10/31/09 Jacquelyn Nelson- Jay Gould Photography

Jay Gould is one of the professors that spoke to us about his work at the SPE Conference. His series of work called The Participatory Universe really inspired me. I especially love the print Fissure Erosion. During the lecture he said that this location to take a picture was pretty cliche, but he made it very different with his measurements and maps. I can’t stop thinking about the idea of putting photographs on graph paper and documenting them in an intellectual scientific way. Jay seems very knowledgeable in science, and we just learned in art history that Leonardo da Vinci said in order to be a better artist you must have an understanding of the human anatomy, mathematics, and science. I think this idea has worked very well for Jay. It’s very obvious that he puts a lot of time and thought into his work. Also he had personal stories that went along with each picture and why he took it. I got the feeling when he was presenting his work and talking about some of his photographs and manipulation to them that this is his way of trying to figure out and better understand the world. In some of his other photographs it seemed like he was trying to create stories that he would love to see or be real. I thought the photo he had on display was printed well. I love how most of the pictures in this series had drawings that continue the photograph, and after seeing his work I am really starting to enjoy color photography.

Brittany Kennedy 10/29/09

I visited the Blue Star Art Galleries and came across the Joan Grona gallery where Ryan Takaba's "Mums on the Horizon" series was on display. The stoneware and the way it has been treated and glazed is exquisite in detail. These works reminded me of a student in my printmaking class who has been working on sculptures made out of wood that have the same intimate feel as the stoneware created by Takaba. I was very impressed and drawn into the work as a viewer to the intricate detail and intimate cracks glazed. The color palette added to the intimacy as the artist used soft pastel like colors that really adhered to the success of the work. The space of this work seemed so broad around the viewer as a result of the way they are displayed on the podium all around the room. This allows the viewer to be submerged in the works space while inviting the viewer to engage closely with the work. The relationship established between work and viewer become as intimate as the work itself due to the subtle invitation. This piece is successful in many of the formal elements of art. It contains space, balance, visual aesthetics that cause the piece to work strongly, even if it was seen as separate pieces.

Brittany Kennedy 10/28/09

I was instructed by Professor Rowe to look at Robert Heinecken's work and it is ghastly. I appealed to these photos aesthetically and was drawn in by the fashion aspect of the images. Then I continue to examine the image and find a very intriguing artistic quality. I began to realize the opaque quality of the image overlapped with another image. These images have a very sexual appease mixed with a content of darkness or sensuality in a glamourous way. I did research on the artist and realized that this was what he was projecting. He says that he focuses on the use of sex in mass media not on the "spectrum" from fashion to pornography however as a "continuum". His statement though still fashion inspired was more of a commentary on how high fashion passes off sexual pornography appeal, poses, and ideals. This was even more interesting to me considering my passion for fashion. When breaking it down though high fashion is not pornography it is interesting as a model how I find myself doing very sensual, seductive poses. Never truly crossing the boundaries into pornography but possibly scraping the surfaces of that similar sensuality. It is appealing that Heinecken within his work is able to actually transfer his idea and concept to the viewer.

Apryl Corbin Ralph Eugene Meatyard 10.27.09

In the spirit of Halloween!!
Ralph Eugene Meatyard is renowned for his images of children and adults wearing this cheap dollar store Halloween masks. His work has an eye for the setting and the pose, because of Meatyard’s ability to construct startling black and white contrasts from the paper he uses. This paper makes his images look like apparitions.
Meatyard dispensed with the murky backgrounds. These images relied entirely on the transgressive impact of his masked figures nonchalantly inhabiting the daylight world like regular folk, as if they belonged. This is what you are seeing in Occasion for Diriment.
I was just looking at some of Meatyard's work and remembered how on the first semester of photography I fell in love with his images, regardless of how creepy they were. They are just so beautiful-- they way they were printed and constructed. These images are something you could shoot any day, but he put this peculiar twist to them to give them his signature.

Brittany Kennedy aka amber kay 10/27/09

I went to visit the Gallery at UTSA on the second floor near the music area. I was intrigued by the lithograph by Heinrich Zille called "Schnapdestille". I am unsure if this is the artists' name but I believe it is. The child like qualities of the line drew me in. The content of the lithograph drew me in even more. I identified with the content in which there was text. There was a translation of the text because the original is in German. It was a poem regarding what goes on in a bar. How you drink to forget your problems and get drunk to numb the pain. This brought me back to a time in my life when I worked in a bar. I drank to forget, to numb, to release. This was the emotional effect the piece actually had on me. I have not ever had the emotional experience from a work that I could actually identify with. On the flip side the formal elements of the work are apt. The line quality in which is expressed in child like forms transforms from thick to thin which allows the firgures and shapes to form shadows and character. It allows the formation of the work to have depth as a result of the treatment of the lines. I did a little research on this artist because I had never heard of him and I was surprised that he was considered more of an illustrator and photographer. Various techniques of printmaking impress me when I become aware of how they connect to some of the aspects of photography. The element of surprise!

