PRINTS

Paul-

I have been working on two completely new images and decided to scrap the one with the dandelions all together. Your opinion on the first and second images would be great, I'm pretty confident in the first, but am not so sure the second fits as well because of the lens distortion that isn't present in any of the others. - as well as the actual birds.  As far as the third image goes, I took your advice and covered up some of the bright white in the clouds, as well as worked on making the foreground with the fence less flat- I also decided to ditch the idea of the texture over the red brick and just mute the color a little. So hopefully its working better?  The fourth image i just slightly altered, making the building larger and the background more out of focus....  My major issue is with the last image.  I decided that the sign being so close to the front of the image wasn't allowing my eye to move into the background, so i just pushed it back, and took the layer with the ivy off, the original lighting made it pop a bit more.  I also added some shadows in the foreground, It was a simple solution and I think it looks a lot better, but I still am not completely sure thats enough.  Do you think It would be in my best interest to just try to put together a totally different image in its place?  

Thanks for your feedback!

Carrie

Olafur Eliasson

Bio

• 1967- Born in Copenhagen.
• 1989 - 1995, Studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.
• Lives in Copenhagen and Berlin.
  
• " He has participated in numerous exhibitions worldwide and his work is represented in public and private collections including the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Deste Foundation, Athens and Tate. Recently he has had major solo exhibitions at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and ZKM (Center for Art and Media), Karlsruhe and represented Denmark in the 2003 Venice Biennale."

His Work

• "The basic elements of the weather – water, light, temperature, pressure – are the materials that Olafur Eliasson has used throughout his career. His installations regularly feature elements appropriated from nature – billowing steam replicating a water geyser, glistening rainbows or fog-filled rooms. By introducing ‘natural’ phenomena, such as water, mist or light, into an un specifically cultivated setting, be it a city street or an art gallery, the artist encourages the viewer to reflect upon their understanding and perception of the physical world that surrounds them. This moment of perception, when the viewer pauses to consider what they are experiencing, has been described by Eliasson as ‘seeing yourself sensing’.
  
  Many of Eliasson’s works explore the relationship between the spectator and object. In Your Sun Machine (1997) viewers entered a room which was empty apart from a large circular hole punctured in the roof. Each morning, sunlight streamed into the space through this aperture, at first creating an elliptical, then a circular outline on the walls and floor. The beam of light shifted across the room as the day progressed. The movement of the ‘sun’ across the room was apparently the central focus of the work, but in observing this, the viewer was reminded of his or her own position as an object, located on earth, spinning through space around the real sun.
  
  For The Mediated Motion at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria (2001), Eliasson created a sequence of spaces filled with natural materials including water, fog, earth, wood, fungus and duckweed. During their journey through the exhibition, visitors were confronted by a variety of sensory experiences – sights, smells, and textures – which had been precisely articulated by the artist. Eliasson also modified the dominant orthogonal character of the building, including the insertion of a subtly slanting floor, which made visitors become more conscious of the act of movement through space." -Tate Modern

Website

MoMA

Environmental

www.greenmuseum.org

This article examines an artist who works with the Solar Living Center in Hopland, California, to create alternatives to living technology.  Baile Oakes began by designing a yearly solar calendar.  As a sculptor and author, Oakes created a calendar that is described as "a gently sloping plaza and gathering space at the entrance of the main building with a sunset activated spiral fountain.  A six foot tall brass staff fits into holes along the basin and records the weekly location of sunrises and sunsets. Stone monuments mark the position of the sun on Equinoxes and Solstices reminding visitors of the passing of time on a planetary scale. Both environment and timepiece, the Solar Calendar helps reconnect us with our place in the universe."  Many of Oakes' artworks highlight natural phenomena such as the solar calendar, desert landscapes, and the importance of water. His mission is to "Baile Oakes is on a mission to "use our visual language to help bring our culture to a fuller understanding of our place within the living systems of the Earth."

I think that this relates to what I am doing, because I have been trying to figure out how to create a successful presentation for my final, and his work is mainly about the interactions between the art and the people.  I really need to find a way to make my art more involved.  This has made me consider placing my images in nature and re-photographing them, to make it seem more like an experience than just presented images.  

Baile Oakes Artist Statment

Photographers Forum Application

Scott McFarland

Bio

• Born in 1975 in Canada
• Received his Bachelor of Fine Arts, 1997 from the University of British Columbia
• The artist lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.
  
