Final Proposal

1. What - Concept is to use the title to change the meaning of a photograph
2. Why -It'd be cool
1. Relevance to the course - Conceptual Art is completely relevant. Changing the meaning due to a title I give it would goes hand in hand with the ability to manipulate photographs with photoshop.
2. As an artist, I love creating pieces that I can always add to later. by starting these projects, I can keep them in mind when always shooting in the future. This type of photograph is the type that is hard to set up, and only shows up in nature or daily life so often. I would like to be ready.
3. How - First I must come up with a few settings to put together with the entire concept in mind before the shoot. I wish to start by mimicking my inspiration and attempt to move forward beyond that.
4. References and Inspirations -John Hilliard - Cause of Death?
5. Personal Accomplishment - In general, I have a problem planning out the entire shoot before i pick up the camera. I want to be able to do so.

Contemporary Art Paper

Tyler Yokoyama

Nika Kaiser

Digital Photography

ARTO 354

Charlotte Cotton

The Photograph as Contemporary Art

Chapter 4: Something and Nothing

I chose the chapter of Something and Nothing because the one concept that I love so much is capturing of evidence of what once occupied the space photographed. There are so many creative ways that photographical artists have captured this. From this chapter, I will talk a little about Jeff Wall, Gabriel Orozco, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and WimWenders. I will also mention Rut Blees Luxemburg, Anya Gallaccio, NeleAzevedo, Paul Kos, Simone Decker, and Richard Long.

Something and Nothing can be a self-explanatory chapter title, yet creative artists love to create art that twists the boundaries. The most simple way to create a photograph that falls into this chapter would be to photograph something seamlessly ordinary and abundant, but give focus to a point where you may not have given it attention. For example, Jeff Wall photographed an old, dirty floor with a mop and bucket occupying the middle ground. This situation is something that we could walk right passed and not give a second look. Wall is now forcing us to take a second look which adds to the visual intrigue of the photo. We may see things that otherwise would have been dismissed.

One of the most famous images in conceptual photography is Breath on Piano, 1993, by Gabriel Orozco. This photograph represents the human presence that was once there. The greatest thing is that a photograph captures an instant in time that will never occur again. Every subject and setting of a photograph is lost immediately after the photograph has been shot. That subject will never exist again, at that same point in time. You can take another photograph that looks similar, but it will never be the same. In the instance of this photograph, Orozco never occupied the space of the photograph. He simply exhaled on the piano before the shot. He also shot a piece called Chairs. A simple set of chairs in a public area that you would walk passed and not think a thing until Orozco brings it to your attention that the signs of ware on the chairs and the cement wall that backs the chairs is a trace of human presence.

The specific piece that I will describe by Felix Gonzalez -Torres is one of my all-time favorite art works.As many great works of art, this piece was developed from immense pain released or expressed through creative means that provoke powerful emotion. Gonzalez-Torres lost his lover from AIDS caused by the HIV virus. He then installed twenty-four billboards all over New York City with a monochrome photograph of an empty bed that made up his work Untitled, 1991. These beds were meant to represent the lack of presence of who was once there. Even if you did not know what the billboards stood for, you can make the connection, and even if you did not know the installation went beyond a single billboard, all the feelings of life can be inspired from the image. We are born in a bed. We sleep in a bed. We get sick in a bed. We make love in a bed. Finally we are laid to rest in a bed. The bed is a source of comfort for most people, but there are the bad times we have spent in our beds as well. So this piece reaches out to everyone and brings many different meanings to each viewer.

Lastly, as for the artists from this particular book, I wanted to refer to a specific work of WimWenders: Wall in Paris, Texas, 2001. Very simply, there is a clean wall of a building with a small portion that has chipped away. The lack of paint or cement reveals a secondary, possibly the original wall. It seems to be a brick wall with graffiti over it. This brings to attention the idea of past physical presence. For this situation to occur, a person or multiple people had to build the wall, then another person or people spray painted their design on the wall, and much later, a company must have hired another crew to paint over, or lay new cement over the bricks. The time and human effort involved in this piece is much more than a man pressing the shutter button.

As for Photographers not listed in this chapter of the Cotton book but very well could be, I am starting with Rut Blees Luxemburg and his piece In Deeper. The placed this image in the Once upon a Time chapter because it is telling a story. With the past presence of a human, it is easy for the viewer’s mind to create a story in attempt to connect the dots and finish the story. Spots in the water aren’t really “something” but the trace of a person can’t be classified as nothing. This photograph is intriguing as there is nothing really there, but an entire story can be generated from it. Let your imagination run wild.

Another photographer that I truly enjoyed her work was Anya Gallaccio and her installation and used photography to capture the experience. She placed thirty-four tons of ice and a half-ton boulder of rock salt at the Wapping Pumping Station in London. It was titled “Time Out” and is a classic example of how a photograph can capture a moment of objects existing in a state that will never occur exactly the same again.

