project #2 mid critique

Artist Research

Spinal Tap

Arthur Tress

He was born in New York in 1940. He goes to college and gets a degree in painting, history, world culture and philosophy. He starts making short motion films. He then goes to Paris, France to attend film school. Travels through Euroupe, Egypt, Mexico, Japan and India documenting different customs. "First one person exhibition, Appalachia. - People and places in Smithsonian Institute and Sierra Club Gallery, New York. He then moved to California working on male nudes.

His work seems to be very interesting and somewhat out of the ordinary. The piece i chose caught my attention because you see the naked figure with the spine at the same time. It is an interesting point of view. 

Recreation 2 part 2

Interpretation: I feel like my piece was easy to interpret. It is a self portrait done in the same manner as another portrait. The only difference would be that i am facing the other direction compared to the girl in the original.
Evaluation: Based on the critique the biggest thing that i needed to fix was the background. i either needed to choose a background that was the same or one texture and color behind me. Or i should have edited my picture so that there was no background. I could probably also play around with the exposure some more. The exposure was good but i think i could have pushed it just a little farther than i did.
Extenstion: I could use this picture as a starting off point to do many portraits that would be closer to the person. Also i think i would want this extension to have the people all wear wraps or something on there head. Also playing with the different prints of the fabrics that they could where would be interesting as well. In my picture i used clothing that had different prints on them so that they would contrast each other and i would like to do that more in my pictures.

Recreation 2

http://www.art-dept.com/artists/bolofo/

The Image that i used can be found on the website above. This picture is done by Koto Bolofo. I tried to recreate this picture to the best of my ability. 

 

This is my recreation. i did not mean for it to be the opposite but i kind of like it better. I wanted to try and recreate the textures of the fabric in he original in mine. My recreation is a little bit darker even in color but i feel as though that creates a different dynamic to the piece.

Blog #4

        “If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera.” ~Lewis Hine

Do you agree or disagree with this quote? Why? Describe situations when photographic images reveal “the story” (as compared to words). Describe situations when words reveal “the story” (as compared to images).

        

           I do and don't agree with this quote. I feel that there are some things that are better captured in words where as others are better captured in an image. There are some things that can be written that cannot be captured in an image because there might not be a way to depict those words. Images after a catastrophy would give more information that words might. When you would read something about the catastrophy you might get an idea of what happened but until you see the actual photo you would not understand. Say there is a portrait of a person that is feeling certain way at the time the picture would have been taken. You can figure out some of what they are feeling by their expression but you might not be able to understand it all in a photograph whereas words written down can tell you exactly how that person might have been feeling.

Blog #3

“Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be.”~Duane Michals. Do you agree or disagree with this quote? Why?

I agree with this partially but i not completely. I think that in photography things do deal with appearances but they are sometimes not as they appear. At the same time things in photographs may appear the way they do seem. I think this is in part because each person is going to look at an object or a photograph differently compared to the person next to them that is looking at the same thing. I think i would say that i dont have a strong opinion for one side or the other but that i would go back and forth depending on what i was looking at.

Final Images Assignment #1

The Top Image

When I was thinking about the composition I wanted to include everything that was surrounding it from the angle that I chose. I felt that the surrounding especially the sky accented my main object which are the hands. The hands almost illuminate against the scenery that it is taken with. I wanted to create a balance between lights and darks as well as the textures that are within the composition. I took this picture a little later at night in order to get the right lighting of the sky.

When I was thinking about the concept I thought this would be a great image for contrast. My concept was somewhat a simple one. I see this object and area every time that I go to church. It is manmade but at the same time it is so simplistic. It is so simplistic that this area almost seems natural.

The way that I came up with this picture was walking around outside my church trying to come up with things that inspire me or I relate to in a certain way. As I made my way around the garden area I was like the hands are a symbolic element because they are wooden hands that were created by someone carving away the wood using their hands. I had to play with my camera in order to get the picture I have. Some of the pictures that I was taking the exposure were not good so I would have to take it again.

My motivation for this piece was trying to capture one aspect of my life that I believe to be very beautiful and is something that sometimes takes my breath away.

Context is something that I did not think about but now that I have I know many artist might include images that some how relate to the church. These hands are shown in a praying position which is known as the classical way to pray. I feel like my piece kind of relates to the cultural aspect of things. This is apart of my life (culture) in which I grew up in. It is also about this social connection because of how we interact with one another within my church.

