Blog XI

Untitiled #6, 1996 by Anna Gaskell.  Chromogenic print, A.P.

2/2, edition of 5, 19 x 23 1/4 inches.

Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Purchased with funds contributed by the Young Collectors Council 97.4581 © 1999 Anna Gaskell

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-list/artist/g/?search=Anna%20Gaskell

Chapter 3: Sweet is to Scan...Fiction and Fantasy:

Gaskell's work definitely falls under the category of fiction and fantasy.  Her work focuses on and references children's games, stories and psychology.  Gaskell's style is narrative, and in this particular photo, she is referencing Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

Chapter 6: Photography as Art...Photography Extending Art:

This photograph is definitely an example of photography extending art.  While it is a photograph and a celebration of the medium, it is also seemingly mimicing the surrealism and fantasy that is more often found in other mediums such as drawing or painting.  It also has a soft and colorful feel of a painting.  Visually, the photograph is surreal, thus creating a fantastical wonderland for both "Alice" and the viewer.

Chapter 4: The Subject as an Object:

Gaskell's narrative turns the faceless girl into a surreal object, floating in space.  "Alice's" body becomes the subject and object for the viewer. 

Three of my own recent images...

Coolest stop sign ever! But it should "believin'!" :)

These are my adorable nextdoor neighbors. I took this photo for a Christmas card.

I like the angle of this shot and the raindrops on my coffee cup.

Cinthea, for extra credit...

 From the series "Skeleton Coast" 04 by Alexander Apostol

 Fotografia Digital

75 x 175 cm

2005

http://www.alexanderapostol.com/02_skeletonCoast.php

Chapter 2: Surveyors and Surveyed...

Apostol's photographs of the "Skeleton Coast" can definitely be considered documentary photography.  Documentary photography can be used to document and record environments, events and people.  In this case, Apostol is documenting the "skeletal" structures or frameworks of buildings.

Chapter 5: Photography and Commodity Culture...

This series of photographs could essentially be the epitome of commodity culture and consumerism.  It is a documentation of Western commodity and our need to constantly be tearing down and rebuilding.  Everything, including buildings must always be bigger, better and grander. 

Chapter 6: On and Beyond the White Walls....

These photos are seemingly conceptual and representational, which are themes discussed in Chapter 6.  Apostol is documenting the expansion and build-up of the West to comment on bigger concepts or issues such as consumerism and mass production.

Blog X

I drove by this house in downtown Louisville and had to stop and take a photo. I like the yellow door and lounge chair and the red flower pots and table.

Who wants an old snowy chair? This was my favorite chair growing up, and it turned into the dogs' favorite chair...it is now smelly, stained and disgusting.  We put it outside hoping somebody or the trash guys would pick it up. So far, no takers.

I like the "3" green lamps.

Blog VIIII

Reese inspired me to try night photography...this is my first attempt.

First snow...I love the green doors and the green in the stained glass.

Funny how people you know so well can always continue to surprise you. I walked into the bedroom last night and this is what I saw.  I stifled my laughter and grabbed the camera. I'm still laughing about it.



Blog VIII

Robert Mapplethorpe, Gregory Hines, 1985

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/portfolios/portraits/?i=2

I like this photograph of Gregory Hines because of the motion blur.  You can tell he his dancing, but not in his signature tap shoes or even in any sort of costume.  He is performing for the camera, the viewer--an intimate audience. 

Jack Pierson, Self-Portrait #22, 2003

Pigment Print, edition of 7

54x44"

http://www.regenprojects.com/exhibitions/2004-06-jack-pierson/images/

The two images are the same, based on the theory we've read about, in that the subjects (people) are objects.  I find Pierson's "Self-Portrait" series interesting because they are clearly not the same person, or the artist himself.  For example, this photograph is clearly the actor, Brad Pitt.  This can tie into the theory and themes of "personal photographs."  In using these possibly appropriated photographs, he is making photographs of others that he may not even know, his own personal collection.

Three photos by me!

While looking through some old things this weekend, I found this note from an old friend who is no longer living.  I love finding these little "greetings" from her.  This one in particular was a reminder of all the silly things she did...like finding random junk that people were throwing out and leaving them for me on my doorstep.  I wish I still had the chair that came with this note.

These heart-shaped mirrors are funny, and I like Diana's reflection in one.

This is from a pamphlet a classmate was given at the church where she voted on election day.  It is all about how dancing is a sin, and I thought this phrase was very funny.



"I'm All Shook Up!"

Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery exhibition: "Elvis at 21: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer

"Elvis and Barbara Hearn," July 4, 1956 by Alfred Werthheimer

After having taken a shower, and still bare-chested, Elvis has his high school sweetheart, Barbara Hearn, listen on the phonograph to the acetate disc with cuts of his songs from the New York recording session.
1034 Audubon Drive, Memphis, Tenn.

http://160.111.252.141/elvis/

I love the National Portrait Gallery, and this looks awesome. Wish I could go!