A little more intricate, NeleAzevedo created his installation of Melting Men ranging a foot in height that littered the stairways of a concert hall in Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt Square. Though you may not think this would fall into the Something and Nothing chapter, it could. The content is really intriguing and exciting, they stand for something much more. Since these 1,000 miniature ice sculptures were places in direct sunlight on a 73-degree day, they did not last more than half an hour before they started to melt. This was meant to bring awareness to global warming and that the melting ice caps will raise the earth’s sea levels by 3.3 feet in 2100. I believe the fact that the ice was sculpted into small people shows us that not only are we to blame for the raising sea levels, but it will soon lead to our own destruction if nothing is done.

A much different piece using blocks of ice as an installation, or more of an experience would be the work of Paul Kos. His famous photographs of Sound of Ice Melting have been used by many. The best part is that the photograph was there to merely document the act of putting a block of ice in the middle of a dozen microphones to record the ever crackle and drip of water emitted from that block of ice. Even if you were to listen to the audio track and not hear a sound, the concept is pure art and can be appreciated through any medium.

Simone Decker’s work may not fall into the Something and Nothing chapter, but his work has to do with the exaggeration of the human trace. He obtained life size amounts of chewing gum and placed it around Venice, Italy in 2009. Some pieces were blown up as a bubble, others stretched out across ally ways to force interaction with foot traffic.

Last, but not least, I wanted to describe a certain photograph shot by Richard Long titled A Line Made By Walking, England, 1967. This is a perfect example of the human trace. A artist walks in a straight line over and over until the grass is trampled and wares down and dies. A simple act that he captured through photography in 1967. He was one of the first conceptual artists to use photography in such a way. There is nothing there but a line made by walking. The art is the interaction between the piece and the viewer. The viewers mind will naturally imagine the artist walking back and forth for hours or even days to create such a simple photograph.

The way that each of these has been presented has altered the meaning of these extra ordinary objects. They now have new meaning within the art piece and within the audience. I know I will never look at a block of ice, a worn down chair, or mop and bucket the same again. In this world, as Cotton describes it, “There is no such thing as an unphotographed or unphotographable subject.” At first glance, these objects may be over looked until they are photographed, framed and placed in an art gallery. These artists exercised their minds to the point where they can see what we decide not to.

Attached are the images for each of the works listed above in order:

Jeff Wall – Diagonal Composition no. 3

Gabriel Orozco – Breath on Piano

Gabriel Orozco – Chairs

Felix Gonzalez-Torres – Bed Billboards (2 images)

WimWenders – Wall In Paris, Texas, 2001

Rut Blees Luxemburg – In Deeper

Anya Gallaccio – Time Out

NeleAzevodo – Melting Men (5 images)

Paul Kos – Sound of Ice Melting (2 images)

Simone Decker – Chewing in Venice (3 images)

Richard Long – A Line Made By Walking

Assignment 4 Contact Sheets

Project 4 Rules

1. Focal length at 135mm
2. Focus as close as possible
3. Attempt to make subject unrecognizable or abstract
4. Cool color pallet
5. Shoot with natural light

Assignment 3 Image Vault

Chapter 3 summary

This chapter helps introduce you to Bridge, Camera Raw, Lightroom, and Photoshop. It was strange to me to read it in the order they explained it because brooks showed us how his workflow progressed. I think I like to take images to Lightroom first before ANY editing to create a DNG is completely free of editing and is raw in the purest form. Anyways, in the chapter we learn about Panels, Workspaces, Tools, Shortcuts, Modifiers, Menus, Features, Metadata, Collections, and much more. Although they didn't introduce us to every single function, they showed us where to find what we are looking for.

The reason Photoshop is unique is it's ability to create layers and filters. Photoshop is the only "destructive editing program" of these four Adobe programs, there are many things we can only do in photoshop. Bridge is like a glorified window browser that can work together with Camera Raw and Photoshop. Camera Raw and Lightroom are nondestructive in that when you make an edit, they edit layers and not the actual pixels, therefore any edits can be doubled, halved, and undone without any trace of an edit.

Lastly they talk a little bit about the workflow and how an image should go through all these steps from the camera to print, web, and / or presentation. Alltogether this was a bit of overview for me, but not bad if I might add. I will have to reread sections to better memorize the shortcuts to improve my speed in editing.

