Camera Raw

Aaland, Mikkel.  Photoshop CS2 RAW: Using Adobe Camera Raw, Bridge and Photoshop to Get the Most Out of Your Digital Camera. O'Reilly, 2006.

The RAW file format is the uncompressed data file captured by a digital camera's electronic sensor. Shooting in the RAW format, digital cameras save images that are untouched by the processing settings like contrast, white balance, sharpening and saturation. It would be the equivalent to exposed but undeveloped film- the image just as you shot it without all the determining factors of how it may look after it leaves its source. Any photographer can understand why this is so important, any of those alterations can deteriorate image quality in the long run- and in most cases a photographer would want total control of their images and process. Its not always necessary to shoot in RAW, for instance taking snapshots or even doing some grip work JPGs would be sufficient. When doing landscape work with a digital camera shooting in RAW is a must. Mainly because landscape work is really meant to be shot with land cameras for superior quality. Anytime a lot of digital manipulation is involved, it is imperative to shoot in RAW- the more u save a file in JPG the more the file deteriorates.
I've been having some major issues with this because of my new digital camera. Apparently the new types of RAW files created by newer cameras are not supported by older versions of photoshop, and even with a new version you have to figure out ways around the files not being recognized. Almost 2 weeks later, I've resolved this issue. Photoshop CS4 and a DNG converter later, I can now open and edit my new CR2 RAW files. Seriously stressful business. Got some catching up to do.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

Bio

• Born in 1965 in Strassbourg, France.
• Artist lives and works in Paris, France.
• Recent shows include: 

2007 Skulptur Projekte Münster, Münster 
2007 ARC Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (solo) 

Her work

TH.2058 BY DOMINIQUE GONZALES-FOERSTER
OCTOBER 2058 - TATE MODERN - LONDON
It rains incessantly in London – not a day, not an hour without rain, a deluge that has now lasted for years and changed the way people travel, their clothes, leisure activities, imagination and desires. They dream about infinitely dry deserts.

This continual watering has had a strange effect on urban sculptures. As well as erosion and rust, they have started to grow like giant, thirsty tropical plants, to become even more monumental. In order to hold this organic growth in check, it has been decided to store them in the Turbine Hall, surrounded by hundreds of bunks that shelter – day and night – refugees from the rain.

A giant screen shows a strange film, which seems to be as much experimental cinema as science fiction. Fragments of Solaris, Fahrenheit 451 and Planet of the Apes are mixed with more abstract sequences such as Johanna Vaude's L'Oeil Sauvage but also images from Chris Marker's La Jetée. Could this possibly be the last film?

On the beds are books saved from the damp and treated to prevent the pages going mouldy and disintegrating. On every bunk there is at least one book, such as JG Ballard's The Drowned World, Jeff Noon's Vurt, Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle, but also Jorge Luis Borges's Ficciones and Roberto Bolaño's 2666.

On one of the beds, hidden among the giant sculptures, a lonely radio plays what sounds like distressed 1958 bossa nova. The mass bedding, the books, images, works of art and music produce a strange effect reminiscent of a Jean-Luc Godard film, a culture of quotation in a context of catastrophe.

In the shelter, the prone figures are reminiscent of Henry Moore's 'shelter drawings', while his sculpture for sheep stands next to a giant apple core by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Museums have been closed for years because of water seepages and the high level of humidity. In the huge collective shelter that the Turbine Hall has become, a fantastical and heterogeneous montage develops, including sculpture, literature, music, cinema, sleeping figures and drops of rain.

No official artist site found.

Tate Modern

Interview

-Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

Honestly I think the work itself sucks, its not much to look at- but the idea behind finding shelter after a catastrophic event is intriguing to me. Its a shame that such developed ideas are represented by such an eyesore.  Which is why I see nothing wrong with visually pulling someone into a piece with color and light- which is what I've been trying to do.

Lake Nyos Disaster

The Strangest Disaster of the 20th Century.
Posted by Alex in Bathroom Reader on May 21, 2007 at 1:14 am, reposted by www.neatorama.com.

The disaster at Lake Nyos in 1986 remains the worst natural disaster in the history of the West African nation of Cameroon, wiping out almost an entire village of inhabitants, its livestock and wildlife.  This mystery resulted in nearly 2,000 human deaths and 3,000 animal deaths.  This article touches on everything from the discovery of this disaster to the research and efforts to alleviate the problems at Lake Nyos.  