Barbara Kruger

Brittany Kennedy 10/25/09

Barbara Kruger's "I Shop Therefore I am" photograph is an image that I was very impressed with when I came across her work in Contemporary Art. I immediately identified with her concept and was actually inspired by her work that influenced my concept of exposing consumerism. There is something about fashion which in my opinion is a art form in itself versus consumerism and the role of the buyer that I am intrigued by. For many people more than anything women shopping is an art form. Find the best sales, get the best discounts, shop in one day, budget shop for Christmas by getting gifts a year in advance. The whole dynamic of the concept has so many variables that one such as myself feels entrapped and entranced in the whole idea of Fashion versus consumerism. Fashion is glamorous to the outsiders eye and consumerism is the opposite. Barbara Kruger addresses the topic of shopping in this photograph in a very simple way. From a conceptional view the work is broad yet specific and then the formality of the photograph is border line minimalist. The shapes are simple and yet the color is specific. Red is a color of warning or danger yet why is shopping dangerous? The white is symbolic of innocence and enhances the contrast from the red background "but if shopping is dangerous and we should be warned then why do people do it so innocently" I believe her choice in color for this photograph is very appropriate and makes it a successful work of art.

Artist as Performer: Tim Roda - Risa Morales

The Houston Center for Photography is currently running a show called "Artist as Performer." One of the artists exhibited there is Tim Roda, whose series of large-scale images is along one of the first walls of the gallery. Each image is composed of the artist and his son and is telling a different story. Many of the images are seemingly chaotic, with many different objects visible within the frame, implying the "moment" of the image. Part of what makes the images so intriguing is that they are all carefully constructed. While they look like it is just a man and his child playing in some sort of garage, Roda actually constructs each of the sets for the photographs before the image is ever actually taken. One of the inital images of the series actually shows the space before he (and his son) creatively take hold of it.

The images are whimsical and skillfully capture that element of being a child and allowing simple, crude objects to become unlimited vehicles of imagination and fantasy. A number of different photographers have attempted to capture this idea, this feeling, and many have employed the likeness of a child in their images to attempt to elicit it. Roda includes himself in every image, not as an impartial observer, or as an adult authority figure, but as a willing participant and implicit co-conspirator of his son's. This inclusion of the adult artist allows the fantasy world that we see captured to no longer exist for only children, but to be a place that all can share in. The artist also intentionally leaves his edges rough or "unrefined," which, in my opinion only adds to the illusory and imaginary effect of the world he attempts to create within the edges of the frame. As with most large-format images, there is a large amount of visual information contained within the edges of each frame, providing the viewer with a photo that you need more than just a few seconds to glance over before you really understand the nuances of everything in the images.

Photographing children (and animals) can sometimes lead to images that are very cliche and I am impressed with Roda's ability to steer clear of that and explore the creative and fantastical. The image above is not the image that is used as part of the advertisement for this series, but it is one of my favorites. It is reminiscent of plays, with the quasi-Greco-Roman background, wrought iron fence, and mismatched "costume" on both Roda and his son. Both are standing with an air of intentionally posed drama. The nearly supressed grin on his son's face and the over-the-top body languge of the artist shows that they both understand that they are being rather ridiculous, but with the attitude that this is really rather unimportant, as they are obviously enjoying themselves.

Looking at Gregory Crewdson- Jennifer Williams

This untitled image by Gregory Crewdson is extremely controlled in every way. Everything in the image is there for a reason, it is very well thought out and executed. As in much of his imagery, the scene takes place in a home- in this case the bedroom.

The bedroom is a place of intimacy, and a place that is personal. The extreme cleanliness of this bedroom feels stuffy, and un-lived in. Everything in the room is put away, neat, tidy. It is a "picture-perfect" bedroom. But a perfect bedroom, as we can see, does not make a perfect relationship.

The fact that the bed is made, along with the quality of light in the window means that it is either morning or evening- they are either just waking up, or just going to bed. In either case, the bed is uninviting. The sheets are not turned down. The man does not beckon to the woman. Even though she is in a slip and bra, which would cause most men to take notice, he does not even look her direction. In fact, she does not look at him either. They both seem lost in their own worlds, and their expressions are ones of sadness, loneliness, depression.

The woman holds a brush in her hand... but makes no effort to brush her hair. He looks at the floor. They both seem depressed. Whether they have just woken, or are about to go to bed, they don't look happy to be near each other. The distance between them puts emphasis on the idea of how far apart they are emotionally. The blue-ish light tones that encompass the room are somber and cold, and though the bathroom is a bit warmer, it is sterile feeling. Again, perfectly ordered, and stark in it's cleanliness.

The photograph implies that the couple is the perfect suburban couple. We see the house of the neighbors through the window. The beautiful bedroom. The vanity laden with perfumes and lotions, and her silky nightgown on the ottoman. The bedroom is elegant in it's decoration, with delicate curtains, and even places to sit and perhaps read and be cozy with a cup of coffee. But the mood, the distance, the colors all tell us that it is a lie. A front. The photograph is about two people who seemingly have everything, but are unhappy, and without love.

