Shoot 4: Contact Sheet (Abandoned Mansion)

Shoot 3: Final Image (Abandoned Mansion)

Shoot 3: Best Selection

Shoot 3: Contact Sheet (Abandoned Mansion)

Shoot 2: Final Image (Abandoned Mansion)

Shoot 2: Final Image (Abandoned Mansion)

 

Shoot 2: Best Selection

Shoot 2: Contact Sheet (Abandoned Mansion)

Self Evaluation (Abstract Photography)

In my research to abstract photography, I tried to copy Bill Armstrong's style of photo, creating a blurry, off-focus image to portray his work. I achieved insight on the topic of abstract photography, creating ideas for future projects and shoots. If I could take this photo again, I would have focused more on the detail of the subject, by increasing the shutter speed to capture the image quicker.

Final Image (Abstract Photography)

Contact Sheet (Abstract Photography)

Intention (Abstract Photography)

I intend to use this research of abstract photography to give me ideas for my next shoots. Even though my project isn't on abstract photography, researching abstract photographers and looking at examples of their work will give me insight on the topic. I will use this information to plan ideas and shoots for my upcoming project.

Ryan Bush Photos

Ryan Bush (Abstract Artist Research)

Ryan Bush has been a fine-art photographer for more than 16 years, during which time he has honed his abstract vision focusing on finding the beauty hidden in everyday objects, and the sacred hidden in the mundane.

Ryan's abstract photographs are influenced by his background in a number of other areas. He received his BA in Linguistics and Russian from Swarthmore College in 1995, got his PhD in Linguistics from UC Santa Cruz in 2000, and speaks eight languages. Music is a big source of insipiration for him, as he plays the flute and has a strong interest in classical music. He is also keenly interested in the relationship between photography and other media such as painting and drawing.

Ryan uses a Hasselblad medium-format camera. While he worked in the darkroom for almost ten years, he currently works digitally, producing archival pigment prints with an Epson inkjet printer. His work has been exhibited in many solo and group shows in the US and abroad, has been featured in a number of publications, and is included in a number of collections including that of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He lives in Los Gatos, California.

http://www.ryanbushphotography.com/about_ryan.php

Bill Armstrong Photos

Bill Armstrong (Abstract Artist Research)

Bill Armstrong is a New York based fine art photographer who has been shooting in color for over thirty years. Armstrong is represented by ClampArt in New York, Hackelbury in London and numerous galleries across the country and in Europe. His Mandala series was featured in a two person exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2008, and he had a mid career retrospective at the Southeast Museum of Photography in Daytona Beach in 2010. Armstrong’s work is in many museum collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Bibliothèque National de France. He has presented work in numerous museum exhibitions including: the Smithsonian Institution; Hayward Gallery, London; Musee de l’Elysee, Lausanne; Centro Internazionale di Fotografia, Milan; and FOAM, Amsterdam. One of Armstrong’s images was chosen for the cover of Lyle Rexer’s Aperture book, The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography. His work appears in Face: The New Photographic Portrait by William Ewing and Exploring Color Photography, by Robert Hirsch, among other books. He has also been published in numerous periodicals including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s, House and Garden and Eyemazing.

He is on the faculty at the International Center of Photography and the School of Visual Arts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Armstrong_(photographer)

Shoot 1: Final Image (Abandoned Mansion)

 

Shoot 1: Contact Sheet (Abandoned Mansion)

Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photos

Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre (Abandoned Building Artist Research)

   Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre have assembled an exquisite photographic collection of urban debris. Like modern-day archeologist, they have found a contemporary and abandoned ruin, of which they have the luxury to document the discarded remnants. The framing of their subject has strong aesthetic and graphic undertones, with careful attention to balance, movement, mass, line, and light. There is a generous mix of grand overviews, midrange “environmental portraits” and close up studies.
   The place depicted is the Midwest city of Detroit, a.k.a. “Motor City”, located in the Southeast corner of the state of Michigan. By far from being unique, it is actually one of many urban places in the United States where economic changes were better handled by just walking away. What is unique to Detroit is the central location of urban deterioration. How this urban ruin came about is beyond the scope of this review, but the Introduction by Thomas Sugrue rings true. I should know, I grew up in the Northern shadows of this once great city, but left in the early 1970’s as the great Detroit decline was just obtaining a strong foothold.
  Their photographs are created with a large format camera using an extensive depth of field, thus most of their subject matter is clearly seen, revealing a ponderous amount of details. Similar to the detached photographs of the New Topographics which was subsequently taken to the next level with the decaying and abandoned industrial facilities of Bernd and Hilla Becher, there is an aloof and distant feeling to these photographs, almost too cool and calculating in their documentary style. As with the photographers of New Topographics and the Becher’s, there is an absence of people in the photographs, as though they have vanished. To be fair, for most of the interior locations the photographers featured, no reasonable person would probably want to be there amidst the decay and destruction.