"The remains if the victims offered few clues. There was no evidence of bleeding, physical trauma, or disease, and no sign of exposure to radiation, chemical weapons, or poison gas. And there was no evidence of suffering or “death agony”: The victims apparently just blacked out, fell over, and died."  At this point, scientists had no clue that the lake was the cause of so many deaths, but one of their first clues was the distribution of victims over the land.  All of the deaths has occurred within a 12 mile vicinity of Nyos- the number of deaths increased substantially as they got closer to the lake.  Long story short- The lake was positioned on top of a pocket of volcanic magma which lies beneath the lake- containing extreme levels of Carbon Dioxide.  As in all lakes, carbon dioxide escapes the water- with Lake Nyos, the CO2 does not escape and with its high saturation- basically poisons the water and the air around it.  

This story is intriguing to me .. I've heard about this quite some time ago, and just recently as i've decided to research ideas behind an environment without humans, it became evident that this was something worth investigating.  What gets me most about this disaster, is that when the lake became poisonous it turned this reddish color that became almost mesmerizing ... just thinking about it, if i were to actually be in this environment, I would definitely be curious enough to go check it out.  Which would coincidentally lure me to my own death.  All of this seems pretty morbid- but I cant help but think about these natural disasters that really physically beautiful, but have such unthinkable results.  It can really put an emphasis on the power of nature.

Paul Shambroom Lecture 2/11

Paul Shamboom's photography explores the cultural and power aspects of America.  His art is demonstrated through his visual investigations of democratic, economic and security institutions.  Shambroom spoke about his different projects, but what I enjoyed mostly about his ideas was that he does not photograph with the intent to make an opinion on these matters, but to educate the population with the unknown.  The body of work that I am most interested in was his Security series from 2004-2007 where he was photographing training facilities, equipment and personnel involved in the massive government and private sector efforts to prepare for and respond to terrorist attacks within the nation’s borders. First responders and law enforcement officers train in large-scale simulated environments.  These environments and people created an extreme sense of apocalypse for me, he does use a bit of photoshop with these images that really pushes the boundaries of what is perceivably real.  And at a time of apocalypse- who's to really say what it would be like, all i know is that I could imagine these photographs at a time of complete disaster and chaos.  

Motoda Hisaharu

Bio

• 1973 Born in Kumamoto, Japan
  
• 1999 Graduated from Kyushu Sangyo University Department of Fine Art 
• 2001 Completed graduate course at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music

His work

• "Hisaharu Motoda is regarded by many as one of the rising stars in the world of printmaking, having won several major prizes since obtaining a Masters of Fine Arts and Music, where he now works as a teacher. His fame is spreading not only in his native Japan, but also overseas, where he has taken part in exhibitions in countries as Egypt, Canada, Hungary, and Thailand.
  In his Neo-Ruins series Motoda depicts a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where familiar landscapes in the central districts of Ginza, Shibuya, and Asakusa are reduced to ruins and the streets eerily devoid of humans. The weeds that have sprouted from the fissures in the ground seem to be the only living organisms. “In Neo-Ruins I wanted to capture both a sense of the world′s past and of the worldﾕs future,” he explains.
  Motodaﾕs view of the future at first seems nihilistic, but the proliferation of plant life in the ruined streets seems to suggest that there are other ways for the plant to survive even after our great cities have fallen."

Motoda Hisaharu
Gallery Ikeda Bijutsu

No reviews/interviews found.

Post-Apocalyptic Future

"Art that fantasizes about a world after humans, and by consequence a world outside history, is one that suggests a change in our relationship with there here-and-now." -J.J. Charlesworth 

Charlesworth, J.J. "Special Focus: Apocalypse, In the Ruins of the Future." Art Review, December 2008.http://www.artreviewdigital.com/index.cfm/artreview-digital/magazine.view/title/december2008.

