Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Stephanie Price Presents Jenni Tapanila



Jenni Tapanila is a photographer from Istanbul, Turkey. Her work is grotesque, blunt and straight to the point. She takes a basic photograph of a man and writes something personal on his chest. I think its a great play on an overdone theme. I love the photograph with the needle in the tongue a lot of her work is similar to this she loves gore and theatrics.
http://www.suzi9mm.com/gallery.php?nid=6

Stephanie Price Presents Akif Hakan Celebi



Akif Hakan Celebi is a Hong Kong based photographer, working mostly in nudes but also some fashion work. I came across this artist a couple of years ago on Deviantart. His nudes are no where near traditional, he is constantly placing woman in strange positions almost taking the sexiness out of the nude itself. But he shows these woman with powerful glances somehow taking control of the image. I like his work because it plays on the balance of power between the woman and the photographer. Not to mention beautifully shot.

Stephanie Price Presents Emil Schildt


I came across Emil Schildt while reaserching for my alternative processes class. This artist experiments with tons of alternative processes such as cynontypes, liquid light, and photopolymergravure. Mostly presents nudes and likes to experiment with ruining the negative, giving his photographs an almost painterly effect.

Stephanie Price presents Sue Anna Joe



I came across Sue Anna Joe a couple of years ago on DeviantArt, her work to me is beautifully crafted. She is a Malaysian based photographer, mostly she creates portraits and her self portraits are striking. My favorite thing about this artist is her ability to go from one extreme to another, she can have something so beautiful but still emotional or sinister and sickening.



http://www.shedoesthings.com/photography

Stephanie Price presents Joey Gidseg

Joey Gidseg is an Austin, Tx based photographer. Although a lot of her photographs are of the local flavor of Austin, in her series, Hymie and Louise, she shows an intense reality most people are scared to approach. She portrays an older couple and how they deal with the day to day of growing older and sickly. These are not only beautiful photographs, they say something about a fear we all have : Are we going to be alone when we can no longer able to fend for ourselves? Or will Hymie be there to take care of us?

http://www.joeygidseg.com/#s=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&p=3&a=0&at=0

Stephanie Price Presents Lee Friedlander












Lee Friedlander is an american artist, creating somewhat simple compositions while attempting to play on the obvious, he shoots an ordinary traffic scene but cuts the dog in half. Or he takes pictures of an event but instead of the actual event he shows people taking pictures of said event. He likes to play around with what a traditional photograph can show in a humorous way, well at least humorous to me.

Brianna Cristiano submits Eyal Landseman

http://eyalland.com/ - check out more stop motion

Eyal Landseman is a well known stop motion photographer. Landseman is most famous for the music video Her Morning Elegance but has other work worth checking out. Landseman's stop motion videos are what also inspired me for my final work. Mine is not as smooth as Eyal's but it was the same idea of creating a video soley based on photographs. It is something I would like to explore more.

Brianna Cristiano submits Manuel Alvarez Bravo



Manuel Alvarez Bravo. Optical Parable. 1931

Manuel Alvarez Bravo is a photographer from Mexico City. I learned about him in my art history class and his work intrigued me. He is known for his juxtaposed photographs of window fronts and signs. In this photograph above called Optical Parable he has reversed the negative to trick the viewer. It is almost a humorous take on going to the eye doctor. His work is smart and I like the way he positions the compositions. He has thought about each one clearly and knows what statement he is trying to make and it comes across in his work.

Brianna Cristiano submits Jennings sheffield

http://www.jenningssheffield.com/video-projected-on-right-wall-of-installation.html

Jennings has these videos which I got to see during SPE that really inspired my work for my final.
Her videos are about her epileptic seizures and how she feels when she experiences one. She uses animation of her brain scans for one side of the wall and the other is a mixture of sounds and visuals she gets while having the seizure. It makes the viewer very uncomfortable after watching for a few seconds. I think she is successful with her work because it conveys the emotion and entrapment felt by her. My final I wanted to show what it was like during my panic attacks so her videos really gave me the idea of completely consuming the audience with that unsettling feeling.

