1. CONCEPT / SUBJECT

Cemetery statuary has always been fascinating to me because of the representation of the person who has passed.  My project will be photographing the statuary that is in and around the graves.  My idea is to explore not only the peace (and somber tone of the cemetery) but also the beauty and spirituality.  I’d be looking at statues that are unique and also show the erosion of time and weather.

2. TECHNICAL APPROACH (INPUT)

My trusty Canon Rebel T3i and my 18-55 and 70-300 lenses.  Tripod will be used because I may shoot later on in the day.  I plan on focusing on POV mostly because I want to do a lot of close up and deconstructed shots of the statues, similar to the Mary statues I shot in an earlier class.   Shooting in the cemetery at different times may affect ISO – I plan on shooting at different times to see what that’s like as far as final output.

3. TECHNICAL APPROACH AND SPECS: (OUTPUT)

I’d have to look at what I shoot but I may consider Black and White for this project.   I would love to have this project as a book or on a website to view.   Ultimately, I’d like to do the photos with poetry or writing that I do to talk about concepts of transformation and “deaths” in life.

1. Concept/ Subject

For my Final Project I am interested in shooting multiple Time Lapses around the city capturing a narrative. I will try to portray how life still goes on during a pandemic. Highlighting the subtle differences in our everyday lives. (ie. lines outside grocery stores, people social distancing in parks with masks on, etc. But mostly people queued up  in lines interests me for this project.

2. Technical Approach (Input)

I plan on using my Canon 5D Mark IV with my 70-200mm lens on a tripod so I can capture everything from a safe distance. I plan on being  locked on to a similar focal length for each Time Lapse for a similar look. I intend to make these scenes feel like the viewer is there watching this happen right before their eyes which was similar to our PoV assignment. I will be shooting in different lighting conditions/ places so I will need to really focus on my camera settings to give a similar feel for each set of images.

3.   Technical approach and specs: (output)

This is the part where I definitely need help. I think the best way to present this would be either Youtube or Vimeo. Getting it there will take some time and work but I really am interested in making this concept into a reality. I have the programs to edit so hopefully this will work out. (getting it up on a video streaming platform is easy, the editing will be the more challenging and time consuming process but I am up for the challenge).

1. Concept/Subject 

I will photograph a series of self-portraits and/or portraits that accompany a series of photographs of cars. My intention will be to match groups of the portraits with groups of photographs of cars — in terms of style, feel and the emotion exuded. My intention is two-fold: to explore the frenetic stillness of the moment that I and others are feeling, and to hone my skill around bringing forth such a feeling from photographs of inanimate objects (i.e., cars, given my interest). 

I feel more comfortable with capturing moments that feel light or cheery (e.g., car photographs emulating a marketing ad, photographs of friends and their dog) and so with this series would hope to capture the more somber emotions of the moment. And through the photographs of cars I hope to similarly capture some of this sense, where possible playing with the anthropomorphic aspects of a car (e.g., face-like front end) or the way a certain car may be culturally synonymous with a certain theme (e.g., an SUV and toughness, a muscle car and masculinity). I will also employ the larger scene and background to this end. Given logistical limitations, I may instead also just use photographic aspects to apply these feelings. 

2. Technical approach (input) 

I will shoot this project with my Nikon D3500 and 55mm lens. I will use a tripod, likely for some of the car photographs and self-portraits. One technical aspect I hope to focus on is slow shutter speed and movement — I find the effects to be both aesthetically pleasing and thematically interesting, a way to convey or distort motion. This moment during the pandemic also feels so frenetically still to me, and I hope to be able to capture some of that. 

3. Technical approach (output) 

I will need to see the images before deciding, but I imagine I may process the images in black and white. I also imagine the series as prints, perhaps on a large scale.

RESPONSE FROM REBECCA:

Cian,

Thank you for your detailed proposal. It’s exciting to read about your plans to expand the scope of the tone and mood that you’re creating in your work.