Charlesworth's article discusses the emerging fascination with post-apocalyptic themes within the art world. He suggests that an abundance of art is preoccupied with a sense of human society drifting towards an uncertain end, gloomy and "in some not-so-far-off, worn-out future." His observations of this phenomenon conclude that its not that artists are insisting the end is near, but they are trying to make sense of, and give shape to a topic which is so vague, but also has a huge impact with its widespread, continually growing feelings of "apprehension and foreboding, to the point that if there is a future, it might not necessarily contain humans." His writings mention the work of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster titled TH.2058, installation art surveying a near future in which people and outdoor public sculpture seek refuge from a hostile climate, also suggesting a near future where culture is nothing more than a constant reprocessing of past fragments. That being said, the work itself is a projection of a dead-end future. Nothing new is made, and the old is constantly recycled.

This article has probably been one of the most fascinating things i've come across in my research as of yet. Maybe because it pretty much directly relates to what I have been trying to achieve, and I didn't realize a number of recognized artists were working with the same themes. Not only the artist mentioned above, but highly recognized curators Massimiliano Gioni and Douglas Fogle are eager to present this type of work, and as Gioni explains, " What these artists share is a desire to to charge art with a magical power, invest it with contents and forms that are meant to contrast its secularization, and aim at bringing it back into a sphere that is, if not religious, at least sacred or obscure, like a mystery cult."

Rudd Van Empel

Bio

• Born in 1958 in Breda, Netherlands.
• Educated at St. Joost Academy of Fine Arts, St. Joost, Breda, Netherlands. 1976-1981
• Been showing his work extensively throughout the US and Europe since 1990s.
• Currently lives and works in the Netherlands.

Work

" Ruud van Empel has used a digital photographic process to create collages since the early 1980's. He works on one subject at a time ranging from work environments to portraits of women. In each of his series Ruud examines a space, either including humans or void of them. Ruud's series range from The Office (1996-01), Frame Story (1998-00), Study for 4 Women (2000), Study in Green (2003-2004), and World (2005- present). In each series, the use of digital collage allows for a creation of a unique space completely formed from fantasy. Ruud's work is highly detailed and striking in bright color. Ruud van Empel currently lives and works in The Netherlands."-Jackson Fine Art

Ruud Van Empel Website

Stux Gallery

Review

Urban Mining

Hansen, Liane.  "In Cairo Slum, the Poor Spark Environmental Change." 2009, NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89956754 .

Zabaleen, which roughly translates from the Egyptian language as "garbage collectors," is the single term used to describe the urban poor community in Manshiyet Nasser, and their monstrous efforts to sort, recycle every piece of refuse that comes their way.  The Zabaleen has been continuing their efforts for decades, and now teaming up with Thomas Taha Rassam Culhane, founder of Solar Cities- in order to keep their environment from getting any worse in the city.  With poverty and populations of such great proportion, Egypt was cited as an example for having the most potential of being effected by greenhouse gas emissions, and with disproportionate negative effects.  With this, Solar Cities is installing solar hot water heaters on the rooftops of homes in the slums of Cairo.  

After seeing the photographs of the mounds of garbage collection, my first thoughts were "where the hell would they put solar hot water heaters?" .. there refuse is everywhere, including the rooftops of homes.  What really struck me as unimaginable, is that with all the efforts of meticulous recycling- decades of tradition in reusing- this city just appears to be one huge waste dump.  I think that this article was supposed to be inspirational about the future demise of the planet, but for me it did quite the opposite.  How can such an extreme effort result in such a hideous means of living for so many people?  ... This story has motivated me to create back stories to my photographs, in efforts to have more control on their outcomes.  For instance, a world overcome with trash has lead to an earth that can no longer support human life.  

Johann Ryno De Wet

Bio

• Born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1982.
• Earned his B-Tech degree in Photography at the Tshwane University of Technology from 2002-05.
• 2001, Fine Arts at the Design School South Africa.
• Currently lives and works in Cape Town.
• Recent Solo Exhibitions include: 

2009 "No Man's Land," Galerie Poller, Frankfurt a.M.

  "Trouble in Paradise: Examining Discord Between Nature and Society," Tuscon Museum of Art, AZ

His Work

• "Ryno de Wet is a creator of dystopic and cinematographic worlds in which the 'No Man's Land'-Series plays a leading role. Ryno de Wet colonizes each corner of his photographs with an overdose of mystery, panic and disturbance.  The land of dreams continues to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration, and there are even more people who seem to travel through it when fully awake. There can be no other explanation for his audacious and chimeric photos. Ryno de Wet effectively uses digital techniques to transform a point of departure into one of arrival that is only in his head."

No Artist Website found

Press Release

Poller Galerie