• Recent exhibitions include: 2008 New Works, Monte Clark Gallery, Toronto, Canada; 2008
  Garden of Eden, Statdtische Galerie, Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany;  2007
  Works on Paper; Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver and Toronto, Canada Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Union Gallery, London, England;  2005 Another Photography, Regan Projects, Los Angeles Analyzing Trapping Inspecting, Union Gallery, London, England;  2004 Gardens, Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver/Toronto, Canada

About the work

• "Scott McFarland's vision has evolved out of a familiarity with the particular environments he photographs. To date he has created several bodies of work exploring such traditional regional subjects as gardens and their maintenance, a friend's cabin and boathouse, as well as the space of photography itself, the darkroom. Regardless of the subject matter, a personal consideration is present in which the artist attempts to reconcile a 'true' notion of the real with the limited one which is captured by the camera lens. McFarland's photographs, which employ subtle digital alteration, return the image as much as possible to its orginal appearance seen by the eye. This alteration includes both exposure and accurate colour correction."
• "McFarland's work thus represents iconic ideas about the local, linking them to the history of photography while using technology as a new way of representation, as a means of accessing the purity of our original experience. Often exhibited as large colour photographs, they have also appeared in magazine works as well as book projects."
  

Scott McFarland

Monte Clark Gallery

Interview

Andy Cooperman Lecture 11/17

Andy Cooperman is a metal smith, jeweler, and teacher working and living in Seattle, Washington.  As stated in his lecture, what excites Cooperman the most about what he does is making things, he considers himself "a maker."  He has created all different types of jewelry such as rings, pendants and brooches.  Some pendants and brooches have been specifically requested to be made for holding ashes of his clients' loved ones.  He spends a great amount of time on every piece, they are well thought out and have a very personal style.

Andy Cooperman gets a great deal of his inspiration from natural objects, growing up perusing books and videos with organic elements and things from nature.  He said that it was important to show where his inspiration came from, but to create his own take on it.  His work is characterized, not replicated. His ideas are expressed through form, gesture and surface.  He titles all of his pieces, which is an extremely important part of the work to him because it helps to describe his through processes on these abstracted pieces.

  

Directorial

"Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness.”- W. Eugene Smith


"DIRECTORIAL MODE: A. D. Coleman's article of this name (in Artforum [September 1976]) identified an approach to photography in which the photographer was more like a film director or theatre designer than a traditional photographer. Emphasis was put on making, rather than taking photographs. To some extent, the principle is akin to auteur theory."

Critical Attitudes toward Overtly Manipulated Photography in the 20th Century
Patricia D. Leighten
Art Journal, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Winter, 1977-1978), pp. 133-138 (article consists of 6 pages)
Published by: College Art Association

This essay explains that every photograph in manipulated in some way. Placement of the camera, and the planes direction are human acts which determine the outcome. Emphasis of manipulation is usually based on the outcome rather than the process, but manipulation of photographs is both a conscious and subconscious act. I am working with planned out images, consciously making decisions on image placement, color, exposure etc. Although, while I am shooting, I choose the angles at which I shoot, I choose the time of day to photograph knowing the lighting effects. I am molding every aspect of my photographs, taking them beyond their original context and setting.

Jeff Wall

Bio

• Canadian artist Jeff Wall was born in Vancouver in 1946. He received his B.A. degree from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 1968 and his M.A. degree from the same institution in 1970. From 1970-1973, Wall studied art history at the Courtauld Institute in London. He was an Associate Professor at the Center for the Arts, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver,1976-1987. He received the Hasselblad Award in 2002.
  

About his work

• "His photographs are often carefully staged like a scene in a film, with full control of all details. Their composition is always well thought through, and often borrows from classical painters like Edouard Manet. Many of his images are large (typically 2x2 meters) transparencies placed in back-lit boxes; Wall says he got the idea during a bus trip between Spain and London where he saw large back-lit advertisements at bus stops. The themes are social and political, such as urban violence, racism, poverty, gender and class conflicts.A typical image of Jeff Wall is Mimic from 1982. It is a colour transparency, 198 cm by 229 cm. In it, we see three people, a couple and a man, walking towards the camera on a side walk. The street looks like a suburb in a North American town, residential area mixed with light industry. The couple, to the right in the picture, is white, and the single man to the left is of asian origin. The woman is wearing red shorts and a white top displaying her bellybutton. Her boyfriend (I assume, he's holding her hand) is wearing a denim vest, has a full beard and unkempt hair; they give the impression of working class. The asian man is dressed smarter, with a collared shirt; he gives impression of being middle class. The two men exchange glances. The asian man has his head pointing forward but his eyes look hard left at the couple. The white man has turned his head toward the other man, chin a bit down, looking straight at the Asian, right hand clenched to a fist with the middle extended, pointing to his eye."