I’m trying to get my head around the matching of images. You so clearly articulate what you envision for both the portraits and the car images (and both are compelling), but you trail off a bit when it comes to describing how you imagine the images relating to each other. I’ll be anxious to see an example of an image pairing that accomplishes your goal, to better understand the ways in which those images might interact and nourish each other. In the meantime, consider the possibility that you may not need the pairings at all. You may end up finding that the pairs weaken rather than enhance each other, while creating a set of restrictions on your process that hinder your creative elbow room.

In terms of your portrait subjects, what is the unifying factor? People in your bubble? People your own age? Your friends and family? You mention the possibility of self-portraits. I wonder if focusing on the self-portrait only might streamline the project and allow you more latitude. The different people, different cars, and the pairings create a complex set of variables for such a short-term project.

Is it possible that the images of people and cars might live together but separately in the same project? Rather than acting as partners to your portraits, the car may simply be a recurring motif throughout the work. Since you’re interested in the “frenetic stillness” of this pandemic moment, perhaps the car acts as a foil, in that it represents freedom and movement. Of course, a car is also a bubble, and can be a place for isolation and self-containment. While I’ve never been a car lover, I was personally incredibly grateful for mine right after the Covid shutdown in March, because it became my only way to escape (or extend) my quarantine and be reminded that there was still a world outside of my home. As someone who does love vehicles, I think you might be able to create an extended self-portrait through single images that work together as a larger group.

Consider the longstanding, prominent role that cars have played in (especially American) photography, from vernacular portraits to major, canonical photographic works, particularly of the 20th century (though a vehicle even played a prominent role as a photographic tool during the Crimean war). It shows up as a recurring motif all over Robert Frank‘s seminal book project from the 1950’s, The Americans. Lee Friedlander, an iconic American photographer, spent the first decade of the millennium on his project America by Car, which you should absolutely check out; you can read a bit about it here. Take a look at Matthew Monteith’s series Cars, and especially consider the relationships there between the landscape and the vehicle itself that he creates by shooting from the inside out (like Friedlander). That series in particular makes me think that you could take us on a personal journey by doing a deeply focused project on yourself and your own vehicle only, shooting hundreds of images in, from, of, and around your car, including yourself (and fragments of yourself) in some of those images, finely crafting each one. This would free you from the burden of having to find and schedule lots of different people and vehicles, and allow you to instead do an intense photographic study of one person and one thing. If other people do show up in your work, separating yourself and your camera from them by shooting from inside the car may actually speak quite poignantly about this moment of bubbles and isolation. Examples of the car in contemporary work include Troy Paiva’s nightscapes that use lightpainting, as well as Jack de Caluwé’s witty, deadpan series Cars That Float.

Happy to discuss further if you’d like. Looking forward to seeing the results of your first shoots.

-R

1. Concept/Subject 

For my final project I would like to capture food and peoples relationship with food. The reason I am interested in doing something along these lines is because I love food and cooking/baking. I think that the way people interact with food that they love and the time they spend making food for people or family to enjoy is a true act of love that I would like to explore capturing through photography. I think I am mostly interested in experimental work for this but also some performance work to really emphasize emotion. 

2. Technical Approach (input) 

Because I am mostly interested in shooting cooking progress or people with food most of that happens at my house with my family. So scenic and location I am currently thinking of limiting it to that but I do think that there can be some creative motion blur and softness to the images to give this warm feeling. During the PoV assignment I tried using my 50mm lens and I might experiment with using that lens more to keep the feeling as if the viewer of the images is with is in the room and also enjoying the food. As for color temperature I am indecisive about if I want warm to get a warm and inviting feeling or if I want it to be cool to get a calm feel but I think I am mostly leaning toward warm. For color I think it depends on which end the photos artistically want to lean towards in the end. I also think it might be worth trying out black and white in the post production just to see the dramatic effect it would give the images. 

3. Technical Approach and Specs: (Output) 

I think I would like these photos in the end to be like a mini series within each other kind of dedicating a few images or process if cooking or take out to the enjoyment. I think that these would work best as prints vs projections because I want them to be taken away from the digital feel and emphasize the physical enjoyment of food.

