http://www.lenscratch.com/2012/02/theron-humphrey-and-this-wild-idea.html
This is one of the coolest articles that I've seen so far. Theron Humphrey, who is used to doing more commercialized photography, decided to get up and go based off This Wild Idea. He determined that he was going to going on a year long, 365 day trip to meet someone new every day and photograph this experience (isn't it leap year though? haha). Any how, putting all photography aside for now, I feel like Theron has found the jem to life, making new relationships with people he's never met in places that he's never been, traveling around like a lost little puppy who just wants to be friends with everyone. You can certainly see in his photography that he does have that more commercial background, taking very clear shots of people, their environments, and the both of them together. This makes me curious as to how things might change for him as he continues along the road, moving place to place, idea to idea. I hope they continue to make posts about his further adventures and document where he ends up at, with that final friend.
His website is at http://thiswildidea.com/
He's 210 peoples in so far, with... 155 people to go.
Roll on Theron.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Chapter 4: Photography and the Human Body
This reading in Well's was definitely one of the most challenging chapters for me, theoretically, because of the loose debates about the the exposition of the human body. I don't think I can come up with any sort of clear opinion on what I feel should be limited in terms of content and nudity, but it is certainly one of the easiest ways to stir up some emotions, religiously, politically, sexually, in gendered terms, and aesthetically. Also, I had never considered the roles that photographing the dead can play in society, and I was actually surprised when I saw the sub genre that it didn't go into more detail, possibly focusing on the roles of documentary and death.
What I found to be the most interesting however is the section titles "Technological Bodies" and the discussion based around the camera throughout the ages and its affects on the humans in terms of our physicality. "The camera and other technologies for seeing also affect the way we value our own sense of sight." (2009 Wells: 194) By making something capable of enhancing that which we see, we are actually devaluing the individual and their ability to see. Not only can we capture moments in clarity grame by frame, but we can show what and who were there, or so we think we do. The interventions that photography and related developments have had on science again give superiority to these machines, which are much more accurate than a human could ever be. But always much colder.
A couple of questions that I have:
If the technological advancements of photography are able to give "clearer vision" as to what is there and that which we can't see, what sort of consequences does this have in various fields? Medicinal? Judicial? Artistic? In Literature? In Storytelling?
Also,
Why is it that we choose to place some much emphasis on nudity in the United States, whereas other countries, even those in the Western world, tend to appreciate and accept it more readily? It is something more universal than almost anything else to humans, so is it the need we have to compare with others? To strive for perfection? Does it make one lustful or allow us to eject the sense desires that many of us hold inside?
What I found to be the most interesting however is the section titles "Technological Bodies" and the discussion based around the camera throughout the ages and its affects on the humans in terms of our physicality. "The camera and other technologies for seeing also affect the way we value our own sense of sight." (2009 Wells: 194) By making something capable of enhancing that which we see, we are actually devaluing the individual and their ability to see. Not only can we capture moments in clarity grame by frame, but we can show what and who were there, or so we think we do. The interventions that photography and related developments have had on science again give superiority to these machines, which are much more accurate than a human could ever be. But always much colder.
A couple of questions that I have:
If the technological advancements of photography are able to give "clearer vision" as to what is there and that which we can't see, what sort of consequences does this have in various fields? Medicinal? Judicial? Artistic? In Literature? In Storytelling?
Also,
Why is it that we choose to place some much emphasis on nudity in the United States, whereas other countries, even those in the Western world, tend to appreciate and accept it more readily? It is something more universal than almost anything else to humans, so is it the need we have to compare with others? To strive for perfection? Does it make one lustful or allow us to eject the sense desires that many of us hold inside?
Monday, February 20, 2012
Project Proposal
The last post that I made with the handful of photos are for a photo project where I am focusing in on the ideas of construction and destruction. And so, here is what I mean...
Originally, my concept of these two ideas was based mostly on a cynical view of how much waste we make with space and material by feeling the need to constantly build and rebuild and perfect and comfortize, but now, I think I want to move away from that and have a slightly less opinionated perspective. Not everything that we create or destroy is for the bad, and not all is for the good. What does that leave us?
I am a big big fan of the Tao Te Ching, and there are a couple quotes which I would like to use as the basis of my study.
The first:
"We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable."
The second:
"The world is formed from the void,
like utensils from a block of wood.
The master knows the utensils,
yet keeps to the block."
