2nd Artist Lecture for Spring Semester

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I found the Paul Pfeiffer lecture quite interesting. Although he uses acquired images something, I am still not 100% excepting of, I feel the way he used them to not only relevant but unique. He compares his early work using these acquired videos to work of still photography due to the fact he loops his videos so there is no beginning and no end similar to the effect of a still image. In later work he again makes the comparison to still imagery with the help of small dioramas. During his talk he explains he likes the absurdity of using a technology meant to capture a moving image and make it capture a still image or something as close to still as possible (white house hallway piece).

I felt special when he filled us in on various pieces of information he normally doesn't share about his work, but I feel this information confused me, or rather confused the fact he doesn't normally share this information. The main piece that I am talking about here is his 24 Landscapes. In them he has removed Marilyn Monroe from various seascape portraits he had found of her while digging through an archive. What is left is a seemingly unconnected series of seascapes some of which are completely blurry due to the original focal length used for the photo. Without knowing that the same person was removed from all 24 of the images I'm not sure if I would understand or even come close to appreciating the work and I definitely wouldn't get that the underlying thread was to be one of identity.

There are two pieces that really stuck out to me in a good way the first (top image) was of a small mirror sculpture he had built into a wall so when you first walked into that gallery you saw nothing but white wall with a small square in the middle. Then if you were brave enough to look in you found an amazing geometric design. One thing I really appreciate about the piece is that it is something that only one person can experience at a time and therefore it is a very personal and intimate moment between the artist and the viewer. The other piece of his that captured my attention was his Morning After the Deluge- which is a 20 min video and both a sunrise (normal view) and a sunset (flipped upside down) the sun never changes location on the screen but the duel horizon is what moves across the screen. I find this interesting and couldn't take my eyes off the screen during the question and answer session, because I was trying to study the slow movement of the sun and trying to see if I could actually see the horizon move. I never did, but it still seemed to progress.

Artist Research for Mon. February 15th

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Nicholas Nixon is best known for his work with the Brown sisters. This work consists of him annually taking a portrait of the four brown sisters, one of who is his wife Bebe, over the course of thirty-four years, starting in 1975 and going through 2008 (most recent found). Nixon found inspiration for this series as a result of seeing pictures displayed in the Brown family home, originally meant for Christmas cards, taken by the girl's parents every year since Bebe, the oldest, was born. In Nixon's images the girls are always in the same order which allows you to easily compare the girls as they age gracefully over a third of a century.

One thing I admire about this series is that the seasons change for the girls so you not only get to see them at different ages, but also under different circumstances. Also I enjoy the way you see the relationships change year after year within the group some seeming closer at different times in their lives.

From Nixon's work I would like to take away the naturalness of the subjects as well as the raw emotion. The girls never seem to be told to smile and only do so in a few images, showing the emotion that they were genuinely feeling at the time the photograph was taken. This same unemotional prepped attitude seems to carry on in the rest of Nixon's work. The directness of the gazes coming from his models only add to the emotional pull of his images.

The work Nixon does of other families and small groups carries the same feelings that the collection of Brown sister images do. The direct semi emotionless gazes seem to penetrate off the page. THIS is something I would like to carry over into my own work. I also enjoy the scatteredness of his subjects in the work below. I feel it adds depth/movement to the images.

Topic investigation for Thurs. February 11th

Frank·en·stein

   [frang-kuhn-stahyn] Show IPA

–noun

1.

a person who creates a monster or a destructive agency that cannot be controlled or that brings about the creator's ruin.

2.

Also called Frankenstein monster. the monster or destructive agency itself.

Origin:
1830–40; after a character in Mary Shelley's novel of the same name (1818)

—Related forms

Frank·en·stein·i·an, adjective

Cultural Dictionary

Frankenstein

(1818) A novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The title character, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, makes a manlike monster from parts of cadavers and brings it to life by the power of an electrical charge. Frankenstein's monster is larger than most men and fantastically strong.

Note: Frequently the subject of horror films, the monster is usually pictured with an oversized square brow, metal bolts in his neck and forehead, and greenish skin. People often mistakenly refer to the monster, rather than to his creator, as “Frankenstein.”