RESPONSE FROM REBECCA:

Chloe,

Thanks for this descriptive proposal. You’ve made such sensitive and compelling imagery of your home and family so far this semester, so zeroing in on their relationships to food and each other is a great idea. Curious about whether you started the process over the holiday.

The use of the 50mm as a visual unifying force and a way to bring the viewer into the scene is a good idea. I wouldn’t worry too much ahead of time about color temperature in the post-production; I think you can try a variety of different things and let the the images guide you, based on the individual shooting conditions. Your idea related to the tactile quality of prints is a good one. While you’re confined to the digital space for now, knowing that you imagine them printed eventually will help me to guide you through the post-production.

Have you seen the film Big Night (1996) by Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci? It’s a beautiful narrative about a restaurant that has some of the most sensual and descriptive depictions of food and cooking I’ve ever seen on camera. Since you love food and are now interested in capturing food and cooking through a lens, it’s worth a watch. While it might be more mannered than what you’re looking to do, check out JP Terlizzi’s The Good Dishes, which your designer’s eye will appreciate, and which also considers the relationship between food and family. Douglas Adesko’s Family Meal is another long-term project that features the family table. While much of her work focuses on affluence and the trappings of wealth,  Tina Barney‘s Theater of Manners is comprised of large format images of her extended family in their homes. The tone may be more emotionally claustrophobic than what you’re looking to make, but she has an amazing ability to describe complex relationships by placing family members together in a tight frame, and is an important photographer to know. On the other side of that coin is British photographer Nick Waplington, who made similar candid images of family–in this case, living in poverty–in his 1991 series The Living Room. He later decided to destroy that series of prints but it still exists as a book. Roe Ethridge is a photographer whose work straddles commercial and fine art aesthetics, and he’s done some amazing things with food (though those images are scattered among various projects and editorial assignments for throughout his career). Rinko Kawauchi is a photographer whose work I think you’ll appreciate, and she’s made some beautiful images of food over the course of her career as well.

I think something that you’ll need to consider is how wide-ranging you want your approach to be. Do you imagine mainly candid images? You might experiment with a wide variety of approaches to start, including describing movement and energy through slow shutter speeds (as you described), and trying very constructed and/or playful still life images. I would be inclusive at the outset, and then follow the paths that seem most fruitful. Looking forward to seeing what you make.

-R

Concept: I plan on taking a series of color photographs of my everyday objects to create an extended portrait of myself experiencing quarantine. Due to the current situation, I’m separate from the spaces and relationships I’ve contextualized my life within for years. To communicate that confusion I’d like to remove these objects from their contexts. I want to do this not just by removing them from their natural resting place, but also by removing visual cues of time and weight. This will lead to a series of portraits of my objects that should feel otherworldly, fantastical, and slightly disconcerting.

Technical approach: I’m going to use my 18-55mm lens, with a fairly small depth of field achieved by a combination of zoom, distance, and aperture. To remove the appearance of time and place I will be shooting using entirely artificial light sources. To further remove the  sensation of gravity I’ll be using unusual points of view to obscure the earth plane, close-ups, and potentially some suspensions. The creation of the images will be actively participatory, so I’m going to use the built-in timer on my camera along with a tripod.

Consumption: This collection would either be experienced through a View-Master with a good clicky mechanism, or projected on one end of a series of small black rooms along a single corridor. The idea would be complete visual immersion. Auditorily the participant would either experience the mechanism of the View-Master or the very distinct sound of others trying to be quiet, opening and shutting squeaky doors and shuffling around.

RESPONSE FROM REBECCA

Felix,

Your project proposal is incredibly well articulated in each of the three sections, and a pleasure to read.

