Chock full of hoot, just a little bit of nanny

Last week in LB

2010-12-27T02:22:00.000-08:00

"A doodle. I do doodle. You too. You do doodle, too." - Willow
"Answer to Moo? Did that sentence just make some sense that I'm not in on?" - Buffy
Gingerbread, 3.11

My parents came with me today to get the rest of my stuff. I decided to stay to avoid organizing my room in Twentynine. I took a nap, watched some Buffy, and started researching graduate schools. MFA in photography is my mine goal, but American studies programs also fit. I went from 5 to about 10 schools: some in Illinois and New York, UT Austin, Ohio State, and University of Arizona. I need to realistic about where I can actually get into. My work will hopefully be strong enough to disregard my low gpa. For now I will fantasize about living in New York and going to Columbia University. :D

And I'll leave you with a great scene from Easy A:

Another day

2010-12-24T02:28:00.000-08:00

Only slight overreation in yesterday's post. It was finally hitting me that I was actually leaving Long Beach, a place that I actually have grown to like and moving back to the Deuce. It will be better once I have a clear head, which I hope will happen sooner. But I may have the same reaction in a couple days, when I'm back in Long Beach, getting the rest of my stuff, and having to say temporary goodbyes.

On another note, Merry Christmas Eve :) On 4th, maybe 5th viewing of Easy A in 3 days :D

Decemeber 23rd, 2010

"What do you think I have down there? A gnome?" - Olive Penderghast, Easy A

I haven't even completely moved in yet

2010-12-22T23:25:00.001-08:00

and I'm already thinking FML and WTF was I thinking.

-_- <--- Eric face

Decemeber 22, 2010

6.5 years later

2010-12-22T02:55:00.000-08:00

I graduated college and preparing to move home with my parents in 29 Palms aka the Deuce. Yippee? My life is not anywhere I thought it would be when I gradated high school in 2004. I thought would never happen, but I am actually sad about leaving Long Beach. Certain people made my last year of undergrad my best, plus getting into the photography program didn't hurt. :)

What's in my future? Applying to Fine Arts, possible American Studies graduate programs at the end of 2011, beginning of 2012. Not getting stuck in 29 Palms, blogging, taking a shit ton of pictures, and of course being awsome. Beyond March 2011, I don't know what is store for me, but I am looking forward to getting there.

December 21st, 2010

'Do you like my mask ? Isn't it pretty? It raises the dead.' Americans!"- Giles, Dead Mans Party 302

Why I want a bigger Lego collection :)

2009-12-16T06:06:00.000-08:00

Beautiful Lego in Hoth Photos Have Me in Total Awe

2009-12-12T03:29:00.000-08:00

Final Project

2009-12-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

Experimental Final

2009-12-11T23:59:00.000-08:00

Notes

2009-12-11T03:02:00.000-08:00

Test Shots for Project 2

2009-12-11T02:56:00.000-08:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/clarkent/sets/72157622860190075/

Following the Rules

2009-12-06T22:28:00.000-08:00

Image 1: light bulb(s), swan(s), copper mesh scourer
item size: random, placement - quadrant 4, color - group according to color
Swan(s) - All 12

Image 2: vice grip, light bulb(s), terminal set, swan(s)
item size: random, placement - quadrant 2, color - group according to color
Swan(s) 7 - 2 pink, 6 gold, 8 darker pink, 4 purple, 5 dark blue, 7 light green, 3 silver

Image 3: crayons, vice grip, swan(s), copper mesh scourer
item size: biggest to smallest, placement - quadrant 3, color - light to dark
Swans(s) 6 - 10 dark green, 8 darker pink, 7 light green, 4 purple, 2 pink, 6 gold
Crayons 24 in a box 8 crayons - 6 white, 2 apricot, 11 blue violet, 12 red orange, 4 green yellow, 16 yellow, 7 violet red, 14 yellow green, 9 cerulean, 18, blue green
Image 4: light bulb(s), fuse tester, bells, copper mesh scourer
item size: random, placement - random, color - dark to light