Bianca Pitman 10/25/09/ Keith Carter

I opened up the Sunday paper and flipped to the S.A Life section. Right away, I was enamored with the image on the front of it's cover. A young girl, about the age of 6, with a large snake wrapped around her shoulders. She stares right into the camera lense while holding a rosary necklace in her two hands. Behind her stands a statue of a saint but it has been blurred. The image is called "Necklace" and was done by a Beaumont photographer named Keith Carter. He has been taking images since he was around 20 years old, taking after his mother who used to do commercial children's photography in their home. He stated that he never used to be interested in photography until one day he actually "looked" at one of his mother's images. Then he tried it and she complimented him and he never looked back! He is now 61 and has images in different galleries and shows constantly. I really enjoy how he manipulates the photographs so that they are dream-like and the focus is where he wants it. Many of his images are of children but he adds a sense of "darkness" to them. If you didn't get the paper you can google him---he is very interesting!

Courtney 10/24/09

I was having some trouble coming up with an idea for my final proposal. After meeting with Libby and talking about my interests, she suggested a couple artists. One was Jan Dibbets (amazing). I may talk about him next week. The other was Jay Gould. His work is really interesting to me. It appeals to my love of the details. I love how he uses text and drawings to illustrate his photos. It reminds me of all the drawings I've seen that DaVinci did. It seems like he shoots something, takes it home, studies it...then evaluates the scientific data. Really amazing. I had looked at his site several weeks ago and loved it. Looking at it today...there is lots more to see. He now has some of his handmade books shown here. I am currently taking book arts and have a new found appreciation for this art form. His books are beautifully constructed. I only wish I could hold one in my hands and experience the content. Check it out!

10/24/09 Monica ---Yayoi Kusama

In the process of working on a research project for my contemporary art history class I came across an artist in my book, Yayoi Kusama. What seemed to have caught my eye was that the image is a black and white picture and she is in dots. It is actually a performance piece but I still loved the way it photographed. Kusama is from Japan and most of her work has to do with childhood trauma. Growing up as a child she had hallucinations where herself and the environment she was in dissolved in a net or into dots. What I like about her work is that it is personal and that she takes something simple and ordinary like a dot and makes a statement with it.


The photo itself has motion with the dots and it keeps the eye moving and the orders of the dots are also sporadic. The shadows that are created from her body gives it depth, I read it as dark and light. I’m not sure if that could be a statement that she is trying to make. After reading her background the dots could be symbolic of the trauma that she has encountered and the fact that they are sporadic could relate to how they occurred in her life. Most of her work is done in dots and some are even site specific. Seeing dots on trees and in color is pretty cool. I goggled her and was fascinated by her work. I need to find time to go to the museum so maybe next time. Until then!

Banksy: Rebel with a Cause by Barbara Justice

On Thursday I went to a lecture given by LA artist Richard Duardo here on campus. Duardo has been running a printmaking studio for 30 years and talked about his beginnings and changes and different people that he has worked with. Working with cyanotypes makes me realize how alternative process photography and printmaking can be very closly linked. During his lecture he explained the silk screening process he uses and the making of stencils, and use of film he has made from photoshopping techniques like our class did with the cyanotype contact sheets. He also talked about different artists that he has worked with and one that I have become curious about is named Banksy. He is an English street artist who does street stencils all around the world. His work is so well thought out and done that no one else has been able to do wht he does. The other thing about Banksy is that nobody knows his identity.

The thing about is work is that it is usually politically or culturally driven. He makes a statement of some sort. After Katrina he did works commenting on the loss that people delt with and the politcal breakdown of all levels of government during and after the hurricane. He has recently done political pieces in Israel commenting on the war.

So I started thinking about the process from beginning to end and what a job this must be. He starts out with a photograph of something, probably scans it and manipulates in in photoshop to get very high contrast images, prints several stencils for one piece depending on how many colors he uses, cuts them out, lugs them to his location, paints, all the while not letting anybody see him for fear of arrest or maybe even death. Now some street art is really crappy and without meaning, but his does have meaning and he is doing it for a purpose, and I respect that. Plus it is pretty brilliant imagery.

So if anyone is interested please check out Banksy and Richard Duardo who both in some format use the photographic medium for their process.

