Final Project Ideas for Expanding...

Final Project

Written Statement

     My original idea was portraying death in numerous ways, but I wasn't sure how I wanted to do it in regard to the emotions and point of view for the photographs. So I started photographing at my house with the help of my brother, Steve. I set up the camera aperture and shutter speed for him and got in the water and started moving around, having him take shot after shot. The water felt so nice and I was having such a good time. The photos turned out pretty good. I then had Steve jump in the water and flail around. It made me laugh so hard, we really had a great time. That made me think...why am I focusing my attention on death, when I am alive? Why not capture the joy and freedom of the day? It was bringing back such good memories to be with my brother at the house I grew up in. So the concept I focused on from that point on was celebrating being alive and appreciating the freedom of being outside. Steven took pictures of me basking in the sun, lying on the grass. These photos I think were most successful out of the series becuase the sun on my skin looks so warm, the viewer can remember how good the sun feels on their skin. I spun around with bare feet in the grass, remembering how fun it is. It was an experience and realization within myself that I captured through the final project. I think it ended up more successful and meaningful than if I would have continued with the death series.

Final Project Concept

     The idea for my final project is to capture an expression and emotion before death. There are thousands of ways to die...I haven't decided exactly how to portray this and in which ways it will happen. Some ideas are drowning, poison, dying in a hospital bed, getting hit by a car....
     I haven't decided what the mood is going to be, if it will be peaceful, scary....whether or not you know that they are going to die or if there is a chance the person will be saved.
     Let me know thoughts or ideas, I don't have any images yet.

Assignment 5: Constructed Reality

Clark Gable

Nice Doing Business With You

I wish I was....

I'd love to be....

Just be

Gathered Around The Dinner Table

Part I:

Clark Gable: I used natural lighting for this photo, it was a cloudy day, so the contrast isn't very high. My image is about a set up love scene...kind of playing on the idea that love isn't a fairy tale-the picture perfect love you see in movies has a lot of constructing that goes into it. If you zoom out from the scene, it will change your perspective completely. But I also got this idea from the song Clark Gable, by the postal service, he sings about recreating a love. Steve and Amanda, my brother and his girlfriend were my actors and they did a great job. I love their expressions.  I had the scene in front of a house because it isa young love, you get the idea that he is dropping her off at her house after a date. 

Constructed Identity Photos: The composition for these three photos was natural lighting. I had to use self timer on the camera. That was time consuming, but they turned out good enough to convey the idea. My original plan was to create dramatic characters and put them in appropriate scenes. Then I decided to relate the identities to myself. It would be a stronger concept because it means more to me. I will save constructing more dramatic identities for a time when i have means to different costumes and make up. The concept I settled on was that idea that I focus so much on the type of person I want to be that I don't  really move forward. I added the third picture with the caption, just be, because I have to remind myself that everyone has different paths in life and to focus on unique me. Not to care if I am the obvious fashionably pretty or the obvious smart free student. Focus on developing myself through my eyes and not someone else's. The I wish i was... and I'd love to be... photos represent extremes that I want to be. The third photo, just be, is a reminder to just be myself. It is a bit cheesy but something real that I struggle with. There are many other artists who focus on self development and self worth concepts that I'm sure my photos concept can be categorized with. 

Gathered Around The Dinner Table: This photo was very fun to create. I felt so achieved once I finished it because I've always been afraid of photoshop. It was very foreign to me before class started and now I know how to put four images of me into one photo! It feels good, haha. The concept was narrative with constructed identity. I was home brainstorming ideas when I thought to dress like each member of my family and sit where we always sit around the dinner table. We play cards together so I had us doing that instead of eating. This would be fun to reshoot, maybe spending more time developing my dad's character and making the rest of the family look like they are having fun. This photo was taken on self timer. I had the camera on a tripod and at an angle where all of us would be visible. The lighting was a bit yellow but very bright and good exposure so I was happy with that. 