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Yvette Meltzer and Old Folks
http://www.lenscratch.com/2012/02/yvette-meltzer.html
As Picasso said, “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”
This quote that Yvette Meltzer uses in her post is perfect for her work. Laundry is something that can be as so plain and regular, the everyday ordinary (well, for those who actually wash their clothes). Yet, Yvette is able to capture some of the most interesting images of a shirt, some dirty underwear, and grandma's bedspread that I've yet to see. The way she has timed her photos is nearly perfect, as the viewer can pull out just enough crisp outline to form more than a swirl of colors, but images with borders, eyeballs of trapped boogymen, white roses. It's nice hearing from her about the process and challenges that she faced when undertaking this project, but then also including how it is that she overcame them! Very encouraging for someone like me who is always so apprehensive and looses the chance to create something new or beautiful but am too self conscious to often do. I really really dig this work, check it out if you haven't seen her works yet.
http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/extended/archives/meditations_on_photographs_jacob_israel_avedon_sarasota_florida_may_15_1971/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+jmcolberg%2Fextended+%28Conscientious+Extended%29
This article by conscientious extended is a fairly powerful piece, and I think it has a lot of truth to it. Before talking about the photographer Richard Avedon, the writer Joerg Colberg reflects on the idea and effect of photographing those of older generations, with wrinkles scribbled into their faces that have the power to tell stories with out the necessity of anything but their faces. I find this to be very true, as one thing I've often reflected on is the idea that out outside is essentially a dead reminiscence of what we've done, seen, experienced in our lives. For the elderly, this is very much the truth. Deep wrinkles in the forehead tells a different story than a saggy, waggly chin or intense cheekbones. Yet, as Jeorg notes, at least for those of us in American society, we tend to hide away and exclude the old folks, whether it be fear of our mortality, a lack of time to care for them, a lack of care to make time for them, whatever it be, we rarely encounter them on a regular basis. That's why for the photographer Richard Avedon, this is something to which he can relate. The photograph which they highlight is of his father, in a typical Avedon style the writter says, but Avedon often spends time with celebrities and younger peoples, who certainly act and react differently to the camera than one's own father. It makes me curious about why Richard would choose to show his father as so: is he telling a story about him in the photo? Is that how his father would normally dress? Does he always look so comfortably solemn? hmmmmm....
As Picasso said, “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”
This quote that Yvette Meltzer uses in her post is perfect for her work. Laundry is something that can be as so plain and regular, the everyday ordinary (well, for those who actually wash their clothes). Yet, Yvette is able to capture some of the most interesting images of a shirt, some dirty underwear, and grandma's bedspread that I've yet to see. The way she has timed her photos is nearly perfect, as the viewer can pull out just enough crisp outline to form more than a swirl of colors, but images with borders, eyeballs of trapped boogymen, white roses. It's nice hearing from her about the process and challenges that she faced when undertaking this project, but then also including how it is that she overcame them! Very encouraging for someone like me who is always so apprehensive and looses the chance to create something new or beautiful but am too self conscious to often do. I really really dig this work, check it out if you haven't seen her works yet.
http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/extended/archives/meditations_on_photographs_jacob_israel_avedon_sarasota_florida_may_15_1971/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+jmcolberg%2Fextended+%28Conscientious+Extended%29
This article by conscientious extended is a fairly powerful piece, and I think it has a lot of truth to it. Before talking about the photographer Richard Avedon, the writer Joerg Colberg reflects on the idea and effect of photographing those of older generations, with wrinkles scribbled into their faces that have the power to tell stories with out the necessity of anything but their faces. I find this to be very true, as one thing I've often reflected on is the idea that out outside is essentially a dead reminiscence of what we've done, seen, experienced in our lives. For the elderly, this is very much the truth. Deep wrinkles in the forehead tells a different story than a saggy, waggly chin or intense cheekbones. Yet, as Jeorg notes, at least for those of us in American society, we tend to hide away and exclude the old folks, whether it be fear of our mortality, a lack of time to care for them, a lack of care to make time for them, whatever it be, we rarely encounter them on a regular basis. That's why for the photographer Richard Avedon, this is something to which he can relate. The photograph which they highlight is of his father, in a typical Avedon style the writter says, but Avedon often spends time with celebrities and younger peoples, who certainly act and react differently to the camera than one's own father. It makes me curious about why Richard would choose to show his father as so: is he telling a story about him in the photo? Is that how his father would normally dress? Does he always look so comfortably solemn? hmmmmm....
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Dying mother
http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/extended/archives/meditations_on_photographs_a_woman_sits_for_a_final_photograph_with_her_dying_mother/
I found this photography, taken by Eduard Mehome to be extremely challenging for me, but also quite beautiful. The two women in the photo are from Benin, the one holding onto her dying mother. But by no means is this in any way what one would expect when you think of a daughter with her mother at the death bed. You can see that the mother is certainly on her way out, but the daughter almost loosely drapes her arm around her shoulder, like you would an old friend. There isn't any pain in the latter's face, she understands what is happening, but instead of getting up and running away, she is there with her mother, in her final moments, posing her final and maybe first photograph of her life that she will never see. I find it quite beautiful.
I found this photography, taken by Eduard Mehome to be extremely challenging for me, but also quite beautiful. The two women in the photo are from Benin, the one holding onto her dying mother. But by no means is this in any way what one would expect when you think of a daughter with her mother at the death bed. You can see that the mother is certainly on her way out, but the daughter almost loosely drapes her arm around her shoulder, like you would an old friend. There isn't any pain in the latter's face, she understands what is happening, but instead of getting up and running away, she is there with her mother, in her final moments, posing her final and maybe first photograph of her life that she will never see. I find it quite beautiful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)