Jenelle E. 10-24-09

Esaki Reiji, Collage of Babies, 1893. Albumen photomontage, 27cm x 21cm

I walked into Larry’s office on Friday and I saw this huge, piercing red book on the history of Japanese photography. The images are beautiful and thoughtful in documenting people, places, and royalty. The two images above struck a chord with me because of their reference to the surrealist artworks of the 1920’s as well as photomontage. It’s interesting to think that that same aesthetic was around in late 19th century Japan. I don’t think the surrealist train of thought was around in Japan at that time, but I wonder what kind of influences Mr. Reiji had in creating this photomontage. All of the baby heads closely put together cause a dizzying spell over the viewer as the eye traces each little face. As I stare, I notice that some baby images are larger than others and as a result they stand out against the rest. Was this an aesthetic choice to control the “flow” of the image? And was there a reason behind making a collage of babies at all? Why infants? The color of albumen prints is a brownish, sepia tone that calls the idea of memory and past events. This tone adds a sense of nostalgia to the work. So that nostalgia along with the innocence of each infant’s expression creates a mood. The photographer must have felt confident enough to cut and manipulate photographs in general even though the process of making photos in that era was difficult to come by. I can only guess at the reasons but the image stands out along side the others in the book that represent 19th century Japanese photography.

Kraig Van Winkle 10/24 Steve Szabo

Steve Szabo was a master photographer in the second half of the 20th century. Szabo's techniques bring light and atmospheric space into vivid photographs of very humble subject matter. In Szabo's "The Eastern Shore", he recalls encounters with locals around a seemingly ghost town and presents 18 photographs along with his stories. Hauntingly errie atmospheric space and vivid lighting all play pivital roles in this series. Below is a link to this work by Szabo...

http://www.artphotogallery.org/02/artphotogallery/photographers/steve_szabo_02.html

Apryl Corbin Praxinoscope 10/21/09

While shooting my "study of wind" series, I found that I got stuck because I did not feel like I could capture the movement without doing a flip book. Libby brought to my attention praxinoscopes. I decided to check some out online and i stumbled across this crazy guy from the UK, his name is David Wilson. He does more animated stuff, but his humor just keeps you going back for more. This series is called David Wilson's Beard and it just made me laugh.

Anyhow, this was just a jumping off point for me to get the feel of how a praxinoscope works and the kind of images you can capture through them. I understand that I'm working with sequence and narrative again...but my friends, that's the way the cookie crumbles!!

Kraig Van Winkle Replacement Blog 10/17/09 Brent Stirton

A senior staff photojournalist for Getty Images, Brent Stirton, has traveled to many different countries seeking out indigenous tribes. Traveling to South America, Africa and Australia, he has documented various tribes and their culture. Many interesting photos include preparation of tribal rituals such as face painting. He also documents ordinary everyday happenings within tribes and the landscape surrounding them. He has done work fork the National Geographic Magazine, New York Times, Discovery Channel, amongst others. Being able to view these various tribes is a rarity in itself and is quite an experience to view. Below is his website to view his work.

http://www.brentstirton.com/index.php

Jacquelyn Nelson 10/17/09 Kenda North Photography

Kenda North, one of the speakers at the SPE Conference, spoke about some of her past work called Urban Pools. The collection that I particularly loved, were the pictures from the year 2006-2007. In that collection they were all under water pictures in color. One of the pictures was of a lady in a beautiful ruffled dress with bright red shoes and belt. I love the soft color of the silk white dress against the bold red accessories. In all her pictures she decides to compose her photographs without using the subjects head and it makes them so much more interesting to me. I would have never thought that choosing to not include a subjects head would have a strong outcome. I feel that the subjects head might have taken away from the beautiful clothing and it makes the dress the focal point in the picture. Now the viewer isn't distracted with outer beauty, you don't even question what might this woman's face looks like or even concern yourself with the age of the subject. Also the light reflecting off of the skin has the amazing designs the water makes when the sun filters through the water. Using that unique look definitely gives beauty to her subjects and a sense of perfection. The skin of the woman looks flawless which draws me in even further into this photo. The pose of the woman crossing her legs helps this feminine beauty she is presenting. I am so impressed with her ability to compose and shoot these wonderful underwater photographs.

ALBERT

10/17/09 Stephanie Abraham: Jay Gould SPE

This week at the conference in Thibodaux Louisiana Jay Gould spoke about his work during a lecture. He talked about his series, The Participatory Universe in which he emphasizes the harmony between art and science. Both fields push boundaries and it was interesting to see the way he connected scientific concepts with a visual representation. He discussed the beauty he saw in graphs and lines which have strongly influenced his work as they incorporated in every piece. In the photo above he continues the lines from the frame above to the grid below. The pieces in this series are bored by grids and either graphs or scientific diagrams that he relates to his art.


"I got crabs in Louisiana." -Albert

10-17-09 Ashley Olmos

This week i have been looking at the artist John Baldessari. He was originally a painter that hand painted phrase but this did not work out for him so he took commercial images and transformed them into his art. This is shown is my favorite of his pieces.To start off the colors chosen are pleasing to the eye, they are solid bright colors that catch your eyes at first glance. If they would have been dull or mute colors the piece would have not worked as well. The skin tones he chose are great because they add to the variety of colors used for the piece. The tones are not like his other pieces that stay grey and have the others colors bright. The composition is triangular meaning that the forms and figures make a triangle as you look at the photograph. My eye starts with the blue face, then pink arm, green face, and back to the blue face. There are also many angles created with the figures arms. I tend to focus on the bright color faces and limbs because of the forms created. I shapes created make it seem simplistic. The last thing that I began to stare at are the negative space because of the forms also created...I enjoy the negative spaces created in photographs. Baldessari was a great person to look at for the compositions he created and how he made the viewers eyes move throughout the piece.