The Middle Image

Composition is something that I struggled with when I was taking pictures of my violin. I have had this violin for about thirteen years now which kind of affected the way I would look at it compared to somebody else. There were compositions that I thought I would love but in the end once I took the picture I no longer liked them. That’s when I decided that I would get up close to my violin. Most people only ever see a violin from a distance. Whereas I have always seen it up close where I can see its flaws, which for me give it life. The lighting that I used was the lights in my room as well as the flash of my camera.

As I already stated in my composition section, I wanted to show a view that most people do not see. I don’t know what all the marks on my violin are from but I know what certain ones are from. Being able to see that even something that sounds so elegant can be kind of rough and have life. My violin was the perfect thing for this concept because it is one of the oldest things that I have with me at college.

My methods for this piece was to move my violin around many different ways and take close ups as well as pictures that were far away. Through this process I was able to find this composition that I liked. I was trying to play with the shadows that the violin might create from the light but those ones did not turn out like I thought they would. So with that I decided to play with the lights and darks of the instrument itself.

My motivation for this piece was to share something that for a long time was a big part of my life. It is now something that has been kind of put on the back burner but is something that will never leave my mind as long as I live. It was part of my childhood and that’s why it will always be there.

Context of my piece is that often times you see instruments that people are holding or playing. Often times I feel that people don’t appreciate the instruments themselves. Instead they are always praising the talent of the musician. Where as they should give the instrument some credit because without it people would not have these talents.

Bottom Image

The composition of this one changed greatly the more pictures I took. As I was taking them I was realizing I was not getting the light from the petals as much as I wanted to. That’s when I decided to get closer to the flowers when they were in front of a dark background. The dark background helps the light areas of the flowers stand out even more. This contrast in the darks and lights is what I love about this composition.

My image is about something that is very symbolic for me. Flowers mean life to me and I have had a close connection to them since I was a young girl. When I was growing up my parents would always get me flowers for my birthday. As I got older and so to speak to old for gifts I told my parents that I still wanted to get flowers. To this day I could care less if I get anything else on my birthday as long as I get flowers. To me the say that people care about you when they give you flowers. The flowers that are in this picture are fake flowers. I have many bunches of fake flowers in my room. I do buy real flowers from time to time but the fake flowers make the meaning that much stronger to me. They seem to have life and they never loose that life because they cannot die.  

My method for this picture was looking around my room and seeing what means the most to me of items that I use to decorate my room. I would say the flowers are the most important besides the whole idea of color.  I had to take many pictures because the lighting on the flowers was not right at first. I ended up having to turn on more lights in my room in order to get the contrast that I wanted.

My motivation for this piece was my long time love of flowers and what they mean to me. I wanted to capture them in that moment as though they were real flowers and they might change at some point. Even though they are not living flowers they will still decay in some way over time.

The context of my piece is not that different of many artists out there. You can go to most stores and buy pictures or posters of flowers. Although a lot of times the flowers that other artist use are real whereas mine are fake.

Recreation

   The piece that i did was by Harry Callahan which is untitled. When i saw his piece i was like how could i depict to women figures or their shape without using an actual person. The idea i came up with was using my niece's barbie dolls. I tried to capture the figure as much as possible through the fabric but it is not as great as i would like.

    The piece that i did was by Fredrick Evans and is titled Kelmscott Manor: Attics. When i saw his piece i was trying to think of a way that i could recreate it. I decided that i wanted to make it a little more playful and use my dad's Linking Logs to build it. I tried to keep the light as similar as possible to the original piece. (Bottom Piece)

Blog Prompt #2: What does the word "photograph" mean to you?

     The word "photograph" means to me an image that either depicts a memory or a thought or something of that nature. It is taking a moment in time and freezing it as it was or as it might have been created which is the case in some photographs.

Blog Prompt #1: Imagine a world without photographs. Describe what this world would be like.

       I find it really hard to try an imagine a world without photographs. Photographs are a way to capture a moment that you might forget. When you see a picture of a certain memory all of that knowledge about that memory comes flooding back into your mind as though you just experienced it. We would not be able to see people from out past or events or important structures of out past. Photographs are a vital part of out history and without them i really think our world would be really differet, maybe even somewhat incomplete. Photographs help in learning different things and without them learning certain things might become diffucult.