William H Johnson

While my magazine was centered around Renaissance painter Albrecht Durer, I found myself much more interested in the small article devoted to William H. Johnson.  I was immediatly drawn to him because his self portrait (above) looked very different from the other paintings the magazine included which were cold and monotone. The use of color in Johnson's piece immediatly gives his painting more life making it more fun to look at.
Another aspect I really liked about the portrait was Johnson's eyes. There shape expressed sincere sorrow to me.While Durer's eyes were very realistic, but all they expressed were boredom.
The article explains that Johnson was an African American painter whose "powerful self-portraits... express the difficulties he faced as a black artist in the early 20th century." It continues on to explain how Johson is able to express his sorry with his "broken planes" and "wedgelike brushstrokes." It also explained how the distortions of his face and body help him to express how he's feeling (in this case frustrated and afflicted.) Hearing about these techniques also really grabbed my interest. I hadn't noticed any of these characteristics before the article told of them, but once they were pointed out to me I found myself appreciating the picture all the more.
Albrecht Durer is able to paint self portraits that look identical to himself, but convey no emotion. Johnson is able to paint self portraits in which he looks very human, and is able to convey a strong sense of emotion. Johnson wins all the way.

inspiration: my mom

My mom, Katherine Marie Benn is one of the toughest people I’ve ever met. She's experienced an abusive step-father, inconsiderate mother, abusive first husband, a cheating second husband, breast cancer, and the loss of two of her closest family members. Despite everything she’s faced, she always looks ahead, and continues to do whatever she can to help others.

While she got no encouragement at home to pursue any sort of college education, she studied fashion and design at the New York Fashion Institute of Technology--graduating with a 4.0, and worked in the fashion industry for some years--eventually leaving because of it's distorted views on life. After I was born, she founded a non-profit organization called the S.H.E.L.B.Y project which promotes healthy body image and spreads awareness about eating disorders. She’s been interviewed by many journalists and TV channels, and was the first person to ever receive the Courage Award from the National Eating Disorders Association.
About six years ago she decided to return to college to get a bachelors in physiology. While science people and art people are said to be two different entities, my mom is master of both. Seeing her dedicated work ethic as I entered high school gave me someone to look up to and follow. She graduated from ESU with her bachelors in psychology afew years ago--again with a 4.0.


What inspires me most about my mom is that she came from nothing, and was able to work herself out of her toxic home environment. I think many people would have caved to the experiences she’s had, but my mom refused to let others push her around and saw her situations as challenges that she knew she could overcome. Not only is she really ambitious, but when she decides to do something she puts everything she can into it. Whether it be something as simple as making dinner, or difficult as taking Spanish at 47 to graduate with her psych bachelors, my mom always gives her all, and seems to be good at everything she does. While she’s never put any social or academic pressure on me, she’s had a big impact on how I view myself and my work.

She is unlike anyone else I've met, and I'm so proud and grateful to call her my mom.

scary photography

So before starting my Holga shoot I did some research to try and get some ideas as to what I wanted to shoot. I came across the Flickr account of "rockpool73" and was immediatly inspired. (I would post some of his pictures, but Flickr won't allow it.) My favorite thing about the photographer's pictures was the heavy blacks he got in his pictures. This appeared most in afew picture he took of a long haired cat. Seeing this brought me back to a subject I'd tried many times to shoot, but had never been able to capture: my cat. Shooting my cat is always very difficult because he's very needy, and when I bend down to take his picture, he immediately runs over to me. I decided that I would try again. First I brought Montey (my cat) inside, and had my dad pet him to try and keep him still, but then I became leary of shooting indoors and decided it might be cool if I took him into the woods. He dutifully followed me into the backyard, but when we got into brush he'd bight at things and groom himself (neither actions made for a good picture). I also found that since I was shooting first thing in the morning, the sun was really strong, and it was having a negative affect on the pictures I took. I tried for about an hour, to get at least one picture I liked, but I had no luck.