In terms of “communicating confusion” through decontextualization and a sense of weightlessness, look at Irina Rozovsky’s Miracle Center. You can use frozen motion, Photoshop layering, and a variety of other techniques to achieve this; my sense is that you already have some ideas of how to go about making this happen photographically, including the artificial (isolating?) light sources you describe. Keeping the manipulation to the camera (rather than the post-production) may keep the project clean and allow for a certain degree of discipline and serendipity. For the pure sake of situating yourself within a photographic lineage, check out Berenice Abbott’s “Bouncing Ball in Diminishing Arcs” (1958-61). You might also be interested in the work of Barbara Probst. She uses a specific technique of photographing a single moment in multiple simultaneous exposures using a radio controlled system, but some of her still life work has the qualities you describe of mystery and absence of gravity. Look at the still life images of Jan Groover; they are seminal in the field and occasionally your work this semester has reminded me of her aesthetic. Paul Biddle is a surrealist photographer who uses a highly refined approach to color, lighting and composition, particularly in series like Out of the Obscure. Brittany Marcoux, a recent alum of MassARt’s MFA program, also created a thesis body of work, From the Inside Looking Out, which might be of interest to you not only in terms of the individual images but the installation that took form in her MFA Thesis exhibition.

The long-term goals for “consumption” of the work are exciting and fresh, in terms of the use of sound, installation, and  interactivity, and will help us to imagine a life for the project beyond the stage of completion that we’re able to see next month. 

-R

1. CONCEPT / SUBJECT

My idea for the final is to explore the concept of showing how I see the world. Since, I’m a photographer who is visually impaired. I haven’t seen any examples through photography explaining what someone might see with my vision impairments. My vision impairments are Cortical Visual Impairment and nystagmus. I have seen examples of someone’s vision with Cataracts or Glaucoma. But I have never seen it for CVI and nystagmus. So, this is my chance to give examples through photography of what a person might see with Cortical Visual Impairment and nystagmus.

Especially during the times of the pandemic where there are so many visual cues. I have trouble seeing where, six feet part is. Also, I can’t recognize people that I know with masks on.

2. TECHNICAL APPROACH (INPUT)

I’m intending to shoot my project with my 18-55 meter mm lens and 75-300 meter mm lens. I will be using a tripod. The technical concepts I will be using are depth of field, motion, color and point of view. I will be going out on cloudy days and sunny days. I will be using fast and slow shutter speeds.

3. TECHNICAL APPROACH AND SPECS: (OUTPUT)

I will be keeping my photos in color. The ideal size of the prints would be 34×24 inches to 60×40 inches. Some will be horizontal and some will be portrait. I will be framing them as triptychs.

RESPONSE FROM REBECCA

Tina,

Using photography to describe your vision impairment to your viewers makes your proposed project highly personal, specific, and ambitious. The ways in which your vision are affected by (and affect your experience of) the pandemic are particularly interesting and poignant, and I wonder how these might be foregrounded in your work. I’m excited to see what you make, but I have some questions and would love a bit more information.

1. How do you intend to translate Cortical Visual Impairment and nystagmus visually to viewer who doesn’t know what that looks/feels like?  You talk about employing all of the basic principles of photography that we’ve studied this semester, but you don’t talk about what techniques you will use to convey this particular way of seeing photographically. Since nystagmus involves rapid eye movement, I can assume that you might use camera movement to convey this, but your proposal notes that you will use a tripod. Since one quality of CVI seems to be better vision when viewing moving objects compared to stationary objects, will you shoot moving subjects? I just read that CVI also involves better visual response for near objects vs distant objects; will much of your work focus on things that are close? Do CVI and/or nystagmus involve blurring of vision, so that you would intentionally throw things very out of focus?
2. Why triptychs? How do you intend to combine the images? Is it important that they all be the same aspect ratio and fit together into an uninterrupted whole? Or would they look more like collages? How exactly do the three images in each triptych relate to each other? Through color? Content? Form? Are they shot at the same moment or in the same place? 

For now, look at Uta Barth’s Field (1995-98), and Ground (1992-92) which create the “illusion of filmic space and time” through motion and intentional blurring. In Florafaunal Angiography, Dayna Bartoli, who was an ophthalmic photographer, talks about vision as both a biological and aesthetic process.

There are many artists using panoramic diptychs and triptychs, including David Hilliard and Barbara Bosworth, in New England Trail.  Lucia Ganieva uses the triptych to tell a story of a particular factory through the combining of different elements associated with that place (an interior, a textile close-up, and a portrait). Claire Felicie uses triptychs to talk about the changing face and character of a person over time. Take some time to articulate how your triptychs will function and why you are making this particular choice. Consider the fact that the triptych has a long art historical lineage and is often associated with sacred or religious imagery.