Risa - 10/15/09 Alec Soth: Sleeping By The Mississippi

Today we went to go see Alec Soth's work in the Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans. His series is called "Sleeping By the Mississippi" and is a number of large-scale color photos taken by 4x5 view camera. I must admit that I love the concept behind his work. Mr. Soth travelled along the Mississippi River and photographed people and places that he felt evoked a sense of longing. Each image depicts either a person, or a place that shows evidence of human inhabitance or interaction. The scale of the photos, combined with the large amount of detail contained within each, provided for a graphically rich viewing experience. One of the photos that spoke to me was an image showing a crucifix on a hill in the middle of winter. The structure that the crucifix is attached to is actually an electrical wire support, with the lines moving down the hill to the right and out of sight. The detail of the image is such that one can even see a barn on a far hill and note that the upper story loft window on it is open, a tiny square of white sky seen through it. The scene gives hints of human presence, enough to make the absence of any humans in the winter scene almost palpable. The Jesus figure is white, like the snow, and the connotation of the electrical lines travelling out from it add additional depth of meaning. The entire body of work has a similar feel, with the human presence (or absence thereof) apparent, with some humor and irony mixed in quite well. It was a show well worth seeing and I would highly recommend checking out his works online as well.

Strange Marfa, by Barbara Justice 10/11/09

Marfa, Texas. It's a small town in West Texas where artists and ranchers coexist. It has an unusual vibe with a constant underlying beat that attracts creators of all kind. I went this past weekend to the opening that is a presentation of Donald Judd's creation. Basically, the whole town is somehow associated with the Judd name. You will find him in your contemporary art book on the same page as the term "minimalism". It's six hours away from San Antonio, so the drive home is a good time period to think about his work. I think his work is minimal transcendentalism. It's cold but spiritual. It's mechanical but inviting.

The thing about the town and surrounding area is I think about "places" we choose to create our work in, and how are work is influenced by our surroundings. I took photographs with my eyes because I could have spent two weeks there taking shots and exploring. I just couldn't capture everything I wanted to in two days. This photo is by artist in residence there named Adam Davies. This is what the landscape looks like. This is a place I will contiually go back to. Think about where you choose to create, because it will influence the outcome.

ZORIAH-- Bianca Pitman 10/10/09

Tonight I found Zoriah. This photographer travels to document real life in war and poverty. He has been in over 60 countries and lived in more than 20 of them to document the stories. He has been published in just about every documentary magazine. His images have been used on many documentary tv shows. He is an amazing photographer. This is exactly the type of work I would have loved to have done! This work makes me feel like I need to hurry up and get out there. The images above are that of some children in Kenya. One is of a little girl looking through a doorway. I love the focus in this image. The other is of a child looking for food ina dump site. What is so amazing is that it is almost like looking for Waldo. It takes awhile to find the figure--and then you understand that they are standing under a mountain of trash to find dinner. sad. This is so telling. This is my kind of photography!!!!! YAY!

10/10/09 Stephanie Abraham: James L. Gonzales

This week I viewed "Pictures Without a Story," the work of James L. Gonzales. In this series he shot several photographs in a parking lot one sweltering day last July while waiting on a car repair. He used parking curbs and lines, and also geometric shapes and arrows painted on the asphalt to create abstract images. The content of the photographs is not easily recognizable because Gonzales shoots at odd angles in order to document his vision. I think it is interesting that the parking lots are not very noticeable in the picture. Once one realizes this it makes the photos more intriguing. If this was an obvious aspect to his photos they would not be worth looking at. It would be too recognizable. I also noticed that his work has a pop art appearance to them. This is probably because they look somewhat commercial and contain very geometric shapes. I think the title suits the series because obviously they do not tell a story but are about lines and shapes. Then I thought, well maybe they do tell a story. The story could be that the photographs are of everyday scenes but the viewer may have to really try to read the photo to discover this.

10/10/09 - Brittany Gates: Irving Penn

Irving Penn passed away on Wednesday at age 92, so I thought it was only fitting that I blog about him this week.

Penn's photography extended from commercial style portraiture, to conceptual still life. He was one of the first photographers to use a background. He even went through a period where he used two backgrounds to make a corner set to "close in" his models. He did this to free them from distractions and make them more accessible to his camera.

Besides his fashion portraits, Irving Penn was also famous for his still life photography. He is known for his cigarette butt still lifes and his frozen foods.

These are well known, not only for their subject matter, but for their great detail and clarity. Penn had an eye for lighting and it shows in his work.

He will be greatly missed, but his work lives on.

