and thus we begin photography

  Decided I'm going to post on a weekly basis otherwise I feel like some kind of blogging freak...will make these posts a lot more like reflections of my course content too as I reckon I need to seriously write more about what I'm studying.

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 So on Monday we began the second part of of course, Photography in the Community. We had to fill out a paper with our thoughts on the Drawing from Nature part of of course too, kind of felt like a nark but anyway.. We watched a film/documentary called 'Born into Brothels'. The name says it all. I found it really emotionally deep and kind of depressing. I was kind of hoping for a happy ending, but instead I was left feeling kind of empty. I mean how do you respond to such a stark exposure of poverty? Sadness? Depression? Anger? The discussion we had afterward was interesting, hearing everyone else and their points of view as we critiqued and broke the film down was a buzzy eye opener for all of us I think...On Tuesday we watched a music video and critiqued it. We then paired up to share a camera and set off on our assignment, to take a series of photographs representing the alphabet. We could use anything we wanted and I found it fun and challenging. Wednesday was a lecture on the history of Portraiture. We also did some practical in the dark room where our tutor Will taught us sun, pin-hole, photogram, and contact prints. I love it in the dark room, with the sound of flowing water and the dim light, its a really peaceful place to be. Its trippy watching your exposure turn into a photo as you develop, stop, and fix it. Perfecting the right amount of light exposure for the picture is fun too. In some ways its almost magical.. Thursday was pretty chilled. A couple of us went to a lecture Leilani was doing with DVA about semiotics. Leilani had already covered the basics with us the other day so she kept saying how her CVA students already knew stuff so we felt pretty brainy lol. I like how semiotics are pretty much a break down of anything and everything and what things symbolize. Its like every object can be a language just by what it represents? I hope that makes sense.. Today, Friday, we worked on our responses then headed into a computer suite for a lecture on basic photoshop skills. We were then left to catch up on stuff. I was pretty much sussed and felt like going for a walk so borrowed another camera and headed out armed with an umbrella (it was raining) and this random camera (my usual was already booked). I really enjoyed just buzzing out by myself in the rain taking photos of what I found interesting. I'm finding the more I tutu with these cameras, the more I understand them, and thus I'm getting some trippy shots.. I'm loving it. Got a little bit sidetracked by Chris and his 'friends' so yeah, I didn't get many shots.. I'm really enjoying photography and love hearing the tutors points of view. Its been a long and sometimes emotional week, but yeah so far so good. Have a mean weekend CVA!
peace
xo
K