Color Assignment... ...finally

So here is my "color" homework, and I went with red.  I feel that red is very powerful symbolically, and has a very wide variety of meanings.  Patriotism, Communism, evil, and warmth to name a few.  Here is a small sample of photos that put red on display, and help convey a symbolic meaning.  ...also, a couple of the photos don't have any meaning...  they are just red.

this any-town barn is representative of americana and patriotism

not that Fugazi is evil, but rock n roll is...  ...especially next to Mary

the shoes I mow the lawn in...  ...are also red

this is a bar in Cambridge...  and next to this apt. building, you can't help but think of communism

just an old Washington Senators hat, and a cover from a 1943 Saturday Evening Post I have framed behind it

my daughter has a mobile of paper cranes in her room that one of my friends made...  I kind of like this geometric abstraction of the red one

lots of red during the holiday season...  ugh

here is my example of warmth...  olive and dylan cuddle to stay warm

Final Project Contact Sheets...

Although most of these have nothing to do with my actual finished product, they show that I was headed in a few different directions early on.  I'll work with the images eventually and make something out f them...

Treats for Tomorrow...

Olive and I made banana bread and pumpkin bread to power through tomorrows crit!

Olive post-nap

Final...

So...  Here it is.  My third or fourth concept/idea is what I ended up going with as I ran out of time and patience.
One of these shots is from earlier in the semester, and during that crit, I was told that I should try to shoot people.
I used that as a jumping point, and tried to show different people and how they take up space in an urban environment.  For some it seems like their living room, and for others, they seem to almost get swallowed by their surroundings.  ...enjoy.

SNL final edit

When I was a freshman in high school my sister was dating this guy that was a senior…  Ian Fitzpatrick.  In an effort to win her over, he made me…  the lowly freshman brother of the girl he liked, a mix tape.  The cassette blew my mind.  Fugazi, Gorilla Biscuits, and Operation Ivy in 1992 introduced me to a world of independent labels, college radio, and most importantly, records.  Dingy stores filled with beautiful and fragile pieces of twelve inch square artwork.  The smell of cardboard, mold and the b.o. of the walking music encyclopedia behind the counter was how I learned about music.  There weren’t any Blogs, Myspace, or itunes.  Just listening parties, heavy crates, and people that love the sound of the needle on the vinyl.  This series of photos is documentation of my nostalgia for 1992 and proof that in basement retail spaces, vinyl lives on.  

contact sheets...

Casting a Long Shadow...

Morph! ...This was fun...

Not a Lecture... ...but just as good as one? The Triumph of Group f/64

So yesterday I ditched my afternoon class (sorry Prof. Hight) and went up to Portland to check out the current exhibit.  It's called The Triumph of Group f/64, and I would not have known anything about the title of the exhibit if I wasn't in this course.  Today, I know that it refers to the "stop" on the camera, and most importantly the depth of field you get at that setting.
It was a debate on modern photography (modern being the 1930's) and the end of the so-called Pictorialist era.  A bunch of dudes from out west (including Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, and Willard Van Dyke) were championing the tools of their trade and the sharp focus and depth of field that could be accomplished with the large format cameras.  The outlook of the club (Group f/64) was that soft focused, painterly photos were a thing of the past.  The exhibit puts the Pictorialist photos on the wall along-side Group f/64 so that the comparisons are obvious and you can see how the crisp images of the guys out west were so completely different from the soft prints of the expressionists.
The Pictorialists said that Group f/64 showed a lack of emotion, while the Group was trying to use the art form of photography to be simple and direct.  A great historical perspective on two points of view and a look at one of the many steps photography has taken in the last 80 or so years.  The prints were beautiful and showed a variety of subjects from portraits, to landscapes, to abstracted nature.  I was hoping to get a little inspiration for the current assignment, but instead it made me realize how boring most of my photos are.  The drama they capture in black and white (both styles) is something I hope I can some day approach.  Maybe I'll put down my digital and get a medium or large format camera?      

I did reference the museum hand-out flyer thing while typing this.

911

It was late in the afternoon and everybody was getting ready to go home for the day.  My XO (executive officer) came and told me (then, a Specialist and compony armorer) to go get the keys to the arms room.

I had no idea what was going on, but went and got the keys.  When I got back, he told me what was happening, and a bunch of us watched it on TV on AFN (american forces network) and stood there in shock.  We were in The Army in Germany, and all we did was train for war...  which now seemed highly probable.  We were all worried about people at home in the states, but had to fulfill our military role overseas.  

