Thesis Update

Ryan McGinley

Born: October 17, 1977

Lives: New York City

Ryan McGinley began photographing in 1998, by 2003 was photographer if the year (American Photo Magazine). His early subjects were his peers, kids who indulged in the urban underground culture. These skateboarders, graffiti artist, heathens were loved by critics because they "know what it means to be photographed", "His subjects are performing for the camera and exploring themselves... they are willing collaborators".  He shoots with a 35mm film camera (Yashica T4s and Leica R8s). His early work was more documentary compared to his works later on where he creates the scene and directs how the subjects engage the camera. His subjects in his personal works are almost always nude.

http://ryanmcginley.com/

Other random facts:

-The band "The Virgins" were formed because he members of the band met at a Ryan McGinely photoshoot.

-McGinely shot the cover piece for a Sigur Rós album.

-McGinely was the photographer for a Levi's Jeans ad campaign

Katie Jingozian

Prompt 19

1. I ensure that my work is relevant to me by shooting images of things I find interesting. As bland as an answer that sounds I think that's what really does it for me. I try and take pictures of of subjects that I would want to see everyday.

2. I cannot say if I ensure that my work is relevant to the "contemporary world". If I see a style of somebody else work that I enjoy, I might try to mimic it. Does this make my material fit into the art style around it? Perhaps it does. As long as more then just myself enjoy my work, I am content.

3. Brainstorming is not my forte. I do brainstorm but don't really get good records of my thought process. I wake up in the middle of the night and write things down that I think of. I have various sticky notes with scribbles of things I want to shoot. Almost everyday I will have a folded up wad of paper in my back pocket that I will use if an idea happens to float by. With the help of digital photography, I do brainstorm with the camera. Why not? Shoot something now, come back to it later. I like to have images work as notes for me. But again I am bad at keeping track of my visual notes.

4. Well for my thesis I have been experimenting with the mixture of doodles and photos. I haven't considered mixing genres outside of the digital frontier but seeing some of my peers projects makes me wonder what I could do. I use digital for this procedure because it is what I am most comfortable with even if my technique isn't always handsome.

5. I think my process and my work are very much connected... in a bad way. I am very loose minded and the majority of my work does relate in content to each other but in a more sporadic parallel with the ideas that flow through me. This is bad because it for me I never know when a piece is finished. When I throw in the towel other people might say "you could also do this."

6. Oh dear, going back to question five. To me things are working when I'm still smiling. If I'm not happy then it isn't working. I am biased to my own but open for critique. Usually at this phase of my life, by the time I am given help, I have already closed the book on the project.

7.I'd like to say that I am  pushing limits but the more I StumbleUpon, the more I see new examples of photography that is pushing my limits.

Thesis...

(help)

Missy Gaido Allen

Born: 1968 Houston, Texas

Study: University of Iowa (Fine Arts)

In her "Iowa Spring" photo series she photographed flowers with a shallow depth of field with black and white chemicals to produce high contrast negatives and prints. For film developing, she used Rodinal, agitated constantly, and stressed everything by 15-20%. To print she used a 4x5 enlarger with a Zone VI VC cold light head and Dektol developer. Her motivation for these shots was too "reclaim her sanity." Living in Texas and moving to Iowa was quite a shock to her especially getting used to the winter. Spring to Allen was a very short time of year and she did her best to take full advantage of it. Her low angles make the flowers seem taller then they are giving them a powerful emotion feel. She pushes the beauty of the flower, taking a simple element and stressing its color. These saturated shots show her freedom of the dull and dreary winter she was experiencing. I like the use of colors and lack of focus. To me it generates a taste palette, more painting then photograph. All the defined lines of a flower don't need to be exposed to recognize an image of a flower. It's more beautiful to look at these representations of plants because they have a daydreamy, semi childish feel to them like its the first time you focused your eyes on the outdoors. 

 

http://caohh9409.blog.163.com/blog/static/8803412006111092735305/

(for more images)

Type and Image

Danny Lyon

Birthdate: March 16, 1942

Education: Self Taught

Country: United States

From 1963-1967 Danny Lyon documented the lifestyles of an outlaw motorcycle gang. Not only did he document but he became an outlaw himself. This process is called 'new journalism'. He wanted to glorify the lives of the American motorcyclist. His images of this movement inspired the creation of the movie "Easy Rider." Critics enjoyed his images saying how they "idealized figures fighting for dignity in the face of subjugation." How his images reflect his life as much as the lives around him. His images are mainly shot in a first viewer perspective. Many images were shot while Danny was riding his bike in the road. I enjoy how he became apart of the movement to photograph it. Other photographers would not of been able to shoot what he had available to him and it just goes to show that we as photographers of today need to appreciate the subjects that we have access to.

Stop Motion

Prompts 17 & 18

17. Looking at the advances of photography currently like HD video, a bazillion megapixels, crazy live view, etc. The technologies will advance, perhaps a way to get super high res shots but minimal storage capability. Easier and quicker RAW processes, faster fps, smaller/lighter cameras, blah. Photoshop in camera (or at least basic photoshop processes). Product photography will disappear with the rise of CGI. Lifestyle will always remain. Cameras will turn into accessories, something to put on your keychain. Custom decorations, multicolored, personalized cameras will arise. Cameras in phones will become SLR quailty and we'll all wonder why we every bought the cameras we have today. For photography itself though. I feel like cameras are being used to capture everything (but then again someone said this 30 years ago and was wrong). So what is going to be the focus for photographers? What will be my focus? Things that one cannot see in an everyday scenario,  where can a camera go that a person cannot? Whatever the photographers imagination has in store will remain a focus. All I'm saying though. Polaroids need to come back (and be cheap). Lady Gaga might have done that already though: 

http://www.fastcompany.com/1714843/lady-gaga-polaroid-camera-sunglasses

18. Photography is the ability to capture light. It is the ability to capture moments in time and store them in an unforgettable fashion.

Thesis

For my thesis I want to explore the combination of photographs and scannography. I want to play around with layering sketch book illustrations on top of street/environmental photographs. 

(Thought I'd put this on the blog to help you guys remember)

Prompts 12-16

12. A still photograph captures one frame and freezes a moment while a moving images are a collection of many frames that can display movement or just about anything.

13. The only thing I can think of would be that moving images are made up of many still photographs.

14. The concept of time can be found in photography when a picture is shot with a longer exposure to capture movement. Time is relevant in all photographs, without a distinguished amount of shutter there wouldn't be a photograph. But this idea can be reversed too with the idea of stillness. The faster the shutter speed, the more likely the image will appear 'still'. Photography captures frames from reality to show a still scene.

15. To activate an image that I have already taken I would make it 3D? Perhaps like a moving billboard you could take an image and have it move around a room. Fold pictures into paper airplanes and toss them out of buildings. Attach images to a kite and let them fly around...

16. Press Pause...