Brianna Cristiano submits Mark Schatz

Mark Schatz was my first photography professor at San Jacinto college in Houston. When I took his class I remember he was into photographing sculptural work. The work shown below is his recent work. He has been making these environments out of cardboard, wood, polystyrene foam and different mixed media. the view

It is really interesting the way he manipulates the cardboard using layers and layers to create an environment. I like how he used recycled cardboard for the cityscape it gives it a new element. When I first saw these it made me think of our surroundings and how small we are in comparison to the world. http://www.markschatz.com/perscart.html

Blair Bodden submits Susan Kae Grant


Susan Kae Grant is a photographer who explores dreams, memories, the unconscious, and unexplainable experiences to create her body of work Night Journey. In researching Grant, I found that she herself did scientific research when creating this work. In her artist statement, she states, “This project is the culmination of research conducted at the Southwestern Medical Center Sleep Laboratory in collaboration with sleep scientist, Dr. John Herman. Using myself as subject, I was tape recorded in the laboratory on many occasions while awakened from REM sleep. These awakenings provided vivid access to the dream-state. Audio recordings captured in the sleep laboratory served as inspiration to create the photographs for this series.” As an undergrad, I am always looking for inspiration and knowledge, which I found when researching Grant. I have always been intrigued with creating my own worlds and stories. Grant has accomplished this with scientific driven research and using her own experiences to convey her concept.

Blair Bodden submits Corinne May Botz




Currently, as an undergraduate student I am working with the notion of storytelling, narratives, folklore, and fairytales. For my current work I am using and working with miniatures to covey my concepts. In doing research for my work I came across the photographer Corinne May Botz. Botz has several different bodies of work but the one that grab my attention the most was The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.

The artist documented miniatures of crime scenes that were created in the 1940s and 1950s by a criminologist Frances Glessner Lee. In Botz’s artist statement she states, “the models, which were based on actual homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths, were created to train detectives to assess visual evidence.” This work actually with out me realizing has inspired my current work as an undergrad. Even though Francis Glessner Lee created these miniatures for a specific reason, Botz has brought a life to the miniatures that create a setting for a story gone wrong. This is what intrigued about the work that when looking at it you start creating a story in your head to companion the photograph. This is the goal that I am searching for with my own work and hopefully I will accomplish as well as Botz has.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Blair Bodden submits Laura McPhee at SPE conference


Laura McPhee was a guest speaker and distinguished artist at the SPE South Central Conference held at UTSA in San Antonio. McPhee spoke on Saturday October 1st at the San Antonio Central Public Library. McPhee spoke about her work River of No Return. This work depicts life and nature in the Sawtooth Valley in Idaho. She explores the region with her large format camera to capture landscapes, lives of the rural people, and the effects of wildfires. During her talk in San Antonio, McPhee started with describing her life as a child and the stories she would hear of family members. McPhee related these stories to her work and the investigation of living in a rural community by documenting a family living in this particular part of Idaho. McPhee takes a traditional art form of landscapes and turns them into so much more. This comes from the content of the imagery but also when standing in front of these large scale prints they seem to ingulf the viewer.

Brianna Cristiano

Has blog credit for attending the Cecilia Paredes talk.

Blair Bodden has 2 blog credits for painting

I painted during the week before and week of SPE.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Travel Photo of the Week. - Sun

Check around~

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/photo-of-the-week/

HEESUN PARK REVIEWS Joo Myung-Duck





“My Motherland”: Veteran photographer Joo Myung-duck is showcasing around 130 serene black-and-white photos of Korea’s traditional houses, relics and landscapes taken in different provinces of South Korea from the 1960s to the present. It is the third and final exhibition of the Daelim Contemporary Art Museum’s four-year project to shed light on the photographer.
Joo is one of Korea’s first documentary photographers to focus on critical social issues, landscapes and disappearing cultural heritages. He introduced a new genre, “Korean Realism” through his first solo show “Mr. Holt’s Orphanage” in 1966, which displayed photos of war orphans. The first documentary photos created a great sensation as most photos taken at the time were elegant indoor shots. ( from WALKHILL September 2011)

heesun park review Jason Engelund



Jason Engelund creates compositions that investigate light's ability to evoke sublime and contemplative experiences. Approaching photography as a method of capturing light, Engelund starts from the Greek translation of photography: phos "light" and graphé "drawing". From there he has created a style that is interdisciplinary, combining the aesthetics of painting and mechanics of photography. Juxtaposing the subjective nature of perception and the "truth" of photography, Engelund's work raises questions regarding our experience of light, while exploring photography as a contemporary art form.