Image 5: crayons, vice grip, terminal set
item size: random, placement - quadrant 1, 3. color - light to dark
4 crayons - 10 green, 2 pink, 1 grey, 9 cerulean

Image 6: clothespins, light bulb(s), terminal set, art stones
item size: smallest to biggest, placement - quadrant 3, color - random

Rules for composition ie how/where to place the objects

2009-12-06T21:58:00.000-08:00

item size: biggest to smallest
item size: smallest to biggest
item size: random

    1. placement - quadrant 1
    2. placement - quadrant 2
    3. placement - quadrant 3
    4. placement - quadrant 4
    5. placement - random

color - light to dark
color - dark to light
color - group according to color
color - random

No less than 1 rule per section and every rule must be used at least once
Image 1: 3 rules - 3 4 3    item size: random, placement - quadrant 4, color - group according to color
Image 2: 4 rules - 3 2 3    item size: random, placement - quadrant 2, color - group according to color

Image 3: 2 rules - 1 3 1    item size: biggest to smallest, placement - quadrant 3, color - group according to color

Image 4: 4 rules - 3 5 2    item size: random, placement - random, color - dark to light
Image 5: 2 rules - 3 1 1    item size: random, placement - quadrant 1, 3. color - group according to color

Image 6: 3 rules - 2 3 4    item size: smallest to biggest, placement - quadrant 3,  color - random

2009-12-06T21:23:00.000-08:00

Image 1: light bulb(s), swan(s), copper mesh scourer

Image 2: vice grip, light bulb(s), terminal set, swan(s)

Image 3: crayons, vice grip, swan(s), copper mesh scourer

Image 4: light bulb(s), fuse tester, bells, copper mesh scourer

Image 5: crayons, vice grip, terminal set

Image 6: clothespins, light bulb(s), terminal set, art stones

Rules

2009-12-06T21:16:00.000-08:00

6 images made from 10 objects
The object cost less than $1.00, no more than 3 can cost more than $5.00
No less than 3 and no more than 8 objects in an image
Objects:

clothespins
crayons
grip
light bulbs
terminal set
fuse tester
art stones
bells
swans
copper mesh scourcers

Using chance by roll of dice to choose the objects and roll dice the number of times it states so if there is a repeat of a number it still counts as a roll: http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/maths/dice/

Image 1

rolled a 3

objects 4, 9, 10

Image 2

rolled a 7

objects 3,4,5 and 9

Image 3

rolled a 6

3
2
2
9
10
2(or 7)

object 2, 3, 9, 10

Image 4

rolled a 4

objects 4, 8, 10 and 6

Image 5

rolled a 5

objects 2, 3, 5

Image 6

rolled an 8

Objects 1, 4, 5, and 7

While rolling the only number not pop up was a 6. So I used a six-sided die to determine which image(s) would get item 6. Rolled a 4 so image 4 gets item 6.

For people with iPhones

2009-12-06T19:22:00.001-08:00

Search Results for Adolf Hitler on Life.com

2009-12-02T17:34:00.000-08:00

What does not belong?

Gilles Barbier

2009-11-30T02:40:00.000-08:00

The hospice 2002

Mixed media, sound and television (live shows), Various sizes

Details:

http://www.documentsdartistes.org/artistes/barbier/repro2.html

Carl Kleiner

2009-11-22T04:43:00.000-08:00

Carl Kleiner
3 of his series that I enjoy

Sex

Kaleido / 01

Pressure / 1

Project 2: Following the Rules

2009-11-22T03:47:00.000-08:00

Project Description: Setting up objects for the camera that is dictated by a set of rules.

Conceptual Concerns: Find a new way to create art objects

Technical Skills Covered: Color Correction

Formal Guidelines:

Quantity: 6 images
Final presentation format: 20 x 30 color digital prints

Artistic References: Carl Kleiner
Grade: How successful the project is

The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise

2009-11-20T02:59:00.000-08:00

I just got this book from the library. I've only thumbed through it so far. I am becoming more invested in learning about the history and present contributions of African Americans in photography.