Feeling semi discouraged, I moved to plan B: I asked my mom to drive me to an abandoned factory I'd seen by a place I used to volunteer at. She happily agreed, but when we got there I realized this may not have been such a good idea. The factory was gigantic, and no one but my mom and I were around. The factory would probably be a good place for my town's homeless people to live. I became terrified at the idea of an angry stranger bursting out of the building. My mom (who in some ways is my complete opposite) didn't really consider this fear at all, she was excited and wanted to explore. As I slowly walked toward it I noticed "no trespassing" signs all over the place, and graffiti everywhere; what if this was a gang hangout?! I had my DSLR with me and did not want to be held up. Once again, my mom thought I was being ridiculous, and yelled to me to come closer. I eventually did, and saw that the inside of the factory was really awesome, but the ground inside was completely torn up, and amidst all the decay was a running pump. This planted another fear in my mind; what if this was a hazardous waste site? Once I thought of this I decided it was time to go. I took afew more pictures, and we left. The whole setting was really strange, but it was so much fun to shoot. While I was kinda proud of myself for semi-conquering my fear of the building, I found that my fear made it hard for me to focus on the composition of my pictures, and when I looked back on the ones I took digitally a lot of them weren't level.

So here are some of the pictures I took throughout my morning of shooting. I shot the pictures of my cat and the woods with the Hipstamatic because I thought it might better imitate what the Holga pictures would look like, but the factory pictures are from my DSLR.

If you want to see rockpool73's awesome pictures here's the link!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockpool73/5403907762/in/photostream

Neal Casal Photography

Neal Casl, (a family friend) works as a guitarist (he is currently touring with The Chris Robinson Brotherhood), but is also a terrific photographer. My favorite thing about Neal's photos is that while he shoots digitally his pictures are very contrasted and he always has a solid black and white in his pictures. Also, since he is a musician he encounters a lot of really cool things that, someone outside of the music business/someone not touring the country wouldn't ordinarily get to see.
Neal also works in two of my favorite genres of photography: portraiture and documentation. Although couldn't it. He took an awesome portrait of Norah Jones in a recording studio. She doesn't know he's taking the picture, but she looks completely at home with the music she's listening to. You can see the reflection of a bunch of musicians in the background of a window she's standing in front of. He also took an amazing photo from back stage of Amanda Shire as she places her violin for hundreds of people. While the crowd is obviously visible, her and her violin are the focal point, and it's obvious that the music is really all that matters. If you get the chance, you should check out his music and his photography!
http://www.nealcasal.com/photo/gallery.php

12 Queries response

When I learned that we had to read something for photo class, I immediately recalled reading "the history of photography", and began to dread reading the "12 Queries for Aspiring Imagemakers" by Robert Hirsh. However when I started reading it I found that I actually really enjoyed it. Many of the questions asked in the article are questions that I struggle to answer myself, so to have a written answer to all of them was comforting. I knew I would like the article after reading question one and it's response: "Who is an artist?" Whenever I take pictures I think about this question. I like to take pictures, but I don't consider myself by any means to be an artist. My ideas about my "non artistry" were kind of reaffirmed this summer. I wanted to play with different mediums of art so I started to learn to sew. (I'm in the process of finishing my second skirt), and I also took a weekly ceramics class at NCAC. I loved doing both, but I felt kind of defeated one night when one of the expert potters declared that you were not an artist if you couldn't draw. I cannot draw at all. As I thought about it, I began to agree with the potter's idea. In order to draw you need to be able to see well. I can't see well physically or mentally. Aside from my drawing ineptitude, I've never really felt that I have the amount of passion needed to be considered "an artist."  With these ideas in mind, I was really surprised to hear Hirsch declare that "An artist is a person who had decided to create an artist." I love this idea because it doesn't set restrictions on people. According to Hersh an artist is not a label or an occupation, but a mentality. While I still don't consider myself an artist, this definition helped me to feel that the door is always open if I want to be.
Another of my favorite queries was the honest statement, that I've thought a million times over: "There is nothing to make an interesting pictures about in Buffalo." While I obviously don't live in Buffalo, my town contains nothing but strip malls, and burger joints. Finding anything that is even "wabi sabi beautiful" has become increasingly harder. Hirsch presents a new view point on this problem when he states "pictures that affect us have nothing to do with the apparent subject matter, and everything to do with the subsequent treatment of that matter." I think I always thought is subconsciously, but I never fully realized that a picture is not about the subject, but more about what the subject is saying. This idea was the best piece of advice I came away with after reading the article.
My biggest problem was the article was that I felt like some of the answers weren't fully answered. Sometimes it seemed as though Hirsch recited the question instead of answering it. This was most apparent and frustrating to me in the question "How can I learn to "see"?" Hirsch's language was hard to follow, and I couldn't find a sentence in his answer that was an evident answer to the question. I found his language kind of intimidating, and it brought me back to my original dilemma. I found myself thinking 'I must just not be artistic enough to understand his abstract responses.'