While the images in the main gallery of this website may lead the viewer to think the images have effects applied or were painted, all images were made in camera using long exposures and extreme out of focus. Shots include subjects such as colored lights of airport runways at night and printed as a negative, naturally occurring reflections of light, and in camera light leaks across frames and rolls of film. ( from website)

HEESUN PARK REVIEW EIRIK JOHNSON


He is a photographic artist based in Seattle, WA. His work has been exhibited at apaces including the Museum of contemporary Photography in Chicago, the Institute of contemorary Art in Boston, and the Aperture Foundation in New York.

More info :http://www.eirikjohnson.com/

HEESUN PARK introduce JERRY N. UELSMANN


Jerry Uelsmann is a pioneer of surreal photography. He began assembling photographs from multiple negatives decades before digital tools like Photoshop were available. Back in the day, he was even friends with legendary nature photographer Ansel Adams and taught workshops with him in Yosemite for years.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Katy Schmader presents Sarah Moon




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RSknnxOals

I am not sure what I appreciate about Sarah Moon's work, but what I am incredibly inspired by, is the way she speaks about her work, and how she takes advantage of photography as an art form. Although her images are well constructed, and technical well down, I enjoy what she has to say as an artist more than her work.

She discusses how she uses her camera to create a situation that isn't there, and cheat reality, to show the audience an alternative reality. She takes advantage of what the camera sees, instead of what she sees. I think as an artist, this is a beautiful way to think, and method of thinking I wish to take advantage of.

Katy Schmader introduces Paulo Ventura




Ventura's images are breathe taking. Many of his images remind me of a children's story, they have a nostalgic feeling about them, that makes me want to stare at his work for hours. Until I read the description of these pieces of work as a whole, I didn't really understand the representation of them, I just enjoyed the work. These pieces are a part of his collection he "the automaton."

In order to better understand what was going on in the work, I looked up the artist statment. According to the artist, (found on amazon.com) "'The Automaton' is based on a story told to Paolo Ventura as a child. It centres on an elderly, Jewish watchmaker living in the Venice ghetto in 1943, one of the darkest periods of the Nazi occupation and the rule of the fascist regime in Italy. The city where the watchmaker has lived his entire life, now desolate and fearful, is the stage on which the story unfolds. The old man decides to build an automaton (a robot), to keep him company while he awaits the arrival of the fascist police who will deport the last of the remaining Jews from the ghetto. Paolo Ventura is internationally known for the complex creative process he adopts. Having created the narrative script for the book, he then builds elaborate models and miniature figurines in his studio and incorporates them in what appear as almost film sets. These are then photographed and his final artworks are the photographs of these constructed tableaux. 'The Automaton' is a photographic narrative from beginning to end."

To really understand and appreciate his work, I feel I would have had to read his artist statement, but I believe the story is worth telling, and it is an interesting way to make something such as a piece of literature your own, and pull inspiration.

Katy Schmader presents Gianni Berengo Gardin



Gianni Berengo Gardin is an Italian photographer. I love his work because of the attention to detail, and composition. I believe I am completely in love with this images because when I look at a work by Gardin, I feel like I am experiencing that landscape, or scene for the first time. While these images are simple, and not the most conceptual, I appreciate the technical quality of the work. Gardin's prints introduces me to a new aspect of an everyday situation I myself might not have seen without looking through the lens of his work. They are beautiful.

Dominic Macias presents Lisa Krantz




Lisa Krantz works for the San Antonio Express News as a photojournalist. Her projects involved documenting the closure of Sam Houston High School and the growing town Helotes. These photos capture what human life is very well. I feel her work has been very successful and should keep doing what she is curently doing

Dominic Macias presents James Nachtwey


When reading, "Photos that changed the world" I stumpled upon this image:


This image is from the Darfur war between two tribes. James Nachtwey has documented his event as part of his drive to document wars and conflicts around the world. His work, to me speaks more words than any "fine art portrait" does as this is raw human emotion rather than something simulated.

