Thursday 30 April 2020

Thursday April 30th




Before you begin researching a Photographer for Project 17 and 18, you will need to know the definition of POSTMODERN PRINCIPLES because you will need to pick a PHOTOGRAPHER who uses one or more of these principles in their work. 

Recontextualization
Positioning familiar imagery in relation to pictures, symbols, or texts that it is not usually associate with. 
 A process that extracts text, signs or meaning from its original context in order to introduce it into another context.  Since the meaning of texts and signs depend on their context,  recontexturaliation implies a change in the communicative purpose to. 

The Gaze
Controlling or drawing attention to how and why familiar imagery is seen and used, especially by questioning or playing upon contradictions between what is being looked at and who is doing the looking. Think context, content and audience as an experience.

Text and Image
Creating meaning through the combined interplay of text and imagery.  Artists working in this style often combine images and text that don't obviously go together.   This results in a piece of work that build meaning that is beyond the text and image alone.  Combined they create a stronger meaning. 

Representin'
Creating imagery that proclaim one's identity and affiliations; locating an artistic voice within a particular history and culture of origin.  Questions of race, class, cultural identity and national identity are addressed in these types of work.  

Hybridity
Using a multiplicity of media and/or a blending of cultural sources in order to investigate a subject.

Appropriation
To appropriate is to borrow. Borrowing imagery from historical and mass media sources, such as found photos and advertising.  Through the act of borrowing, the artist manipulates, adds to.  Appropriation is the practice of creating a new work by taking a pre-existing image from another context—art history, advertising, the media—and combining that appropriated image with new ones. Or, a well-known artwork by someone else may be represented as the appropriator’s own. Such borrowings can be regarded as the two-dimensional equivalent of the found object. But instead of, say, incorporating that “found” image into a new collage, the postmodern appropriator redraws, repaints, or rephotographs it. This provocative act of taking possession flouts the modernist reverence for originality.

Layering
Overlapping and overlaying a multiplicity of images, devaluing the sacredness of any one picture. 

Juxtaposition
Placing or combining contrasting imagery in such a way as to create new meaning from the interplay of clawing concepts.  

The term juxtaposition is useful in helping viewers to discuss the familiar shocks of contemporary life in which images and objects from various realms and sensibilities come together in intentional clashes or in random happenings. The results may be shocking, political, they may destroy, but always make the viewer think about the subject in a way that goes beyond the original objects or images. 

Obsessive
One technique often found in contemporary art are works that have an obsessive and/or repetitive, quality to them.  The works art often crafted with impeccable precision and often use found objects as a raw material.  Often the repetitive actions take on a ritualistic quality.  Sometimes the works address ideas of consumption or over consumerism.

The full lesson is here:

If you are starting to research already these are the specifics you will need for your report:

Name of Artist
Dates of Artist’s Life
Personal Background
Style
Philosophy
Influences:

Tuesday 28 April 2020

Tuesday April 28th

As you may know one of my least favorite photos are ones of electrical lines. However, for the line assignment I suspect I will get a few photos of them, so I will give you some information about how electrical lines have affected people in the Urban Landscape as well as in more remote places.

If you have ever driven  up north or out west, your vision is often being divided by power lines. This article Reclaiming Visual Stewardship in Tucson, Arizona: Is It Possible? by Ellen Barth Alstar, a Landscape Architect,  is trying to reclaim the views and think of aboveground electrical lines as Land Art.


 “What do we really expect from a power line structure? Is it only a technical necessity, an object of design excellence or a piece of land art?”

She goes on to propose that the the Urban Landscape has invade the Sonoran Dessert. For her study she brings in images from California and the UK

where they have taken this battle to heart.




I personally think it makes a big difference. And maybe the reason I don't like them is because I can not see around them. They are blocking my view. But I guess if I thought of it as art it would not be so bad. 


My photos.










Thursday 23 April 2020

Thursday April 23rd

Morning!

Remember that by tomorrow you should have COMPLETED for the CLP the following:

Project 3- Shapes (Windows, doors and organic)
Project 4- Clouds and/or Sunsets

Check for Understanding Survey. You will receive a google form survey tomorrow via email. It is a must for the CLP. (10 Photo Critiques).

Next Week is Lines and Patterns. The quick tutorial below will help you with any distortion you get through your lens you don't see until the image is imported. It will help you align your horizon line.

 

Tuesday 21 April 2020

Tuesday April 21st


How many organic shapes can you find in this image? Photography makes you stop and gives you time to look at the details. With discipline and wonder you will find new and interesting shapes that you may not have notice as you scanned a scene.

Since we have a lot of time to look, take the time to allow yourself to visually enjoy the scenes around you. Remember to take time to describe, analyze, interpret and judge.

PHOTO CRITIQUE CHECKLIST


1. Intent. Could any viewer look at this photo and know what you had in mind?
2. Emotional Impact. Can this photo be described with words of emotion, like peace, calmness, anger, rage, joy, or sadness? Does your photo make an emotional statement?
3. Center of interest. When composing your images do you successfully direct your viewer’s attention to a specific point? Would the viewer know where your center of interest is?
4. Illusion of depth. Have you used framing, balance, contrast, and other art concepts to make your image jump off the page, or does it just sit there?
5. Subject/background contrast. Shooting a portrait of someone with black hair against a black background in not usually a good idea. Does your subject stand out?
6. Personal style. Ansel Adams was known for extreme illusion of depth and all planes in very sharp focus. Jim Zuckerman is known for vibrant colors and simplified subjects within their natural setting. Henri Cartier-Bresson once said, “There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment.” How will others describe your unique approach?
7. Selective focus. Do you choose where the viewer will look? If the background is just as sharp as the foreground, things can become very visually confusing.
8. Composition. Do you consistently use the rule of thirds, formal or informal balance, and leading lines? Take control of where the viewer’s eyes are most likely to fall in your image.
9. Exposure. Do you always shoot at whatever the camera says, or do you take control of the light? Can you see details in your shadows? Have you ever used a reflector or bounced a flash as opposed to straight on?
10. Storytelling. Is there a feeling of movement within your image, or does it just sit there? Does it leave anything to the imagination, or is it just a statement of what is? If your image doesn’t tell a story, there is no reason to give it a second glance. Great photos make you want to look again and again.

Thursday 16 April 2020

Thursday April 16th

Morning!

Remember that by tomorrow you should have COMPLETED for the CLP the following:

Project 1- Lightroom Notes (noted posted to GCR)

Project 2- Portraits and Hands edited in LR. Black and white optional. Titles and artist statement. Weebly page address turned into GCR and marked done for credit.

Check for Understanding Survey. You will receive a google form survey tomorrow via email. It is a must for the CLP.

Additional tips for Lightroom.
Start the video at 1:41 (skip to that).

Tuesday 14 April 2020

Tuesday April 14th


Good Morning! Hope you are all doing well!

Just in case you missed my apology, YOU WILL NOT be penalized if you do not have as many people as the Project asks for.

This video for you to watch. Hope it inspire your hand photos.

Friday 10 April 2020

Friday April 10th


“There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.”

— Robert Frank


Robert Frank U.S. 285, New Mexico 1956
gelatin silver print, 13-1/2 x 9-3/4 inches
Courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art