Part II:

Clark Gable: I explained this photo before classmates talked about it. They said I conveyed the idea successfully and liked that I showed Ryan on the ladder spraying the water to make it look like rain. It would be fun to reshoot this and put more time into it by having the water directly above the kissing couple's head and having them be wet from the water. Also to show lights on either side to push the idea that it is a constructed set. I'd have the woman be dressed differently too. A jumping point could be creating photos for different songs. Putting their words into a visual. From the song artist's thoughts, to my interpretation, into a photo. I love that idea.

Constructed Identity Photos: This was interpreted by the class how i thought it would be. Someone mentioned that the little bit of text with each photo helped clarify the concept and why I chose to construct these certain identities. It is also a relatable as an internal conflict for some others in the class. A jumping point would be to continue to construct all kinds of identities, but go outside of myself and explore foreign identities. Act as a certain identity for a week and document it. You could go as far as literally changing your life style for a period of time and documenting it.

Gathered Around The Dinner Table: This was a favorite of my final photos. People interpreted the image as characters around the table, it took a quick moment for them to realize all four characters were me. A way to improve the photo would be spend more time looking like my dad, also not having moved the camera toward the end of the shoot. then I wouldn't have had to resize and place the cut out of my mom onto the layers. It would have been a touch more realistic. But this would be a fun series to continue-to dress and act like different people.

Blog Prompt Week 6 #25

25. Expanding and improving final project: Brainstorming

1.What is the “opposite” of your final project? How can you rework your project to include the “opposite”?

                        The opposite of my project would be the start of life, a beginning. This doesnt seem as interesting because there is only one way to come into the world...but it makes me think phiosophically about what life is, chance and fate, etc. I guess everyone comes into the world in the same way, but the circumstances and stories families have to share about birthdays are all very unique.


2.  Type twenty words or phrases that relate to your project.
                       despair, peace, confusion, anxiety, calm, regret, surprise, shock, helpless, hopeless, hurt, complex, beautiful, time, place, outside, sun, confused, realization, inner peace, coming to terms, beautiful life


3. At the deepest core why do you like this project?
                      I'm kind of changing my min slightly about the project. I like the idea about the evolving self, a person is always changing and developing themselves in some way. I'd like to represent an inner battle and overcoming it, realizing you will get through things and life will go on and there is purpose, if anything to enjoy your surroundings. This probably doesn't make sense but I think no matter how you die, when it happens, if you feel happy and at peace with yourself it will will be pleasant. Not in all circumstances, but that might be my focus.  Or overcoming a personal emotional battle, not through straight narrative but representing it through body language and nature. I don't know. lol I like this project because it helps me visualize my thoughts and experiences with emotional struggles and evolving who I am and moving forward.


4. Remove something from your project. How does it change?
                     If I removed the idea of death it would change because it wouldn't be so foreign and unknown. I would know the emotions I am portraying. With death involved it is some guessing.


5. An artist who would like my project is Allyson Klutenkamper, her concepts actually inspired me to alter my project from focusing on the seconds before death, to more of thinking about death while you are still living and dealing with emotional struggles. But she would like it probably because she'd know she inspired it.


6. List assumptions about your project: Assumptions are that the viewer will have an idea about what the photos are about because our class has been sharing our work with each other.   So I have to assume that they don't and I want the images to work strongly alone, but at the same time work cohesively together.


7.  Expanding the project: Ahhh i'd love to have two people help me and money new lens and lighting! But somebody I could pay to help me so they take it seriously and try their best to help convey the project.


8. Contract the project: It is pretty much contracted right now. I'm thankful my parents have a house I can use that I am familiar with. If I didn't have the house as a setting I would have to use someone else's, convenience would be the primary downside.


9. What would your project look like 100 year ago?
            Probably very similar but the dress would be different and a pool would not be involved, it would probably be a lake. 


