Clare

__Concentration 3: Ambition__
In the final quarter you will be focusing primarily of making sure everything gets done. This quarter may be your last chance to really push your understannding of your project. You now know what you are doing and have developed some expertise in materials, techniques, and ideas. What are you attempting that is more ambitious than anything else you have completed thus far? Is it more intricate, larger scale, more images, deeper idea, etc. How have you pushed your project beyond its current state?

This quarter I went on many more photo-taking trips and took a lot more variations of each scene so I'd have more to choose from. I also took more time to edit each picture so there'd be more contrast and make the colors of decay more vibrant. My pictures this quarter also tend to capture a larger scene, making the decay and abandonment more obvious and intense because you see the surrounding areas. I tried to push my concept more towards showing the emotion behind the picture, but I'm honestly not sure if I captured it all the way. Therefore, at the end of this concentration, I think I will continue to focus on the aspect of decay and abandonment, rather than the way I take each picture evokes a certain emotion.



__Concentration 2: Evolution__
How has your project evolved from its beginning stages? What did you change deliberately? What has changed naturally as you got a better understanding of what you are trying to accomplish?

My project in the beginning was more about urban decay, architectural design, inner-city surroundings, etc. Now, after trying to explain my project to people and coming up with a simple way to explain it, I started using the phrase 'what is left after man's abandoned something.' So I switched my concept from just urban design to the consequences of abandonment, but specifically in urban settings and buildings so the possible subjects don't become people as well. I want it to still remain objects and places. What I'm trying to do now is portray an emotion or opinion about the situation through each picture; either beauty, pity, sadness, anger, acceptance, etc.

**__Concentration 1: Generation__**
Concentrations are about development of an idea, through attempting to portray certain things one way, then trying to portray them more concisely in a different way. My initial idea for this project was to take pictures of decay in inner city areas, like falling down walls, dirtied buildings, construction, graffiti, etc, and how those things can actually be considered beautiful in an abstract way. But looking at pictures of similar projects online expanded my idea to not only be about the possible beauty of urban decay, but also about how surroundings can overtake the decay, adding to the beauty.

The hardest part of this project so far has been finding places to actually take pictures. I drove downtown several times, but couldn't really find anything that fit my idea. Then I researched some places to check out, which I'm going to visit soon. I've learned that it takes a lot of patience to find and get a good picture that matches my concentration.



__Project 7: Surrealism__
Surrealism: Although I'm not totally clear on what surrealism actually is, most of the examples I've seen are of scenes that can't happen. Either faces are really distorted, if its a painting, or the subject matter or events that are occurring can't physically occur in a normal world, if it's a photograph. But, it obviously has to be possible if it's a photograph...so, I think in dealing with surrealist photography, a picture that contains elements that would not be expected or seem out of place would qualify as surreal.

All the 5 artists create either weird scenes that don't really make logical sense, or place objects and people in strange situations that makes the viewer question what's going on. Some seem to take more planning and setting up, like Crewdson and Hardy, while others seem to not take as much set up, but require more thought behind the picture, like Breuning and Hobbs. Dali, on the other hand, created seemingly impossible scenes and actions from a minimal amount of things in Dali Atomicus.



__Project 6: Mass Media Culture__
For both pieces I am going to ask you to think about the relationship you are creating with your source material. For the body image piece, im saying that the images I used are also used in magazines and advertisements as a means to influence women into thinking that until they buy a certain product, weigh a certain amount, or look a certain way, they are not yet considered beautiful by society. I wanted to draw attention to this issue by using the same images magazines use to show how they warp young girls and women perspectives about what beauty is. For the album cover piece, im saying that the art used on old vinyl records was used to sell the artists actual music. In comparison to today, where album covers seem to be more about promoting the album artist and not his/her music, old vinyl covers sell real musical expression.
 * What are you saying about the images you are using? **

Im not glorifying the issue in first piece. The "Timeless Beauty" is used sarcastically/critically, and the "BODY PRESSURE" in the background shows that the piece is criticizing the beauty industry and its affect on women. I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to glorify the second piece, but I ended up deciding to celebrate the way older records were promoted, contrasted to how music is now.
 * Are you glorifying them? Are you critical of them? **

I think it depends on the situation/ topic to decide whether art is more valuable than mass culture. Art tends to express one's emotions or opinions on something, can be more critical of certain things, opinionated and truthful. Mass culture tends to follow one certain opinion, or else is wouldnt be considered //mass// culture. So, art is more valuable when it comes to individuality, but mass culture reaches and influences more people.
 * Is art more valuable than mass culture? **

Rauschenberg took things from media and collaged pieces, but I don't really think he used them to make any sort of statement for or against a certain issue. So even though I also put different pictures together, the fact that I made the piece intending to make a statement makes our two pieces different. Warhol used multiple repetitions of images from mass culture, which is what we used for this project too. Warhol repeated the iconic image of Marilyn Monroe so many times, that eventually it stopped being a picture of her, and more of a symbol. So Warhol is closer to what we did in this project than Rauschenberg was because his pieces of mass media and pop culture made statements. I'm honestly still not sure what Koons' pieces are about or what they're trying to say, but he did use images and ideas from mass culture to make some sort of statement (even if I don't know what that statement is).
 * How does this position fit in with Rauschenberg, Warhol, and Koons? Explain your understanding of their positions. **



December 8, 2010

__Project 5: Symbolism__
//How did you come up with the idea of photographing these specific objects?// I've always been interested in inner city architecture; I drive around downtown a lot because that's where my mom works, and when I looked at the buildings, I tended to either notice that the doors were placed on the front walls, so the inside was easy to access, or that the doors were hidden on side walls, down alleys, or even painted the same color as the building walls.

