Totally Anonymous!

famousboxes — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:58:55 +0000

First things first. This is dawn at Keflavik airport, and the only photo I took during my trip to Estonia (Keflavik was very nice, though! Copenhagen was a bit too much like an outlet mall for my taste).

The following are photos of our three days in Tallinn. They are not sorted by any sort of democratic process. I recognize that many people may not find pac-man graffiti as interesting as I do, so bear with me.

Estonian comic sans. What a horrible font.

One of the few remaining iron stars on a public building – evidently most were destroyed after Soviet occupation ended.

Tallinn’s old town. Touristy, but beautiful.

Inside the pharmacy (apteek) mentioned in this NPR article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126306293

The Wall of Sweaters, alongside limestone fortifications originally built by Teutonic knights in the 1200s.

Outside of an abandoned Soviet-built theater. The scale was enormous.

Distant Soviet apartment buildings.

Nevsky Cathedral, which is directly opposite Estonia’s parliament building. The cathedral is apparently somewhat controversial, especially its proximity to parliament – similar cathedrals in Latvia and Lithuania were deconstructed after independence.

Soviet vending machine on display in the Museum of Occupations.

The museum’s basement held a number of sculptures of prominent Estonian communists (and other Soviet symbols) that were removed from public display:

Project 4 – The Illusion of the Moving Image

famousboxes — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:08:21 +0000

During the introduction to this project, we discussed various methods of making zoetropes. This inspired to me think of daily objects that spun – and lo and behold, that afternoon I walked into my bathroom and realized my $4.99 IKEA scale had a rotating disc. Before the next class, I grabbed the scale for disassembly. Since I had no idea if prying the scale open would ruin it, I had several backup ideas for flipbooks and zoetropes. It was fairly simply constructed, however, and I realized that I could replace the weight measurement disc with images of my own design. My original idea was to have the disc spin freely to create an animation effect, but this proved impossible given the construction of the scale. I focused then on ideas that would show a progression based on weight. Originally I had planned to photograph toast emerging from a toaster. My other plans included Milky Way bars (of which I am fond), and so I decided to combine a stereotypical junk food with a bathroom scale.

The design of this project was very much constrained by the dimensions of the scale. The disc was only 4 inches in diameter, which limited the number of images that would fit to 8. In order to fit the progression of a candy bar being eaten, the images had to be fairly small. I was worried that the small size of the images would prevent viewers from easily seeing what was being displayed in the scale window.

In critique, I was surprised by the positive reaction that the scale received. Like Project 3, I felt that the scale was conceptually sound but limited in execution. I was initially worried, since nobody seemed to realize that it was actually a project. Even better was the fact that the audience picked up on the main theme I had intended, which was the replacement of a weight with a completely arbitrary scale of measurement (a candy bar in various stages of consumption).
As far as I know, no other photographer has used a scale as a medium. Inspirations for this project include:

1) Candy 2) IKEA BOLMEN scale

Project 3 – Photo as Object

famousboxes — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:55:34 +0000

My initial idea for this project was to take multiple photos of a pornographic model and recombine them into a large format printed montage. Because the model would exist on newsprint, printing in such a large format would reveal imperfection in the printing process (such as print dots, misaligned colors, etc.).
This idea was abandoned after I was exposed to a daguerreotype case in an Art History course. Daguerreotypes are small and precious, and were most commonly used to depict intimate family portraits. In a fit of iconoclasm, I decided that I would place a pornographic model in a daguerreotype case. I would be subverting an old art object for my own personal, perverse reasons. Finding a suitable image was challenging, as many nude models simply looked like they belonged in the case. I finally settled on an image of a woman in a push-up bra, which functions as a visual marker of modernity.
Critique for this project was unexpectedly pleasant. I felt that the daguerreotype case was a strong idea conceptually, but it was not as strong as it should have been in execution. It was fairly well received and stimulated a fair amount of conversation, which was pleasantly surprising.

Images that served as inspiration for this project include:

The image of the bra was taken from an online retailer, and is similar to what was included in the final project. The daguerreotype cases were found in google image search, and are similar in style to the case I bought on ebay.

Image and Text

famousboxes — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:49:28 +0000

For my marriage of image and text, I planned to take self portraits and overlay them with dramatic text from movie promotional taglines. The self portraits were intended from the start to be low key depictions of mundane, unremarkable daily activities. After the previous project, I decided to shoot in black and white 35mm and add the text as a separate object on the photo.

Shooting the self portraits proved to be a bit of a challenge. Focus, exposure and composition of the self portraits took some time to get used to. It helped to use a studio light as a stand in for my person. After developing prints, I hand wrote text on white paper and taped it to the photo. The black ink on white paper seemed to blend in with the black and white print, and so I switched paper and instead used yellow post it notes to place the text as separate from the image.
I humbly submit the following images as inspirational:

These first 3 are representative of subjects I wanted to avoid when taking self portraits:

Slowly, by Monislawa

http://monislawa.deviantart.com/art/Slowly-147621665

This is a lovely photo, but it has a level of drama that would be totally inappropriate for the proposed subject of the image portion of this project.

http://larafairie.deviantart.com/art/Self-Portrait-Droplets-92891575

Self Portrait – Droplets by Lara Jade

Similarly, this photo is posed and lit in a way suggestive of dramatic narrative.

http://rebelliousamethyst.deviantart.com/art/canon-love-156518303

canon love by Neylan Yilmaz

I was consciously aware of the stereotypical “myspace portrait” – I’ll own up and admit to having taken photos similar to this, but I consciously avoided shots with cameras in them for this project.

