progress on collaborative project

between 5 & 6 on sunday afternoon

around four-ish, sunday afternoon

phils won and made the playoffs. krittersaurus happy.

color response

I found it really satisfying working with the color slide film. I think that I should've shot more abstract colors and shapes than definite forms with the slide film. It was interesting using the scanners as a huge element of the process of the project. Scanograms were pretty exciting to explore possibilities of contrast and comparison in the context of the dyptics. Using the printers and printing big was sick, even though frustrating and tricky at times.

jordan street railroad overpass

'If you want a slice of life, why not see the loaf?'

I appreciated when Lane describes how a Leica allows photographers, "to plan and imagine a photograph as an act of storytelling - an instant grabbed at will from a continuum." The way it described how a Leica creates a unique way to interact with the world. It offers a perspective of the world unique to the photographer. Its design allows you to shoot without an obtrusive effect on the surrounding environment. Its novel features, such as the right-angled viewfinder, and the extended borders of the viewfinder around the frame, make so you can shoot without disturbing the purity of the moment in time.

It’s strange to think about a camera that is one of the most remarkable machines to have ever come to fruition. But a Leica is apparently not only a camera, but also a way to investigate the world around you. On the huge spectrum of cameras, it transcends towards perfection. Its impact on photography, allowing such photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, and Lee Friedlander to create the significant pictures they did, is extraordinary. The Leica helped to define photography as an art medium, and didn’t let the photographic industry influence its fundamental design, as opposed to the point and shoot cameras that most people use today.

quatro dyptics

shadows all around

color slide film scans

read! respond!

I love how the piece told the story of this man’s life so eloquently. I enjoyed how I was reading about the project involving a camera that one could wear around their neck and record everything that was going on, and then suddenly, it turns into this vivid image of Bell’s animated and accomplished life. It gave you true insight to where this man had come from, and the rather amazing course his life had took.

But, I couldn’t understand why anyone would strive to record literally everything in one’s life. The article how contemporary cognitive psychology has shown that people’s memory and judgment aren’t always rational or vivid, but who wants to live continually referencing back to the past? I tend to follow more of a philosophy which values living in the moment, and not letting the past define the future. It’s somewhat puzzling why Bell attaches so much value to this notion of recording everything. I don’t think that it would give you a great advantage in the broad scheme of living one’s life. I think that being observant, and making rational, thoughtful judgments can achieve quite a lot, without having an encyclopedia of everything that’s ever happened to you.

I think making a picture is quite different to what Bell records with his SenseCam. What Bell records are images of his life, in the context of his life. They relate directly to him, and are only relevant to him. This is not a picture. A picture must communicate something as a picture in and of itself. It must evoke a response within the viewer for it to be meaningful. I don’t think that the SenseCam achieves that.

9.16

"I am fucking gorgeous." - Derek

looking down

I enjoyed how the assignment forced me to approach shooting in a unique way, forcing a certain perspective that had to be illustrated. I felt that the perspective of looking down inherent to the assignment gave it an element where looking down was intertwined with the subject. It forced me to look at the world around me in a different way, as m observations for shooting for the project focused on the world below us. I found myself sometimes photographing generally ordinary things, and trying to express other ideas through compositional elements, like framing or use of color. It was satisfying working within a slightly constrained box, so to speak, and appreciating things that probably otherwise wouldn't have caught my interest.

respond!

"When you photograph people in color, you are photographing their clothes. When you photograph them in B&W, you photograph their souls." -Ted Grant

Shooting color has been a very different change of pace for me, as my experience with photography has only dealt with black and white. While I believe that there is a certain quality and purity to black and white, where you are forced to work with the 6 or 7 shades of middle gray that silver gelatin offers. However, I disagree with Grant’s notion of the constraining effect that color has on photographs. The rich and vibrant hues that you can achieve shooting digital opens up a new spectrum of possibility. Color allows for different dynamics to be achieved in pictures, adding dimensions that are possible with working with all colors of the spectrum. Color can breathe life into a picture in a different way that working with black and white can, but I like how I’m not convinced either way… Grant’s quote is captivating.

five alive

right down the shitter
just for a huge parking lot?
what a wasteful shame.

map

j r o s s

respond!

Anton Bruehl comments on the unique form of expression that embodies photography when he says, "I believe a good photograph must make use of this inherent quality that no other medium has, of recording accurately and beautifully the subject matter chosen." Shooting digital has offers a new medium where the capabilities of the camera and computer are vast, images sharp, and colors brilliant. Still, regardless of these technological capabilities, the subject matter is the world at hand, and capturing some essence of that purity and harmony in a photograph is undeniably important to this task. Chassler comments that, "It cannot reach that level of subtlety at which the photographer is forced to explain it." I absolutely agree with this. There must be something, from some nuanced detail to an overarching theme put forth by the photographer through the photograph. Irving Penn wrote that a good photograph was one that is, "in a word, effective." A good photograph must attempt to use this unique medium, a combination of the tangible world and expression and ideas in order to leave the viewer, "a changed person for having seen it."

free shoot