10. Persuade the reader the project stinks: The photos are just a girl in a dress in different parts of her house, lounging around, she looks like she has had a boring day.
        Persuading the reader it is the best project ever: You can see her emotions in every photo, from sorrow, sadness, hopelessness, to new hope, purpose, perspective, light.

In class image assignment #17

Historical Photographer: Eikoh Hosoe

http://www.401projects.com/index.php?mode=gallery&section_id=153

Eikoh Hosoe was born in Yonezawa, Yamagata in 1933 and graduated from Tokyo College of Photography in 1951. He has established himself as an internationally acclaimed photographer after his first solo exhibition in 1956. Hosoe's figures have a Surrealist quality that is intimate, while also abtract and strange.  His approach to photography is philosophical. Hosoe believes that photography can be a record and a mirror of self-expression.

To describe Hosoe's work, Yukio Mishima said, "God is dead, and naked human beings face the world shamelessly and without pride."

A Private Landscape, 1971

Ordeal by Roses, 1961

Butoh Dancer, 1972

Semi-Contemporary Photographer: Arthur Tress

http://www.arthurtress.com/

      Arthur Tress was born 1940 in Brooklyn, NY.  He attended Bard College where he studied painting, art history, and world philosophy. Between 1958 and 1962 he started making short picture films and continued his interest in photography.  He moved to Paris in 1962 to attend film school.  His first work was primarily documentary, in a slightly surrealistic style in urban environments. Through these years he traveled through Europe, Egypt, Mexico, Japan, and India, documenting cultures and customs.
      In 1968 he returned to New York to become a professional photographer. He began posing young people in fantasy scenes recalling childhood dreams in his series, Dream Collector. He also created homoerotic photographs of nude males around the coast of California in his series, Male Nudes.
      He changed his subject matter in the early 1980s when he began photographing arranged still-lifes, first with one or two man made objects in natural scenes, then progressing to complex constructions that evoked emotional reactions.  He also created sculptures by modifying and painting objects found in hospitals, and documented this through photographs. In other works he made up fantasy stories, and told the stories in a series of still lifes. His more recent and constructed photographs can be found on his website through the above link.

From The Dream Collector Series

Flood Dream, Ocean City, New Jersey, 1971

The Boys from New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1980

Boot Fantasy, New York, 1979

Recreation 05



My Recreation





Love, Beauty, Death Series, by Rommert Boonstra

 http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/boonstra/article.html



     In the above link, Boonstra stated that his photography deals with things you see out of the corner of your eye, things that disappear when you look straight at them, and things that turn out to be something else when you stare at them more closely. I think the photo above supports this idea. It takes a moment to realize that what is in the palm of a hand is the top to a strarberry. We are not used to seeing a strawberry from this perspective, or pay close attention to the detail and colors on the inside of a strawberry. He has made an interesting composition out of something almost everyone eats. That the strawberry top is in the palm of hand, on top of orange and yellow netting, makes the strawberry top very delicate, precious, and for display. It tricks the viewers mind at first.

     I mimicked Boonstra's photo, but used a blueberry cut cleanly in half for my receation. The detail of the blueberry is interesting and makes a beautiful natural design.

Assignment 4: Popular Culture

*Idea recreated from Go Green USA postage stamps

Written Statement Part I:

    

     I am going to write about these photos all together, because I decided my final images would be from one prompt and create a series. I got the idea from postage stamps I bought a bit ago that promoted a green lifestyle to help keep earth healthy. It was part of the Go Green USA campaign. Each stamp gave a tip on how to reduce our environmental footprint. The goal of the stamps was to show how much one person can do to make a positive impact on the environment, and they are pretty easy adjustments to your lifestyle. I recreated this idea and brought the cartoon post stamps to life. I thought text was necessary within the photo to make the concept more clear. I also played with the hue and saturation of the photos to make them more green and have a more similar color palate. The images are about helping the environment. I think this is a strong subject in art right now, or at least it was not very long ago. The artists I know do a good job at living an environmentally friendly lifestyle by reusing a lot and finding objects or ideas among peoples trash, or unwanted items. That is so important. I've met people from other countries who say the poor man in America is a rich man in their country. That is extreme, but I see what is meant by this because so much is wasted and thrown away. That is one thing I have learned through art classes at MSU. You can find a use for almost anything. I've gone off topic but maybe that can be a jumping off point-to dig through trash and create things through others unwanted items and document it. 

