trippy colours: April 2011

a goodbye rant about what i don't like..

sooooo I'm not happy with my final photographs. Was explaining it to our tutor, Nathan, and he suggested I go have a rant on my blog. Thus why I am now ranting.. Okay so this is my final selection template:

I really don't like the large images on the left, they are good, yes, but I reckon I could have picked some better ones to represent my series from the large choice I had. I like the composition of all of them, but I reckon I should have trusted my own judgment and printed some of these instead of three of the above images..

I like their old film grainy black and white look as it contradicts the high tech new camera.. I mean I like the top images, but I really like the effect of these ones I edited. They are more creative to me and explore more than just taking a picture and printing it.. So yeah was thinking I might reprint, but I'm not rich and when it comes down to it, the ones I have printed are fine. I just wish I had had more time to decide because I don't like how they are just fine. To me they are kinda boring, I guess its because I've looked at them too much or something. Still, I reckon I could have done a lot more with what I had. I think I'm just annoyed with myself because I know I haven't pushed myself as far as I could have gone..
But yeah.. assessments tomorrow and then mid-semester break which means no course work for two weeks including posting on my blog. Am thinking a break would be good, I mean I love CVA, but we see each other every day.. gonna work on my car over break me thinks.. hope yous all have a mean holiday and stay safe! Much love CVA fambly!!!
Goodbye blog!
See you in two weeks,
peace
xo
K

required post of week four..

Paul Strand

'Blind'

1916

Paul Strand (1890-1976) was an American photographer who helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. He had wanted to photograph "portraits of people such as you see in the New York parks and places, sitting around, without their being conscious of being photographed. … I felt that one could get a quality of being through the fact that the person did not know he was being photographed … [and I wanted to capture] these people within an environment which they themselves had chosen to be in, or were in anyway." Most of the portraits he did were of the common people in New York during his time. Tough workmen, washerwomen, old people, peddlers, and beggars. This portrait of a blind woman is one of his most famous photographs.. It describes so much about the community during his day because I reckon it would have been hard to walk down the street without coming across a person like this blind woman. It draws our attention to the starkness of poverty in the community. In looking at the image, I felt kind of disturbed. Both by her eyes and the written sign drawing attention to them.. The sign that hangs around her neck has a badge above it that is her license to beg. New York at that time required its beggars to be licensed in the hope of controlling the poverty of the people. I reckon Paul Strand captured the reality of this problem and its sad because the woman has to call attention to her blindness in the hope that society would feel pity and give her money to live. This photograph reflects a deeply held attitude about blindness and even towards the blind and straight up represents a still very present issue. Poverty in our community.

These are some more photographs he took..

'Alfred Stieglitz'

1919

'Yawning Woman'

1916

'Fifth Avenue'

1915

'Man, Five Points square'

1916

om nom nom..

soooooooo I'm waiting for the printer(s) to be fixed so I can print out my contact sheet and of course the one day we all need to catch up on printing is the one day the printers crap out.. Go figure.. My tummy is grumbling. I just had a pork bun, but I'm hungry again. Started to google pork buns.. coz I'm cool like that.. um came up with cupcakes somehow.. Googled cupcake food blogs.. (?). Found this one about American cupcakes in London.. and then this picture of the meanest cupcake ever!!! Fush and Chups Cupcake!!!!

Hows that for thought process??? And it all started because the printers crapped out.
I'm still hungry though.
Mmmmm pork buns.........
peace
xo
K

broken, lost, and abandoned.. a response

'Broken, Lost, and Abandoned' by David Loew

"It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their humanness." - Paul Strand.
This photograph taken by photographer, David Loew, reveals the core of humanity in a sense of being broken, lost, and abandoned. In the photograph, our eyes are drawn to the center of focus, a figure part woman, part antique painted figurine. She is a doll abandoned who seems to gaze right through you. We do not know her past, present, or future or the circumstances surrounding her position and I find myself wondering who she is and why she is feeling what she seems to be feeling. The contrasting darkness between the milky skin of the female and the vintage browns of the background really make the subject stand out and helps to convey that surreal twilight zone feeling. David Loew himself describes his work as, “Combining natural media and photographic imagery in a digital environment allows me the freedom to work with a wide range of dreamlike images and textures both real and surreal...I have been influenced as much by film and Television as I have other painters. I grew up with the Twilight Zone and it has integrated itself into my world view. Blade Runner and Dark City are both strong influences in my work. As far as painters there is Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh and along with Magritte and Hieronymus Bosch and Bruegel.” I love the way David Loew has edited the image by incorporating cracked paint and watercolour mark effects into the picture which turns it into an artwork and adds to the moody 'broken' look expressed in the female and her posture. I also reckon that the pose is staged, yet it has this informal feel about it that makes it appealing to the viewer. As Susan Sontag quotes,"The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality, and eventually in one's own.." we look at this picture, and find we look at ourselves, and we wonder..What to us is lost, broken, and abandoned?

