My two picks!

So obviously since I am doing all of these blogs at the last minute I didn't really have a whole lot of time to pick so I did the best job I could by random.

Lewis Hine


Hine's started out after college as a teacher and encouraged his students to use photography as a medium for education.  What I find most interesting is that he majored in sociology in college.  It makes me really think about the direction I'm heading in but I'm also alot older than most other college students.

Anyway back to Hine's...I loved the work he did when he photographed the American Red Cross relief work abroad.  Something about devastation moves me in images and I would have loved to be a photo j major prior to family.

Obviously Hine's was pre-digital.  His work dated from the late 1800's to middle 1900's.  Film is a medium I love and is now an "alternative" process.  I want more experience with the dark room.  I plan to start this after college because I love the grain.  I love hearing Chad say if you started out in film you would understand more of the tools in photoshop because that is so true.

Anyway back to Hine's again, LOL.  Look at this image....
Look at the DOF.  And the grain to the image.  Those are my most favorite things about his work besides the inspirational side of the feelings I get when looking at his work.

It's hard to imagine what that time period was like even though I hear about it from grandparents.  Through Hine's images it brings it all back.  The love and all that.  HAHA

Beautiful!


Tina Modotti


Tina was another early photographer from the 1900's.  She was a documentarian and did alot of portrait work.  What I find most impressive are her angles.  She seems to want to portray that somber manner in her photographs.


Alot of the images I have seen are with people not making eye contact.  Almost as if she is trying to catch an innocence or love lost or stolen.  I don't know but this is the way it makes me feel.

I also noticed that alot of her photographs were of women or women and children.  I'm sure there is more to it than just a coincidence.  The womens rights movement has been traced all the way back to 1848 so for a female photographer, in my opinion, to be kind of documenting women during this time is genius!


I love the se-metrics of this image.  She did alot of nude work with women as well and it's beautiful and portrays to me a sort of innocence and sadness.

Richard Misrach & Robert Glenn Ketchum

Richard Misrach


I am drawn to mono chromatic images.  The simplicity almost drives me nuts that I love it so much!

His composition rocks and every image is so amazing as a whole and individually.  How cool is it to be known as one of the photographers that pioneered the renaissance of color photography.  WHAT?!  Craziness and what an honor and I can most certainly see it in his plethora of work.

The images of water and the things he finds around bodies of water are very intriguing to me.  I want to go there in a sense find out the story.  It's like they are images of the "untold" stories.

Then there are the images that are planned to the T of things placed in an unordinary surrounding.  But in a peaceful and restful way.  Does that even make sense, LOL.

Robert Glenn Ketchum

I don't think I have ever really been into landscape photography.  Something about it has never really moved me until now.  I think I really just need to spend some time in the books and actually look at work.  I really think that is the reason.  Running across all of the photographers has opened my eyes.

Ketchum is known for his landscape work.  He has been recognized with several awards and notably so.  His use of composition and light sets me into a whole different view point.  I think he has a way of showing off what is good that is still here and then the other side of what is bad that is not shown but through his imagery.  Ya know?

I'm gonna pull over some of the images I found remarkable from what I was just talking about.




I have wanted to try landscape but it's difficult for me.  I continue to experiment but haven't quite got it down.

Annie Leibovitz & Chris Verene

Annie Leibovitz


The controversial american portrait photographer....

I can say going through her images was amazing.  I am going to look into purchasing a book of her work just because it gives me motivation.  Not to be exact but it makes me excited.  I love her work!  I love everything about what she does and the moods she tries to create.  The irony in everything and how something so beautiful is so argumentative.

She has a way of capturing a mood and I would love to be in the room while she is doing her sketching & pre work because the idea behind some of these images blows my mind.  I like the book themes she uses.  I think that would be cool to do.

I feel like I'm saying LIKE a million times but I have never really looked thru her images like I have now.

I love the ones of Miley and I didn't choose them because of it being some of her more recent work but because of the aesthetic of the collection.  Here are some of my favorites.....

I love the moments she captures.  The impromptu looks the celebrities give.  Amazing!

Chris Verene

So documentary, eh?!  I'm not sure how or what kind of feelings are invoked when I looked at Chris' work.  Candid shots that are simple or not.  The color is amazing but I can't tell what is thought out and what is candid.  Or is it all meant to look candid when it's not really.  I think the concept is cool & I love the rawness.  The unplanned things.

I don't have alot to say about it.  The work as a whole is interesting and the ideas behind it simple.  He uses the frame well.

Garry Winogrand & Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Winogrand

So this guy is most known for his "hip" photography.  Obviously very photojournalistic and I love that.  Not that we are supposed to say if we like it or not but what I will say is that when going through his images that made me feel a sense of vulnerability.  How the subjects are so raw but very composed in his frame.

Alot of his images are very controversial.  That takes guts but it's real and that's what I feel moves me the most looking through his work.

This one for instance...predominantly one of the most popular images.

Then you have the realistic sense with this next one.

I can't imagine what these people were thinking as they drove by and Winogrand shot the broke nose.  It makes me laugh but at the same time I choose to look at his technique with the slower shutter & pan.  Awesome!

Meatyard


So I remember looking at this guy a month back, LOL.  I really do go and look at these photographers because I think it's important to see other work too.  I just don't have alot of time and I know that sounds cliche.