In 1911 Addison Scurlock opened a photography studio in Washington, D.C., and went on to chronicle the aspirations and ambitions of the black community into the 1990s. Later joined by his sons, Robert and George, themselves all part of the rising middle class of segregated Washington, Scurlock recorded the finer moments of black life—portraits of wealth and comfort, celebrations of marriages and new homes, political and social achievements. As the city changed and grew, with the black population swelling, the Scurlocks chronicled the growth and later decline of black businesses, the change from a middle class forced to develop its own institutions within a segregated society to an influx of poor migrants from the South with less connection to those institutions, and the social and political tumult wrought by the civil rights movement. Photographs include the famous (Marian Anderson, Duke Ellington, Ralph Bunche, W. E. B. DuBois, and Muhammad Ali) as well as the influential but perhaps less well known (business owners, churchgoers, civic leaders, members of high society). With more than 100 images, this book is a proud celebration of a vibrant community from the early to the late twentieth century. --Vanessa Bush

Biography:

Born in Fayetteville, N.C., he graduated from high school there, and in 1900, moved with his family to Washington, D.C. Young Scurlock began his career as a photographer as an apprentice to Moses P. Rice, who had studios on Pennsylvania Avenue. By 1904, he learned the basics of photographic portraiture and the entire range of laboratory work. That same year, he started his own business at his parents’ home on Florida Avenue.

He photographed students at Howard University, M Street, Armstrong high schools, Black universities, and high schools throughout the South. In 1907, he won a gold medal for photography at the Jamestown Exposition. He opened the Scurlock Studio in the African-American community’s theater district in 1911, and concentrated on portraiture and general photography. His clients included brides, successful people, politicians and presidents, convention guests, and socialites. A 1976 Washington Post article by Jacqueline Trescott read, "For years one of the marks of arriving socially in black Washington was to have your portrait hanging in Scurlock’s window."

In addition to studio portraits, he mastered the use of the panoramic camera and shot conventions, banquets, and graduations. By the 1920s, he had earned a national reputation. He was the official photographer of Howard University until his death in 1964, and he recorded all aspects of university life.

Scurlock also produced a series of portraits of African-American leaders that historian Carter G. Woodson distributed to African-American schools nationwide. One of his most significant photographs was that of Marion Anderson singing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. A famous story told about him is that while shooting President Coolidge with the Dunbar Cadet Corp on the White House Lawn, he walked up to the president and moved him to another position for the sake of a better picture, much to the dismay of the Secret Service.

Scurlock and his wife, Mamie Estelle, lived just a few blocks from the studio with their four sons — Addison, Robert, George, and Walter. Mamie served as the studio’s business manager. From 1948 until 1952, Robert and George managed the Capital School of Photography. Among their students were future Washington Post photographers and a young Jacqueline Bouvier who became the wife of John Kennedy.

As founder of the Scurlock Photographic Studio, he took portraits of such notables as educators Booker T. Washington and Mary McLeod Bethune, composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, engineer Archie Alexander, political leader W.E.B. DuBois, former first lady Mamie Eisenhower, singer Billy Eckstine, physician Charles R. Drew, opera singer Madame Lillian Evanti, and poet Sterling Brown while documenting key moments in Washington, D.C. history. In 1964, Robert bought the Scurlock studio from his father and purchased a studio on Connecticut Avenue.

The Connecticut Avenue studio closed in the early 1970s and the 9th Street studio was demolished in 1983 for the Metro system. Addison Scurlock died on December 16, 1964 at the age of 81.

Addison Scurlock

Exhibition

Portraits of a City

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Scenes from the Past

My Experimental Project

2009-11-16T22:54:00.000-08:00

Inspiration ... what I like and/or obsessed with

2009-11-16T04:26:00.000-08:00

29 Palms
Battlestar Galactica
Bear McCreary
Breaking Bad
Call of Duty/video games/ps3
Deborah Willis
Dexter
Dystopian societies - 1984, etc
DOMO!
HD quality
Horror movies
Joss Whedon
Photography and art
Pixar movies
Quentin Tarantino
Rx Bandits
Science Fiction - including Star Trek
Ska!!
TV and Film

