Artist Lecture: Douglas Prince

I actually really liked this lecture and found it to be very interesting! I loved how he started off his lecture with talking about how he first got into photography and how photography was incorporated into his life at a young age. It made me feel more connected to the artist because we knew more about him personally before we saw his art. For me, it helped me better understand and appreciate his art because of his personal introduction. I also really liked how he talked about his inspirational teachers he had during collage. I have never seen another artist do that during their artist lecture and I thought it was really nice to see who inspired him. Again, it made me feel like I knew the artist more before we started to see his art.
I really liked when he started showing us his darkroom prints. I found them to be so interesting and his printing ability to be so amazing. I thought it was so cool how he could combine multiple images in the dark room by just burning and dodging. That seems so difficult to me. Especially to make the image look believable and like it actually is one shot instead of multiple images mushed together. I have a hard time doing that on photoshop so I can't imagine how long it would take him to do that in the darkroom. My favorite photo of this process was of his two sons playing in a river. The upper part of the image is a separate image of woods and below is another image of his sons playing on the roots of some trees. I like this image so much because the landscape did look weird to me, in good way, but I couldn't figure out why until he told us that it was 2 images. I couldn't find that image on the internet, but I did find another image of this process that I also really liked. I'll post it below.

Another thing I really liked about his lecture was that he showed his artistic process with certain images. For instance, he would show us an image and show us how he edited it and how it evolved into the final product. I really liked this because we got to see how he worked and developed each photo. It gave me a better understanding of his editing process which I thought was really cool. 

I think my favorite project that he did out of all his work was his photo sculptures. I thought they were so cool! Each photo was so interesting and had some strange aspect to it. There was something not right in each photo that just made me want to look at them longer. I also liked how each image was within a little box. It made me feel like I was looking into another world or into a private room where everything was distorted. I just loved them so much! I especially loved the photo of the desk next to a window, with two braids hanging down in front of the window. This gave me such a haunting feeling.

Here are some of his photo sculptures.

Cyanotype Prints

For my Cyanotype project, I took really contrasty pictures of myself and plan on printing them with other objects, such as tissue paper or leaves, on top of the negative while its printing. That is all I have for a plan right now, but I'm sure I will try many different objects once I start printing.

Amalgamation

Self Portrait for Class

Why do I take photos?

This is probably going to sound cliche, but the main reason I take photos is to express myself. I have a hard time expressing myself through words and in many other ways, but with photography it feels natural. I may be experiencing something tragic, joyful, or crazy in my life and instead of just writing or talking about it, I express what I'm feeling through photography and my art. I also like being able to share what I am feeling with other people. Being able to bring certain emotions and reactions to other people just by having them look at my photographs, is an amazing feeling, especially when its they way I wanted them to react. When I come up with an idea for a photo project or idea that I want to portray, I must do it, complete it, and feel satisfied with it in order to feel like I have accomplished something or feel complete. So if I don't keep taking pictures of the images in my head, I will just feel like something is missing.

"Equivalence" by Minor White

It took me a while to get into this reading. It didn't really grab my attention, though I am kind of spacey to begin with. The one point that was able to hold my attention was how the audience view on art can be quit different from what the artist sees in their own art. This concept really got me thinking about how my own art is received by others. The reading mentioned how everyone views a piece of art differently because everyone has had different experiences in their lives, and therefore can make certain connections to art that others may not be able to make. Basically this idea got me thinking that no art is really 100% successful. As in the artist can see their work as exactly what they want it to be, but to others the point or message of the art work might not even reach them at all. They might see something completely different from what everyone else is seeing. So no piece of art is ever going to reach everyone in the same way or even mean something to everyone. I think all that matters is that your own art means something to you and if no one else gets it, then that's fine. So technically it's 100% successful to you and only you.
One photograph that shows this concept is the following photo by Tierney Gearon. In this photograph, it shows an older woman looking into her shoe, while a baby lays on the grass, unattended in the sun. To me, this photograph makes me think of an irresponsible mother who is leaving her baby in the sun. It strikes me on a emotional level as well, making me feel sad for the baby. However to the artist, she feels something completely different. In a documentary about Tierney, she talks about this photo specifically and describes how she sees this image as a reflection of her childhood. That she feels that she was the baby being left in the sun. While she was talking about this photo she even broke down in tears because it made her so upset to think about. This photo means something entirely different to the photographer than it does to me, the viewer, simply because we have had different life experiences.

Photomontage

My colored collage basically represents my past summer working at Canobie Lake Park. As you can see, it was not a very fun summer. It is meant to look like a prison filled with screaming children, pizza spikes, and "big brother" watching over you.

My second collage is meant to represent what goes on in my head. I tried to depict how I over analyze everything and think too much. The crosses on the eyes and ears represent me trying to block out my racing thoughts.

My Favorite Photo (s)

In class the other day, we were asked to pick one photo, whether it was one of our own or someone else's, that had stuck with us or effected us in some way. I had such a tough time trying to pick that one favorite photo of mine, among the many photos that were spinning through my head. Even now, sitting here typing this, I still can not decided what my favorite photo is. There have been so many photo's that have stuck with me over the years and have influenced my interest in photography in many ways. The moment I begin to narrow in on one image, I immediately think of another one and begin to feel that it is unfair to not mention that one as well. Even when it comes to my own work, I just can't bring myself to choose just one photo. I still find small flaws in some of my favorite photos, that I have taken, and feel I can't choose it as my favorite when I don't see it as completely finished or perfect.

So here comes the moment of true. I decided that I was going to pick 2 of my own photos that are my favorite instead of just one, since I really, REALLY couldn't decide.

This first photo is a picture I took while emulating Robert Parke Harrison. I love this photo so much because of the feeling it gives me. It makes me feel tranquil. I also just love the idea of man becoming nature.

This next photo was apart of my final project last semester that ended up to be my favorite project I have ever done. This picture was the first one I took in the series. It is one of my favorites because of the whole idea of creating my own world with photography as well as making things that are impossible it life, possible. Like flying. This was one of the photos that I can see flaws in, but still really enjoy. The only thing I wish I did differently in this photo was shoot it in a house or a plain room rather than outside. 

Trying to pick my favorite photo taken by another photographer was also way to difficult for me. I just like so many different photographers with different styles, I couldn't see myself picking just one. So I decided to show 3 of my favorite photographers and some of my favorite photos by them. 

First is Robert Parke Harrison, who has been my favorite photographer for a long time. He creates a whole new world in his photos and pulls me in to each image in such a way that I find myself looking at just one image for a long time. 

The next photographer I just had to show is Sally Mann. Her photo's of her children are entrancing, sometimes haunting, and beautiful at the same time. Also the technique she uses when shooting makes her images so much more beautiful in tone and contrast.

The last photographer I picked was Francesca Woodman. I had only first heard of her the other day in class when we watched the documentary about her work. Ever since then, her photos have really stuck with me. I found some of them so disturbingly beautiful at times that I couldn't look away. They gave me the strangest feeling that I don't know how to describe, but I find myself looking at them all the time now.