this whole blog thing...

...was NOT successful for me this quarter. i think due to lack of feedback from others, and my overwhelming class load, i neglected to check my blog regularly. it just began to lose my interest. to be totally honest, i get far more feedback on work that i have posted on facebook than here, which is slightly disappointing. i also only acquired roughly five followers, so i felt like no one was looking anyways. I intend to keep this blog up, and maybe if it gains interest in others, i'll continue to post. for now, i feel that its a lost cause.

good day!

more diptych ideas...

to be shown in the WIP crit today:

titles

in our visual exercise crit, we also discussed titles for the specific image we brought in that day. some people had some really bad ones, and some really good ones that i would have never thought about for my work. again...got me thinking!

here's the image i brought in:

here's what other's suggested [in order of how much i liked it-first being best]:

• [year place was built] - [year closed]
• come in, make yourself comfortable
• white air disturbed
• we used to be a family
• home #1
• [un]welcome
• the blue room
• door to ____
• midwest abandon
• abandonment
• intruder
• open door
• lonely windows

Q & A [from the midterm]

i figured that i didnt talk much about the questions people asked about my work. i assure you, they are not being ignored!
i will now address them all here...


[q] should you focus on indoor, outdoor, or both?
[a] i have focused on both indoor and outdoor spaces, and have enjoyed images taken from both. i dont anticipate it being a problem to incorporate the two kinds of spaces together.


[q] do you like the vignette of the holga?
[a] very much so. but not to the extent that i would add vignetting to the digital images... noooo no.


[q] how do you plan to present/frame/print these?
[a] TBD...


[q] these spaces look more recently inhabited. are they also abandoned? or just dilapidated?
[a] all of these spaces are abandoned, some more recently than others, though some still have an owner besides the city somewhere. again, some are more dilapidated than others. you never know what you're going to get once you go INside...


[q] how do the domestic v. urban spaces relate?
[a] it's not so much how they relate, but how they both compare and contrast. i'm focusing on including human remnants, and going to these two types of spaces allows me to capture a wide array of "leftovers."


[q] singular object in isolation v. more of a "forgotten room" feel...
[a] hmm... let me sit on that one


[q] do you think having leftover human possessions makes the content stronger as compared to an  abandoned stripped down factory or space?
[a] i DO think having leftover human possessions makes the content stronger. it takes my project from being just formally and aesthetically pleasing to a more meaningful and conceptual project.


[q] do you consider the different generations that these places have been abandoned during?
[a] i have considered this... it is really astonishing to see a child's toy from over 40 years ago and in the same structure see a newish appliance or whatnot. its a chaotic feeling.


[q] if you decide to use holga & digital, how would you present them?
[a] TBD...sorta... i have some ideas. see a post from a couple weeks ago where i posted some experiments.


[q] why center subject matter in majority of images? do you want to vignette all? some? mix it up?
[a] the placement choice of subject matter within the frame depends on several other elements existing within the space context. what is in the background becomes very important when deciding where to place your focus or subject matter. the camera i'm using often has to do with that as well [square v. rectangle]. i do not want to photoshop a vignette in any image. i only want it there if it was naturally taken that way [holga].


[q] do you have/need a human element/artifact in each image?
[a] my earlier images lack the human element, as i was in the beginning stages of this project and hadn't gotten that far yet. i gained a need for it though, and have including that in almost every image i have taken since then.


[q] have you tried to make everything in focus?
[a] i typically shoot on a wide aperture setting because i feel the shallow depth of field helps guide the eye to the focal resting point [subject]. the holga, however, doesn't have aperture settings, and therefore the focus points are dramatically different.


[q] have you moved objects?
[a] i have not moved any objects to date, though it has been suggested that i do. i liked the idea of just shooting the scene as i stumbled upon it, without interrupting someone else's intentional marks. it has always felt almost like a violation to me.


thanks for all the questions to get my mind movin'.

books!

the following are some books i've been buried in. they are relevant to mainly my project, but are still worth looking at otherwise! 

ch-ch-check it:

Van der Hoorn, Melanie. Indispensable Eyesores: An Anthropology of Undesired Buildings. Berghahn, 2009. Print.

Hollander, Justin B. Polluted and Dangerous: America's Worst Abandoned Properties and What Can Be Done About Them. UPNE, 2009. Print.

Eastman, Michael. Vanishing America The End of Main Street. New York: Rizzoli, 2008. Print.

today's midterm crit

what i learned today:

1. i don't need someone to tell me to stop shooting
2. i don't need someone to tell me what camera to use
3. i don't need someone to tell me how to present in daapworks
4. i don't need someone to tell me [fill in blank]
5. i need to tell myself these things
6. i need to stop talking about what i want to do and just do it
7. i need to stop avoiding the "light at the end of the tunnel" [presentation in daapworks]
8. i am not alone in these thoughts
9. my thesis committee is letting me down
10. i need to look for feedback outside of class [and more often]
11. i need to cut up my contact sheets
12. i need to step back, but not too far
13. art is hard
14. decision making is not my forte

more new work

unfortunately, the majority of my holga film didn't turn out this time around. (i thought i was shooting on bulb when it was on normal) 

here's what i got: