The Ordover Gallery: The San Diego Natural History Museum

The exhibit "Photography at the Poles" was my favorite one of the three that we were to go see. My favorite pictures to take are of the outdoors, in secluded territories, and when you are able to photograph such interesting animal life, it really adds to the images. My favorite pictures in the gallery did not include wildlife within the image, they were more architectural creations in nature. The pieces were by Bill Atkinson and were titled "Blue Wall" and "Ice Floe." Like the image I chose at the Museum of Photographic Arts, I felt these pieces created a certain mood that was not as apparent in the other photographs. I would love to be able to take a trip to such a secluded area, especially one like the poles where the colors are so unique to that type of climate. Polar photography seems to be able to capture a certain color of blue that you can not see anywhere else.

The Museum of Photographic Arts

I was able to go down to Balboa park this past Sunday, and explored The Museum of Photographic Arts, a museum that I have not previously visited. I saw a lot of great images, but the one that caught my attention the most was called "Ariel view: Downed trees - 8 miles NW of Mt. St. Helens, Washington," by Frank Gohlke; 1981. I really liked the mood of the piece, it was absent of people, and just showed this entire mountainside that had been obliterated by the eruption. I liked looking at many of the other pieces but this was the only one that created the feeling that I like in a picture.

Cannon Art Gallery

I just got back from the Cannon Art Gallery in Carlsbad. I have been there several times before, but it is a very nice gallery to see again. I missed the photography exhibit, but the paintings/mixed media that were on display were very impressive. My favorite pieces were those done by Sandra Sallin, which were graphite on strathmore. The were simple, but very clean images of white roses against a black background. The roses were drawn to a larger scale than they would normally grow, and this created a very interesting composition. Her pieces seemed to be the closest to the type of pictures that I like to take.

Digital Arts Competition

Below are the images I submitted to the digital arts competition at the school. All three were printed to a 9x18 inch size. The one in the middle won one of the three first prizes.

Diane Willow

I enjoyed the presentation by the visiting artist Diane Willow. I really liked how she was using very advanced technology to create her pieces. She would use motion sensors to follow the visitors in her installations, touch sensitive technology to activate certain machinery in others, and she even raised her own bio-luminescent plankton and set it's schedule to the opposite of normal; this way visitors in the day could see the plankton illuminate on their natural clock which is typically at night. I also liked the metal rocking chair type sculpture, in which it was a large metal spiral, with two seats that sat next to each other, but with the person's heads sitting on opposite ends, so they could carry a conversation if they so chose. Her work wasn't primarily of a sort that was easily relatable to what we do in our class, but she did go over some of her process that I think we were all able to relate to in some way. Sometimes she had an idea that was thought up before construction, and sometimes she had the material she wanted to use, and the project was born out of that. Overall it was an enjoyable presentation.

Jim Brandenburg

After last week I thought I enjoyed Richard Misratch's photography the most out of the artists we have viewed; and then we watched the biography on Jim Brandenburg. I really enjoyed the video on his book and hearing his process of taking several of the photos in his 90 day endeavor. The discipline that he showed in limiting himself to one photograph a day is unbelievable. I can't imagine trying to take an interesting photograph everyday, but only allowing yourself one exposure. As far as content goes, the type of photographs he took are the kind that I enjoy looking at the most, and also the kind that I strive to take when I am out taking pictures. I love to go out to the desert or the mountains and take pictures of the environment with no people around. I've always wanted to be able to take photographs of wildlife, but it is hard to encounter them on your schedule; It took Jim Brandenburg living in the wilderness for a number of years before the wolf population in the area started to trust him enough to come close so he could photograph them. I would really like to see more on this artist and hope to be able to get his book.