2009-11-15T05:23:00.000-08:00

Fun with Peanuts

2009-11-07T03:46:00.000-08:00

Mr. Blue, Mr. Blonde, Mr. White, Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink, Mr. Brown

Carrie Mae Weems - The Kitchen Table Series

2009-11-06T13:53:00.000-08:00

A simple kitchen table and an overhead lamp serve as the setting for the mother-daughter drama played out in Carrie Mae Weems’s untitled triptych. These pictures form a chapter of her larger Kitchen Table Series, a cinematic grouping of twenty photographs that stars the artist in an invented love story that revolves around a woman’s identity in relation to her male partner and child. Weems, known for her sometimes biting use of humor, employs narrative structures, a choreographed cast of props and characters, and a variety of media to explore and explode stereotypes of race and gender. Her resulting photographs, videos, and installations usually reconfigure old photographs, sculptures, and artifacts that comprise the physical record of African American culture in order to make new works that comment on racism and difficult topics seldom addressed in mainstream media.

Carrie Mae Weems was born in Portland, Oregon in 1953. She received her BA from the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia (1981), her MFA from the University of California, San Diego (1984), and studied in the Graduate Program in Folklore at the University of California at Berkeley (1984-87). Since then Weems has been active as a teacher and an artist, and is the recipient of numerous fellowships and residencies. Weems’s photographs have been exhibited in one-person exhibitions at the Dakar Biennia, Dakar, Senegal; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

http://www.nathanielturner.com/carriemaeweems.htm
http://www.jackshainman.com/dynamic/exhibit_artist.asp?ExhibitID=89
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/carrie-mae-weems/
http://video.pbs.org/video/1281748949/

40th Anniversary of Sesame Street

2009-11-05T05:13:00.001-08:00

New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape

2009-11-01T23:52:00.000-08:00

October 25, 2009–January 3, 2010 @ LACMA

LINK

Artists led talks through the exhibit on Sunday at 2. You have to get there around 1 to get the ticket. There were only 40 available today, but I was still able to walk through :)

November 8 - Amir Zaki
November 15 - Peter Holzhauer
November 22 - Shannon Ebner
December 6 - Kin Stringfellow
December 13 - Catherine Opie

Exhibition Symposium: Saturday, November 7 @ 11am .... This Saturday

What's at Stake? New Topographics: Photography and the Man-Altered Landscape

This program investigates the issue of restaging the groundbreaking 1975 exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man Altered Landscape with regard to curatorial practice, urbanism, evironmentalism, and architecture. $5 with student ID

Artists: Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel, Jr.

Robert Adams

Lewis Baltz

Bernd and Hilla Becher

Joe Deal

Frank Gohlke

Nicholas Nixon

John Schott

Stephen Shore

Henry Wessel, Jr.

Changed my layout

2009-11-01T22:51:00.000-08:00

I have to re add all my links

Art:21 - An-My Le http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/le/index.html
Charlie White http://www.charliewhite.info/
Digital Photography Review http://dpreview.com/
Ed Ruscha
Engadget
Facebook
faukzilla
Fecal Face
Fine Arts - UT @ Austin
George Eastman House - Photography Collections Online: http://www.geh.org/
Gizmodo
Grad Program @ UT Austin
James Nachtwey
Mark Ruwedel
Museum of Contemporary Photography (MOCP)
Notebook Review
Photoshop Contest @ Gizmodo
Scott McFarland
Shirt.Woot
SprayGraphic
Wim Wenders

Image collections for Project 1

2009-11-01T21:43:00.000-08:00

Images that I did not use:

2009-11-01T21:29:00.000-08:00

Uncorrected:

Corrected:

2009-11-01T21:08:00.000-08:00

Uncorrected:

Corrected:

2009-11-01T20:52:00.000-08:00

Uncorrected:

Corrected:

Artist-Led Exhibition Walkthroughs: New Topographics - Mark Ruwedel

2009-10-30T00:53:00.000-07:00

Artist-Led Exhibition Walkthroughs: New Topographics

Sunday, November 1 @ 2:00 pm

Join artist Mark Ruwedel for a fresh perspective on the exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape.