Word Origin & History

Frankenstein

allusive use dates to 1838, from Baron Frankenstein, character in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel "Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus." Commonly used, mistakenly, to mean the monster he created, and thus franken- extended 1990s as a prefix to mean "non-natural."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

Artist Research for Mon. February 8th

www.thomasstruth.net

"In the mid-1980s, Struth began a series of color and black-and-white portraits of individuals and family

groups, using the same large-format camera he employed for his cityscapes. This series grew out of an earlier but never completed collaborative project with psychoanalyst Ingo Hartmann, Familie Leben (Family Life, 1982), in which Struth and Hartmann analyzed family snapshots that Hartmann�s patients brought with them to therapy. Giles Robertson with Book, Edinburgh (1987) and The Hirose Family, Hiroshima (1987) exemplify Struth�s belief in photography as �a tool of scientific origin for psychological exploration� rather than a voyeuristic or fetishizing medium. This ongoing series explores the personal and cultural dynamics that condition how we see ourselves and others as well as how our individual and collective identities condition such perceptions. With unyielding gazes, Struth�s subjects confront the viewer, forcing him or her to participate in this dialogue." (www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_149A.html )

The thing I find most compelling about Struth's work, besides the direct gaze of the adults in the image. Is the way the families match their environments. I am wondering if this was something that Struth intentionally did or whether it was a happy accident. I'm betting that it is something Struth arranged and possibly something I would like to employ myself. Once again I am interested in the way the families interact with their own environment and with the clothing choice here they almost seem to become apart of their home.

These images also interest me due to the rage of emotion on the families faces. Although they are all looking directly at the camera and in turn the viewer there is such a mixture of emotions from boredom to happiness. This is interesting and may say a lot about the individuals in the group.

The thing I will take away from Struth's work is more in his interest or meaning behind these family portraits. That they are intended for more of a scientific study than to be voyeuristic.

Topic investigation for Thurs. February 4th

mon·ster

   [mon-ster] Show IPA

–noun

1.

a legendary animal combining features of animal and human form or having the forms of various animals in combination, as acentaur, griffin, or sphinx.

2.

any creature so ugly or monstrous as to frighten people.

3.

any animal or human grotesquely deviating from the normal shape, behavior, or character.

4.

a person who excites horror by wickedness, cruelty, etc.

5.

any animal or thing huge in size.

6.

Biology.

a.

an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure, as from marked malformation or the absence of certain parts or organs.

b.

a grossly anomalous fetus or infant, esp. one that is not viable.

7.

anything unnatural or monstrous.

–adjective

8.

huge; enormous; monstrous: a monster tree.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME monstre < class="ital-inline" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 1.25em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; font-style: italic; ">mōnstrum portent, unnatural event, monster, equiv. to mon(ēre) to warn + -strum n. suffix

—Related forms

mon·ster·like, adjective

—Synonyms

4. fiend, brute, demon, devil, miscreant.

Artist Research for Mon. February 1st

www.jessicatoddharper.com

I think a quote from the New Yorker explains Jessica Harper's work better than I ever could,

"Harper's domestic scenes - large color photographs featuring her family, and, occasionally, herself - combine a lovely sense of intimacy with a casually patrician formality...with a painterly feel fordappled, natural light that makes some of the images glow as if from within... the work is sincere, even seductive..."

- Vince Aletti, THE NEW YORKER

I admire Jessica's work for many reasons. Her lighting and staging always feel so natural, even when she is able to capture a supernatural glow to her subjects. Every one of her subjects seem to feel at ease in front of her lense and even when making direct contact with the viewer. Truth seems to eminate in all of her works even when they are obviously staged.

Jessica's first book "Interior Exposure" won a first place Lucie award, and was listed in PhotoEye Magazine's Best PhotoBooks of 2008 and PDN's Best Photography Books of 2008. This book is what I would like to emulate as she concentrates on her family, their homes and the ordinary events that happen everyday. I would like to be able to capture the natural environment of my families as perfectly as Jessica is able to.

1st Artist Lecture for Spring Semester

Honestly I went to this lecture not knowing a thing about Alec Soth, except that the turnout to his talk was supposed to be unreal. When I got there I was disappointed in the turnout as the theater was only half full. When Alec started talking about how we, as photographers, are essentially wasting our time it depressed me even more. These are words that I have heard other photographers say and that we have discussed in classes more than once. That there are so many new images everyday and most of them equally good to what we can do as professionals, what's the point in taking more pictures at all. I thought for sure he would be an appropriation artist, but was happy to find out he was not.

I enjoyed the concepts he put forth and the way he was able to story tell about the way he approached story telling in his work. I found his story and image of the most beautiful woman in Georgia ( http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/georgian-spring-alec-soth ) to be humorous because he found her and was not able to take a picture of her face. So all we have of proof that she exists is a quick snapshot of her back in a small group.

One thing I really liked about his lecture was all the reading he suggested for us. I can't wait to find Paul Graham's “Shimmer of Possibilities” which Alec deemed the most important book to read. As well as look at all the many artists he suggested. Finding "How to story tell on radio." by Ira Glass on Utube is what I will be doing as soon as this post is up.

I was glad to hear that by the end of Alec's talk he was still positive about the photo industry even with the millions of images we are bombarded with everyday and relieved to know that even in this digital age he saw hope for us as a profession if we find our way to tell our stories through our work.

www.alecsoth.com