-R

Artists Statement

I take natural elements and transform them graphically into universal images of  living and dying, darkness and light. These actualized memories invite you to listen to whispers about loneliness and longing, family circumstances and moments of personal grief. These familiar narratives unite us all.

Above is my general artist’s statement but the sake of this project, I would like to speak more specifically about the portrait.  Portraiture can capture the stillness of the moment.  It presents a specific expression, though the maker leaves it to the viewer to decide.  If successful the photograph should be emotionally evocative.  What is the connection of the subject to the photographer.  In the specific nature of this project, I wish to surround the subject with my artwork.  You as the viewer may not specifically realize that there is art around but the atmosphere hopefully is charged with different tones and elements.  I chose to photograph only a woman as my work as a printmaker is decidedly feminine and is part of my larger body of work.

1. CONCEPT / SUBJECT

The impetus to this project is the familiarity of those who are having their portrait done.  The one aspect that I have discovered in taking this course is that the portrait for me works best if I know the subject and quite honestly it is the same in my drawings.  Familiar faces often appear and reappear in my drawings along with specific subjects and ideas.  As my drawings and prints are a direct connection to my thought process, these photographs will work in the same manner.  I have already photographed my daughter and her best friend who is nonbinary and I am quite pleased with the effect as I learned much from the last assignment on ISO.  

2. TECHNICAL APPROACH (INPUT)

Low lighting to gain an atmospheric feel.  I use a portrait lens from Sigma 1:1.14 DG o67.  I am going to jump back and forth with the tripod but quite honestly have not found much of a difference with this project.

In terms of technical concepts, I plan on employing “point of view” and limited color palate. They will be all shot indoors, (plan so far) and using the lighting I have used in my limited color project. So far the settings have been hovering around 1/30, f 4.5 and ISO 800

3. TECHNICAL APPROACH AND SPECS: (OUTPUT)

I plan to stay with color photographs using the idea of limited color controlled by me.  If acceptable I would like to put them into a blog  and have quotes from my subjects.  The idea of “Consciousness Extended” is ideal for the portrait.  The idea that you can perform this entire narrative with one click is compelling.

I will focus on artists such as Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, Deana Lawson and Gohar Dashti.  I would like to explore how these incredible female photographers found their own powerful point of view in their culture and how it has been received and viewed by others around the world.

I have attached two photographs that I am inspired by that I would like to discuss in this paper.

RESPONSE FROM REBECCA:

Sally,

First, thank you for getting started on the artist statement. Situating the project that you do for this class within the broader context of your other work in this way will absolutely be useful. Ideally, this will evolve over the next couple of weeks to become a concise project statement that is specific to this particular body of work, though I think you’ll need to make headway with your shooting and processing before you’re able to express the qualities and themes of this particular series of photographic portraits. One thing I want to make clear, based on your final sentence (“I have attached two photographs that I am inspired by that I would like to discuss in this paper“) is that there is no paper involved here; just a 200-300 word artist statement that acts as a companion to your final 10-15 images, contextualizing it within the larger body of work that you’ve made in recent years.

As discussed in the last class, I think that using your prints as elements in the frame of your portraits is a great direction for you, particularly based on the examples we saw during the last critique. How you then create connections between your female subject(s) and the prints becomes central to how this work will evolve. If you want to abstract the prints, placing some physical distance between your subject and the print as backdrop will be key. You might try staying physically close to the portrait subject and placing at least twice as much distance between them and the backdrop as there is between camera and portrait subject, and wide apertures (which it seems you’re already using) will be helpful as well. But  how else can you create relationships between your work and your portrait subjects? Blurring and abstracting  your work behind the in-focus subject is one way to go, but perhaps you can also try shooting close details (hands, hair, fragmented faces) right against the prints to create more direct relationships. Can you shoot through the material, sometimes focusing on the original prints and abstracting the human subject? The prints I saw you hang previously for a critique in the DMC, which were on translucent material, would work well for this. 