BCAM Level 2
Free with paid admission, tickets required
Available one hour before the program

http://lacma.wordpress.com/

Artists on New Topographics, Part I: Mark Ruwedel

October 29, 2009

In honor of our re-staging of New Topographics, we’re doing something special: starting this Sunday and occurring every Sunday through mid-December (except Thanksgiving Weekend), we’ve invited a leading Los Angeles-based photographer to give a tour of the show and share his or her insight into the ways New Topographics opened up possibilities for new photographic engagement with the landscape.
Each Sunday will feature a different photographer. In anticipation of each tour, we’ll whet your appetite here on Unframed with an exclusive interview. First up: Mark Ruwedel. Mark has photographed the topography of the American West for nearly three decades, focusing on nature’s reclamation of the land over time. He has depicted relics of industrial expansion, like abandoned railways, as well as evidence of geological upheaval, such as the impact of prehistoric glaciers. His recent series Westward the Course of Empire surveys the deterioration of the once mighty railroad network forged across the nineteenth-century American landscape.
I recently spoke to Mark about LACMA’s restaging of this important exhibition, which was first seen in 1975 at the George Eastman House of Rochester, New York. The video here offers a sneak peek into Mark’s take on New Topographics, and how it continues to bear influence on photographic practice today, including his own.

An optical illusion the size of a town

2009-10-29T00:10:00.000-07:00

Details: http://gizmodo.com/5392075/dont-adjust-your-tv-set
http://www.varini.org/doshpdv/dos2009/04-09-hd.html
http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2009/10/27/cercle-et-suite-declats/
http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/an_optical_illusion_the_size_of_a_town_15053.asp

Felice Varini

Torture Porn

2009-10-28T04:23:00.000-07:00

Via wikipedia:

The combination of graphic violence and sexually suggestive imagery in some films has been labeled "torture porn" or "gorno"

Google Image Search

Now Playing at Your Local Multiplex: Torture Porn

Just watched an elephant give birth ...

2009-10-22T03:28:00.000-07:00

.... and yes lots of fluid.

I guess I had a productive week.

Sunday

went to Bagnall's. I got two Polaroid Land Camera's and an awesome hasselblad strap. Scanned for BFA. Helped out a friend. Worked on my presentation for Experimental.

Monday

Experimental Presentation on James Turrell. I think it went well. That timer was cruel ... 20mins went past and I was still up there. Finally finished scanning for BFA - 132 scan in all .. format 645 so about 15-16 images per roll and had about 10 rolls

Tuesday

Printed out 4x6 proofs of my scans and was late to class. From digital, went to wood, figured out what my project is going to be. I am going to build a light table, but I think I'd rather make a pinhole camera that is set up for 11x14 paper. Instead of going to Art History (yes, again) I narrowed down half of my images so I had about 60ish. Then narrowed down again to about 25.

Wednesday

Lab day for Experimental, but I had nothing to show him. My project will be the 'Origin of the Peanut People.' I'm trying to not use my hasselblad or digital. I want to use my pinhole camera and polaroid. I spent the time until seminar further editing down my images with help and studying for seminar midtem. I now have 12 images :) Now to color correct, print, talk to Rebecca, Mark, and Kyle, and finish my artist statement ...

Plan for the rest of the weekend

Driving to 29 Palms ... It's been 3 weeks, but It feels like 6
Reshooting a couple things for BFA
Shooting for digital project
Color correcting or at least attempting to
SLEEP
Appointment
Come back on Sunday and do it all over again ...

It's My Birthday :D

2009-10-17T00:14:00.001-07:00

Photos From an Alternative Earth Where Superheroes Existed

2009-10-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

What if Batman were a general for the Allies during World War II? What if Superman helped crush Nazi Germany? Or Spiderman battled alongside US soldiers in the streets of Berlin? Photographer and illustrator Agan Harahap wondered about the same:

Born in 1980 photographer and illustrator Agan Harahap from Jakarta, Indonesia, currently works for music magazine TRAX. His latest photography project called ‘Super Hero’ consists of memorable political and wartime scenes from the mid-20th century featuring beloved superheros like Spiderman or Batman in some interesting and funny positions – true juxtaposition in effect. It’s fun to see Superman standing in the Neuschwanstein Castle.

