reading #8

Why didn’t we START with this reading? The irony of it being my last reading and one of my last assignments of undergrad…

While I feel so incredibly fortunate for the education I have received these past four and half years at Tyler, I definitely agree with some of the things that made this list. This semester I’ve particularly struggled with having a balanced life. I spent countless late nights in the semester and when I wasn’t in the studio I was at work. I feel myself desperate to be done with classes so that I can have a regular sleep schedule again. I also feel like my personal life has suffered from not having free time to stay connected with friends. While I am proud of all the things I’ve accomplished this semester, balance really is important. My friends are a huge part of who I am and what keeps me inspired. I’m hoping to find a better balance of work and play post graduating. I don't want either to overtake the other.

           

Another part of the list that makes me nervous entering the “real world,” are knowing how to market myself and business practices in general. I’ve spent so much time in the bubble of art school concerned with creating and pushing concepts that I have no practice in business etiquette. I have no clue how to prepare for an interview or go about finding photography jobs. I’m terrified that I will end up not working in the field of photography.

Since I'm finishing school this week I guess I just have to hold on to hope that I actual know more than I think.....

reading #7

This reading was by far my favorite of the semester and the most relevant to my own artistic vision. In the last year or so, my work has moved further from representation and more to abstraction. I want my work to focus more on the spiritual and emotional aspects of reality that I can’t put into words, so I make them into images. While I find my images rewarding for myself, it’s hard for people outside of the art world to appreciate them because of the problems Lyle Rexer mentions in, The Edge of Vision. People instinctively want to make something of what they see and know how and why it’s made. My goal is the complete opposite of that. My thesis work is a great example of this. I feel like once people know that the images are ink and food coloring they’re satisfied, but they end up completely missing the interaction I want them to have with the images. Abstraction asks the viewer to rely more on their emotional response to the work than purely analytical.

reading #6

John Szarkowski makes several interesting points in the introduction to his book, Photographer’s Eye. I particularly liked his take on the photographic frame and how the frame is selected and not conceived. The choice of what to include or exclude is a key element in the meaning of a photograph. He argues that reality extends out in four directions and therefore photographs are not merely realistic representations. This way of thinking of photographs, even ones traditionally considered representational, is quite intriguing. It puts an emphasis on the decisions of the photographer as a creator rather than as a documenter.

            Another part of image making has to do with time. I’ve always been an admirer of Cartier-Bresson who coined the decisive moment. So much of photography relies on time. The time the photographer decides to press the shutter and capture the image, but also how much time is recorded. Each image was made in the present but as soon as it’s made it becomes a part of the past. The image becomes the remembered reality of the present in which it was made.

            Lastly, I found his argument that “an artist is a man who seeks new structures in which to order and simplify his sense of the reality of life,” to be his most compelling point. This has always been the way I’ve used photography: to make sense of my reality. It’s ironic that he uses this as a basis for an artist since I still struggle with calling myself that even at the end of four years at a fine art school.

2014 Calendar

For my self-directed lighting final I decided to just have fun. I took my friends into the studio, dressed them up and tried to capture each month in a single image. I wanted to have fun for my last undergrad project, but also make nice images. But really.. I'm hysterical.

festive photos

Here's some seasonal photos! Happy Halloween!

table top

Since midterm we've moved away from people for a bit and to the table top! ooooohhh pretty.....

lighting midterm

Here's my people images for midterm!