Richard Misrach

Up to this point in the class, this is the photographer whose pictures I like the most, and whose work I feel I can relate to the most. My favorites were of the nighttime images with unusual lighting on the subject. I like the dreamlike qualities that were apparent in his images. They were simple, but beautiful. All of his images seemed to communicate a kind of solitude that I seem to identify with. It seems like he is going to these places and spending a couple days there alone taking pictures. Most of his work seemed to be in the outdoors which is what I prefer to photograph, and with the exception of a few images, they were absent of people. I have never been one to photograph people, I'd rather interact with nature in my photographs. Overall I like the fact that he was taking images of real-life places, and through his photographic process, giving them a fantasy/dreamlike quality.

First Panoramic Image

Sally Mann

I have seen this video on Sally Mann once before, and even after viewing it this second time, I'm still unsure of what to think of her. I admire that she takes pictures because she enjoys it, and that there is not an intentional greater meaning that she is trying to communicate. She took pictures of dog bones because she took one and liked it, so she decided to take more; in her mind she is taking pictures because it is what she enjoys doing. I suppose how someone feels about her can be attributed to the culture that the viewer was raised in. It is hard for me to imagine taking pictures of my children like that in today's times because of all of the potentially negative things that might happen. But if I try to put myself in the context of where she is living, and how she was raised, then I understand her mindset behind the photographs; they were her children and they were nearby, so using them as a subject in her work was a no-brainer. I disagree with her daughter in that I believe the pictures of the immediate family is what she will be remembered for most; but I did enjoy looking at her landscape photographs, and the process behind creating them. I think it's admirable in today's digital times that she continues to take pictures using older methods, especially the collodion prints. It seems like it would be very fun to try and make prints in this manner, and I like her outlook of hoping she doesn't screw up completely, but maybe just a little bit to make it more interesting; this outlook just speaks more to her making these images for fun. Controversy or no controversy, her pictures are beautiful compositions that I enjoy looking at.

Collier Schorr

I thought it was interesting how Collier Schorr immersed herself into her subjects in order to photograph them. She wanted a strong relationship to form between the subject and the viewer, and for this she created a strong relationship between herself and the subject. She built a relationship over several years with a family in Germany, and used the sons in her work. She would have them portray soldiers, both German and American. These were not to show just a German Soldier or an American Soldier,, but what was beneath; the person. When she was photographing the wrestlers, she spoke of how she had a friend who was a wrestler, and how they spent hours discussing only wrestling. She would ask questions about things that were second nature to a wrestler, but that she needed to know for her work. She was so involved with her work that while she was photographing, you could see someone get body slammed almost into her; it seemed like she just enters a zone where all she sees is what is through her eyepiece. It was also interesting how she said she wanted to explore life, and explore what it would have been like to have been born a boy; so through her work, she was doing this. She was capturing moments of male adolescence that intrigued her because they were foreign to her.

Roni Horn

Roni Horn does very interesting work. I enjoyed the images of water the most because I feel they are closest to what I look to do. I like to show images of objects that most people do not "see" anymore because they are exposed to them so much. But if you take a snapshot of these objects, it forces the viewer to look at them in a different way than they normally would. What was really interesting about her work is that context plays a large role in the viewing and interpretation of the image. They are not just images that get placed in a portfolio book, they are placed in locations that contribute to the interpretation of the image. The images of the water were placed along the hallways and classrooms of a university. This relationship between the water and the students made you not only view the water differently, but also how you viewed the students. Her series of photographs of the clown were placed in a confined space inside of an old bank. Because her work is placed in such uncommon places, it forces you to take the context of the work into account as you view it. The series in which she places the images in freestanding class frames was also great to look at. Because the frames were arranged in a non-uniform manner at different angles, the reflection of one image would be shown superimposed onto another; this would change as the camera, or the viewer moved around the room. So you can see the same image from multiple angles, but because of these reflections, it is almost like you are seeing different images.

