Monday, April 30, 2018

Hannah Rosales Reviews Teva Cosic

Australian photographer Teva Cosic grew up with always feeling the constant need to explore and create, which is where her photographic work stems from. She has had a thirst for adventure since childhood and this is evident in her work. Cosic graduated with a Diploma of Photo-imaging from the Royal Melbourne in Institute of Technology in 2015.

Her exhibition "Observations of the Ordinary" is about the exploration of patterns in light and dark and the beauty that can exist in common sights in daily life. Cosic also takes into account color, shade, composition and reflection. She hopes the viewer will discover "unexpected inspiration."

There are many different elements used in this exhibition. However, the three photographs I will be focusing on use the element of light very prominently and depict how the light is executed to create different compositions. In the first photograph, light from what looks like a window, contrasted with ranging values of black, produces an imitation of a charcoal drawing. In the second photograph, the reflection of lamp stands also contrast well with the dark values. The way the dark values in the building and tree are separated from the sunset sky, also works well compostionly. In the third photograph, the light being casted from the shadow creates a geometric composition. The lights on the ceiling also "matched" the light being casted to add to the composition. I believe Cosic succeeds in capturing beauty in ordinary sights by exploring these elements in these three photographs. The only critique I have out of these three photographs is the distracting white value on the left edge of the first photograph. That large white shape should be cropped out.





Sunday, April 29, 2018

Sylvia Gutierrez reviews Susan Kae Grant


An American photographer, Susan Kae Grant received her MFA in Photography and Book Arts in 1979 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Currently, she is the head of Photography and Book Arts at Texas Woman’s University and as well teaches workshops annually at the International Center for Photography. Grants investigates REM sleep, dreams, memory and the unconscious within her on-going series, Night Journey. This series is a representation of the seven years she spent doing research in collaboration with sleep scientist, Dr. John Herman. On multiple occasions, Susan used herself as a subject at the Southwestern Medical Center Sleep Laboratory to video and audio record herself when awakened from REM sleep. Within the Night Journey series, Susan uses these recordings to access unexplained moments that lead to a mystifying representation of space between reality and illusion.
To create these dream-state images, Grant photographs the shadows of models and props in her studio with a 4x5 view camera with a digital leaf back. Some of these fabricated environments can take up to three months to build, but in the end they become surrogates for what once was. By playing with perspective, lighting, silhouettes and the imagination, Susan Grant creates wonderful scenarios and brings in the viewers into her dreams, memories, unconscious and nightmares only to have them wanting more of the stories. As one can see with these tree images, the spotlight aesthetic creates that dark and ominous ambience as it taps into fantasy and imagination. Although the photographs look simple since they are only shadows but the construction and execution is rather complex.


Balance, #058
Chapter IV: Visions of an Insomniac
2007-2010
44”x32” Giclée 
Nightingale, #073
Chapter V: Theatrical Realms of the Whimsical and Tragic
2010-2012
44”x32”, Archival Pigment Print
 


Waiting for the Exact Moment to Respond, #009
Chapter II: Fragmented Questions

1999-200
44”x32” Giclée