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.

Interview with Morgan Kazanjian

Morgan Kazanjian is a fourth year photography BFA student at Mason Gross School of Art. 

I first met Morgan last spring for our Junior Reviews. There was a mix up with the review schedule so we both showed up expecting to be reviewed, now a year later we just so happen to meet up again, this time for an interview. 

1. Me: So, you're a fourth year I take it?, I remember you from last year. What is your major?

Morgan: Yeah, I'm a fourth year, and I'm an art major too.

2. Me: Well how did you get into photo?

Morgan: I started taking photo classes in high school when I was a sophomore, my high school had a darkroom and everything. 

3. Me: When did you decide that photo was for you?

Morgan: I got really into film photography in high school and thats when I really discovered thats what I enjoyed doing.

4. Me: After deciding that you wanted to pursue a career in photography, was it hard to get your parents on board with the idea?

Morgan: Yeah, well,  it was kind of a struggle deciding if thats what I want to go to school for because my parents were all like "What are you gonna do with an art degree?"

5. Me: Well, what made you come to Mason Gross?

Morgan: Honestly, I applied to Mason Gross and NYU and I got rejected so I came here. 

6. Me: What photographers are you inspired by?

Morgan: Todd Hido, who definitely influenced my most recent work.

7. Me: What artists other than photographers inspire you?

Morgan: My favorite artists in general are the painters Georgio de Chirico and Van Gogh.

8. Me: So what were you thinking about with your latest series?

Morgan: I was thinking about gogauns spirit of the dead watching painting and how gender roles are sort of shaped by time and place and how in general there tends to be a submissive female role and a dominate male role and how people create their identities, now-a-days versus how they did centuries ago or in other cultures.

9. Me: Do you consider yourself a feminist artist?

Morgan: I don't consider myself a feminist artist or photographer at all.

10. Me: This is an interesting series, why did you choose penis' to photograph?

Morgan: I was thinking about the concept of mens genitalia and how it sort of drives who they are so it's more about the concept of what's being photographed than the actual photograph.

11. Me: Why did you choose to do so many different penis' with only the penis' showing within the frame?

Morgan: I was thinking of conceptual photography and the work of the Bechers and how they would photograph one item, but different versions of it with the same composition and everything.

12. Me: And are these too bodies of work connected in any way? I know you said you're not a feminist artist, but the two series' do seem to have a common thread.

Morgan: No, not at all. I know next to each other they look like they are, but they're two totally different pieces. 

13. Me: Well what was your idea behind this piece?

Morgan: I was on the train almost every weekend and I would go by the same spot and after a while I wanted to record them somehow because when your on  the train it sort of feels like every spot doesn't have it's own identity, so I went to photograph.

14. Me: Were you curious to see what it was like still as a posed to moving?

Morgan: I was just curious to see how the space could change.

15. Once there how did the space change for you?

Morgan: They're sort of like an anonymous space which i find interesting.  

16. Me: I'm sure that project took a lot of time!, was it hard for you to do?

Morgan: Uhm, it wasn't that difficult, but I usually only get on and off twice so there was a difference.

17. Me: So what sparked the idea to photograph these locations?

Morgan: I was so bored by the space and I had to keep seeing them being on the train all the time  and I felt like I wanted to make them slightly less boring by photographing them. 

18.Me: What are you doing with this image? Is it the start of a series?

Morgan: Well I'm exploring my moms life through photography. I was originally going to do it at home, but it all changed after she had to go to the hospital.

19. Me: Are you still going to continue the series?

Morgan: Yeah, I'm still photographing my mom, just in the hospital.

20. Me: So do you have any idea for what you're going to be doing for thesis?

Morgan: Uhm, well, so far I sort of think I want to get into religion for thesis.

Weekly Journal

Trying to Collect My Ideas

This week I was reading The Photograph as Contemporary Art and came across some artists that I thought presented some interesting work. 

These works are by Zarina Bhimji. Even though her work is more politically based (which is not what I'm going for) I thought her work was interesting and I started trying to think about why I think they're so interesting. The color is great and so is the lighting as far as I'm concerned, but there's an abandoned feeling I get from them that I absolutely love. I love that I can feel the loss without fully knowing the context.

Some other work I was looking at this week was Wim Wenders.

This image caught my eye and made me think about what I'm going to do with my own work. I was thinking of maybe messing with subject and background a bit as an experiment for this week.

This past week I worked in the darkroom trying to get more familiar for color printing. Some long term plans of mine are to ask Tony if I can take out one of the 4 by 5 view cameras and take pictures and then print them by projecting the image on the floor in the darkroom. I hope I can get a good size print from that, but that is my plan for later. Right now I'm trying to think of where and how I will shoot. This week was pretty frustrating in terms of progression. Right now I'm trying to kind of take my time and let my ideas naturally develop, but sitting there too much makes me reconsider my idea in the first place. I ask myself why I choose to shoot what I shoot. I don't always have the best answer, i can't really explain why I'm drawn to one thing over another, but I'm going to keep at it damnit! 

Some interesting work I ran into this week:

Banksy

I have to say that I love Banksy's work, and the idea of photographing work and therefore making art out of art, but I particularly like this image because the work is not limited to just the wall, but engages the space.

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson is a photographer that I'm familiar with (Justine Kurland worked with him for a time) but I came across this image and I loved the open space, color and light. I think it kind of captures that feeling that of solitude, the experience that one shares with oneself in the middle of the night when their alone or whatever, there's a feeling that one gets that is never shared. It's totally different if it is shared. 

Tom Hunter

He has this drama about his work thats not crazy over the top like Crewdson, but just works for the image. They're dramatic and objective...very nice. The color in his work is really great too.