p.h.o.t.o. a.l.t.e.r.a.t.i.o.n.

Here is the final result from the first project: photo alteration. I used the hole in the wall as a sort of setting which I related to a cave or underground environment. I then became intrigued with the interior of a printer and realized it could definitely be used to show a human interaction. That is when I asked two roommates from my floor to pose for my project. I worked a lot with altering the colors of each image to give it a more darker tone rather than a vibrant one. I also had to put numerous hours ino working with different layers of transparency. I found a lot of frustration and difficulty with this task but after a large amount of tweaking and undoing I'm pretty satisfied. I know I will become more comfortable with this technique with future Photoshop practice.

pictures for project 1

These are the four images I plan on using in my first photo alteration project. The top two pictures show human interaction for I will manipulate Tyler and Ryan so that they work as opposing forces towards each other. The third picture is the interior of my hp printer. Displayed in the center are the color and black ink cartridges. The bottom photo is one I took of the exterior of a hole in the wall of the girl's bathroom in Wolfe Hall.

c.l.a.s.s.m.a.t.e. c.r.i.t.i.q.u.e.s

It was great to read my fellow classmates' opinions about artists: Gregory Crewdson, Teun Hocks, Jeff Wall, & Cindy Sherman. I was able to see which opinions were similar to mine and I also got the opportunity to learn more about these artists then what I captured from my own critiques. Here are a few of my favorite excerpts from their blogs -

Gregory Crewdson ~

Keri: "Because his pieces were not titled, I was able to view with work without any "previously set" notions. It was completely up to me to set the scene, or "title," without considering the role the title may play.

Michelle: " Was this some sort of mockery of American life? I felt as if a crime just took place. His work is cohesive, very interesting and captures attention. With detail, I wanted to comb through the scenes like a detective, but finding nothing."

Teun Hocks ~

Tim - "Hock’s work I think is more interesting as a process than the actual work is when completed. I think its pretty cool to take the values and add color instead of the opposite that has been done countless times before."

Stephanie - "His works appear to be based in sections. Each section a continued piece of the section next to it. Some pieces are divided equally and others are divided with organic lines, giving it a feel of abstraction."

Liz - "Hocks main series uses the same model so that the focus is on the action, not the person. He has an isolated and obvious focal point and does not use excessive wide shots like Crewdson."

Cindy Sherman ~

Alayne - "Knowing the origin of Cindy Sherman's work, for example that they are all film stills, all conveying, pausing, particular emotions and ideas, has given me a new and towering respect for her."

Renee - "However, artist Cindy Sherman differs from her peers by setting her works in more of an enclosed space. Centralizing her works more upon the study of women, this could be to better capture the figure. Moreover, where the other artists manipulate color to shift the overall mood of their pieces, Sherman has set her works to tones of black and white."

Jeff Wall ~

Rahda - "Jeff Wall’s work refers to history of art and philosophical problems of representation. He captures social issues in life in a more realistic fashion than the other two artists."

Keith - "His photographs since the early 1970's have been on the cutting edge of the avant-garde and he is not even a New Yorker. Wall, a Canadian photographer, is know for his large scale Cibachrome prints (cibachrome being related to a positive to positive printing process that makes slides as opposed to prints on paper)."

Cristina - "They may not be as painterly as Hocks, or as visually exciting as Crewdons, but Wall's works are lyrical much as they come off street-wise and ordinary...his visual poetry evident in his philosophical and art historical references."

i.n.h.e.r.i.t.e.d. t.r.a.i.t.s

Today was my second time visiting Nina Katchadourian and Heidi Kumao's art exhibit: Inherited Traits. To my own surprise, however, I had a totally different experience and also a new appreciation for the six displayed pieces. The first, most obvious piece is Nina's Genealogy of the Supermarket. Not only is this piece extremely clever and humorous, but it is also relatable to almost every one of its viewers. Personally, I was able to recognize a large handful of the pieces and found myself laughing at the fantasized relationships between them. You could detect a personality and story from each of the portraits and their frames without any commentary or writing.