//What is the title you would give this series?// I actually hate titling things, but I guess I'd have to name this series............?

//What greater meaning do you think they contain?// Most people don't pay attention to doors, and maybe I'm weird for noticing them, but I think the way in which a door gives off a kind of vibe that tells you if you really want to enter the building or not is really interesting. I mean, technically it's just a door, but to me, it's the first impression of the building and how the door looks makes me wonder about what's inside. //How does the group of images seen together send a message that is different from one seen by itself?// In this group of pictures, I wanted to present a wide range of doors that caught my attention while I was just driving around. I included doors that were the same color as the walls, but also doors that really stuck out and were pretty obvious. So, as a whole, the group of pictures shows the contrast and variation between doors. Looking at one single picture out of the series makes it impossible to understand or even realize that there is a contrast within the series.

__Project 4: Narrative__
The narrative of this series of pictures is about someone (presumably a girl) who had to leave her house in a rush, and didn't have to time wait for whoever she left the message for to get home. The writing, written in lipstick, on the mirror indicates that the girl expects to return home later, (the mystery being that the viewer doesn't know where she is going, nor does the person she left the message for.) I wanted to limit the amount of objects that I used in the compositions so that the frame didn't look too cluttered; the smeared lipstick and bits of eyeshadow show that the woman didn't even have time to clean up. __Real Color__ __Edited Color__



**__Project 3: Multiples__**


Creating something interesting doesn't have to involve complex shapes or crazy colors. The repetition of the same shape or part of that shape creates a kind of unity throughout the image. Taking smaller parts of the same image and drastically varying the size, opacity, color, etc., creates variety without overcrowding the frame or making the image too busy. For the fish one, I wanted to make sure the three colors we were allowed to use were balanced throughout the entire image, but I also wanted to play with the opacity in order to make other colors like purple and green, so I overlaid a lot of shapes. I wanted to make the rooster one really ambiguous, because I don't find the shape of a rooster all that interesting by itself, so I made its feathers really big and kinda blurry. Then I played around with interesting colors. I didn't want it to be too vague and ambiguous, so I put the more defined shape of the rooster more opaque in the left corner. The basic shape of the zipper was naturally repetitive, so I wanted to create a sort of rhythm throughout the whole piece. So I tried to create interesting negative space, warped some of them, and changed various opacities. If this project were the start of a concentration, I'd continue repeating shapes, but explore more with creating something recognizable with the repeated shapes.

**__Project 2: Cinematography__**

 * __Mine:__**



It was actually harder than I thought trying to frame something within a picture, while having something incredibly close in the foreground -- which is why I'm very grateful for photoshop. Trying to evoke the feeling that the viewer could reach out and touch the thing in the immediate foreground was also pretty challenging; when I imagined what I wanted my pictures to look like, I didn't think it'd be as hard as it was to achieve that feeling. I never realized all of the elements that have to go in to every scene of a movie. I always thought the characters and lines were the main way the audience understood the mood of the scene and things like that, but this project made me realize that the cinematography really has a lot to do with the way the audience interprets a scene. I ended up mainly taking the spacial aspect of the movie stills because I liked the relationship it created between the viewer and the people in the frame. If this was the beginning of a concentration, I'd explore how extreme I could make the foreground be, while still making the overall image realistic.







**How would you describe the lighting? What colors are used? What moods does this convey?**

For the most part, the lighting throughout these 5 images is really soft, creating shadows that don't look very sharp or dark. The colors used in each frame are limited to just a few, never using more than 4 or 5 main colors in each still. For all of these frames, the colors are natural and basic. The mood conveyed by the soft lighting and basic colors is that of simplicity and age, given an old-timey feel.

**How would you describe the camera angle? How does this affect our reading of the image or scene? ** The camera angle for all but two of the stills is eye-level, putting the viewer directly in the scene. The first and third frames are aerial views, giving the reader the perspective of someone looking at the scene from the outside, separating them from the action.  I am going to focus my photographs on the relationship between people or objects and their setting. More specifically, I am going to frame a scene happening within the picture by having very close objects, like people or trees, around the edged of the picture, creating a sense that the viewer can literally reach out and touch the object in the extreme foreground.
 * Even looking at a still, what gives us the impression that something is happening? How would a still image from a film be different from still photography? How can you recreate this affect? ** Looking at a still, there's a sense of wonder about what's going on because each frame was first a part of a larger story. People caught in motion and their facial expressions give the feeling that they were frozen in the middle of doing an action or talking. A still photograph would try to explain everything that's going on in the scene in one frame, composing people's body language and the setting they're in; a still image from a film doesn't have to completely explain the purpose of the frame because it has thousands of other frames accompanying it, explaining the story together. Recreating this affect would involve letting go of the control of people's faces and body language, setting up a sequence of events, and capturing photos that are almost candid, yet still controlling the lighting, color, and impression you're trying to imply.