Blair Bodden submits Annette Fournet

Annette Fournet is a contemporary photographer who lives and teaches photography in Memphis, Tennessee and in Prague, Czech Republic.

Fournet uses collected old snapshots, carte de visites, and portraits in the body of work titled Lost Promises. This series Fournet states, “celebrates all the promises of life – marriages, special occasions, and family gatherings.”

In this body of work, Fournet has combined found images, scanned materials and her own black and white photos to create a narrative for the people in her photographs. These images that she finds are usually old portraits or snapshots of people she does not know. So in creating this work she gives these individuals a new story. Again this is another artist that I found doing research for my own work it is very intriguing how she uses found material and found individuals to create the characters of her narratives.

Blair Bodden submits Carrie Mae Weems SPE Conference

Carrie Mae Weems was the Keynote Speaker at the Society of Photographic Education South-central Conference held at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Weems gave her lecture on Friday September 30 to a recital hall full of students and faculty from seven different states. Weems is a very articulate and strong speaker which shows the passion she has for creating the bodies of work she has done and still will do. During her lecture the body of work that she spoke that struck my interest was the work she has done in the city where she lives. The body of work is titled Social Studies 101, Operation: Activate, 2011. This particular work interested me because Weems decided to use her art to take a stand in her community on violence but she still incorporates her contemporary style to these messages in what is said in them and how and where they are presented. This shows that our art can be used for so many things if we choose to do so with it.

Blair Bodden submits Brianna Burnett

To give a brief background on Brianna Burnett, she is from Houston and studied her BA at Austin College in Sherman and received her MFA from Texas Tech University. Most of Burnett’s work seems to be done in an alternative process, tintypes. I found this work intriguing not only for use of the tintypes but for the basis of her work that she completes. Behind Burnett’s work revolves the act of storytelling. Burnett uses this idea in all of her bodies of work which take a look at interpreting stories. In Burnett’s artist statement she states, “I interpret stories, retell memories, and interpret narratives I have heard. This act of retelling becomes an oral reference of time and collection…As humans, the stories we collect keep us connected all to being alive and experiencing life. I envision this body of work as being a collection of images which reference experience, past, connections, and community.”

The use of storytelling and narrative has always inspired my work as a student artist. In my research for my work I have found several artists that influence and inspire me to keep going with my work even though sometimes I struggle with getting my idea across clearly. Brianna Burnett is a great resource for concept based work and also for the use alternative process in her work.

Rebecca Villarreal presents Aaron Huey

Aaron Huey is a photojournalist who has worked for Harper and National Geographic, his work is driven some by politics and much by what he believes in. He's very passionate about people's rights and much of his work reflects this. One of the projects he worked on centered around Native American rights, he's helping to continue the fight of the Lakota Sioux Indians to regain land they lost back in 1890 at Wounded Knee and to show the world just how far reservation life has declined. His lecture on TED talk, was amazing to listen to and eye opening with information on how hard life for the Lakota Sioux has been. To say the least the photos from Pine Ridge are worth more than 1,000 words. They are ghostly images of suffrage.

The more I've looked at his work, the more I think he has an eye for Americana. For one project he walked all over the U.S. with his dog and took pictures of the places and people he saw along the way. All his images tell stories about America, when and if he ever finishes the project it will be a great portrait of what makes America...America.

His website is filled with tons of work and I encourage every one to take a look at it, I haven't even gotten through all of it.

Rebecca Villarreal presents Binh Danh

Binh Danh is a photographer who uses a the alternative process of photosynthesis to create images on leaves. His work is extrodanary to look at and was one of the things that inspired me to try the process out in class this semester.

Much of his work is based on his Vietnemese heritage and the trials and tribulations Viet Nam has suffered over the years. Many of his images come from old negatives he's found of war and the people who were in the middle of it. Danh uses a variety of leaves and grasses to print on, the quality is amazing to look at of the image and the print. I never would of thought you could get some of the range he does in a plant. There is a bit of poetic feel to his use of leaves as his canvas, more so I think for the leaves vulnerability and the past's vulnerability. Something I like about the process, because there are conflicting ideas on it stability to last for long. An idea that coincides with history's ability or inability to keep the past alive in the future.

He's definantly someone to look at.

Ray submits David LaChappelle

http://www.davidlachapelle.com/

David LaChappelle lives in a wonderland of art and creativity. These are just a few of his highly dynamic images derived from his passion for visual stimulation.
I appreciate the vast combinations of techniques and processes. In the spirit of our class, Studies and Sketches 3, the tryptic image, probably utilizes photo oils or pencils, mounted on cardboard. His use of elaborate sets, add a definitive narrative to his final images. I enjoy studying the different light sources and how they work in the final comps. His images, in my case, provoke a desire and a thought process to create art. What compels our choice of color in the work we create?

Andrea Couture submits Kristin Giordano

Kristin Giordano who does mostly landscape photography. She takes photographs of landscapes that have the presence of the human without usually seeing an actual humane within the picture plane. She uses a 1970s Diana and a Yashica to create her photographs. Using these cameras creates an ethereal quality in her photographs that she probably could not get with a regular digital camera. I really enjoy her photographs and the airiness of them. These are the type of photographs that I would like to work on for my personal project that deals with memory.

Here is the link to her website:

http://www.kristingiordano.com/