I just realized I hadn’t posted this weird thing. Once again, it was a project for digital image illustration. We had to make something surreal, but I think mine ended up being more of a statement. That’s okay, my professor got it and liked it anyway.

(Also, I know it’s more of a fish bowl than a fish tank but I the photo of Brie was from my fishtank/blank/bare/revelator series [which reminds me, I don’t think I posted a photo of revelator] and I didn’t have a fish tank. Or even a fish bowl for that matter, this was actually a wine glass that I manipulated to look like a fish bowl.)

Back again with my photos of Rebecca and her hair.

For my digital image illustration class final, we had to do some composite/manipulation with a list of guidlines/needs. We only had about fifteen minutes to do it so I threw this together. It might not be the best work of art but I like it.

bare

bare

I had to do this for my advertising class. I’m embarrassed by how much photoshop was used. I want to do it again but maybe with a different model.

Preferably Summer Glau.

House of Leaves and other words

I thought I’d sit down and talk about some things the best I can (which, let’s be honest: isn’t great). Things, meaning, my word usage in my work.

Lately I’ve been really getting into text on photographs, whether it be done in photoshop or the flash projections (which by the way, once I get ahold of my own old film camera that no longer works, I will post a tutorial on how to do it!).

A lot of my inspiration came from House of Leaves. It took me about a month to get through (it’s the size of a text book and there are some really dense parts) and there are moments, phrases, sections of the book that have stuck in my mind and weaseled their way into my thinking process. I love Danielewski for changing the game of what a book should read like, how it should flow, how it should look on the page and most importantly, how the way the text is actually placed on the page affects the meaning or the importance of words, sentences, paragraphs.

How do words affect photography?

Don’t you get annoyed when you’re at a museum and you’re not quite sure what it means, so maybe the title will help you feel it, and then you see it’s untitled. Personally, that turns me off and I don’t connect with the artwork. Titles help me so much.

So why can’t titles be a part of the photograph and why do titles have to be apart from it? Combine the two, I say! Revel in these words and sentences!

I used to listen to the band Panic! At the Disco. I have long since abandoned them (Gotye’s Making Mirrors is heavily on repeat and giving me inspiration as of late) but some things stuck with me:

1. Ryan Ross’s way with words and describing feelings
2. TITLES! Man, they loved their titles and I loved them for it.

I think they were the first to make me realize how important words and titles are. I mean, I’ve listened to/read more bands/books that have had an impact on me, but I think P!ATD is when my eyes started to open a little and then House of Leaves came along and opened them wide.

I love using quotations from this book (as well as others..). It’s not even that the quotes add a literal meaning to my photography. I don’t want that. A picture of a girl with 900+ words describing what is not in a space doesn’t tell you the meaning of the work, but for me, it adds the feeling.

The blankness of that place.

I think blankness is a reoccurring theme now. I feel like blank has so many meanings and that word gives me a lot of feelings.

Fishtank/blank. Revelator. Concealer. Poisoner.

To be quite honest, the text I use reflects my feelings. That’s why I use them.

God, I’m not even sure this post is coherent.

Collaboration with Kristin Oldfather

Nikon D3, 24-70mm, SB900 + SB700, and some flour.

Another from fishtank/blank.

fishtank/blank

So this lighting method was kind of difficult to get the hang of. Basically you have to rip apart an old film lens, put a transparency with shapes or words (Kristin’s shapes worked better than my words) where the film would go and back it with an SB flash (or another brand’s equivalent) by ball-bungeeing them together. Kristin and I kept changing our transparencies so we just hand held the flash to the camera instead of using a tripod.

I really love how these turned out and I want to do more for some experiments. I just need to get ahold of my own old camera to take apart. When I do, I’ll be sure to post a step-by-step on here!

Thanks to Kristin for helping out and to Isabel for modeling!