I saw Teru Kuwayama speak at the George Eastman house this summer. They had a travel photographer’s series, and there were about 4-5 photographers who gave lectures. His was most interesting to me. He’s been photographing primarily in Afghanistan for the last few years. He’s lived with citizens as well as soldiers. He spoke more intelligently about the war there than anyone I’ve heard.

below are some other photographs I’ve been looking at:

wire

I’ve been thinking a lot about the past in doing this final. About my personal religious history, and about my current situation. I couldn’t wait to leave home when I was younger. And I never missed it the first two years, but now I think this way of life is catching up with me. I just want somewhere that’s my own– with more permanent friends and less definite deadlines. I want time to write and time to myself. I feel like I’m losing my ability to communicate. I used to be a great writer and now I don’t even use complete sentences. I feel like the scope of my knowledge has greatly deteriorated since I’ve been in college.

And I miss the lake. Even if it smells.

http://alessandrasanguinetti.com/

Relieved

Election day always terrifies me.

Especially this year, partially because I could actually vote, and partially because… Sarah Palin? I mean, really?

My brother was running the campaign for a woman running for state senate. She lost by quite a bit. He put so much into it, but she wanted an all-grassroots campaign. Which is nice, in theory, but a few signs and one tv ad might have helped. Just a guess. It was good experience, all the same. (He wants to go into politics)

But anyway, I’ve spent my life surrounded by people who think the same way as me. My parents are democrats (and actually were upset when they found out I registered sans party.) I find it hard to wrap my head around anyone thinking gay people are a plague, or that race gives one the right to hate, or that universal health care would ruin america, or that war is ever ok.

When the subjects come up, during elections, I really get worried. Sometimes I’m worried that I just cannot even remotely logically understand how others mind’s work. Mostly I’m just terrified that those thoughts exist. I mean, I understand that some issues make people uncomfortable, or that they’d rather not have the government change their lives. But it seems like a lot of people are motivated by hate. I’m not sure I’ve ever really hated anything, and some people live their lives that way.

multiple exposures

a few multiple exposures i just scanned. I’m trying to figure out a system to use this a little less haphazardly for (part of) my final project. I decided to do chrysotypes.

Some work from this semester

swap

I sent out a couple of rolls of film to friends to take photos with and send back to me. I already took photos with the same roll (I didnt rewind them completely). I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them. It’s really just a project I’ve been thinking about doing for curiosity’s sake. I like the idea of two images from different lives on the same negative.

(dis)belief

I’ve been thinking about the idea of journals. I spent a lot of time this summer reading through my old journals; angsty writings from someone I’m still not quite comfortably distanced from. I was thinking a lot about how drastically my beliefs have changed since I started writing journals about ten years ago. I mean, its to be expected, but I feel like the last ten years of my life have been spent figuring out what I don’t actually believe in. There was a lot of insecurity in that disbelief. Now I feel that I’ve got a pretty secure hold on what I believe in, and I really would like to concentrate on that in my images: that change, and that childish confusion. I’m not entirely sure how to represent those feelings in a photograph. I think I need to change shooting tactics and completely plan everything out for this sort of a project.

I’m trying to decide if I want to incorporate some of the aesthetics of my journals in the photographic process. My journals are half sketchbook. I tried some sort of sketches by coloring on prints that I wasn’t really happy with. I just used markers that were kind of bright for me, but I think it could be a really interesting aesthetic. I’s like to incorporate text as well.

I’m thinking of working in the gum bichromate process. I’ve been looking around flickr for examples of all of the processes and I absolutely love the colors people are able to get with the process. I think it will really work as a sort of hint to memory. Plus it just looks pretty fuckin cool.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hansbazar/2260463473/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saravalentine/2438877177/

and headstrong

After weeks of things going wrong, I feel like I’m finally getting somewhere. Most of my prints have been coming out pretty decently. (I will upload some examples soon, hopefully). I gave up on larger prints for a while, and just decided to a lot of small prints to test everything out. I think I’ve been having a little more luck with the van dykes.

nausea of the eye

I don’t think it’s that I don’t have ideas. I think it’s that I’ve been having too many ideas at once. I’m having trouble deciding what to photograph and what looks good more than ever. I’m not satisfied with any of the images I’ve taken so far. I am planning on using this weekend to take photos. But, I’m not counting on it being more than a visual brainstorm at this point.

I really want to concentrate on portraiture. I’d also like to work with some play between the idea of “great” and the “mundane/common.”

This is an interesting project

twice removed from my face

I was drawn to Francis Baker’s photographs of the human form on dress pattern scraps. It’s a cleverly simple idea that has a haunting and expectant quality in the finished piece. I like the idea of printing on something with such a specific purpose, and exploiting that purpose and its imagery.

Her other mixed media works use photography as an integral part of of the whole.

Pinhole camera research: I found this site that has a lot of interesting images by various artists. I’m intrigued by the photos made by cameras with more than one lens. I like that cameras can act so completely differently than our eyes. I was originally going to make a stereographic camera, but, looking at all these, I think I’ll at least attempt something a little more dramatic.

I absolutely love this clock camera by Jochen Dietrich.

Other links:

alternativephotography.com

camera design calculators

pinhole photography