Kraig Van Winkle 10/10/09 Zoe Strauss

Zoe Strauss hales from Pennsylvania and has over a decade of photography under her belt. As a young photographer, she has taken many narrative photos of off beat subjects. Sexuality, gender identity, patriotism, and every day living in poverty areas. Her photos reveal truth and showcases what actually is. She holds nothing back as she takes her photos of real time people of lesser more swept under the rug areas. She shows the people and the areas as is. For over 7 years she's had an on going installation entitled "Under I-95" in South Philadelphia. Her site features many of her earlier work and now uses a blog to show case her newer work and information. http://www.zoestrauss.com/

Courtney Smyth 10/10/09

We just got home from Chalk It Up. That was out art event of the weekend. My son's 8th grade art class rented a square down there. I saw some really awesome chalk drawings today. I even saw Lupe chalking it up! I love to see so much excitement surrounding these kinds of events! The kids (and adults) had a great time!

For my blog, I looked up one of the photographers that was vying for the job that Libby got. Her name is Christine Shank. What she has on her website is called the Interior Series. She creates small dioramas of domestic scenes after a traumatic event. She makes the viewpoint so that the viewer is like a voyeur. She builds these sets, then photographs with a 4x5 camera. She prints in color to a size of 24x30, and displays them in shadow box frames. The titles are sort of ambiguous, to allow the viewer to come to their own conclusions. The photos are amazing. The tiny details of the dioramas are perfectly arranged. Each image and it's strange point of view draw you in. It makes you want to back away to see if maybe on the other side of the wall is more information. It makes you want to know more. She uses strong shadows and a soft focus in the foreground with a sharper focus in the back. These choices also help to draw the viewer in. The way she titles her pieces really forces the viewer to decide what happened in the scene. I imagine these images are even more amazing up close. I wish I had been able to see them when she gave her talk last semester. Here's a link to her website.

Jenelle Esparza on Michael C. Howell, sorry forgot to say my name

I have been reading articles online about contemporary photographers. One of them is Michael C. Howell. His work has been shown at the Joan Grona Gallery at Blue Star. He presented a body of photographs there in 2005 called LATENT DENSITIES: DIALOG VIA CHEMIGRAMS that explores the idea of language or a conversation between forms. In his artist statement he states that he is trying to create a dialogue by presenting one side of the conversation (the images) while the viewer provides the other side. I often think about the source and the philosophy of language or how we put a sound to a feeling or observation in order to communicate. There are many forms of communication therefore there are many forms of language. I’m not just talking about different spoken languages such as Spanish or French, but rather unspoken communication on a subconscious level. I like that Howell is stating that even images can talk to you because that is a form of subconscious communication. It’s almost like body language or expression. He is using a process called a chemigram where one applies painter’s materials to photographic paper and exposes it in well-lit areas (he doesn’t use a darkroom). Each image is a different statement in the conversation.

10.09.09 Amy Schueling AT&T art collection

Hey all, I got to the library to see the AT&T collection and was overtaken by all the work. The one painting that caught my eye no matter where I was in the room was Lowell Nesbitt's Yellow Orchid. This painting towers over you at a size of 90" by
90". The orchid jumps off the canvas and demands attention. It is delicate yet overwhelmingly demanding. The brightness of the petals and the darkness of the background really make this flower stand out. The flattness of the background seems to hold the flower to the piece, in a sence, it flattens the whole piece. The organic lines created by the edges of the paints meeting helps the petals flow like they are moving with an unknown wind. The variety of the lines helps pull the viewer's eyes to the center of the orchid. I enjoy this painting because the artist has taken something meek and made it into a dominating beauty. This painting is peaceful and fierce at the same time. The organic shapes I see in this piece give me a feeling of spinning and being that this flower is not anchored to the sides gives the view the feeling of floating or hovering.

I have a picture of this piece but it does it no justice so I recommend that you take the time to see this painting and all the others. Thanks for reading.

10/09/09 Risa Morales - Ryan Takaba

Ryan Takaba is not a photographer, but rather a ceramic artist. I saw his work at the Joan Grona gallery at Blue Star. His ceramic pieces were displayed with small flowers in them, and showing only the slightest amount of reflective water. Each of the pieces was elegant and simple, using self-glazing clay to add just a tinge of color and sheen. The simple grace of the forms is appealing, and the delicate addition of the flower only adds to the quiet beauty of the work. Each piece was relatively small, nothing reaching beyond, or even coming very close to a foot cubed in space. I enjoyed walking around his pieces and even found myself crouching down to get at eye level to inspect the clay surfaces. If anyone is interested I think his work still still be at Joan Grona gallery for a while yet.

Here is a link to his sito: http://ryantakaba.com/home.html

This Place Matters by Barbara Justice

Hi everybody. Yesterday on the front of the San Antonio Express News paper was a photograph of the oldest and only Humble Gas Station left in the country. As alot of people know, I am very interested in photographing buildings, structures, anything related to general architecture, and this gas staion has been a subject of mine a few times. It's old, graffitied out, vacant, scary at night, shelter for homeless, located slightly under 35, basically it's not very noticeable. Ok well after doing some research on this place, it was built in the 1930's, and the reason I find it so interesting are the beautiful little features that is still has after all these years. The tile work is amazing and looks like it was carefully planned. The shape of the building is like no other gas station I've seen. The proud signage still quietly tells people what it's purpose used to be.

