Journal 9

I've been working on some sample images for my thesis project. Here are some of my samples:

These are just some samples. I will be experimenting with lighting and content, but I want to do something along these lines.

Journal 8

So I saw some work today that I thought was pretty amazing from Vivian Maier.

The light and shadow in this shot is amazing, this a self-portrait by the way. 

I love the color in this image, it's simply beautiful.

Vivian Maier was a nanny that took photos, many photos. Her photos were discovered in 2007 and she died in 2009. 

The website:

http://www.vivianmaier.com/about-vivian-maier/ 

I'll be doing some experimenting with my film camera this week.

journal 7

Field trip this week...I'm not doing much except trying to figure out what I'm going to do for Thesis. This question is pretty much much consuming me since I think I'm probably the only one left. I know I'm interested in space and objects and light. I saw some of Uta Barths works and they totally reminded me why I fell in love with photography...the light!!! I love how her work is like color fields too, the colors draw you in and the light takes you, it's amazing.

I'm starting to think I'm doing things kind of for the wrong reason. I want to do more portraits because I always wanted to do more portraits, but mainly because I want to work for a magazine company and want to do work in that vein. I love still lives, they're always fun because I have control over what I'm shooting, no fuss,  no fight. I could have 3 minute exposures with no worry about the light changing or the subject changing...awesome! :)

I still don't know what I'm going to do, but I think it's definitely going to have to be color film which means a lot more time color correcting and printing, but in the end I think it will be well worth it. Large c-prints is whats on my mind. The largest I can print in mason gross is about 3' by 2' around about. I'll go with that, I just gotta use the 4x5 view cameras. I think I'll practice some with my 35mm, take sample shots of a space with my digital as well as 35mm and come in for the final shots with the view camera. ...Just a thought, i might get lazy and bail out of that idea...or run out of time lol.

Anyway here's some of Uta Barth's work:

Tell me that's not absolutely gorgeous!!! I am in love with this woman's work...I am a serious fan!!!...i haven't been captured by a work like that in a long time. I remember being captured like that from Henri Cartier-Bresson's work. The light, contrast, texture, form, composition and content completely captivated me. Out of all his work, for some reason now, I love to look at him early surrealist work, enigmas, I like the questions, I find that I have the same ones. I don't think I'll ever get enough of the Japanese Funeral or the man with the cat in the alley though, too good! :)

Some of Henri Cartier-Bresson's work:

These past two are a part of his earlier work, they're more open ended.

Journal 6

This week came with it's ups and downs. I got this great idea to experiment with stills and nudes and aesthetically grab from Dutch paintings. I figured I'd experiment with the aesthetics first. This was of course not in my plans for this week. I was going to shoot myself and do some auto bibliographical work, but I thought I'd let myself go on a bit of a tangent. 

Here's some of what I shot:

Now I wanted to experiment with nudes and stills and kind of comment on death and religion, but I didn't expect to do it that day, but then I thought while I'm here I should check out how the colors will look together, best lighting, etc. so I shot these:

I thought it might be interesting to put my head in the shot instead of a skull. 

I liked this shot, but I don't like the cropping...i feel like my bodes gotta either be in or out lol.

These started to get my interesting, but they have no concept to them,  they were just some aesthetic experiments I did for the week.

-Will resume conceptual work this week.

Journal 5

This week I'm working through everything. I'm going to be shooting in studio instead of in my environment and seeing what kind of different results I get and which ones I like best compared to the ones I took last week. I'll be shooting myself mainly, but I also want to shoot my family. I'm going to see if shooting my family will help me to see how I want to shoot myself and after reviewing my images I'll try to decide what direction I want to go in from there. 
I've still been looking at Ana Mendieta's work. 
I met with Miranda Lichtenstein and I was happy to have her look at my work and talk about it. That's one of the things I was hoping to do for a while. 
Here's some of her work:

This is from her series "The Searchers"

I started looking at Cindy Sherman's work as well and the idea of dressing up. I think dressing up can show a part of oneself that one usually doesn't get shown like an alter ego kind of thing but also how well people can blend into different personas. I want to experiment more with the idea of identity. 

Some of Cindy Sherman's work:

Journal 4

For this week I was thinking of building on my idea of shooting what I know. I've been looking at the work of Ruth Erdt's work and Larry Sultan's work just seeing how different artists have photographed their families in the past.

Ruth Erdt's work

Larry Sultan's work

 I also started looking at Ana Mendieta's work. I want my work to be autobiographical but to talk about life, death, feminism and culture. Of course I'm not sure how I'm going to do that, but I want this body of work to be a piece of myself. I want to also discover more about myself through the camera, as if seeing into myself through the lens. I'm not sure if this is what I'm untimely going to use for the thesis show, but I know to get to the point where I'm truly happy with a body of work, I have to just work through it.

Ana Mendieta's work

I've been listening to Amel Larrieux and Hector Lavoe, and wondering what it means to be a bi-racial American woman, in particular half Puerto Rican half African American woman. I want to explore all of these things in a new innovative way, but of course I'm still thinking about exactly how thats going to be.

Amel Larrieux- "Givin Somethin Up" and "Bravebird"

Hector Lavoe- "Mi Gente"

journal 3

I've ben thinking about my work and what I want to do for this class, but also what I want to do after graduation, which is to work for magazine companies. I've been thinking about how to combine the two so that I incorporate my ideas about how I want to shoot with the aesthetics of magazine photography to perfect what I can do and push further what I can't while making a body of work that I can have for my portfolio after graduation. i've been looking at Annie Leibovitz's work and also the work Justine Kurland did for New York Fashion Shows.

 This is some of Annie Leibovitz's work.

Justine Kurland's work.

I've also been looking at Sharon Core's work for still lives and studying lighting.

I want to think about lighting with my still lives, but I want to push conceptual still life photography. I still haven't decided whether I'm going to push for portraits or still, but I'm going to do some experimenting with both until I come to some type of conclusion.