3 of my images: week 4

These three photographs concern public versus private. They keep something inside while keeping something else out. They are literal and metaphorical divisions or separations between public and private realms. I think they may also allude to property and ownership, claiming value or worth to whatever is kept inside.

EDWARD WESTON, ALFRED STIEGLITZ, IMOGEN CUNNINGHAM: Bruce Silverstein Gallery

Edward Weston Clouds, Death Valley 1938, printed c.1938 Gelatin silver print mounted to board 7 5/8 x 9 1/2 inches

This show consists of black and white photographs of clouds. They all have a very tactile quality and seem removed from our conditioned thoughts of what clouds 'should' normally look like. I thought Weston's photographs also hold a great degree of mystery and appear meditative as though something hidden is supposed to emerge from them.

AARON SISKIND: Smart Museum of Art-The University of Chicago

Aaron Siskind, Chicago, 1949, Gelatin silver print, mounted. Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Gift of the Illinois Arts Council, 1976.140.

I think this photograph has a lovely sense of negative space. I also like how Siskind brought attention to and observed that which is actually represented versus our perceptions.

Aaron Siskind: The Thing Itself January 13 – May 10, 2009
Aaron Siskind (1903–1991) is best known for his abstract photographs, often of natural forms or architectural features that were manipulated in order to produce unfamiliar images. Siskind minimized the importance of literal representation by carefully distinguishing between a photograph of something—which is a distinct, flat object shaped by the photographer’s perception—and his fully three-dimensional subject or “the thing itself.” This intimate exhibition combines key images from Siskind’s first forays into abstraction with the artist’s own eloquent writings in order to examine the tension inherent in his work: between the artist’s perception and the literal representation of an object.

EMMET GOWIN: Pace/Macgill Gallery

Gowin, Emmet. Edith and Moth in Flight, 2002. Digital ink jet print with Ultra Chrome inks on Arches 100% cotton paper 7 1/2''x 7 1/2''

I like the overall blur that this photograph contains. This blur seems to convey a deep tension or discomfort when combined with the figure's rigid stance and obscure facial expression. The buzzing lines surrounding her head are also visually enticing with their sheer dynamism. In some ways this photograph reminds me of a forlorn mother Mary figure with a halo behind her.

3 of my images: week 3

I like the subtle color in this photograph combined with the rich black background. I am drawn to rotting, decaying, or in this case, dying objects or textures as metaphors for human existence.

This photograph was part of a series I did along Broadway in Denver of store front window displays and reflections. I enjoy the combination of soft flowers with the harsh bullet hole beginning to pierce through the glass.

With this photograph I focused mostly on line, color, and space. I like the juxtaposition between the natural environment with a human element. I think it is interesting to explore and consider if human elements are interrupting/disrupting the natural environment or if they are coexisting in some harmonious way.

JORDAN TATE: Frye Art Museum

Jordan Tate, Topeka, KS http://jordantate.com/
I like how this photograph (as well as this particular body of work) includes mere fragments of human bodies and limbs within larger environments. The human becomes secondary in a way while at the same time creates interest to the seemingly empty environments.
Jordan Tate's Framework is a self-critical exploration of photography and how qualities inherent to the medium affect its perception.Framework is an acknowledgement to`the medium of photography in spite of the camera's ability to mechanically reproduce reality, and an exaggeration of the characteristics that control context. Through the action of selectivly omitting part of the image, scene, or frame, the viewer is confronted with an incomplete work. This fragmnented image aims to foster awareness of the artist's role in the creation of the image through photographically specific visual devices and the denial of full access to the context or narrative. With the awareness of the work as incomplete, the viewer can acknowledge the photographer as an active participant in the dialouge between viewer and image.

ELAINE DUIGENAN: Griffin Museum of Photography; Atelier Gallery

Net
Photographs by Elaine Duigenan
January 29 through March 29, 2009
Duigenan's photographs have a very ambiguous yet visceral quality. I like how they seem to rely on form and texture alone while making use of negative space. I did not realize they were hairnets at first glance and found Duigenan's explanation of them as objects with underlying metaphors quite intriguing. Perhaps this is because in my own work I have observed and photographed various objects that are either found, left behind, or made to reveal or create narratives about them.
British photographer Elaine Duigenan is fascinated with what she calls "intimate archaeology," taking familiar - sometimes discarded, sometimes valued - objects and exploring the metaphors that lie below the surface. In doing so, the objects transcend the limits of their own significance.
"For me, photography has become an act of preservation and objects I focus on become the locators or igniters of memory," says Duigenan (pronounced Dygnun). "The traces and remnants we find in any landscape can spark recognition. They can even evoke a presence." Hairnets have been found in gravesites and archeological digs since the 13^th century. Duigenan worked from her own collection of hairnets, some intricately constructed from real human hair, made between the 1920s and 1950s. The scanned hairnets have been described as "a Rorschach romp of associations: nets become jellyfish, a heart, or a bird's wing."

LI WEI: Paris-Beijing Photo Gallery

Li Wei Falls to Water Hole, 2004
Size A: 120x170cm, Edition: 8 Size B: 71x100cm, Edition: 10

Li Wei has a peculiar way of showing people directly interacting with their environments in ways that often appear violent, painful, or tragic. His images combine realistic environments with highly constructed and dramatic scenes usually involving humans. He also plays with notions of gravity that are visually intriguing yet unsettling.
Paris-Beijing Photo Gallery is proud to present the works of Hei Yue, Li Wei and Liu Bolin in the group show « Incarnations ».Incarnation as a person is the manifestation of an abstract notion through human characteristics; here, it is evidently the social and political scopes that are personified through the artists’ bodies.
The correlation between them is not only that of friendship, but they share the same aspiration to create art using their own bodies. Filled with symbolism, the artworks reveal a fierce criticism of politics, power and propaganda as well as the determination to denounce social issues that are tearing their country apart and could jeopardize the future, its future, our future…
In Li Wei’s “Falls,” one of his most representative series, the artist falls from the sky in random places with his head hidden, stuck in the ground. China’s rapid changes have led to major conflicts and problems that are too intense to experience, better to hide from the difficulties and avert the conflict like an ostrich. Hiding is a typical behavior in China where nothing is expressed directly; any sort of disagreement will be oblique, alluded and never explicit, and nobody wants to break the social rules.