The reason I like to photograph places like this is simply for preservation of history. I wonder about all of the people that were once related to this place and their lives and livlihood. I wonder about all the change that is contiually happening in cities, the tearing down of old places and building of new. By photographing places like this we keep a record of our history and we can learn from these images. These places have stories, and I as a photographer have chosen to preserve them through photographs.

Well I was happy to read in the newspaper that the Humble Station is a candidate for being a site registered in the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This means it won't be torn down, turned into a Quizno's and forgotton. Yay. I also learned from the newspaper article that San Antonio has an attorney named Audrey Zamora-Johnson that actually works in this field of histoic preservation and that is awsome!

So there are twelve other finalists in the running and right now I think our Humble is in second place, so I am asking people to vote for it. Here is a link, you can vote for it everyday until October 9th. Thank you, if you are interested in shooting or seeing this place let me know I will give you directions and/or go with you.:)

10/3/09 Monica Garcia --- The Photography Reader

So this week I was not able to attend a museum again, but I did get the chance to read something out of the textbook for class, The Photography Reader. I decided to go with Ossip Brik’s What the Eye Does Not See, the title caught my attention and I was intrigued to see what it had to say. Although it is probably the shortest essay in the text I was able to learn something simple and important. She starts off by stating that the camera is not intended to imitate the human eye but to see and record what it does not see. Basically she goes on to state that things should be seen and photographed from different perspectives and not just right on. As a photo II student I thinking that this something that I need to be more aware of in my compositions. As I looked back at my work most of my shots are dead front center. I know that when I look at things around me I do look at them differently but never seem to have my camera around me to get the new and interesting point of view that I have encountered. Its really isn’t hard to climb a tree or sit on the floor. The essay also makes the point that we need to break away from the normal radius of the eye and the camera helps us do that. As a beginner there is so much I need to learn and it all can be over whelming at times but this is really a great starting point to open up a little.

Kraig Van Winkle 10/3/09 Cameron Davidson

Today I will talk about Cameron Davidson. He is an areal and portrait photographer. I find his areal photos to be quite interesting. He started taking areal pictures at the age of 23, combining his love for flying and photography, and has been doing so ever since. Residing from Washington DC, he's done numerous work for such magazines as National Geographic, Vanity Fair, Virginia Living and Smithsonian. He is in the process of finishing a 20 year book on documenting the landscapes of Chesapeake Bay Watershed. I find his areal photos very interesting because of his keen eye for composition. There's a good balance of harmony and visual weight in all of his photos. His homepage is located here.

Jennifer Williams 10/03 On David Halliday

Right now, through February 21, 2010 you can see "Culinary Delights: Photographs by David Halliday," at the San Antonio Museum of Art. The photographs are a celebration of food through both black and white, and color photography. All of Halliday's images are shot with film, although it is just recently that he found his love for color in photographs.

When shooting in black and white, Halliday develops his prints as sepia-toned silver gelatin prints in the darkroom, and when shooting in color, he scans the film into the computer and does some work in photoshop. By scanning into the computer he is able to recreate the exact color, or achieve a result he was unable to achieve in the camera by tweaking the images. Halliday compares photoshop to being in the darkroom, which I think is an excellent comparison. Dodging, burning, adjusting contrast and color saturation, etc., are all darkroom essentials, and photoshop is a simply another tool with which a photographer is able to achieve the desired result.

Halliday had a career as a chef in New Orleans, when his love for photography began to take over. He remembers photographing a still-life, an arrangement of hats that had caught his eye, and being amazed at the beauty of it. From this point on he began setting up different food items in aesthetically pleasing arrangements which seem to give the food sense of life, of anthropomorphism. His sense of light and tonality, and the clarity of his images is astounding. No image loses a single detail, and even the frames serve only to accentuate the beauty and precision of his work.

When looking at Halliday's photographs, either in sepia, or color, one cannot help but notice the reference to classical and traditional still-life paintings... but Halliday brings his own style to the images. He celebrates the form of his subject, and gives it a life and personality of it's own. Also. it seems that he brings from his life as a chef not only his subject matter, but his timing, his precision, his presentation. He himself said that the two are similar in that one must pay attention to the subtleties. And let me tell you, his subtleties are what make his images simply delectable!

10/3/09 - Brittany Gates: Cathy McLaurin

As some of you have probably noticed, I have been looking at a lot of photo collage lately. So I was pretty happy to see some at the UTSA Satellite Space on First Friday.

I guess you would call these pieces mixed media collages rather than photo collages, although they do include photography in them.

They are part of the artist's "Making Nice" series, and are presented on large paper sacks. Like the ones you would get at the grocery store if you asked for paper instead of plastic.