Stefan Sagmeister

The main aspect of the segment on Stefan Sagmeister that stood out to me was the album cover in which an intern carved hand-lettering into the skin of Stefan himself. This type of dedication to your work extremely admirable. To me, the usage of hand-lettering brings a humanistic feeling to the piece it is applied to. I think this goes well with album covers in which you want the listener to connect with the artist, and the album cover can help push someone to buy an album. I also agree when he mentioned if he gets a flyer with a small helvetica title and little logo on it, that he is actually turned away from wanting to read it, because it will bore him; I am the same way with flyers and advertisements, if they don't instantly get my attention, then I have no desire to read what they are advertising. I think this has more to do with taste rather than one design being more correct then the other. If the person who created that corporate flyer with the little logo on it saw a piece by David Carson, they would probably have no desire to read that either. However I think some of the pieces by Stefan Sagmeister are able to bridge this gap because on the one hand, they appeal to the so called "grunge" audience, but his work is so interesting and unique that I'm not sure anyone could ignore it.

David Carson: Part Deux

The second segment about David Carson went into more detail about his thought process for some of his designs. I think the saying "necessity is the mother of invention" pairs well with his work; when explaining the snowboard article he designed, he mentioned how there wasn't enough text to get the look he wanted, so he just repeated the article twice. I don't know how many people would have thought to do that; many might have tride to enlarge the text or abandon the idea entirely, but Carson was able to think outside the box and come up with an effective design for the piece he was creating. The same goes for the article on Lyle Lovett, he let a photograph of his feet become his protrait for the article. Many people get so obsessed with following the usual rules in design, that their creations don't end up standing out like they want, they blend in with the other designs that are already out there. Trying new things can yield great results, as well as unsightly creations; but you won't get either one if you don't at least try.

David Carson

What stuck out to me most about the segment on David Carson we just watched is when he said "Don't confuse legibility with communication." I have seen the rest of the film and there are generally two viewpoints: neatness, order and staying within the lines, and going by feel, if that means breaking the so called rules then that is what you do. Just because you create a design using Helvetica with clean lines and use a grid structure, doesnt' mean that it gets the point across; like David Carson said, it could be the wrong communication. It seems pointless to try and distinguish the "right" style of design, because each design needs to speak a certain message, and the product determines that message, not the designer. I am doing a research paper on Massimo Vignelli for another class, whose work I enjoy; but every time I see more of David Carson's work I kick myself for not choosing his work to write about; not just because of the way his art looks, but because of his mindset behind the creation of it.

Kodak Series

First batch of pictures

Edward Burtynsky

The first thing I thought about when I saw Edward Burtynsky's photographs of the mines and the Three Gorges Dam in China was how those projects have affected my family. Both of my brothers work in construction, and the cost of steel and concrete in America rose dramatically because of the massive scale of the Dam in China; he talked about the footprint that China is leaving on the Earth, and this shows how widespread it can be in many areas. I really liked how the photos of the factories in China came across, the order with which they work and the conduct themselves was very apparent in the photographs. The factory where the cabs were being manufactured showed the massiveness with which they operate. My favorite photographs that he showed were of the tires. I'm not exactly sure why, but seeing this massive pile of tires and having it only be a fraction of what is actually there struck me as very interesting. I would have like to see a photograph from above showing the amount of space these tires took up, I believe he said there were 45 million of them; it's almost incomprehensible.

Links to Remember

Texture King - http://www.textureking.com/

James Nachtwey Response

Both the Speech and the images by Mr. Nachtwey were very powerful. While the content of many of his photos was very disturbing, I couldn't help but think at just how beautiful they still were. One of them that struck me the most was the one in which I believe was taken in Afghanistan, and was of several women in full covering black clothing; but what stuck out was a single bare hand visible amongst the black fabric, and the vivid blue sky. I was very drawn to the reality of his images, it is a reality that most would choose to ignore or to run from, but Mr. Nachtwey chooses to run towards this reality in order to bring it to those who would otherwise disregard it. His photographs had a way of communicating with the viewer; when I see these photos of people in pain or in extraordinary situations, I am forced to create a connection with the subject, they are no longer some person in a distant place, I can relate to them as a person. I can't even imagine what Mr. Nachtwey must have felt as he was viewing these events in person if I can have such a strong reaction to seeing the photographs. It seems to me that not many people would be able to see that kind of turmoil in person, and even fewer would choose to see it over and over again for their entire lives.