http://thephotobook.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/yves-marchand-romain-meffre-ruins-of-detroit/

Abandoned Building Photography Idea

I will be looking into abandoned building photography and capturing photos that are rugged and rough. This will show parts of buildings that have been left behind and destroyed either naturally or by people who have passed through it. I am interested in investigating how these buildings have changed over time and aged. Also, how people have defaced the building with graffiti and violence towards walls and windows.

Mr. Ellis Photos

Examples of Mr. Ellis Photography:

Mr. Ellis (Artist Research)

This is what Mr. Ellis writes about himself on his blog:


I got my first camera in August of 2009 and when I try to remember the events before then, everything seemed so surreal. Things I learned, places I lived, people I knew and loved. Its hard to separate those dreams and realities. The one thing I remember is that I used to be afraid.

I would say that these photos are simply a collection of my experiences packaged in an elegant way. They are all inspired by love and its my way of holding on to a moment or a feeling. Even if its a shot set up in a studio or a picture that appears to not make any sense I still consider it an experience that I want to hold on to and make sense of. Maybe people who view the photos step into my body and live through me for a moment, maybe they attach it to an experience they had or maybe they simply experience a visual pleasure.

The camera allows me to do and be around cool things. Its like a hall pass or badge. At the same time, because I’m now a photographer I crave the excitement, or beauty, or whatever.  I live my life in a way where I search for those cool things/experiences so I can take pictures of them. An addict searching for the next hit.

http://mrelllis.tumblr.com/info

iO Tillett Wright Photos

Here are some photos from iO Tillett Wright.

iO Tillett Wright (Artist Research)

iO is an artist, activist, writer, speaker, actor, and social scientist.

Her work primarily deals with identity, be it through her fine art portraiture, or her ongoing activism campaign, Self Evident Truths. She was a featured contributor for T Style Magazine at the NY Times for two years, and her work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, New York, Brooklyn, Dossier, GQ, Elle, Bomb, HUGE, and The New Order Magazines.

iO has exhibited her artwork in New York and Tokyo, and has published three limited edition photography books. iO is a public speaker, who regularly travels the country lecturing at events and schools, encouraging people to broaden their 'circle of normalcy', and expand their sphere of empathy. Her TED talk, "Fifty Shades of Gay" has been viewed by over 1.7 million people and is considered a key element of the growing international discussion of sexuality and gender.

iO was a professional film and theater actor until the age of 20. She published a Street Art magazine, Overspray, for five years, and has also directed several independent music videos.

http://www.darlingdays.com/about-me

Terry Richardson Photos

Here are some examples of photos taken by Terry Richarson.

Terry Richardson (Artist Research)

Terrence "Terry" Richardson (born August 14, 1965) is an American fashion and portrait photographer who has shot advertising campaigns for Marc Jacobs, Aldo, Supreme, Sisley, Tom Ford, and Yves Saint Laurent among others. He has also done work for magazines such as Rolling Stone, GQ, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, i-D, and Vice. 

Richardson was born in New York City, the son of Norma Kessler, an actress, and Bob Richardson, a fashion photographer who struggled with schizophrenia and drug abuse. Following the divorce of his parents, Richardson moved to Woodstock, New York, with his mother and step-father, Jackie Lomax. Richardson later moved to the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, where he attended Hollywood High School. He moved with his mother to Ojai, California, where he attended Nordhoff High School, when he was 16. Richardson originally wanted to be a punk rock musician rather than a photographer.

His mother reportedly gave Richardson his first snapshot camera in 1982. He used the camera to document his life and the punk rock scene in Ojai. In 1992, Richardson quit music and moved to the East Village neighborhood of New York City, where he began shooting scenes of young people partying and New York City's nightlife. It was in New York City that Richardson had his first "big break." His first published fashion photos appeared in Vibe in 1994.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Richardson

Unit 3 Outline

In unit 3, I will be looking at graffiti and street photography, taking photos of everyday life and graffiti in different areas of the city, where most people wouldn't particularly look to find art. This can open up a further meaning within culture, and portrays a meaning of what the artist (graffiti) thinks about society as a whole or their opinions on it. Another further view I am going to look at is the artist's story behind the piece of work that they have made.