone has, everyone has multiple personalities.

Method: I simple just took mug shots of my girlfriend with changing her expressions to create this piece.

Motivations: The subject is very outgoing and spontaneous and I wanted a way to depict her appropriately.

Interpretation: Classmates saw this is a humorous image that gave of her identity.

Evaluation: I wish I would have made the background white instead of the tan tone. I think this would have been more successful.

Extension: In the near future I think I would want to piece different ages, different genders, and races.

Composition: Here I wanted to the emphasis to focus on the camera lens and the image depicted in the lens. The lighting and contrast helps the focus as well.

Concept: This image is about being able to enter a new world through photography.

Method: When I take pictures I feel that I can create something new, abstract, or never before seen. So I began to think and this is what I came up with.

Motivations: I wanted to show that there is another world through photography.

Context: The relates to the world of photography, and helps show that there are no limits. 

Interpretation: People saw this as there is another world through photography.


Evaluation: I wish I would have made the image within the lens brighter, however leaving figures out of focus helps emphasis the image in the camera.


Extension: Possible starting a series on different perspectives that individuals see through their lens.

Composition: I used perspective, framing, and lighting to create something that is thought not to be possible.

Concept: Here I wanted to create a view that the viewer would have to think about. Things that are not easily depicted I feel hold more interest.

Method: I began to manipulate lighting and adding lighting to other images that had little or none.

Motivations: This is along the same lines of my final project so that is what motivated me.

Context: I feel this can speak to a social issue on how people care too much about how they look, and everyone wants to be in the spot light.

Interpretation:  Others had a hard time interpreting this image.

Evaluation: Not many people understood what this was without a description which I think adds to the confusion and what I was going for. So that is working well as well as the contrasting elements.

Extension: My final project is along the same lines, and hoping this will help me in that aspect.

4.14.11

Projection In-Class photo

Assignment 5 In Class Critique

 

Blog Prompt 25

Grace Oh - I chose Grace because of her compositions that she created with lights through a prism which i thought was very interesting and unique way to portray these otherwise simple compositions.

Keith Lewis - I really enjoyed Keith's work because he portrays the beauty of the human female figure in a fashionable and acceptable way.

Chris Frazer Smith - Smith like Lewis portrays the beauty of the human figure, but displays groups of human figures doing everyday activities in the nude, which I found to be quite interesting.

Francesca Catastini - Created some very odd and interesting compositions using masks and awkward situations which makes the viewer think about what exactly is going on. This is was one of my two favorites.

 Ray Lego - Ray throws together four separate Polaroids to create his compositions. I'm not exactly sure how they fit together, but it makes you wonder.

Michael Maher - I tried to select different genres of photography, and what really caught my eye about his photography is the movement that is created through his imagery.


Kathy Shapiro - A very interesting color composition is created through the use of minimal colors and once again leaves the interpretation up to the viewers.

In class 4.6.11

Recreation 05

Jan Kriwol

Here I wanted to create a feeling like something was coming out the photograph through a piece of torn paper. The paper with a whole in it symbolizes the limits and constraints that people may put on photography. I believe there are no limits to what people can portray through photography and encourage people to keep trying new things.

Constructed Reality Semi-Contemporary Photographer Presentation: Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand

Born 1964 in Munich, Germany.

Thomas Demand is a German sculptor and photographer. He commutes back and forth from Berlin and Los Angeles. He is most known for making photographs of 3D models that appear to be real images of rooms and other various spaces. He studied sculpture, and began photography to record his elaborate life-sized paper and cardboard constructions of different environments. He would not display his actual models, but only the images of his creations. He works a lot with pre-existing press images and or culture and political relevance to society. He did not only do photography and sculpture, but also his work consisted of films, working with architects on projects, and comprehensive exhibitions.

Constructed Reality Historical Photographer Presentation: Baron Wilhelm Von Gloeden

Baron Wilhelm Von Gloeden

Born: September 16th, 1856.

He was a German photographer that worked mostly in Italy. He was most known for his pastoral nude works and studies of the Sicilian boys. He work is said to be commendable because of his controlled use of lighting and the elegant poses of his subjects. He also used special body makeup on his subjects to hide blemishes to try for a perfection in his works. Also Baron Wilhelm Von Gloeden used  an innovative technique  of photographic filters to also help disguise the skin along with the body makeup. After his death his work soon disappeared, but recently has come back up and revived as the most important gay visual artists of the pre-World War I era to some. Most of his images were made before World War I.

Blog Prompt 24

A. Pick two images from any of the “constructed reality” photographers presented in class or linked on the assignment sheet. Describe how you could recreate these two images on a “smaller scale”.

 James Casebere and Cindy Sherman. I would create both of this images together on a smaller scale by creating a image of constructed person who resembles a piece of architecture with the ghost like emotion that one is given by viewing that of Casebere's work.

B. Describe your plans for your self-proposed final project (if the plan is the same as before, paste it here again and give a bit more detail). During the final critique for Assignment #5, you will discuss/present these ideas to the class.

Think I would like to do a series on architecture, structures and natural architecture over the coarse of the day to play with different lighting. Otherwise, I would like to create a systematic catalog of stock images that people could actually use some day.