www.davidloewphoto.com
thinkexist.com/quotation/paulstrand/

223 words NOT including the quotes, AND I used a thesaurus!! Yay-yah!! =D

random sunday arvo momento..

Sooooooo its Sunday afternoon, and I'm at course. Go figure. Shaqqy happened to be coming in to work on some stuff so rather than go home to an empty house, I came to chill with him lol. Its weird being here when theres nobody else!! Yeah. Thought I would work on a response and my visual diary, but being the cool kid that I am, I left my art stuff at home. Awesome huh? Ended up youtubing and take pics of myself with the mac camera lol. Anyways will go home and work on stuff now.. but first felt like posting the mac camera pics lol sorry this has nothing to do with course work William!! Just skip it yeah?!

evil kaylevil..

pop art hippy..

i look scarey..

cheesals!!

shaqqy and meeeeeeeeeeee..

happy hippy + mac camera = vain hippy lol
peace
xo
K

basic highlights..

So this week has been pretty interesting. Lectures, practical work, contextual studies, and chillin' in between. I really enjoyed the workshop we did in the reserve with Caroline, I found it really useful learning how to use the flash in taking photographs in daylight. It was fun trying to take photos of things based on set requirements too. We had several lectures on composition, expectations, photographers, and a reading on a certain NZ photographer. I found them all really interesting to listen to and then to critique or break it down with everyone. We also had to photograph the first shoot of our individual projects which I did on Wednesday night at church. I loved taking photos of my happy church fambilly. My aim was to show church through my eyes in the hope of altering the ideas people have about it based on the negative view the media has produced. Woah, that was an intense sentence lol.. In hearing everyone critique my final pictures, I reckon I accomplished exactly that.. I really liked the critiquing, it helps to know honestly what people think and how to alter my perception to match theirs.. So yeah, love you CVA. Have a mean weekend and stay safe!! Happy Birthday Nancy!!!!!
peace
xo
K

an analytic response..

Toni Frissell, Weeki Wachee Spring, Florida, 1947.

Foreground: the ocean/river floor.
Mid-ground: the woman's body floating in the water.
Background: the darkness of the water.
Centre of focus: an underwater view of a woman, wearing a long gown, floating in water.
Framing: an ethereal looking woman is placed slightly off-center with a lot of space around her that gives you a feeling of loneliness. More space would have been too much, but we are aware of the fact that there is more water.
Surrounding information: the surface of the water. If you couldn't see it, you would wonder how she was floating.
Pose: the floating, spread out posture of her body.
Gaze: not to the camera, but to something above what we can see.
Gesture: movement in her legs?
Expression: blank.
Viewpoint: low angled viewpoint that give us a feeling of being beneath water.
Depth: some depth is shown in this photo with the foreground being slightly blurred. The depth of field draws us to the subject and makes the clarity of the water stand out..
Artist background: Toni Frissell is known for her fashion photography, World War II photographs, portraits of famous Americans and Europeans, children, and women from all walks of life. She photographed a lot of women mainly in an outdoor setting.

Response to image: In searching the world-wide web, I came across this photograph and felt drawn to it. There is a sense of peace about it that I think most people can relate to.. that freedom that comes with being in the water. I like how the image is in black and white, it adds to the sad, lonely feeling about it and gives it more of a dark sense of surrealism. I also like how the photographer, Toni Frissell, has framed the image, using the empty space of the water to direct our gaze towards the loneliness of the woman. We wonder what she is thinking and why she is even there in the first place.. is she floating on the surface or drowning to the bottom?

This is random, but if you turn it upside down, it kind of looks like she is falling into the water.. trippy.