Self-critique of Final Project

   One of the most obvious weaknesses of the pictures i exhibited was the lack of focus in one or more of the images. The "Subjects" were small and as a result it was difficult to focus on them and gain any sort of clarity beyond what was shown. While this wasn't severe in most of the images it was more prevalent in the pictures involving the Lex Luthor figure. Another weakness was that i didn't push the locations and positions of the figures far enough, making them stand out of and be part of their environment. They needed to be humanized more and thought of as actors instead of just objects.

    The images presented during the critique were strong for several reasons. I liked the vibrant green of the one picture of the creature in the tree, and how he seems almost hidden and interacting with the leaves, just peeking at you, almost going unnoticed. I thought the sense of scale was good in these pieces as well. I felt the observer gets a sense of what the mundane world looks like through the eyes of a diminutive character. It becomes unfamiliar an alien, and more fascinating. I felt they were different and helped add a sense of quirky personality to the images.

 P.s. I finally remembered why i had no critique for my website. I turned it in on time, but the class ran out of time and you said we'd look at mine next time, but the next class i was late and it was the class everyone was using to print their final images. So the Final project wasn't late. It was turned in on time. I was just late on the day we were supposed to critique it. :)

Still Nicholas Nixon & Mary Ellen Mark

After reviewing the various photographers we've been over this semester i've decided that the ones that still stand out to me are the ones from my very first post on this blog, Nicholas Nixon and Mary Ellen Mark. When i decided to redo my 5th assignment with an emphasis on the gaming culture, Mary Ellen Mark was one of the artists i wanted to emulate. She doesn't just take pictures of people, she really sees them. She recognizes the invisible and the fringe of our society, the ones that "normal" people often neglect and she sees the beauty in them.
   I still like Nixons work for the same reasons and his Brown sisters collection still stands out to me as one of the most ingenius, original and dedicated pieces of work in any medium i've ever seen. It's not just a picture of four people, but of their relationship to each other. It's not just a picture of a place but pictures of times and eras. The antiquated feel of his images also appeals to me.

Nicholas Nixons' "Brown Sisters"

                                                 Mary Ellen Mark

Slideshow self critique

After my original plan went bust, i decided to go in a more deliberate direction and act as my own director, setting up the photos i wanted and how i wanted. I had the song picked out from the very beginning and the photos were taken with the express purpose of matching the lyrics of the song. The only draw back of the slideshow was that i was unable to control the amount of time the individual slides remained on screen, thus syncronizing them with the lyrics of the song. Other then that i feel the slideshow was very strong and fulfills the peramiters outlined in the assignment.

SLideshow#5

Assignment #5: Self assignment

Objective: Follow the sun and moon for a full 24 hour period.

Method: The plan is to take one photograph every hour on the hour for 24 hours with the subject being the sun and the moon. Some other photos will be taken to show the effect of the sun and the moon on various places.

influences/inspirations: Steven Christenson is an entertainer, a magician, and most recently an award winning photographer who specializes in astronomy and landscapes. What makes his work interesting is that he shows movement in his images, implying movement and making his photos one panel movies in a sense. I would hope to incorporate this sensibility in my assignment, not only to make my images more interesting, but also to more accurately depict the sun and moons movement across the sky. The two bodies are moving along, on a journey of sorts, and the images should show that.  

Peter Carey quit his job as a senior systems administrator for an internet company in downtown Seattle, Washington to pour his time into his passions, travel and photography. He maintains a travel blog, The Carrey Adventures. His work has a very vibrant and organic look. It's very natural, and seems to really do justice to the subject of his piece and thats what i want for my pictures. No matter how mundane the subject i want people to not be able to stop looking at it because the nature of the image is so compelling.

William Klein and Eliot Erwitt

It's weird, we have rules for a reason. Especially in art. There are things that you need to do to make a piece successful, and yet often it's those who reject those rules that find the most success and are often seen as genius or visionary. William Klein is one of these. Trained as a painter, Klein had no training at all in the field of photography when his images began to find there way into the public eye. And he blatantly rejected the rules of his day regarding picture taking. Klein has an eye for people, and seems to do more than just take pictures. I especially enjoyed the stories that went along with his images and seeing the pictures that were taken moments before and after a particular frame.

I thought Elliot Erwitt had a wonderful sense of humor, which no doubt aided him in his photgraphic endeavors. I enjoyed his anecdotes from his pictures and enjoyed that he also showed the images immediatley befne and following one particular image.Theres not much information available on Erwitt but from his pictures i can surmise that he went after an image with a paparazi-like fervor, and that he did it for no other reason than his artistic sensiblities.While i couldnt find it online i particularly liked the image of the baby carriage next to the line of white dressed women.