Blog VII

From the MoMA's New Photography 2010 exhibition: Alex Prager

Susie and Friends. 2008. Chromogenic color print, 48 x 76 1/2″ (121.9 x 194.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the generosity of the Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art. © 2010 Alex Prager, courtesy Yancey Richardson Gallery

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/newphotography/alex-prager/susie-and-friends/

I chose this image because I think it is fun. I am so excited to have discovered Alex Prager. I love her work!  It is very reminiscent of Cindy Sherman. I think Susie and Friends is an interesting photograph. I like the lighting, the composition and the subject matter. I wish I was in the photo! :) 

From the MoMA's New Photography 1985 exhibition: Judith Joy Ross

Untitled, from Eurana Park, Weatherly, Pennsylvania

Judith Joy Ross (American, born 1946)

1982. Gelatin silver printing-out-paper print, 7 11/16 x 9 5/8" (19.5 x 24.5 cm). 

Gift of Patricia Lawrence. © 2010 Judith Joy Ross

Judith Joy Ross:

In 1982 I was very sad after the death of my father. I was seeing such sadness on everybody's face. I needed a place where things were safe, and I found that Eurana Park was filled with happy kids, very comfortable with themselves.

This picture of these two boys crouched in the woods, I remember the exact moment I saw them. It was so magical. I must have been in my thirties. And these kids were doing just what I did when I was a child, looking for salamanders and being near a little running brook that I knew. I noticed that their legs were growing and their arms were growing faster than I thought was possible. They looked like daddy longlegs themselves. It took quite awhile to get my camera on this tilted bank. They stayed so still. When people really, really get that you think they're fantastic they can maintain their expressions. And this print has a gray tone to it because there is a sadness in the idea that they are growing up.

http://moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:E:5030&page_number=3&template_id=1&sort_order=1

I chose this photograph because it immediately grabbed me. For some reason  it seemed familiar to me. Maybe it's because it reminds me of photographs I've seen of my grandfather when he was young.  Always outdoors, and coincidently in Pennsylvania.  I also love the story that she included with this photo. 

The two photographs from 1985 and today in 2010 are similar in that they are both portraits that convey emotion and personality.  Although one photograph is acted emotion and the other is more or less "requested" emotion, they are both strong and personal images.  They are very different, obviously, in that one is staged, while the other is happened upon. Technically, the first is digitally printed in color, and the latter is an "old school" black and white silver gelatin print.

In the New York Times article  "Art Review: Ignoring Boundaries and Borrowing Freely" by Karen Rosenberg, Rosenberg claims that today's artists in the 25th anniversary of the museum's New Photography exhibition have abandoned theory and replaced it with "visual literacy."  Her opinion is that modern artists are not critical but openly nostalgic. It could be argued that this "visual literacy" she speaks of is in fact the evolution of theory.  

My three photos...

Happy Halloween! Diana actually took this, but I love it so much I had to post it. I bought this mask because it really freaked her out, and I liked that. I always buy the weirdest things when we go shopping together...

This is from a recent wedding I shot.  The bride is a ballerina and choreographed the couple's  first dance (which was mostly her dancing around him). It was very unconventional and interesting. I love the lighting and the motion blur in this shot.

This is from a family portrait session I did with some old friends.  I like the composition from behind Mike and Nancy while their son, Truett is facing them and chattering away.

Blog VI

Gareth McConnell

Gareth McConnell for the New York Times

Swoon, 28- Street Artist

A former art student at Pratt inspired in part by German Expressionist woodcut prints and Indonesian shadow puppets, Swoon (a tag she adopted as a full-time alias) creates delicate life-size linoleum-and-woodcut print cutouts of family, friends and people she sees on the street and then pastes them around the city. In the summer of 2005 she had a solo show at Deitch Gallery, and she was also part of P.S. 1's Greater New York show. This summer her work was included in the Printmaking Now exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/09/05/magazine/20060910_BOHEMIAN_SLIDESHOW_5.html

I think McConnell's work for the New York Times relates to my work because they are portraits, which is what I love to do!

Deborah Willis

Deborah Willis

To catch a lover, tape his picture behind your mirror,

From the Mother Wit Series I,

16"x16",

Digital C-Print, 2008

http://www.bernicesteinbaumgallery.com/artists/willis/images.html

Deborah Willis is very interesting to me because she is not only a fine art photographer, but also one of the leading historians and curators in the nation.  "Memory, history and representation are the cornerstones of Willis' work." (http://www.charlesguice.com/artists_dw.html) She is a visual storyteller, which is what I aspire to be.

Malerie Marder

At Rest Still 4

2003

http://www.salon94.com/artistProjects/7/work_16.htm

I chose this photo because it is very similar to one that I took for my self-portrait series.

Trois photos by moi...

I heart Coors Field. No Rocktober for us this year. :(

This sign is awesome.

 Diana said this looked like the apocolypse.