Sunday, May 16, 2010

Homework: Aperture Reviews

I really like mark Lyons pictures because they bring reality into nature . Nature is what makes up our world and our realities are what define it. Putting a duitcase in the middle of a forest or a price tag in front of a mountain are ways to show the ways that we have chosen to use the beautiful world that we were given. It is the choice of the viewer to decide to view the pictures in a positive way or a negative one. Te pictures are of really focused quality and full of vibrant colors. Close attention is paid to the details of nature while the aspects of our world don’t seem as defined. This, I think, is meant to remind us what came first and what is more real.  For this same reason, the aspects of our real world are not at the very center of most photographs, and don’t make very bold statements. You have to think for a second about why they are there, and if they fit with the photograph.

 

Mark is a photo journalist and has been for over 25 years in the US and 18 other countries. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for work he did in Mississippi. He also won the honors from National Mental Health Association in 1984 in Mississippi for photographing the ways that its health system was falling apart.

http://www.aperture.org/apertureprize/2009-6.php

 

 

Keily Anderson-Staley is really interesting to have looked at after Mark Lyons. She photographs with a simuler concept I think, but her work has more of a definite message. She photographs with the idea of what we have made of our world in mind, but in her work is implied that we regret it. She takes photos of things like a log cabin, and a pile of logs next to it. The cabin is made of the logs, or a tent in the forest with a running pipe coming out of the top; the un-natural made of and imposing on the natural. She then takes pictures of people who look unhappy. We aren’t satisfied, and never will be.

 

Keily has worked as a portrait photographer, a teacher, an assistant, and coordinater. She received a BA from Hampshire and has been shooting for close to four years. She likes to shoot et plate collodion pictures and is working on a color photo project called “Off the Grid” where she photographs twenty families living in Maine with “Alternative Energy”. She teaches workshops regularly.

http://www.aperture.org/apertureprize/2009-2.php

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Zaina


Zaina always surprises me with how well she does at capturing the essence of multiple visual voices. She has many and is able to pull them all off excentelly. I would love to be able to take pictures in many different ways, with many different vibes, all so definate as hers. She works especially well with lighting and cropping, even in situations that arent always in her complete control. Photographing on the street, she was even able to make the lighting work for the voice she wanted that phototograph to have. She also was consistantly good at bringing depth into her photos. I was always impressed by Zaina's photography, and often found myself saying "Wait...YOU took that?!"



Zaina was able to thrive in any project we were assigned, but especially enjoyed street photography. Her enjoyment of this particular assignment really shone through her photographs. She was able to capture situations and emotions that really told a lot about people she, nor any of the rest of us, knew at all. I still have trouble Certier Bresson's- the photographer she chose to study. He inspired her work in a really positive way, and in her attempts to emulate it she brings her own voice. This was a really succesful shoot for Zaina.














Carlos



Carlos experimented with lots of different things this year. Never the less, he managed to bring his individuality into each assignment we were given. Even in the OP art shoot, he found a way to bring his own syle into each illusion. He worked really well with lighting and always had really unique creative ideas that devoloped his eerie visual voice. He never failed to be interesteng and fun to work with. While looking at the work of our class there is no question of which pieces are taken or edited by Carlos.



Carlos was very successful in many shoots, but I think that the halloween shoot was an especially good one for him. On its own, it matched his eerie voice, so when we went into it he was in his natural habitat. As his model for this project, I got to experience the ways that he thinks while shooting. He changes subtile details that make definate changes in the final product. While editing, Carlos always finds approrpate ways to bring himeslf into the photograph that while working with the theme of the shoot, stay true to his photographic eye.















Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Julian

As a photographer, Julian does a great job following direction. Each of his pieces embodies all that was asked of it, and at the same time he brings himself into the photograph. His understanding of the concept is brought forward in much of his work. His voice is brought forth through the emotions of others, and lighting and background choices.













He especially thrived in his work with portraits. He found a way to bring the reality of his models to the surface; something that is key to portrait taking. His extended protraid work was where he thrived most, as without having specific direction to follow he was able to experiment with ideas and find the situations in which he was able to be most successful.


















Tuesday, April 27, 2010

OP art


















During our OP art shoot, our objective was to trick the eye. We learned a variety of ways to accomplish that, including through computer editing and photographing objects that deflect light like prisims or funky patterns. I really liked our OP art shoot because throughout the year we have been playing with different peoples interpritations of our photography. I feel like OP art almost mocks that, because implicit in even just glancing at it, you are forced to see it in many different ways.







Friday, April 2, 2010

Umbrella












The object of these shoots was to capture the different ways that people think by photographing them with the same, inhuman object. It is interesting to me to see the ways that people interact with the same object differently. I think that it's an accurate depiction of the ways that they think, and that way brings out their individuality in an abstract way.



Magic Wand?





























Thursday, March 25, 2010

Monday, March 22, 2010