Agan Harahap Super Hero

Agan Harahap

His Blog

Charlie White - OMG BFF LOL

2009-10-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

BAGNALL'S CAMERA EXPO

2009-10-12T02:05:00.000-07:00

This Sunday, October 18th!!

WEBSITE
Admission is $5
Time; 10:00 am ~ 3:00 pm
The Brookhurst Community Center

2271 W. Crescent Ave., Anaheim, CA 92801

Pro Photo Connection

2009-10-12T02:01:00.000-07:00

Pro Photo Connection, Inc. is a photo specialty store that has been located in Orange County for over 20 years. Our store features a 4000sq. ft. Sales Floor, a full service Photofinishing Department, Rental Department and more.

Phone: 949-250-7073
Address: 17752 Fitch, Irvine, CA 92614

Hours:
M-F 8 AM - 6 PM
Sat. 9 AM - 5 PM
Sun. Closed

WEBSITE Located in Irvine. It's about 5-10 minutes from the Samy's on Bristol in Orange County.

They have really great prices on C-41 processing.
$2.50 for 35mm film
$3.50 for 120 film
$5.00 for 220 film

I normally go to Samy's, but I'm going to start going here now.

October 10th

2009-10-12T01:53:00.000-07:00

I went a Photo Swap Meet on Saturday. I realize after the fact it would have been a great thing to post here.

I got new items to add to my photography arsenal:

Metz Mecablitz 60 CT-4 - Grip-type flash

Polaroid: Land Camera Model 95

Two Hasselblad A16 Backs for 645 images.

Writing an Artist Statement

2009-10-09T05:39:00.000-07:00

Wanted to give some help to those who are applying to the BFA program this semester and need to write an artist statement. I took 499 last fall with Rebecca and she gave us a handout with these guidelines. Oh and avoid using the word CAPTURE.

1. Describe the work itself. Do not try to summarize all of your thoughts on art, the nature of photograph, or why you’re an artist. Be specific.

2. Consider the photographs. What is it that makes them different from the work of other photographers? How do they ask to be considered?

3. Try to speak honestly about your work. Do not try to use unfamiliar language or jargon without researching what the terms mean. Familiarize yourself with the multiple definitions of the worlds that you are using and the different meaning they might convey to others.

4. It may help to begin by writing as much as you can without editing yourself. Follow this by going through your writing to extract the most significant points or phrases.

5. Once you have a preliminary statement: EDIT, EDIT, EDIT. Have someone read your statement and attempt to explain to you what they think you mean.

6. Correct any grammar and punctuation errors. The quality of your writing is important.

7. Avoid quoting dictionary definitions, talking about why you decided to be an artist as a child, and making broad generalizations.

Worlds in a Small Room

2009-10-09T05:13:00.000-07:00

Irving Penn (June 16, 1917 – October 7, 2009)

NPR: Fashion Photographer Irving Penn Dies At 92

President Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-09T04:54:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_nobel_peace

OSLO – President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.

Nobel observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama woke up to the news a little before 6 a.m. EDT. The White House had no immediate comment on the announcement, which took the administration by surprise.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation but recognized initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

2009-10-08T01:39:00.000-07:00

Theaters

Akron Civic, Ohio, 1980

Trylon, New York, 1976

Canton Palace, Ohio, 1980

I'm a habitual self-interlocutor. Around the time I started photographing at the Natural History Museum, one evening I had a near-hallucinatory vision. The question-and- answer session that led up to this vision went something like this: Suppose you shoot a whole movie in a single frame? And the answer: You get a shining screen. Immediately I sprang into action, experimenting toward realizing this vision. Dressed up as a tourist, I walked into a cheap cinema in the East Village with a large-format camera. As soon as the movie started, I fixed the shutter at a wide-open aperture, and two hours later when the movie finished, I clicked the shutter closed. That evening, I developed the film, and the vision exploded behind my eyes.
- Hiroshi Sugimoto

Conceptual Forms

The study of mathematics is thought have begun in ancient India and China. "Zero" and "infinity" were not so much discoveries as human inventions. The notion of length with no width is very curious indeed, the pencil line I draw being only an approximation of an invisible mathematical line. Endeavors in art are also mere approximations, efforts to render visible unseen realms.