The idea comes across strong for these photos, it would have been nice to have a model to pose for the walking photo and the turn off the lights photo. I probably would have put a figure in the recycle and laundry photo.  

     I didn't do a part II because I wasn't in class for this critique, but in part I I briefly explained a jump off point for the project and some negative and positive parts of the final images. 

Blog Prompts Week 5 #22-24

22. Wow that's pretty incredible work. I love his ideas and seeing the behind the scenes team and how much effort, work, work and time it takes. I'm a bit confused about it though. I don't understand what the difference is between a 3d team and a regular set design team is so I will have to re watch the video and look further into it.

23. Construction: We construct our identity whether we know it or not...at least idea because i always strive to e like someone, instead of just focusing on myself. Personal and social environments are constructed through human interaction and influence on each other and people with money. In my life, what is real is my relationship with my closest friends and family. What is fake is facebook. That is the first thing that came to mind at least.  An idea for a miniature still life would be to create a mini home, like the size of a doll house, maybe a little bigger. But I would love to design a mini dream house. I enjoy architecture and set design.

24. the plan for the self purposed project is about evolving self and working through emotions. A search for inner peace and happiness. The beginning photos will show how far away that seems, by the end they will seem peaceful. there will not be an event that makes this happen it is the inner workings of the subjects mind that are being visually represented.

Historical Photographer: George Hoyningen-Huene

http://www.staleywise.com/collection/huene/huene.html

George Hoyningen-Huene was born in St Petersburg in 1900. He was one of the greatest fashion photographers in the 1920s and 30s. He moved to Paris in 1920 and began work as a fashion draftsman, publishing his work in Harper's Bazaar and Fairchild's magazine. In 1925 he became the chief photographer for French Vogue. He moved to New York in 1935 to work exclusively for Harper's Bazaar. He published two picture books, Hellas and Egypt, and shortly after moved to Hollywood where he became involved in the motion picture industry and photographing celebrities.

Broadtail Coat, 1935

Lelong Bathing Suits, 1929

Divers,1930

Lee Miller

Semi-Contemporary Photographer: Laurie Simmons

http://www.lauriesimmons.net/photographs

    
      Laurie Simmons is a New York based artist. She has an international reputation as one of the leading artists to emerge from the new york picture generation during the 1970s and 80s. In 1975 Laurie began photographing her dolls in black and white scenarios. The results were intricate alter-realities and people were amazed by the realism. As the viewer looks at the photos, they almost mistake the photos for real spaces. Simmon's was struck by the camera's ability to lie.
    
     In the series Early Black and White Interiors (1978-79), she uses doll furniture, props, and subjects to convey a psuedo reality.  She uses dated wallpaper and domestic objects that came from a previous generation. Simmon's lived as a self-identified hippie and was a part of a movement to deconstruct and question the domestic and social formalism that symbolized 1950's suburban America. It is noticable through this series of photographs, the reference to memory and youth, specifically the childhood associated with 1950s popular culture, which is that of her own. Her work was unique from other artist of the same movement because of her manipulation of the miniature objects that gave a dream like qulaity that isolated the images from the documentary aesthetic other artists were tryiing to achieve.

