social landscape

Memory of 9/11

I was in my english class when another teacher came into the room and told us to turn on the television. We saw the buildings burning, and I had no idea the magnitude of the situation. I had never even heard of the world trade center until that day, and I wondered what the fuss was about. Then there was a phone call to the classroom telling my teacher to turn the television off. Classes went on like nothing had happened. We had an assembly at the end of the day telling us what had happened, but I still didn't get it. I think I even got in trouble for talking to my friend about some boy that was looking at her.
I went home, and the situation had changed. My Dad made me go to the grocery store to buy canned food. All of a sudden I was scared.

Why Take Photos?

I think people take photos to capture a moment of time. The certainty that we do not have an unlimited amount of time on earth looms in the back of all of our heads, and when we take a photo we can capture and save a little bit of the experience that we have in our lives. I think this is why I take photographs as well. With this medium you have the ability to directly share what you see and have seen with others. I think that this is a beautiful idea that allows humans to connect with each other visually, experiencing an image together.

Inspiration

I have always been inspired by the writing of J.D. Salinger and the music of Joni Mitchell. I feel like when I experience both of these artists' work I am drawn closer to myself. They see the world in finding the emotion in the small idiosyncratic bits of the world. This helps me see myself and the world around more truthfully and more intensely. In a way, this is what I aim to acomplish with my own work.

Creative Process

For me, the creative process starts much like the act of putting the key in the ignition of a car. You have to actively start it up, romanticize it, feel it. If I don't psych myself up for the act of creating, I find that I really do not care much about what I am doing. In painting this translates into muddy colors, sloppy application... bad work. I think the most important part of he creative process for me is being excited about what I am doing- to feel the possibility of how good something might turn out. I like to put myself in a position where I feel like I can succeed at what I am doing, both mentally and physically. I also need to give myself enough time and space to not feel rushed. If I slow down and focus, I oftentimes produce better work that I am more satisfied with.

Dang Good

http://nh.craigslist.org/ats/2012911250.html

Sinning Hands

I believe that this project was the most fun out of any that we have done this semester. With my project I was really trying to conceptualize the intention of the project metaphorically through the use of household objects. In our consumer based culture I feel that we all to often rely on objects to identify ourselves. With my project I tried to use objects to represent each of the deadly sins.

Color Project

After completing this project I have been more compelled to think about how color can effect the way I begin to compose my work. I know that in painting, I have always been a sucker for a over saturated colors. I tend to gravitate to a warmer palette of colors in painting, and I have found this to be true in my photography as well. I wonder if our natural inclinations come out in all forms of the art that we create. It must in some way, but for me the similarities between my photography and paintings have become more apparent in light of this project. Color intensity in a photo has such a profound effect on the way the viewer initially reacts to an image. Too much, and the image becomes a falsity; too little and the image is passed by for something more striking.

Kingsbury Dang

Often times in architecture we are not able to visit the buildings we study. It would be physically impossible to see all of them, so we instead rely on photographs to discover what they look like. While this method of looking at buildings sometimes does not allow for the viewer to fully experience the actual physicality of the structure, photography gives the viewer a specific, permanent view of the building’s ethos that might have otherwise been overlooked. The photographer’s creative license to decide what to include in his or her compositions has the ability to shape many people’s opinions about a building. Their individual views of a building shape our views, giving us a professionally aesthetic view of a structure. A great example of this practice is demonstrated in photographer, Julius Schulman’s work on the case study houses of southern California.
It has been said that “architects live and die by the images that are taken of their work, as these images alone, are what most people see. For every person that visits a private house, there may be 10,000 that only view it as a photograph,” (Visual Acoustics 1:33).
“Architecture affects everybody. From the hospital where you are born, to the schools and grocery stores, markets, libraries, theatres…every part of a person’s life is based upon an architect’s presence,” says Julius Shullman.

Kingsbury Creeping

The way you look a building is often determined by the experience of actually physically being there, having it surround you, seeing the way that people interact with it. However, when you can't get to the building yourself you must rely on photographs in order to get an impression of it. During the assignment in Kingsbury today, I tried to get the best impression of the building that I could. As a photographer you have the ability to edit and manipulate your subject in a way that it will depict what you want. This can sometimes be despite the other factors in a given photographic scene that would hinder the image from the artist's directive. In today's assignment I wanted to focus on the cool, empty feeling that I have always associated with Kingsbury, taking photos without people in them that showcased the long geometric architectual line associated with it.