3 of my images: week 2

This photograph was part of our subculture project for 'kale vue'. One of the things I was thinking about involved domestic life. I began photographing some of the routines I carry out on a daily or weekly basis to explore the domestic aspect of my identity.

This photograph is is of an antique shop's window front along Broadway in Denver. I was drawn to all the objects on the shelves, viewing them more as a collection rather than individual pieces or parts. The objects were neatly arranged in small clusters that were seemingly related. I found myself trying to draw connections between them or invent narratives for them in my head.

I included this photograph as part of our subculture project on 'kale vue.' While looking through my bedroom I began photographing some of the objects I have held onto over the years. These fishnets represent memories of a particular time in my life when I really became interested in house music and dancing. Yet when photographing them I was more interested in trying to make them an obscure abstract object whose meaning is ambiguous.

PHILIP-LORCA DICORCIA: David Zwirner Gallery

Philip-Lorca diCorcia's exhibit 'Thousand' at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York

Although it is difficult to view these images online, I am interested in the nature of the exhibit itself, which presents one thousand Polaroid images made by Philip-Lorca diCorcia. I think the experience of viewing that many images collectively in the same space would be overwhelming yet very stimulating. The connections and narratives one may make are infinite and are therefore able to reverberate and even conflict.
One of the seminal artists of contemporary photography, Philip-Lorca diCorcia produces work that exists on a wide spectrum of fictionalized documentary. Yet a thematic and conceptual unity, most often realized in serial form and particularly suited to monograph format marks each series in his oeuvre.
With Thousand, diCorcia effectively inverts his own tendency: the monograph is now the work itself. The sheer volume of material, which spans over 20 years of personal and artistic creation, shifts notions of context, narrative, and individual perception.
Flipping through the pages of Thousand is not so much a retrospective or summation of the artists life as it is an exercise in the construction of memory. An unwashed pan soaking in the sink precedes an unknown woman resembling an odalisque; the familiar linoleum aisles of a generic supermarket give way to a verdant swatch of lawn. These images are both alien and deeply familiar, and just as one moment in our lives may recall another, these photos echo among one another, within the book, within the canon of diCorcia's work, and within our personal experience. The Polaroid proves to be the perfect souvenir unique and subject to reinterpretation, like memory itself.

MELISSA MANNING: Ghetto Gloss Gallery

Melissa Manning. Untitled (Devil's Chair) 2004. 30"x 31.5" From 'Out There'

Manning's image is haunting. Although I don't care for the horns on the top of the chair at all, I do like the contrast between the heavily textured fabric of the chair and harsh light in conjunction with the soft shadows on the floor and walls.

Melissa Manning. Untitled. 2004. 30"x31.5" From 'Out There'

I really like Manning's technique and color pallete in this image. The out of focus nature of this photograph gives it a certain quality that reality is floating and dislocated. The mint green is a nice complement to the subdued neutral colors.

'Out There:' Photographer Melissa Manning captures and portrays subject and style with a distinct point of view. Melissa is well known as an LA society photographer, having been published monthly in the pages of Flaunt magazine. Melissa has been featured on VH1. Her repertoire also includes fine art photography. This exhibition will be on display though March 16, 2009.

JOEL STERNFELD: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Joel Sternfeld, After a Flash Flood, Rancho Mirage, California, July 1979, 1979, printed 2003 Chromogenic print The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Steven Ames, Harriet Ames Charitable Trust, and Joseph Cohen Gifts, 2004 (2004.358)

The composition of Sternfeld's image is interesting to me because he reveals a cross section of the earth, showing what is below ground level as well as that which is above. The scene appears peaceful upon first glance until one notices an overturned car in the dirt below. This shock or suprise is visually interrupting in a strange way while at the same time it functions to engage the viewer and build a tragic narrative.
Reality Check: Truth and Illusion in Contemporary Photography November 4, 2008–March 22, 2009: This installation of works from the permanent collection—the third in the Museum’s new gallery for contemporary photographs—surveys the ways in which artists exploit photography’s fundamental illusionism to create a sense of ambiguity about what is real and what is not. Among the works featured are photographs of staged scenarios or constructed environments that appear to be real, as well as real scenes or landscapes that appear strangely artificial. Artists include James Casebere, Gregory Crewdson, Robert Gober, David Levinthal, Vik Muniz, Stephen Shore, and Taryn Simon, among others.

3 of my images: week 1

While at a dance club I walked down a twisting staircase as I made this exposure. Although my process was experimental and thus unpredictable I was pleased with the lyrical movement of light that resulted.

While taking this photograph I was thinking about the underlying essence of objects and what it is that they convey. This empty chair had a certain character and curiosity to it that attracted me. It was as if someone was there, occupying that space. Through photography my intent was to convey this essence or presence of someone being there when in all actuality no one was.

This photograph is part of a series I did that involved store front window reflections. Reflections often provide a particular way of seeing that is ambiguous and sometimes jarring. Reflections cause shapes, textures, foreground and background to merge together in ways not seen in everyday viewing.