Anyway so Ralph....wow.  So the masks creep me out and then the masks on kids even more so.  I think he means to envoke the sort of creepy sense in the images.  I, myself, have actually wanted to sort of take the "kids" images that I do to another level.  Not this way but something different that is going to set me apart.

I feel like the images are conceptual; very well thought out.

This image reminds me of my kids....just out in random playing with masks.  Kinda of a funny side of his images.

Brass Ring Awards 2011

I entered 4 images into the contest Sponsored by Oklahoma Christian University Art + Design. 

2 into each of these catagories:
Photography-Black & White
Photography-Color

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Prizes: “Best of Show”, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Merit awards in each category are based on the judges’ scoring. All winners will be shown online. “Best of Show” winners will receive an acrylic trophy and cash prize (based on the total number of entries).
Price:
$5.00 = High School per entry
$9.00 = College per entry

* There is no limit on entries! We accept credit card payments through PayPal (you do not need to have a Paypal account to pay).
Groups: We will accept checks from High Schools and Universities entering student work of 25+ (or more). Your teacher can contact jeff.price@oc.edu if that applies to your school entries.
Eligibility: All college and university undergraduates and high school students.
Contest Starts: February 1, 2011
Deadline: Noon, February 24, 2011 March 4, 2011
The Brass Ring Awards competition is designed to motivate and reward students for excellence in art and design. This year marks the 25th year for the Brass Ring Awards, which attracted 1,239 entries in 2010, from 60 universities and 18 high schools. To see the full list of schools, check out the “Previous Winners” section on the left.

Stephen Shore & William Eggleston

Stephen Shore

What I saw most in his images was that everything & I mean EVERYTHING was in focus.  I took that from my eyes as meaning that every part of the image was important and exact space of what was in the frame was to be considered.

Place vs Space is hard for me to differentiate but again I in my own words the space in its' entirety is what I think he wants his viewers to see.  I think it's very cool to find photographers that are somewhat specific to the assignments we are currently working on.  It's amazing to see it in motion through another photographers eyes.  It helps me to see what they see I guess is what I mean by that last statement.

His images give me a calm feeling about them.  I don't feel drawn to one thing but yet the WHOLE image.  I have been gazing at his work off and on all weekend and it's almost like everytime I do I find yet another something in one of his images I didn't feel before.

Look at the action going on in all of these shots combined.  I feel emotion, I feel like he wants the viewer to notice what is going on in the entire frame.  Again documenting the space from which these images were taken.

I bookmarked alot of his images and really was intrigued by the stories behind them.












William Eggleston

I think Eggleston really pays attention to the way light falls onto a subject.  Without doing the deep research this is what I am getting from viewing his images.  I think down to a T he is documenting the place he is in; filling the frame with a subject just so you were to be kept guessing what space it is acutally in.  So with that being hidden it has to be to show the so called space, right?!  LOL

I know our professor says that with photography there is no 2 + 2 = 4; no wrong answers but sometimes if I sit and dwell on the space vs place too long I get confused all over.  Art is through an artist eyes!

Both of these images are tidbits of information; leading you to figure out the space the actual place is in.  Ahhhhhh I got it!  Something can show space & place at the same time!!

Look at the monochromatic image on the right.....did someone drop that? Where is it?  Questions I think that Eggleston wants the viewer to consider.  I like images with a story behind them.  I also think he tends to stick to the more monochromatic side of things.

Joel Meyerowitz & John Pfahl

Joel Meyerowitz

IMAGERY!  This man can create some imagery.  I was drawn to alot of the simplistics in his landscape images.  I felt almost a peace out an image that I haven't felt before looking at his work.  This was MY FAVORITE.  I don't want to sound like I plan to like every photographer we are given to analize but I like to look & actually try to gaze into an image.  I want to see what feelings come from looking at certain images.  PEACE is what I felt when I looked at this one and I just kept coming back to it.

The planning & framing is contagious.  I see leading lines to an end that has no end.  It was very pleasing to the eye.

I think Joel is amazing at framing in the camera.  Who knows what he does post-work wise but I feel like he is really good and knowing what to leave out....which is something I am currently working on in the images I create for this class.

It was pretty amazing that he could go from this to street photography with so much chaos.  I felt like his use of light was phenominal with all the different genres of themes that I saw.

The 911 work was most impressing.  For me to be inspired it almost feels like it has to be at sunrise & dusk.  The images of 911 created a feeling of fog & atmosphere without actually being during those times.  I'm sure the pounds & mounds of dirt helped but what images he created were inspiring for all whom lived through that tragic moment!

This was a perfect example.

Look at the light!  Amazing where the highlights in this image fall.

John Pfahl

John Phahl and his altered landscapes.....hmmmmm.  What to say without describing my likes or dislikes about those types of images he creates.  I didn't get it.  I think his framing is great but I don't know what he wants a viewer to see when he produces these types of images.  ????

I enjoyed the horizon lines on his images.  In the middle is borning and it adds more to a photo when you change that horizon line.  He has quite a few monochromatic images that were very pleasing to the eye.  I felt his composition was very creative.  He definetley thinks outside of the box even if you can't quite understand it; this is what I think sets him apart.