The next 3 were emulated in various ways:

http://www.natelarson.com/charlatans5.htm

Nate Larson – Telepathy

Although I found this photo after I finished the project, the handwriting is similar to that of my own project. The effect is similar.

Barbara Kruger:

http://www.ismennt.is/vefir/ari/myndlist/kruger_you_are_not.jpg

http://www.maryboonegallery.com/artist_info/gfx/kruger/04189-%28BK%29.jpg

Barbara Kruger’s use of image and text was a direct inspiration for this project, although I did away with her feminist leanings.

And, the post-critique reflection:

Overall, the project seemed to be received as I intended it. The dissonance between the subject of the image and the text was effective. Before critique, I had to choose whether or not to try to arrange the text into a narrative. I chose against it, and I feel the the loose narrative formed by the group of images is preferable. As was pointed out, the images had a gray cast to them. Fortunately, this helped to accentuate how boring the activities depicted were. However, I cannot claim to have done this intentionally. I wish I had added a second or two of exposure to the toothbrushing portrait.

I was also unsure of the format of text – I had used transparent tape to attach the post-it cutouts to the image. Glare turned out to be a non-issue. I’m also satisfied that my use of small prints (5×7″) creates a more intimate experience, especially since viewers need to move in close in order to read the handwriting. Overall, the project met the goals I had set out to create – so much so that I regret not having created more images in the series.

Self Portrait – Droplets by `larafairie

Image and Text Exercise

famousboxes — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:53:42 +0000

Both of these images are of such unusual subject matter that without accompanying text, they are largely incomprehensible – yet visually interesting.

Racers run and tumble down Cooper’s Hill after a round of Double Gloucester cheese on May 25, 2009, near Gloucester. (BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

Flames lick across the underside of a horse as a man rides it through a bonfire during the annual Saint Anthony purification ceremony in the village of San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain on January 16, 2010. (REUTERS/Susana Vera)

The following images were taken from www.foundmagazine.com.

“Reference Photos”: 1

famousboxes — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:37:49 +0000

The webcomic A Softer World turned out to be a major influence on this project’s style, both visually and textually:

www.asofterworld.com, e horne & j comeau

I found this photo browsing the internet, and it demonstrates the slight perspectives shifts I used when assembling photographs into diptychs.

http://chrisnextdoor.deviantart.com/art/I-miss-you-Summer-151700904

I also stumbled onto this photo while browsing the internet. It similarly illustrates the shifts in perspective that I had originally planned to make a larger part of my own project.

http://altowiolistka.deviantart.com/art/Paulina-7-119468188

“Two Paragraphs of Written Post-Crit Reflection”: 1

famousboxes — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:30:41 +0000

Critique went fairly well. People seemed amused by the diptychs, which was my intention. I neglected to mention that the diptychs were not single photos with a line added through them, but were in fact two separate photos painstakingly arranged to look continuous. I suppose the fact that no one pointed how slightly different perspective or color balance is evidence that I completed that aspect of the project satisfactorily.

As noted previously, the final work was different in tone than was originally planned. Each of the 3 diptychs were going to deal with death in some way, which likely would have conveyed more of the sinister feeling that I had originally intended. Instead the work became more whimsical. This shift isn’t necessarily a negative aspect, but I was hoping to more directly combine morbid with lighthearted. The diptychs for the steel works and power lines weren’t as strong as the teacup, again because of the lack of distinction between the images.

“Your Ideas For the Project”: 1

famousboxes — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:02:12 +0000

According to my notes, my thinking about the assignment “Size and Numbers” originally included tidbits such as “surveillance”, “identical images”, “small shifts in perspectives”, and “combine theme – citizens as TOTALLY FACELESS. OMG”. I ended up refining these ideas into two main proposals. I had decided to use 5×7 paper with two separate, square images printed on a single piece, shot in color with my Pentax DSLR. Both project ideas incorporated text. The first was to use the two panels to created an illustrated narrative of common figures of speech (e.g. “Butterflies in the stomach”, “Three sheets to the wind”, “I’ll give you a piece of my mind”). The second was to illustrate stories from the collection of news blurbs Novels In Three Lines (e.g. “In a cafe on Rue Fontaine, Vatour, Lenoir, and Atanis exchanged a few bullets regarding their wives, who were not present”).

I eventually chose to work with the Novels In Three Lines quotations. The blurbs’ unusual use of language, combined with wit and shockingly morbid subject matter, made it a compelling topic. My original plan was to take two images of a single subject. One of the photos would appear to be a normal scene, while the accompanying photo would reveal the sinister or otherwise remarkable occurrence described in the text. This format was preserved in only one of the three diptychs I eventually created. This was largely due to the difficulty in effectively staging some of the narratives in the book. Even those that were attainable were hindered by miserably cold weather (I needed someone to pose nude under a tree). After further reading, I chose two news items that were more whimsical than morbid. This decision undoubtedly altered the final tone of the work as a whole.