Katy Schmader submits Galina Mnikova



Galina Manikova was a woman I discovered in the Alternative Process textbook in the school library. I really admire her work to due the attention to the medium that she presents her work on, and how it effects the message she displays to her audience.
These images are from a variety of projects that she has worked on. The first image is from series discusses issues about the wailing wall. These prints are at least six feet tall that hang from the ceiling and are printed on silk. Because of how large the image is, they make an incredible impact on her audience. As an artist, I was always curious when it is appropriate to work in specific mediums such as cyanotype. I think her art reflects very well, and takes advantage of cyanotype as it compliments what she is discussing in her work.
The second image is a series six of silver gelatin prints on glass sheets and screwed together to create a new image. Although this process could have been done on photoshop, I admire this piece because it works in multiple fashions, as a photographic image, and as a sculpture. also due to the way that it is created, it forces her audience to take a closer look at it, the object is very intimate.
I think my favorite series she has is a series called being blue, which the third image is a part of. This work is a series of portraits done in cyanotype on both fabric and paper. On her website she discusses how here work reflects on loneliness and suffering, and loving and longing. Once again I admire her ability to take advantage of the medium she works in, and to understand what that medium can say to its audience.

a lot of her work can be found on her website:
www.galina.no/

Dominic Macias presents Susan Mullally


Susan Mullally's What I keep documents the members of a church that his held under a highway bridge and asked them what is the most valuable item they keep on them at all times. She has been working on this since 2007. Each image is accompanied with text about the person and how much the object means to them.


Dominic Macias presents Joseph Auquier


Joseph Auquier works primarily in with female nudes. According to the text on his site, His dedication to the female nudes equates to a cult following of Femininity. His pictures give the women a certain "god like" as they were one with the earth around them.


Dominic Macias presents Michael Nye


Michael Nye is another Local photographer who works in large format on a social issue from mental health to hunger. Each of his projects, he goes right to the person whom is effected by hunger or mental health rather than interview an expert who lives in an Ivory tower. With each portrait there is a recording from the person talking on the issue.


Dominic Macias presents Mark Menijvar


Mark Menjivar is a local Documentary who's project was to shoot the contents of a house hold's fridge. When listening to him speak, he would go into details about a few of the images and the "Behind the Scenes" stories with each person. I would like to see some of those stories set up next to the images as they added a dimension that what as already there

Dominic Macias presents Mr. Toledano

Mr. Toledano is a documentary photographer. The picture above is from his bankrupt series. He went into office spaces that had recently closed down and documented what they left behind. I enjoyed this series as well as his "Phonesex series" and his very personal "Days with my Father" when he documented his father's grief process (and combined with his short term memory loss.)

Dominic Macias presents Sarah Suddhoff

Sarah Sudhoff is a former instructor of mine at UTSA. Her recent photos (5 months pregnant ones) seem to be going a different direction than he previous projects (Repository and Hour of our Death.) I checked her site and I found no statement from her about this photo or this series.

Dominic Macias presents Rion Sabean

Rion's Sabean's Pin-up series is rather humorous. A friend sent me a link on Facebook thinking I would like it. When view more of this work, I found myself laughing out loud. I think he is showing how ridiculous people look when they do these poses. He site says his work revolves around social commentary that focus on gender and sexuality issues and brings them into the light. (paraphrased from his Artist Statement found here.)

Monday, December 5, 2011

Dominic Macias presents Ejen Chuang's Cosplay in America

Cosplay is a simply costume play. People dress up in these costumes based on anime, video game and even comic book characters they seem to fancy. Eien's project, "Cosplay in America" is a documentation of people who partake of this hobby at anime conventions across the nation.

This collection is a great start to getting past the feeling of seeing a grown person, dressing in costume outside of halloween but it fails to answer why people dress in costume to these events. Perhaps an interview with the person could really give this project some depth.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Brianna Cristiano Submits Mark Osterman

Mark Osterman is known for his knowledge of historical photographic processes concentrating in Ambrotypes. Osterman is a very eccentric guy I was watching a video about his processes and he was talking about how dangerous it is and how he likes Ambrotypes because you can tell it is hand made. I find that interesting because people now days want things that are easy and fast and I felt a connection with this guy because he wants to kind of preserve the past and the past processes. He was saying how film is in its last years and that made me really sad. Everything has become digital and accessible to the public it doesn't have the same charm as old photographs have. I really enjoy his work.