1st critique

One of the strongest images was the one of a well dressed, fashionable Young lady leaning against a wall that was fading, torn, and dilapidated. Refuse and paint chips andbits of wall were scattered on the floor. The subject was perfectly contrasted by the derelict shape of her surroundings. She was a beautiful, fancy, high class woman surrounded by debri. Not only did the subject work well in her environment, but her position in the picture plane felt like it was very thought out and purposeful. Her whole body was in the frame and wasnt centered, and the lines called the viewers attention to all corners of the image.

 While i didn't think any of the images that day were perticularly weak, i'd have to say the weakest was the image of the grandchildren and friends against the fence. It was a nice picture but artistically it just didnt seem to have a lot going for it. If it was in a photo album i wouldnt glance at it for longer than a second before i moved on to the next image. Unless you know the subjects it just isnt very interesting, and theres nothing aesthetically about it that keeps the viewers attention or even draws it in the first place.

All About Anthony Rodriguez

Well, I'm 32 years old, and married. I have a 9 year Daughter who is a an excellent reader. I started going back to school several years ago when i got a promotion at the plant i was working at and realized i could potentially be there for quite a while.

I'm Puerto Rican. Politically and Religiously i guess my beliefs are too broad to nail down, but if i had to say i guess i'm a Conservative Republican and a Baptist, but loosely at best.

I was born in Brooklynn, New York in 1979. My parents moved me and my brothers to Texas when i was three years old to try to provide a better life for us.

I'm quiet and shy until you get to know me. When i'm around people i'm comfortable with i can very entertaining, often in a sarcastic, douchy kind of way, but i get away with it.

When i started school i was majoring in Business because it seemed more practical then Art. But the Math classes were giving me problems and all that business stuff went right over my head, so i changed my major to Art. Since i made the change my grades have risen considerably which was a huge relief since i rely on financial aid to attend school. My end goal is to get a job as a Comic Book Illustrator, but failing that i'd like to draw concept art and story boards for video games and/or movies.

Nicholas Nixon & Mary Ellen Mark

i like Nicholas Nixon for mainly two reasons; first he prefers the older large format camera's, which had already been abandoned by his contemporaries for smaller, more portable camera's. He has his reasons, such as maintaining the integrity of the image, or the ability to use the negative to produce a print, but personally i myself am something of an antiquarian and tend to gravitate towards older things, for the aesthetics besides whatever practical reasons this may serve. Second, i love his "The Brown Sisters" collection. The idea itself is genius, to see the passage of time in a way that we are otherwise completely oblivious to. It's incredible to see the same people change so much, but still remain the same. It makes the passage of time visible and real and tangiable. The gradual transition of the sisters, not to mention the closeness of the sisters is what really makes these art. And the way he took the photos, the poses, the film quality, it all just makes the whole collection classic.

Mary Ellen Mark is a remarkable and a remarkebly talented woman. At the age of nine she began her career with an old box camera, in school she was head cheerleader who could paint and draw and had a wonderful eye for photography. She's recieved several degrees and even worked in film, including the classic and brilliant "Apocolypse now", directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Aside from photographing Anti-war demonstrations during the Vietnam war, she also took pictures of the fringe elements of society, the tired poor, huddled masses of New York, from
the Transvestites to the destitute , prostitutes, they all caught the flash of Mark's lens. "I'm just interested in people on the edges. I feel an affinity for people who haven't had the best breaks in society. What I want to do more than anything is acknowledge their existence". (Uncited but quoted in Long, "Brilliant Careers", Salon)

Henri Carier-Bresson

What i liked about Bresson was his eye for things that were photo worthy. Where others saw common, mundane things he saw art and beauty. I also like his journalistic nature and how he pioneered ground on that front. His restlessness under the rules and norms of his art is something i can emphasize with, having felt the same way myself. I've always thought of myself as kind of old school and Bresson makes me want to search through the garage sales and flea markets for some of the older model cameras.

What i hope to learn

I had signed up for Pho111 because of a new interest i had taken in photography when i bought my camera from a friend. I did not even realize it was a required course until my first day of class. I really enjoy playing with my camera and taking pictures and hope to learn more about how to do so effectively and with an artistic eye. While my interest and knowledge of photography are still in their infancy, i hope that learning more about the medium will increase my confidence, and by extension, my passion for it.