You mention that you don’t notice much of a difference with or without the tripod, but this is largely due to the settings you’re choosing. ISO 800 at 1/30 and f:4.5 is a great hand-held setting, but if you use much lower ISO’s and much longer shutter speeds (which would allow for smaller apertures), asking your subjects to stay very still during the long exposures, you could get some interesting results. Richard Learoyd is a photographer to look at, who uses a camera obscura (so, a pinhole aperture and extremely long exposure times–sometimes as long as 18 minutes) to create haunting portraits. You might also go back further in the history of photography, to portrait artists like Julia Margaret Cameron, whose collodion and albumen-based process also required very long exposures and resulted in some gorgeous images that combine sharpness and motion blur in an intentional way. Romina Ressia is a portrait photographer with an interesting relationship to anachronism and other (2D) art forms, whose work you might find inspiring. And of course Joyce Tenneson‘s hand-painted backdrops are relevant here. Katharina Bosse is another photographer exploring relationships between the printed and the photographic image, particularly in Derivat Flowers.

In terms of representation, what is the relationship between your print work and the portrait subjects? Is it about revealing something of the individual in front of the camera, or are the images allegorical? Also curious about how the examples you included from Cindy Sherman and Gohar Dashti figure into the scheme of your project. I love both examples, but thus far I don’t sense a direct connection between them and the work you plan to make.

Reach out at any time with questions.

–R

1. Concept/ Subject

My final project this semester will be a performative project using nature and fabric scraps to create an abstract image. My intention is two fold: explore color relativity theory and highlight the relationship between textiles/ fabrics and natural materials. I’d also like to get people thinking about waste, detritus, what is left over from the artistic process. A larger idea I’d like to bring to mind is consumerism and clothing waste in our culture. 

Overall this will be an aesthetically driven project. I also hope to have fun and play with these materials with an emphasis on discovery. I’ll be thinking about Land Art/ Earthworks of the 1960-70’s Andy Goldsworthy, Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt. 

2. Technical Approach INPUT

I intend to focus my technical approach on POV, varying from taking high angle shots with up close shots. I will stay with my 50mm lens as a constant. I will focus on Color expression and consistent palette within the project. I will vary my aperture and speed but I will most likely stay low with my ISO. I hope to have some weather interventions, like wind or snow or rain. I may experiment with low shutter speed to render blur and take the project further into abstraction.

3. Technical Approach OUTPUT

Color photos absolutely! I think ideally they would live as prints. I like the idea of them large scale, immersive images.  Even large scale projected images would be interesting. I will most certainly consider order.

 

RESPONSE FROM REBECCA:

Your interest in employing, salvaging, collaging, and exposing the byproducts of the art-making process is a rich and complex area to explore, and there’s so much potential to build a reciprocal relationship between your tactile and lens-based practices.

The 50mm prime is a good way to create a consistent variable, seeing as the eye sees, and minimizing the obvious attention to the image-making apparatus in your work. All of your ideas about your technical input feel spot-on.

Look at Steven Duede, a painter-turned-photographer, particularly his Evanescence Project and Citizens of the World. When thinking broadly of still life, I always return to Laura Letinsky, who also considers notions of waste and consumerism in her work, particularly through carefully constructed images like those from To Say It Isn’t So and Fall.  Denis Roussel is a photographer who used alternative processes including photograms, cyanotypes, and paper negatives to look at waste, recycling, and natural objects. Greg Ruffing’s Yard Sale images are a bit of a departure from the constructed shots you’re describing, but may be of interest; perhaps more directly pertinent is David Welch’s Material World . While it gets into a new medium, consider checking out experimental filmmaker Jodie Mack, who constructs images in time similar to what you’re describing doing with space. You may be interested in her film The Grand Bazaar, though I don’t know that it’s currently available for streaming, but consider watching her short 16mm films from the Wasteland series, including Wasteland No. 1: Ardent, Verdant and Wasteland No. 2: Hardy, Hearty. Look at Shana and Robert Parke Harrison for work that intersects sculptural and photographic practice, as well as Rebecca Horn, whose work you may already know; her focus is on the body and performance, but also deals with the relics and documentation of sculptural practice.

