weekly Diary

What I'm interested in doing with my work and what has inspired me in the past: 

One of the main ways I became interested in art was through Van Gogh's work, and the main artist that got me into photography was Henri Cartier-Bresson. Van Gogh's chairs I especially liked because I never thought to use an object to make a portrait. That made me start to think about the relationship between people and objects and objects and space. I loved the way Henri Cartier-Bresson showed space. To me he showed space and time in a poetic, but yet in a very real way. I loved that just the fact that the image was a photograph and therefore taken from life that it added the element of time (which I'm kind of obsessed with). When I take my pictures I think about time and existence and capturing it, either by the remnants of what was and who was there or just by the idea that it is there, and how an object lives in a space. 

Some of my work, older to most recent:

With this series I was trying to capture the silence of the night and also I was interested in doorways, stairs or anywhere that was normally busy with people during the day so I could photograph it without people so that the space and light could be the only things talking in the image.

With this series I wanted to convey an absence using the objects and space. I tried to use things that are pretty personal like shoes and chairs or an article of clothing to give a sense of someone that used to occupy the space and the empty wall to further push the feeling of emptiness and absence. 

This was a project I did where I made two images based on another artists work. These two images are based on Justine Kurland's work. After being introduced to Justine Kurland's work I really started rethinking my work and also how I look at work. I could not for the life of me fully understand the work, and especially, why I was so COMPLETELY taken by it. 

Some samples of her work:

Seeing her work changed the way I thought about my work because for me it was taking an element that I was looking to develop when working traditionally and transferring it over to the more modern conceptual work that I wanted to jump into. I want to make conceptual art without forgetting aesthetics. Kurland (I feel) makes successful conceptual work without the loss of aesthetic quality. In fact it is the very composition and tone in her work that pushes the concept behind it. I want to make well composed conceptual pieces, I think there a lot of conceptual pieces that could be stronger if aesthetics were used to further the conceptual aspect of the piece and that is one of my major hopes of achievement with my work (uhh...but I'm not there yet).

  

                                            

This are a few images from my latest series. I'm really starting to explore the relationship or dialog between object and space. To me there is something that happens between the two that talks about life or existence and time. Just the fact that it is a photography makes it stolen time.  I'm pretty obsessed with those things and I really want to push this idea in my work.

After some advice from Jim, I started watching Antonioni's films, or at least clips from his films just to get a sense of how he presents space. This clip is particularly interesting because of the frame and relationship between space and object which I'm interested in and want to explore in my own work. 

Here are my favorite photos by Michael Eastman. One image is from his Vanishing America series, the rest are from his Cuba series.

This image is from his Vanishing America series. What interests me most about his work is the relationship between object and space. 

A dialog opens up between the space and the object. 

I think its important to see the two images above together because the first shows the present and the past of Cuba together and the second leaves it open for the viewer to image the past and the present. I find the latter(just the chairs w/o the laundry) to be more interesting because it's less to the point. I think theirs two ways that I like to do work like this. When it's an object in a man-made environment I feel like the conversation between the two is about time and the individual lives of those that did or are occupying the space, but when it's an object in a natural environment I feel as though the dialog is about time and lives, but on a more grand scale. The timeline is longer and it's a society or humanity as a whole that is being discussed. 

I think these are two interesting ways that Michael Eastman uses a facade as a space to me. The ajar door separates it from the facade making the object the ajar door and the space the facade which is kind of switching it because for me its the space in the doorway (not really the door even) that is the object, and the object(the building) the space because it surrounds the object. 

This is an image by William Christenberry. This is a great example of how the dialog changes when there is an object in a man-made space and in nature. 

This is some more interesting work I've been looking at. This image is by Sa Schloff. What brings life to the space here is the light and what makes this image interesting is that the conversation between the object (the light) and the space (the room) is intertwined that the two can't really be separated, their almost one. It's as if their conversation is being played out visually. 

A book that I'm really getting into now is The Photograph as Contemporary Art by Charlotte Cotton. This book is pretty interesting because it answers a lot of my questions about contemporary art while introducing me to a lot of new artists.

Right now I'm actually experimenting with color film which I'm really excited about because I hate noise but love grain and would prefer to work in film, but want color images that I can edit in photoshop, so developing and scanning my negatives is my next line of duty for this week and if all goes well and I like how it looks I'll be starting my next series in color film! :)