Jeff Wall

Vancouver Art Gallery

Interview

New

“As I hold the future well-being of photography very dear I must see to it that these forces which militate against it be opposed and destroyed.” - Alfred Stieglitz

"This Year’s Models: Searching for Fresh Approaches in Photography"
New York Times
By MARTHA SCHWENDENER
Published: November 26, 2007

This article is about a show called "New Photography 2007" at the MoMa where contemporary photographers are expressing their interests in the ideas and methods of photographers such as Eadweard Muybridge, Alfred Stieglitz, and Clarence White.  The article describes the "new photography" as recycling, and somewhat of a let down.  These emerging photographers are expected to show something new and fresh, and the closest they see to new is from the work of  Tanyth Berkeley, whos images which involve a lot of "social engineering."  Among other photographers mentioned were Scott McFarland who worked with Jeff Wall, coincidentally his work follows his same methods.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

Biography

1951 Born in Hartford, Connecticut, USA
1975 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Diploma
1976 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Post Graduate Certificate
1979 Yale University, New Haven, M.F.A.
*Currently lives and works in New York

Recent Exhibitions

2008 ‘Philip-Lorca diCorcia’, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, USA. (solo)
2008 ‘Photographie : détrônera la peinture’, Musée de la photographie, Chalonsur-Saône, France (solo)
2008 Baby. De ideale mens verbeeld 1840- heden, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam
2008 diCorcia - Epstein - Shore, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels

"diCorcia alternates between informal snapshots and iconic quality staged compositions that often have a baroque theatricality.[2] Using a carefully planned staging, he takes everyday occurrences beyond the realm of banality, trying to inspire in his picture's spectators an awareness of the psychology and emotion contained in real-life situations.[3] His work could be described as documentary photography mixed with the fictional world of cinema and advertising, which creates a powerful link between reality, fantasy and desire.[4" -source: Wikipedia
.. More

Interview

Gagosian Gallery

Twilight

A state of ambiguity or obscurity.

"Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour, is not about photography at twilight, but rather about photography of twilight, of the moods that have come to be associated with the liminal moment between day and night. "- Leo Hsu

www.foto8.com

This short article informs its readers of the book, as well as exhibit curated by Martin Barnes and Kate Best - Twilight:  Photography in the Magic Hour.  It includes the works of 8 photographers with an effort to describe the cultural resonance of twilight as evidenced in recent photography.  Bringing together these works with suggestions of twilight informs the narrative tone of the pictures. "This task is easier said than done, not least because twilight, while evocative, nonetheless evokes many different ideas and feelings. However, the effect of the book is powerful and provocative due to an interesting argument supported by exceptional photography, and excellent supporting essays."  Within my work I am trying to incorporate a twilight-esque aesthetic by making each photograph in a state where you cannot differentiate day and night.  As described by Hsu, working in this way creates more of a story, with underlying feelings of emotion and  power.  

Garth Johnson Lecture

"Garth Johnson is an unorthodox ceramicist, part-time teacher, dandy, and proprietor of the beloved blog Extreme Craft."

Garth Johnson works in sculpture, but is also the creator of the website extremecraft.com. His site includes artists from all over the internet world who submit their obsessive crafting projects. Ranging from lego building to wood working. His aim is to find the strangest crafting techniques and compile them onto his database. He was an interesting a quirky guy. I thought it was highly interesting how he explained his background, coming from generations of family extreme crafters. He encouraged the students to submit their pieces as well, which was nice.

Edward Burtynsky

Bio/ About his Work

• Born in 1955 of Ukrainian heritage at St. Catharines, Ontario
• Burtynsky is a graduate of Ryerson University (Bachelor of Applied Arts in Photography) and Niagara College (Graphic Art). 
• "He links his early exposure to the sites and images of the General Motors plant in his hometown to the development of his photographic work. Edward Burtynsky's imagery explores the intricate connection between industry and nature; combining the raw elements of mining, quarrying, manufacturing, shipping, oil production and recycling into eloquent, highly expressive visions that find beauty and humanity in the most unlikely of places. 
• In 1985, Burtynsky also founded Toronto Image Works, a darkroom rental facility, custom photo laboratory, digital imaging and new media computer-training centre catering to all levels of Toronto's art community. 
• On the board of directors for Toronto’s international photography festival
• Edward Burtynsky is represented by: Nicholas Metivier Gallery in Toronto, Paul Kuhn Gallery in Calgary, Art 45 in Montreal, Charles Cowles Gallery in New York, Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco, Flowers East in London, Galeria Toni Tapies in Barcelona and Galerie Stefan Röpke in Köln. His prints are housed in public, corporate and private collections worldwide.
  
• "Celebrated Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky reviewed his 20-year career. His large-scale photographs of sites in the United States, Canada, Italy, Bangladesh, India and China are challenging. While they depict the degradation of nature due to quarrying, mining, railcutting, recycling, oil refining and ship breaking, they convey a sense of awe and beauty thus provoking a new awareness of the landscape of our time."