Among the notes Marcel Duchamp left in his Green Box are various mathematical notations. The Large Glass attempted to throw projections of the unseen fourth dimension onto our three-dimensional experience, much in the same way that three-dimensional objects cast shadows onto two-dimensional surfaces.

While not wholly subscribing to the post-Renaissance “rational” scientific regard on the natural world, I especially appreciate those eighteenth- and nineteenth-century optical devices and experimental implements that gave visible form to unseen hypotheses. I have photographed suites of "stereometric exemplars" purchased from the West during the Meiji era (1868-1911), now preserved by the University of Tokyo. The mathematical models are sculptural renderings of trigonometric functions; the mechanical models were teaching aids for showing the dynamics of Industrial Revolution-age machinery. Art resides even in things with no artistic intentions.
- Hiroshi Sugimoto

Art:21 - Sugimoto
Sugimoto Hiroshi

Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
September 10 - October 31, 2009
Lightning Fields and two new works based on early negatives of William Henry Fox Talbot
Current Exhibition at Fraenkel Gallery in SF

Charlie White

2009-10-05T03:20:00.000-07:00

Charlie White

Understanding Joshua

Charlie White photographs vulnerability. Using a humanoid puppet he calls "complete fragility manifest in a body," White presents human frailty through a fictional character, much as a novelist might.

As White tells Jacki Lyden for Weekend All Things Considered on NPR, his puppet, called Joshua, helps him to explore the themes of male self-image and self-loathing. White places Joshua in a series of vulnerable situations -- at a cocktail party or a lover's house -- and photographs the scene.

Charlie White’s photographs suggest how society makes monsters of everyone; a homunculus named Joshua tries to chat up a blonde.

EGG Interview
Charlie White, 6 Questions

Minor Threat: Published in Words Without Pictures, June 2008, LACMA

Summary: A brief overview of the complications and challenges involved in the act of photographing a minor. This text considers the historical and political ramificatios of photographing, looking at, and presenting the image of a minor. Using the life of Brooke Sheilds as example, this text maps the shifting perspectives of youth as both subject and object of cultural interest, and sexual desire.

Must get this stuck in someone else's head

2009-10-03T06:56:00.001-07:00

Warning: This Image Will Give You Insomnia for a Month

2009-10-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

Warning: This Image Will Give You Insomnia for a Month

Photographing a 300-foot Redwood

2009-10-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

Biggest, Tallest Tree Photo Ever
National Geographic - Redwoods

At least 1,500 years old, a 300-foot titan in California's Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park has the most complex crown scientists have mapped. This photo, taken by Michael Nichols, is a mosaic composed of 84 images.

2009-10-01T20:22:00.001-07:00

Sort of an example. Took an image that was posted in an earlier blog and reveresed to test out size. 7-4x6 will fit on the 44in wide paper. Or I can do 14- 2x3 ... I will post that soon. Though looking at the image I might decide to make more like this. It's pretty trippy when viewed at its original size.

Project Description Form

2009-10-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

Project Name: Untitled. Exploration of Immersive Photography by use of the Panoramic Image

Project Description:
Create a 360 degree panoramic image without the use of a panoramic device such as this.

Conceptual Concerns:
I was thinking about which of the project options I would like to attempt and stop motion. I wanted to find a way to incorporate image composites that could also be used as stop motion. The panorama seems like the best option in order to accomplish both tasks.

Still deciding on subject matter.
I have access to a military base, Pioneertown, Amboy crater, Jousha Tree Nat'l Park

Technical Skills Covered:
Color correction
Photo stitching

Formal Guidelines:
44in width

Artistic References:
Scott McFarland
Ed Ruscha – Every Building on the Sunset Strip

Readings:
Panorama

Grade:

Goals List:
Become comfortable with shooting and working digitally
Make a seamless image that is comprised of more than 3 separate elements
Color correct images

.... still working on it.