    
     The Love Doll: Days 1-30 is a more recent series of work (2009-11).  She uses a customized love doll from Japan. It is designed as a surrogate sex partner and arrived to Simmons in a crate accompanied by female genitalia and an angagement ring.  Simmons documented her life with the human scaled girl in chronological order by series of actions. The photos show the relationship between the doll and Simmons. The relationship starts shy and formal, and with time their is an increase in familiartity and comfort level.  Simmon's created a lifesize dollhouse for the doll, and explores adult fetishes and fantasies as well as a sense of desire and regret.

Recreation 04

Recreation

Original Nike Advertisement

This Nike ad is more about a woman's body than the nike apparel itself. Women's self worth and comfort in your skin, as well as health in general, is a trend in popular media. The message is saying, appreciate your body and how it has developed. It is empowering women to exercise and be confident with their bodies. I copied the ad using the same body parts in high contrast against a white background. My body, that I used in the recreation, isn't nearly as toned as the Nike models. It would be empowering to have many women do a series of their body and give their athletic background for each body part photographed. Nike has great advertisements.

Assignment 3: Place

Untitled I

Untitled II

Untitled III

Part I

Untitled I:  The composition is outside of Sexton school in Lansing. It is natural lighting and the fence rail is supposed to lead you into the scene. It has an urban feel to it and the viewer can tell the place is unkept and overgrown. I think the fence is the strongest part of the composition. I like documenting urban places that are worn down and not picture perfect. It makes for a beautiful and interesting composition. It may be ironic but the most beautiful, well kept, wealthy areas are so pleasing to my eye in person, but photographed, can sometimes be boring or lack character. Whereas I would not particularly want to live in a place like the one photographed, but it creates a more beautiful and captivating photo than one of the suburbs. The method for this photo was observing me environment and exploring parts of lansing I had never been too, then working with different angles and with the setting sun to get an interesting composition.

Untitled II: This photo I took in passing at Eastern High School in Lansing and it ended up being my favorite.  I can't tell what the room is used for, maybe a variety of things or a debate class, or meeting room. I like that you can see on the far wall it says the name of the high school and the American flag is on the wall.  The repetition of lights and chairs are interesting and the natural light coming in the rows of windows makes it strong.  I took the photo through a glass window so you can see a light reflection of ceiling arches in the upper right hand corner. That adds an extra layer of interest. This photo is a document of schools in Lansing and the environment students are being taught in. This photo is not supposed to have a negative or positive shadow, just a documentation. 

Untitled III:  The concept of this photo is much stronger than the composition.  I wanted to show the halls of eastern lansing high school as prison like, and document the environment students go to school to learn in. The goal was to show the help this school needs to encourage students to attend and help them succeed, but after taking the photos I think you have to be their in person to get the idea. Or I would have had to have complete access to all rooms in the school and be allowed to photograph the students. That would have been much more interesting. The lighting wasn't very good in the hallway so the focus is pretty blurry. I intentionally included the lock in the left bottom corner to make the photo seem less inviting. So for this photo the photographer, myself, chose what was in the photo and what wasn't. In away the documentation was constructed because I chose what to focus on in the photo.

Part II

Untitled I: Not many comments on this photo, classmates liked the design and texture the fence makes and the focus point. I would love to take more photos like this, documenting places I have never been before and places people live that I am unfamiliar with. Urban landscape is probably one of my favorite things photographed. 

Untitled II: Others interpreted this photo as a classroom, patriotic, and an old building, possibly taken in the past.  The lighting, reflection, and repetition are working in this photo. A jumping point for this photo is to take more photos of rooms or places behind closed doors. Whether it is to capture the reflection created in the image or imitate a forbidden or inaccessible room/place.  

Untitled III:  Others interpreted this image as an uninviting school but agreed it would have been better to take more pictures and maybe have students in the photo.  What is working in the photo is the vantage point makes it interesting, what is not working is primarily the out of focus. The improvement I would make is to have taken this photo on a tripod.  I would love to do this project again and be able to have full access to the school rooms and be able to photograph the students. It would be very interesting and I think I'd learn a lot from it.