Let’s look together at your first shoot and allow the early images to guide you into new territy and developments. What you’ve already begun shooting for your assignment work this semester is a great starting point.

–R

CONCEPT

My project is to portray entertainment as a form of art while incorporating face painting, balloon twisting, and balloon decoration to create an extended portrait to convey my assignment.  Similar to David LaChappelle I will emphasize vibrant warm colors from his pallet; such as yellow, orange, and red.  Nonetheless, they will not be limited; and I will incorporate complementary colors, such as violet, blue, and green to make the designs more attractive.  I also will use black and white to support the designs.

TECHNICAL APPROACH (INPUT)

I will be shooting inside and outside.  The pictures I will be shooting inside will be a little limited because of lighting; however, I will keep the ISO between 800-1600 to better the odds.  The pictures taken outside; I will keep the ISO at 400, and if there is more light than usual I will set it at 100 – 200.  The aperture will be f/5.6 to blur any background, and I will change it accordingly for some effects, but mostly it will be f/5.6 – f/6.3.  Most of the pictures will be zoomed in for a better selective focus, and occasionally it will be zoomed out for more DOF.  I will incorporate POV and DOF to make my work appealing.  Since I want to resemble LaChappelle’s work; I will not convert them to Black and white because I want to explore his pallet to make my project compelling.  My camera is a Nikkon D3500 and my lens is Tamaron 18-200mm f 3.5- 6.3, and I love to take pictures vertically more than horizontally; for this reason I know I should, but do not use the tripod. Because I will not render or freeze any motion there will be no need to use slower or faster shutter speed than 1/30.   

TECHNICAL APPROACH (INPUT)

Even though I will upload my pictures on Google drive; I love Wolfgang Tillmans style, and will print different sizes and hang them asymmetrically on my wall.     

RESPONSE FROM REBECCA:

Ione,

Thank you for this well-considered proposal. Having viewed your last assignment images, I’m excited to see you exploring this theme/subject further. So often, we make our most compelling images when we photograph the things that are closest to us, and your inside knowledge of this field/community will undoubtedly serve you and the images well.

Regarding your technical input, your proposal suggests that you have a strong understanding of camera settings and your equipment. For the outdoor images where you have plenty of light, consider dropping to ISO 200 or lower; if you can afford it, you should experiment with the smooth detail and color fidelity that the lower ISO’s will allow. The one line that gives me pause is where you say “I also will use black and white to support the designs.” I’m not quite sure that I understand the statement, and I would imagine that in a project where color plays such a central role, using black & white conversions will only disrupt the flow and hurt the visual unity of the series. I might steer away from that, but in your second paragraph it sounds like maybe you’re already abandoning that idea.

Its great that you’re looking ahead to the possibility of printing down the line. For now, consider focusing on sequence, finding a rhythm and flow to the images, and using a collection in Lightroom to make a deliberate sequence before you export your final JPEGs.

If you are interested in LaChappelle’s use of color, look at other photographers who use saturated color in an  impactful and deliberate way, including Cig Harvey and Vivian Sassen (who uses a sophisticated approach to combining saturated color with quieter hues and neutrals). Consider the fact that the viewer may need a rest from the extreme palette, and that complicating your images with less saturated color may serve the series well. Karl Baden’s Rising series from 2013-2015 shows how bright, direct sunlight, intense shadow, and low ISO’s can create extreme color saturation. You may also be inspired by the work of Polixeni Papapetrou, for use of color, approach to the portrait, and documentation of communities. A famous recent series about clowns was Cindy Sherman’s 2005 series of clown self-portraits, though those were more about playing a character than about documentation and direct storytelling. Still, worth taking a look.