Aloysius, the Amazing Exploding Photo-Mule

2009-09-30T15:58:00.000-07:00

In 1878 Charles Bennett, a gentleman, discovered a new gelatin dry plate emulsion, which allowed for photos to be exposed almost instantaneously. So how did he show off his amazing new technology? By blowing up a mule, naturally.

The experiment ran thusly: A mule was strapped with dynamite, which was connected to a detonator. The very same switch that controled the detonator was connected to the camera, so as to trigger an exposure during, or slightly after, the poor animal's head was a-sploded. And verily! An 1881 issue of Scientific American recounts the horrifying event with bizarre earnestness, excerpted in the gallery:

Source

2009-09-29T18:48:00.001-07:00

September 25th

2009-09-29T00:14:00.000-07:00

September 18th

2009-09-19T03:08:00.001-07:00

Spent most my of the day in the photo lab printing for the show on Sunday. Worked on correction selection's off and on for about 2hours, I was trying to make the images neutral and did some spotting on the black and white images. A lot more to go. Remembered why I prefered using touchpad, no incessant clicking mouse sound.

Hiroshi Sugimoto - Lightening Fields

2009-09-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

This Is What 400,000 Volts Looks Like Applied to Film

Lightening Field

September 12th

2009-09-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

Girl in Iconic Vietnam War Photo Brings Message of Hope

2009-09-10T14:25:00.001-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090910/hl_hsn/girliniconicvietnamwarphotobringsmessageofhope

Hush

2009-09-10T02:51:00.001-07:00

Can't even shout, can't even cry
The Gentlemen are coming by.
Looking in windows, knocking on doors,
They need to take seven and they might take yours.
Can't call to mom, can't say a word,
You're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard.

http://www.faulkzilla.com/

2009-09-07T22:41:00.000-07:00

Outrage over photo of Marine

2009-09-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard, 21. Bernard was hit with a rocket propelled grenade in a Taliban ambush Friday, Aug. 14, 2009 in the village of Dahaneh in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. He later died of his wounds. The image shows fellow Marines helping Bernard after he suffered severe leg injuries. He was evacuated to a field hospital where he died on the operating table. It was part of a package of stories and photos released for publication called “AP Impact – Afghan – Death of a Marine.” The AP reported in a story that it decided to make the image public anyway because it “conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it.”

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.” The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked that the image not be published.

Gates wrote to AP President:

“Out of respect for his family’s wishes, I ask you in the strongest of terms to reconsider your decision. I do not make this request lightly. In one of my first public statements as Secretary of Defense, I stated that the media should not be treated as the enemy, and made it a point to thank journalists for revealing problems that need to be fixed – as was the case with Walter Reed."

“I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard’s death has caused his family. Why your organization would purposefully defy the family’s wishes knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish is beyond me. Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling. The issue here is not law, policy or constitutional right – but judgment and common decency.”

Slideshow of all images with commentary from the photographer
AP article and images
Outrage over photo of Marine
AP's defense
AP IMPACT: Calm — then sudden death in Afghan war
Afghanistan: A losing fight?

Blog comments about this story - opposing viewpoints:

It’s an utter disgrace that Ms. Jacobson would hide behind journalism freedom to publish photos the surviving family requested to remain private. That’s how she chose to honor him and thank the battalian that was tasked to keep her alive. What’s her real motivation? GREED! How disgraceful.

I believe that the posting of a dying Marine is tastless and only used to up sales of a publication. The family requested to not have that photo published and their wishes should have been honored.

Thank you for showing these photos. I have a grandson in Afghanistan. People need to see this. People are gung-ho for war unless you have seen it yourself, which I did in WWII. These young men and women are dying for this country. Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard served bravely and died bravely. We shouldn’t turn our eyes from his life or his death because it is in our names as Americans.

Hoyte van Hoytema

2009-09-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

Cinematographer: Let the Right One In (Swedish: Låt den rätte komma in)

Website

American Cinematographer: An Unusual Romance - December 2008