The photographic images look like they might be appropriated. They remind me of the images you'd see on those old dress pattern packages that you can buy in fabric stores. Especially since all of the images are of females. The artist has attached some hand drawn animal heads to all of the figures, giving them a cartoon look. She has also painted on some circular patterns in black and white in the background.

I thought these images were really amusing. I always enjoy seeing photography mixed with other medias, and I found this a nice example of that.

You can see this series and more of her work on her website.

10/03/09 Jacquelyn Nelson "Keri Coar Photography"

This First Friday I went down to the Blue Star Complex and before we left we went into one of the smaller galleries, and the artist Keri Coar had about 8 floral photographic prints that caught my eye. I’m not sure of the name of the gallery, I thought I would be able to find some information online, but I can’t even find anything about the artist. First of all, I’ve never seen pictures that have this tone of metallic green, pinks and off whites. It almost looked like the flowers were overexposed and then maybe some alternative process was used. It also looks like maybe they could have been hand colored or even painted but there was no evidence of paint strokes. I have no idea how these prints were created, but I hope that they weren’t photoshopped. That would take all the uniqueness and interest out of it for me. I’m not against using Photoshop, but I do believe that it takes a lot less skill to produce work with a few clicks. Assuming they were done in a darkroom, Keri has mastered making the photographs consistent. Together on the wall, they made a nice collection and made the subject more interesting. The dull colors and the softness of the lines made the photos very calming and the use of negative and positive space was executed well. Although, I do wonder why there wasn’t anything in the background behind the flowers. So I’m torn. My conclusion is that it’s either a loss of detail, which is understandable or Photoshop.

Jenelle on Richard Misrach 10-03-09

Richard Misrach

Larry often shows slide images of various artists during class. Lately he’s been showing the class those artists who use the view camera; one of them was Richard Misrach. The images of the desert were taken in the 1970’s with a view camera and he used various split toning techniques to enhance his detailed B&W images. He used long exposure times at night in the desert along with strobe lighting techniques to get the results you see above. I read that even Misrach himself cannot reproduce these images. This is because in 1978 Agfa reduced the amount of silver in the film that Misrach was using and consequently he could not get the same results. The stark contrast in his images and the juxtaposition of each desert figure all printed with his split tone technique creates surreal landscapes. The use of the view camera gave clear detail that can only be given by large format cameras when shooting with film. Misrach continues to make photographs and recently exhibited in the Fraenkel Gallery early this year (January and February). Despite the beautiful detail given by his large format, he no longer uses film. Instead, his new work is digitally shot with a high tech digital camera that produces high quality detail. An added flip to his technique is the use of color instead of his stark B&W images of the 1970’s. He compiles positive and negative images that, along with the colorful tones, create the surreal landscapes that he is known for. If you google his name and fraenkel gallery you can see his new work. His older desert scenes are a little more difficult to find. Someone blogged about his work and had the image that I attached above. Or you can google image search his desert images because they’re awesome.

Apryl Corbin 10/2 JeromeLiebling

Throughout my growth as a photographer, I have always come back to the same concept of catching life as it is happening and documenting it. Catching in history the lives of real people; some people you know, others you just find interesting. The problem with this is its been done. How do you make it your own? How do you capture the moment with surprise in order to get the action and not the pose. I stumbled across this photographer named Jerome Liebling. I feel like he is successful in catching people in the moment. Although the people are looking into the camera, you feel the sense of surprise, like they were caught off guard. This is what i think that most of my work is missing. I think that I know too many people who are comfortable in front of a camera. Sometimes this can be a good thing...like modeling for instance, but for what I am going for....well, it sucks! Another thing that Liebling tends to capture in his photo is the motion, as if the world around this lady is still moving at a fast pace...almost like she is frozen in time. It gives the photo a sense of "I caught you, now what". This really peeks my interst. Perhaps I shall try this. Maybe with my family...bc we all know that everyone has CRAZY in there family. Why not capture it?

10/2/2009 Courtney Smyth

I had the chance to go to First Thursday last night. I was happy to see that Michael Berman's work was still hanging in the Blue Star. His prints are taken from a large format camera, digitally printed on fine art paper. There are about twenty prints in the large gallery that are grouped with about 5 pieces by Julian Cardona. Berman and Cardona were trying to study the desert Southwest and the areas of border crossing. Cardona's work is more softly focused and seems to be more about the people. Berman's are mostly landscape shots. Berman's work are printed quite large, with simple black frames. They are all printed in black and white. Some contain seemingly strange items (trash, box spring, etc) that were what was left behind by those trying to get across the border. The one that affected me most was "Pool and Palms". It shows an obviously abandoned in ground pool that has graffiti all over the walls. There are uncared for palms behind the pool. The viewer can see that this was once a beautiful yard, now deserted. Aside from the subject matter, the print is beautiful. The viewer can see every tiny detail, the grains of sand, even the texture of the pool's concrete. Many of his prints were landscape shots. With no other content, the lines of the sand dunes, horizon, etc. were more obvious. These were visually stunning.