Reach out at any time with questions,

R

 

1. CONCEPT / SUBJECT 

In keeping with the theme in most of my previous assignments, I will continue to explore my relationships with my friends, family, home, dog (can’t believe he never made it to any of the final 4!) and all of my immediate surrounding. Like so many of us, I am spending ninety percent more time at home than I normally would due to Covid 19. Yes, it has been really boring at the beginning and it took time embracing it but the silver lining being forced to slow down and pay closer attention to what is already existing in my life and appreciate it deeper. This final project will have a diaristic effect which will capture the special, playful, joyous and even sad moments of being a woman, mother, wife, friend and an amateur photographer.

2. TECHNICAL APPROACH (INPUT)

I will be shooting using my Nikon D70S with a 24-120mm lens. I enjoyed exploring new concepts each week and would love to incorporate most of if not all the technical concepts in this endeavor. I discovered that if left to my own devices I would limit myself with outdoor shots with limited depth of field. Outdoor shooting with its favorable lighting always provides a safe haven while indoor shooting is more challenging for me as far as finding the right lighting in the moment but also in post production. I intend to explore new avenues and incorporate them with my existing passions. 

3. TECHNICAL APPROACH AND SPECS: (OUTPUT)

For this project I envision everything in color, especially having the color being one of the intertwining factors among the photographs, subjects being the other. As far as the output I would like to create a modern scrapbook style photo album. Something rang to me after watching one of the science shows with my kids ”what is coronavirus and has anything like that happened before”. We discovered photographs of people from the 1918 Spanish Flu and just like today both adults and children, teachers and doctors alike all were wearing masks. I think the old fashioned documentation provides a visual perspective of the current situation with similar circumstances at a different time. My hope it will bring solace and cheer for happier tomorrow. In keeping with today’s virtual preference, I would create a website with the same content.

RESPONSE FROM REBECCA

Natalia,

You articulated your inspiration and goals very clearly.

I agree that you should be inclusive and democratic in your technical approach. As we discussed earlier, I think that what would be helpful for you is not a rigid set of rules, but rather a list of starting-point “shots” that you want to make, where you do whatever it takes to get the shot that you want, and hone technical skills in the process. A still life that shows the objects/tools you use most throughout the day (whatever they may be), a well-articulated image of the interior of a specific room, a set of portraits, a shot where you lay out all of the face masks in your house, a series of images of your backyard…these kinds of goals will help you to shoot with consistency and discipline, and likely lead you toward new things. I also think that several images you’ve already made this semester could likely make their way into the project as well.

For me, the crux of the project is stated in the first paragraph, when you mention “the silver lining [of] being forced to slow down and pay closer attention to what is already existing in my life and appreciate it…” In this way, the pandemic is your catalyst but not your subject. For this reason, I’m not sure that the historic images would connect to your work directly, since the project you describe is personal and diaristic rather than photojournalistic or concerned with documenting the pandemic per se. I do think that researching and gathering images from the web that portray historical pandemics, and seeking connections to your own images from today, will be a satisfying and valuable experience for you, but I don’t think that this particular (relatively short-term) project requires the direct connection being drawn between the two. Still, let the work guide you, and be open to discovering connections, themes, and directions in your own work that emerge naturally through the process. Exploring your immediate landscape might be a valuable exercise here. Maybe make a brief list of places (in your home and your town) that play into your experience of the moment and try to photograph each one.

We discussed Sally Mann…certainly her Immediate Family series is a crucial project for you to know. Take a look at Elinor Carucci’s personal work, including her documentation of home life, her mother, aging, and illness. (*Note the way in which she is able to be both poetic and frank, and to document her life unflinchingly for a very honest brand of beauty.) Look at Tierney Guerin’s The Mother Project and David Hilliard’s long-term documentation of his father, who passed away this yearn (he has also documented his mother and her husband/community in Florida). Cig Harvey also makes poetic images of her home, herself, her children, and her immediate surroundings (and her dog!), in series like Blue Violet, You an Orchestra You a Bomb, You Look At Me Like an Emergency, and Gardening at Night. Pay close attention to the ways in which Harvey’s projects are not overdetermined or rigid in terms of genre, but rather combine still life, landscape, and portraits, usually unified by color palette and other elements of style.

Happy shooting,

R