Website
Koch Gallery

Interview

Ethereal

“Art seems to me to be a state of soul more than anything else.” -Marc Chagall

Ethereal presences in holography and photography
Proc. SPIE, Vol. 6488, 64880M (2007); DOI:10.1117/12.726143
Online Publication Date: 20 February 2007
Conference Date: Sunday 21 January 2007
Conference Location: San Jose, CA, USA
Conference Title: Practical Holography XXI: Materials and Applications
Conference Chairs: Roger A. Lessard, Hans I. Bjelkhagen

This paper is about the ideas of creating 'Presence of Absence' in post-mortem photography and holography, from both historical and lesser-known images as a reference. It describes that death can bean elegant yet horrific aesthetic, the photograph may be beautify screened and yet obscene in its content. "In essence one can be a voyeur, experiencing a mere visual whisper of the true nature of the subject." It is stated that within contemporary photography, death is now presented as a sensual, and at times, a sensationalised art form. In exploring post-mortem imagery, both in holography and conventional photography, absence presents an aspect of death as startling in its unanimated form and detailed in its finite examination of mortality.

Even though my photographs are not dealing with the post-mortem in any way, the basic idea is still the same. The fact that with this absence of life, still created are feelings of unexplainable divinity, and in a way we are adding life to the lifeless. This goes along with my concept of allowing nature to take over run down, essentially lifeless areas. I want to create a feeling of life presence through organic elements.

Simen Johan Lecture

Simen Johan creates photographs using both digital and traditional techniques. Originally, creating digital negatives and printing in a black and white dark room.  With better digital printing he has been able change the direction in which he works, now using color.  Each of his images are created using hundreds of photographs and as he explained, sometimes taking him years to complete.  The themes that are present in his work are that of fantasy and creating "alternate realities for ourselves."  The work that he presented at the lecture included both his work with children and with animals, and not that it was obvious by his cold and impersonal way of speaking to an audience- he stated that he prefers working with animals over children. 

I really enjoy his photographs, and I feel like they speak volumes without explanation, but I think he relies too heavily on the visual aspects.  Johan spoke as if it was a true effort to explain his art.  He seems much more focused on the mechanical aspects of the work, and less on concept and ideas.  Not to mention I found it totally unprofessional the way he hurried along questions and did not really want to answer most of them.  I respect his work because I am working in a very similar way, and what he creates is truly amazing and complex.  I could completely relate to his way of working, trying to do as much work in the camera to avoid fabrication in photoshop, and he hit it dead on when he said the more you have to manipulate something the less successful it usually becomes.  I have found the same things happen in my work, usually the less forced pieces work better.  Although, listening to his lecture, I think he has a long way to go when it comes to public speaking and appealing to his audience.

Jonathon Wells

Bio

• Jonathon wells is both a photographer and geologist.

• Education
  
  Coursework in art, University of Minnesota, St Paul / Minneapolis, MN (2008)
  Artist Professional Toolbox, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts / Massachusetts, Boston, MA (2006).
  Coursework in visual arts, Mass College of Art and School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (2003–2005)
  Certificate General Studies in Photography, International Center of Photography, New York, NY (2002).
  Master of Arts Geology, Boston University, Boston, MA (1995).
  Bachelor of Science Earth Science, Cum Laude, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA (1988).

• 2002 – present: Ongoing work on photography / geologic projects and freelance environmental consulting

About the Work

• "I am continuing to build my existing series while initiating new series at sites around the world where I identify a thought-provoking intersection of land use and underlying geology. I am committed to fostering dialog about human interaction with the earth through my work."- Jonathon Wells
• His statement: 

"My artwork combines views of the land surface and the underlying geologic layers into single digital images. I am trained as both a fine art photographer and as a geologist, which has enabled me to create photomontages with both surface and subsurface views. This unusual perspective offers a different point from which to consider landscape and contemplate a sense of place. I am grappling with the elemental questions: What is the relationship between humans and earth? What kind of relationship exists between our surface world and the earth layers below?

The creation of these photomontages is both an artistic and investigatory process. As a fine art photographer, I find my eye and imagination actively engaged in a specific urban or rural site or space—a New York City block, a gasoline station, a water well site on a wooded hillside. As a geologist, I am intrigued by the underlying geologic framework of that site, by the path of the groundwater flow, by the evidence of the modern world—the utilities, subways, even the pollution—that are marked into the earth.

My artistic process takes months of study and investigation. First, I search for both landscapes and geologic frameworks that intrigue me. I might spend days documenting a city block. To visualize the substrata, I will turn to old and new geologic surveys and maps, to utility maps and geologic field guides. I’ll pull off roadways to photograph rock exposures, follow road workers and underground cable repairs with my camera, waiting for an exposed opening—a “window”—that will allow me to capture a glimpse of what lies below us. Finally, I create the photomontage digitally, combining a documented landscape with the substrata below. In my exploration of both surface and subsurface views of the earth, I hope to offer images that allow viewers an intriguing way to contemplate both landscape and a sense of place. "

Jonathon Wells

South Shore Art Center

Interview