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.