We went the the highest "threat-con" which meant that post was locked down and I spent the next 2 days in the arms room issuing weapons to people pulling guard duty.  Once a system was in place, I only had to come in once every eight hours for weapons and ammo count.  It was a long, frightening couple days, and months, that eventually resulted in a year in Iraq for myself.  I think about it all the time, but it seems like another life at the same time.

Narrative Social Landscape...

Okay...  for some reason, when I combine these three words, (narrative social landscape) the first thing that comes to mind is NPR.  I listen to it quite a bit, so in that way, it is very literally a narrative for me.  The social landscape aspect of it is that the stories and programs come from all over the country (and world) and many of the shows involve people calling in and giving their opinion.  I listened today as I drove (and brainstormed for this assignment) and decided to stage a few of the stories with some "household items".
I'm still no pro with a flash, but tomorrow before class I will post my contact sheet, and you can tell that I'm trying.  ...now posted at the bottom...

This was my version of a story on the urbanization of the US and how candidates for Governor in Maine are pledging to grow "responsibly".  NPR covered the local political debates, and they were all saying they would prevent wal-martization from happening...  Here is an urban center with a road leading to it complete with cars, workers, air traffic, and even some mountains in the distance. 

This is a story about the Army going further to prevent suicides.  I was trying to depict a fatherless family sitting down to dinner with what might have been the reason for ending his life.  

This is a story about religious corruption in Poland.  I used a slow shutter speed and drew a little with light to give the shrine figures halo's.   

Shots from the weekend... and what inspires me...

Here are a few shots from the weekend.  I figured I would show a pretty sunrise along with the other three creepy photos.  The top two are from the Friendly Toast, the bottom one is the Memorial Bridge, and I found a chained up fridge in the woods near a boat launch.  The bottom 2 are Olive...  checking out her freshly carved pumpkin and painting.

Why Do People Take Photographs?

Early on it was an effort to record.  As time has passed, photography has come to serve many functions, but I feel like I have a very punk/folk rock outlook on art as a whole...  one reason why I want to become a teacher.  I firmly believe that anybody can benefit from the process of creating art.  It may seem foreign and strange at first, but you can do things with a canvas or camera that you may never be able to do with words.  I also don't believe that you have to make art with the ideal that the finished product has to be "amazing"...   or that anything otherwise would be a failure.  Making art is a success as long as you care about it and work through some sort of thought or idea in your head.  Art (like folk and punk) is for the people.  Expression is important, and expression through photography is something brand new to me this semester, but I am beginning to see how people can become hooked on the fleeting moments and nostalgia of the medium.  

Process

My processes with other mediums usually begin with a thumbnail and lots of scribbling and maybe even a botched start.  Photo so far seems different because why would I sketch something when taking a picture is so much faster?  Maybe this is a way for me to dig a little deeper into my process?  It seems a little counterintuitive to me to draw something I want to photograph, but but maybe I'll start to think about that...

As far as project ideas go, I feel like I think things through best when I run and drive.  I was driving when I thought of the urinals, and thoughts seem really clear when I run.  I have to make notes after so that I don't forget my ideas, but just providing myself with time alone to think is a huge part of working something out for me.

Inspiration

I have so much inspiration in my life.  My friends and family...  The friends I lost in Iraq that I think about every day.  My wife of almost eleven years and daughter Olive, that provide me with a constant feeling of comfort and chaos.  It seems like boring domestic stuff from day to day, but I can't imagine where I would be today without their support.  I was a good artist in high school, but I graduated a looooong time ago.  When I was in Iraq, I decided that I would go to school for something I enjoyed...  not just a field that I could get a job in.  

Also... there is a band from Chicago called Tortoise.  The album TNT will make anybody want to make art...  I think.  I haven't actually tested this theory out...  yet.              

7 Sins

Envy

Greed

Wrath

Lust

Sloth

Gluttony

Pride

So here is my 7 Sins stuff.  This was a lot of fun.  My concept came to me in a public bathroom while I had my daughter...  she's potty training.  It was a reminder that there are totally different social rules in bathrooms, and that people don't feel comfortable there.  I wanted the viewer to be a little uncomfortable looking at my "sins", but I'm not sure if I accomplished that.  I think it works well as a series though, and I got a bunch of practice with photoshop too...   something that I've resisted so far.  I'm sure that others could do better, but this is really my first stab at altering images, and I only know how to use a handful of tools.  There are a few edges or spots where there should be shadows that bother me, but I'll get better.  I also wish I had better original images to work with, but shooting in public rest rooms has a very short time limit, and I wasn't really doing a lot of quality control as I shot.  It was more of a post-production crap shoot...  but I think the overall results are pretty successful.