The next piece was Kumao's Translator. I discovered a greater appreciation of this piece when I was able to hear the "parents" speak and criticize their child saying things like "go away" or "I have no money." The use of video showed a different personality in each of the parents. One displayed scribbly extending lines that would eventually be erased. I saw this chair as the father, not really knowing much about his child and also not really caring that she is a mystery. The other video displayed a spinal cord that would disappear and be followed by plates crashing. I saw this parent as the mother, tearing down her child's inner strength by criticism or verbal abuse. It was compelling to know that you, as the viewer, was in charge of the decision of which parent to go to. The machinery and materials used gave a dreary and detached feeling as the crank dragged the delicate child back and forth to disappointment.

Katchadourian's Accent Elimination displayed a loss of inherited traits in the way that Nina has never been able to demonstrate her parents' unfamiliar accents. I thought it was really cool that her parents were Armenian because my freshman reading requirement was Black Dog of Fate - a novel about the Armenian Genocide and its effects on future generations. Her final piece The Nightgown Project also had a underlying feeling of a lost part of culture. The aspect that I enjoyed the most about this piece were the "flaws" or missing material. For example: when Nina spent three years trying to find the right location of one of the earlier pictures but decided to leave it blank due to frustration; and also when a year was missing due to the war.

Kumao's last two video projects were extremely moving. The entire display including use of furniture and accessories to the film really added to these pieces as a whole. I remember the story of Frederick Douglas and how he told the slaves trying to escape to follow the "drinking gourd" or the big dipper. Contrary to this, I had absolutely no idea about the Japanese-Americans who were held as prisoners during World War II. This piece went with the theme because of Kumao's heritage of being a Japanese-American. I'm sure that making this project was extremely important to her and exemplified a lot of emotion and pain.

c.o.m.p.o.s.i.t.e. e.x.e.r.c.i.s.e

Today was my first time working with Photoshop so I was very apprehensive about it. However when I completed my first piece I realized that I had fallen in love with the program and am anxious to use it in the future. This is a composite of 5 separate images which include: a nebula, an astronaut, an abandoned underwater shipwreck, an old photo of an external hard drive and a picture of a fish bike from Nevada's Burning Man Art Festival taken by photographer, Scott London.

I was very impressed in the work done by artists Gregory Crewsdon, Teun Hocks, Jeff Wall and Cindy Sherman. Each artist had a very different style or personality towards their work and utilized very different techniques. Teun Hocks' photos were self portraits of him in a somewhat surreal situation. From swinging on a chandelier to floating on an iceberg, he had a very quirky and comical nature about his work. An aspect which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Jeff Wall and Cindy Sherman both displayed a lot of work from the 70s and 80s decades yet executed their pieces in very different lights. Sherman had a somewhat feminist view to her work displaying either herself as various heroines in Untitled Film Stills or by demonstrating the female representation of what society wants to look at. Jeff Wall did a lot of work with street photography. Two of my favorite pieces from him are Milk and Doorpusher.

I saved Gregory Crewdson for last because his digital images really blew me away. His creativity with overlapping images and combining scenes and situations never failed to amaze me. I loved how I was able to feel sort of a dreary or uncomfortable emotion when I viewed pieces such as: The father, Sunday roast, or Ophelia. His Twilight and Beneath the Roses collections were stunning and I am really glad I got the opportunity to find this artist. Picture above right is Crewdson's piece from Beneath the Roses, Ophelia.

Here is another example of Alex Andreev's work. He has a collection of altered photos taken in the Moscow subway where photography is strictly prohibited.

i.n.s.p.i.r.a.t.i.o.n.

I find myself easily inspired by everyday experiences. My surroundings in general and especially my subconscious really help me find ideas whether I am day dreaming or asleep. The art that I find most interesting is when something real and usual is transformed into something surreal or unfathomable. I love surrealism and surrealist artists such as: René Magritte and Salvador Dali. I also enjoy the work of Russian artist, Alex Andreev who calls his style of art "Hermetic."

To the right is an example of Andreev's Hermetic style.