Lightroom Chapter 3 Summary

Assignment 2 JPEG Vault

Old Work, New Ideas

I believe myself to be a landscape photographer when it comes to my aesthetically pleasing shots; the photographs that I and others hang on their walls. I will never be satisfied with the quantity of amazing shots Mother Nature gives us only because I know there are millions more. I draw inspiration from places such as The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, NASA, Hubble, and much more. I love to travel and take photographs to assist my memory so I can’t forget these wonderful places that I have been and these amazing moments that I have experienced. This photograph was taken on the side of the road to Yosemite National Park. I want to go hiking there for weeks and take my camera as well as many other national parks. I like this particular photograph because as the background fades into the top of the image, it seems painterly in contrast to the bottom where the foreground is crisp. The overall feel is stunning for me. The blistering cold river flowing through these hard rocks where life has sprung, while in the distance, an enormous mountain of rock emerges from the forest and feels warm by the sunlight. If it were not for the foreground, I would believe that this image was computer generated for a scene in the Lord of The Rings or similar fictional film.

The one thing I believe I have not made a valiant effort in mastering or exploring is portraiture. I have stayed away from taking photographs of people, especially in a photo-shoot for an art class. I have taken photos for weddings, family portraits, and senior portraits, but only to find the aesthetically pleasing photographs. I would like to try and shoot people with the intention of making art. Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler created a scene for a photograph named Untitled, 1998. This image is a great example of a type of photography that I would very much like to explore. They created a narrative with so many questions. This image specifically makes you wonder so much about her, the subject, the house, the yard, the past, the future, etc. There are other types of photography within the portrait that tell us about the person more than a normal dressed up “say cheese” type of photograph. I would like to explore that as well. I will have to get over my fear of dealing with people in front of the camera. For some reason, I just don’t feel comfortable telling people what to do for my photograph.

Final Images

Unfortunately I was only able to complete 2 full images... I am disappointed at myself...

Final Project Contact Sheets

Cotton Chapter 3, 4, & 5

Cotton Chapter 3 - Deadpan

            With the complete lack of expression, the image focuses in on the subject. This allows the subject to completely awe the viewer. The subject is usually something magnificent or becomes magnificent when attention is drawn to it. I love the sheer mass and chaos in Gursky’s Chicago, Board of Trade II, 1999. In the mass, you cannot see the expressions but only the volume and variant colors. In his photograph, Prada I, 1996, no longer are you looking at shoes in pairs and triplets, but they start to stand for us. The shoe represents the foot that fills it and by physical linkage, represents the human race. He also has photos such as 99 cent, Pyongyang, and Shanghai, that all work upon each other. On page 83, it says “Gursky avoids the riskier strategy that most photographers follow of making different and distinguishable bodies of work.” and “a new body of work is considered inconsistent.” By doing so, photographers such as Gursky produce images that keep adding value to the rest as a growing whole.

            Ed Burtynsky’s photograph, Oil Fields #13, Taft California, 2002 is another one of my favorites. There is no expression, but the subject is awe-inspiring. The rich brown color and the feeling of infinity of oil pumps and telephone poles make me want to ride my bicycle more often. These photographs are also taken from an ominous point of view that give it a bland feel which adds to the deadpan aesthetic. It reminds me of Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Seascapes.

Cotton Chapter 4 – Something and Nothing

            Something and nothing is a broad subject that covers one of my favorite topics of the presence of humanity without the physical sight of us. This can be applied to anyone and animals as well. Gabriel Orozco’s Breath on Piano, 1993 is a classic example of presence without proof. Wim Wenders’ Wall in Paris, Texas, 2001 not only shows a man made wall, but one that has been built over an existing wall with traces of human existence in the form of graffiti. This is a beautiful shot if you ask me. Not only are the grays rich in color, but emergence of what lies behind, possibly trying to get out.

            One example I believe to be both Deadpan and completely embedded in intimate life is the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Untitled, 1991 was a work of 24 billboards across New York City with a simple photograph of a bed with white sheets and white pillows. The bed was a little messy, as if a couple just arose from it. The photograph of the bed is a secure feeling of home for most people. It is a place that you rest, make love, give birth, and possibly lay to rest in. A bed is where we spend half our lives in. In this case, this is the bed that Felix and his lover rested in until he died of AIDs. So now this extremely deadpan photograph continues a lifelong conversation with infinite personal meanings to individuals, all from a picture of a bed.

Cotton Chapter 5 – Intimate Life

            The narrative of intimate life does not always refer to the happiness and excitement of love making, but “Art photography, on the other hand, while embellishing the aesthetics of family snaps, often substitutes the emotional flipside for their expected scenarios: sadness, disputes, addiction and illness” (Cotton 138). I feel intimate photography is beautiful, but extremely difficult to work with. I do not think I could pull it off. The time and effort of having subjects intimately exposed for prolong periods of time until the shot is just right…

This also reminds me of someone’s work that I cannot remember of a couple in a car driving but with unpleasant expressions on their face. Most couples get into fights and more than likely they will fight in the car.