Katie Morris submits Lori Nix

What I enjoy about Lori Nix is she experiments with scale with figurines and minuscule objects to help create real life action. I have found that many of her photos are neglected, vacant and lifeless but somehow enriched with color and eye movement. Yet, I was mainly drawn to her collection of "The City". She photographs common facilities but adds a twist to it. These images do not contain any human life. It's as if it was once occupied by people and then just abandoned. Her photographs are so capturing with all the detail embedded within the photograph. It's a feeling that the viewer is standing in the space, looking at the worn down room with walls coming apart, dust and dirt covered everywhere and objects falling apart. Her images have a somewhat negative feel to them in ways. It's a feeling of non activity and the rooms have a deadness to them. When once used, they just linger there in a mess and left untouched. The rooms sit there to fade away day by day.

http://www.lorinix.net/

Katie Morris submits Doug Dubois

Dubois' photos intrigue me because of the intensity of his subjects. Some of his portraitures are very stern and intensified. When coming across some of his works, I find that the subjects have complete control over their atmosphere. He places them in their natural environment, which allows them to feel comfortable and vulnerable. Also, the people presented in his work are not beautified or glammed up in any way. They are simply shown as themselves as they would be from a day to day basis. That's the beauty I find in the photographs because it's who they are as individuals. It's a positive presentation because there isn't false advertisement. The truth speaks through these images. What I also admire is that he uses people from different age groups. From young children to the elderly. It's like he promotes the life cycle in his imagery from youth to old.

http://www.dougdubois.com/

Katelynn Skaggs submits Olivia Parker

Swallowtail 1

Fly 8

Dragonfly II

We looked at some of Olivia Parker's work in class, but I thought this was an interesting series to consider for scale. The images, from Bugs, show magnified parts of insects. Here you see a dragonfly wing, a fly, and a swallowtail. These infinitesimal parts of bugs become huge, abstract works of art. They are almost unrecognizable, if it weren't for the titles to give them away. I know bugs have been used before under the macro lens, but I like how Parker handles them; she doesn't magnify them to instill a sense of unease or disgust in the viewer, but she makes them appear really beautiful. They are light and ethereal in form and color.

Katie Morris submits Duane Michals

Duane Michals sparks an interest of mine because he takes incidences out of life and places them in sequential order with a twist. That extra twist is his take on the imagery or what he feels as an artist. One piece by that I found clever is called "Chance Meeting." This sequence piece reflects the idea of passing someone on the street and trying to collect who they are. Then within seconds, each person turns around at different times and discovers that person completely gone. It's the idea of a thought passing through the mind and never knowing what the aftermath would be. Trying to figure out the unknown or the what if thoughts. This piece is very powerful by far and I would say it's a positive imitation about life itself. We all wonder about the buts or what ifs; therefore "Chances Meeting" is an example of not knowing what could've been. It's the feeling that overpowers everything about this artwork. Plus, it's also a narrative without words. I find that fascinating because when an audience views this artwork, they can create their own narrative for it. It's a realistic event that does happen and it's wonderful that people can relate to this real life scenario.

http://www.studium.iar.unicamp.br/zero/chance.htm

David Alvarez submits Alex Darocy

Alex Darocy is again another toy photographer, who is quite different from both Levinthal and McCarty. While Levinthal and McCarty both create imagery in which the toys begin to have their own reality within the planes of the photograph (be it realistic or surreal), Darocy's imagery is created through the assemblage of found toy objects. The assemblages of toys he creates seem to from this paradox between an idea of being methodically planned and spontaneous conceived. This to me is a great notion, because he has this idea of what he wants in his head, but he also lets his work just happen; allows the work to create its own meaning.

On his website it states that "He does not create meaning, rather, he presents the viewer with sets of inter-related, culturally formed visual texts that focus on the features imbued on the objects through the lengthy social and physical process of their production." Although, I slightly agree with the second half of this statement, I believe that meaning is created within in the work. Take the examples pictured above, they are from a series entitled Food Chain. Though he does present the objects in a way that explores the features of the toys themselves, there is still an underlying idea of social Darwinism. The survival of the superior by devouring the inferior.

Katie Morris submits Tina Barney

What I admire mostly about Tina Barney's work is her style. She produces portraiture of people in her life or the people of elite status. What I find most remarkable about portraiture is capturing facial expressions, body posture, mannerisms and so forth to help represent an image. In Barney's work, she simply captures her subjects either in distraction or when the subject has complete knowledge of the photographer. So, she displays multiple poses to deliver her point to her audience. Her work is a positive gesture because it's truthful. A photographer can pose his or her subjects different ways or make them act in another character other than themselves but her photography has a natural presentation. She may allow her subjects to be themselves to tell a story about who they are as individuals. Since every person is unique, looking at a picture of an individual is going to be different among other portraits. Barney respects the personality appearing through the photograph because in that photograph tells a story in a moment.

http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/barney_tina.php

Daniel Gonzalez submits John Baldessari

John Baldessari works in many different modes; infusing various materials and techniques in a single piece. Most of his works address various issues in contemporary art, including artistic authenticity and the use of flat shape elements to assert two-dimensionality. In his figurative work he employs the disassociation of the figure and its environment, which forces the viewer to re-evaluate subject-matter and content. From original images or appropriated photographs and film stills, he distorts them by changing their color, modulating their form, emphasizing parts or deleting information altogether. I think that Baldessari's work has been important for fine-art photographers as he was successful in appropriating photography as a high-art medium and re-asserting its context in museums and galleries.

http://www.baldessari.org/

http://www.johnbaldessari.net/