Chris Keeney

   

Taken by Chris Keeney using an Arturo Fuentes Exuisitos Wooden Cigar Box Pinhole Camera

Taken by Chris Keeney using a coffee can pin hole camera.

When given the assignment to blog about an experimental photographer I had no idea who I wanted to talk about, thank goodness I stumbeled upon Chris Keeney's blog.  Not only is Keeney a fantastic portrait photographer, but he also loves to build and shoot with pinhole cameras and Holgas!
My favorite aspect of Keeney's pictures is the blur that occurs as the result of his shooting with his pinhole. You can obviously tell what his subject is, but the blurs and light leaks give his pictures a vintage quality that I love. Another characteristic I've found I admire in pin hole pictures is their quiet meticulousness. There is so much work that goes into taking pin hole pictures, and for him to get even one of his shots to come out so perfectly is just amazing to me.
A great part of Keeney's blog is it's not only personable (he describes himself as a photographer who "like[s] to wear shorts, t-shirts, flip-flops, sneakers, hoodies and comfortable jeans"), but also the advice he gives in relation to different types of film, and cameras. I encourage everyone to go check out his blog! 
http://chriskeeney.com/

Hipstamatic

Over the summer I struggled with photography. I wanted to take pictures, but I also wanted to be involved what was going on around me. (I usually chose the latter.) When I did take pictures, I was never happy with them. They were bland, and didn't completely capture what I wanted. Hipstamatic got rid of my bored feelings toward photography, and got me to start taking pictures on a regular basis again. I like Hipstamatic because you never quite know what your results will be. It makes photography exciting, and makes everything completely beautiful.The application has encouraged me to want to photograph everything I encounter. It's made me much more aware of my surroundings, and has (I think) given me a new understanding of wabi sabi in that I now appreciate a lot of the "boring" places I used to overlook.
Recently my parents and I met up with some family friends I felt completely disconnected to. I hadn't seen them since I was very little, and only remembered one. When we arrived I sat quietly waiting for something to come along in conversation that I could contribute to. My mom brought up photography, and it turned out that one of the guys loved the hipstamatic. I ended up spending the whole "get-together" with him, as he showed me pictures he'd taken, and gave me advise on good film to use etc. He also showed me another application called the Tilt-Shift-Generator, which allows the photographer to add more depth of field to his or her pictures/let's the photographer chose and strengthen his or her focal point. It was so much fun to talk with someone who blatenly appreciated the app. as much as I do. I think it's great that so many people use the Hipstamatic because it gives quasi-photographers an outlet to have fun taking picutes, but also because--as I learned-- it can bring people together. (I know that statement sounds like total cheese, but I think it's true.)
While I love the application, I hate the name "Hipstamtic." I don't understand what makes anything (especially a photograph) hipster. To me, the whole idea of hipster just seems like another label people use to help them identify each other. It might sound lame, but  I prefer to think of Hipstamatic as a toy camera application. As with other toy camera's it's cheap, and the photographer still must make choices to get the picture he or she wants. Hipstamatic even has stimulated light leaks that occur often with normal toy cameras.