chebs loraine

Fawn Potash & Danielle Correia : Encaustics & Photography 2

2009-10-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

The second of our two encaustics workshops was just as jam packed and productive as the first! We again had a full class and lots of students who were eager to get their hands into wax. Since my first encaustics blog post was so lengthy, I thought I would keep this one less full of words and more full of pictures...as well as focus on the cyanotype processes that we practiced. We began with a group demonstration on a large sensitized sheet. Fawn brought a ton of her little boy's toys along for us to scatter all over the surface. The sheet starts out light green and turns dark with sun exposure.

Once the sheet is exposed, you simply develop it in water. It turns from the dark green to a beautiful cyan.

Here is our final sheet...

Then we moved on to digital negatives and printing on sensitized paper.

The best part of cyanotypes is that you can do them wherever you want - it's so nice to be able to develop prints outside! The process is chemical-free, too, so it's easy to do with kids.

(We also found these great nametags!)

Fawn demonstrating hand coloring.

Our results! This class got really creative with toning and came up with some really well exposed final products!

Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb : In the Street / Personal Photojournalism

2009-10-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

The weekend with the Webb’s was an extremely full one! We had a full 15-student class, all 4 interns, 2 instructors, and Liz together for the entire weekend. For such an inspiring class, it was really nice to have everyone together instead of split up in a bunch of different directions.

Alex and Rebecca were a wonderfully balanced team to bring to CPW. Alex has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1976 and has published 8 photographic books. He has also worked for a number of major publications ranging from National Geographic to The New York Times Magazine. Alex has worked as a photojournalist in a wide variety of countries. One of my favorite things that he said in regard to street photography was that “it is a way of collaborating with the world,” as opposed to straightforward documentation. As a color photographer, he has a really remarkable sense of light, tonal range, and contrast.

Rebecca Norris Webb is originally a poet and journalist, with her interests recently turning to include photography. Her first book, The Glass Between Us, was published in 2006 with support from a Blue Earth Alliance Grant. Coming from a graphic design background, I really appreciate when photographers can use text in a meaningful, non-distracting way. Rebecca’s series uses text and image to look at the complicated relationship between animals and people, specifically in the contained environment of city. Many of the photographs in her book look at aquariums and zoos, where animals are kept in a contained, fabricated environment. Her newest series, My Dakota, looks at her idea of the American West. She was gracious enough to give the class a preview of these photographs, taken in the area she lived in her late teens.

From the moment the Webb’s walked in the door they were quite relaxed and ready to take on the weekend. They both seemed happy to be with us and excited about the potential the weekend held. They maintained this comfortable feeling throughout the entire workshop, being very open and honest with their stories and advice.

Alex and Rebecca were a really great compliment to each other in their teaching and opinions. They held a nice balance of conversational dialogue between two highly qualified artists and varied background in their approach and experience. During critiques, they gave great suggestions that ranged from artistic ideas to technical advice. I was also impressed at how they evenly balanced time and interest with individual student critiques with such a wide range of work.

At one point during the weekend the Webb's went through a list of their influences. It was really exciting to see who influences a pair of highly established artists. Their presentation ranged drastically from Henri Cartier-Bresson to Andrea Modica, Eugene Richards to Sylvia Plachy. Rebecca also mentioned how their influences also go beyond photography, including filmmakers, novelists and painters. They discussed how everything in your life, all of your experiences, is absorbed and can subconsciously come out in your artwork. While I think this is especially true for a conceptual artist, I found it interesting to think about how that comes out in photojournalism.

One of the group exercises we did was looked at editing. The students were put into small groups and given a bunch of slides. In these groups they were told to edit the images, rejecting images if necessary, into a cohesive sequence. (I may have gotten a bit excited about the light emitted from the light boxes…but I narrowed it down to just 4 images for you to see!).

After the groups finished, Alex and Rebecca went through the selections and gave their input. It was really nice to see how the two of them work together, their thought process, and the balance of styles. They emphasized how editing and sequencing can be just as important as initially capturing the images.

Overall, Rebecca and Alex were wonderful. I enjoyed their presence and thought they had great suggestions that went far beyond critiques. The variety of stories, bits of advice, book information, and influences made the entire workshop feel really well rounded. Rather than focusing in on one detail of photography, we covered a range of information that gave the students a glimpse into what the Webb’s lives as successful photojournalists are like.

Doug Menuez : Art Vs. Commerce

2009-09-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

One of the responsibilities we have during our time at CPW is to introduce an artist before their Saturday night lecture. I was very happy to have chosen Doug Menuez; below is my introduction…

“After leaving art school for photojournalism, Doug Menuez spent 25 intense years traversing the globe and in turn, becoming one of the most successful advertising photographers in the US. The time he spend between the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, Life, Fortune, and People magazines exposed him to a variety of assignments ranging from the famine in Ethiopia to sports & celebrities to the AIDS crisis. He has photographed a range of personalities including Mother Theresa, Robert Redford, and Bill Clinton.

As many of you know, Doug spent much of his time in the 80’s and 90’s covering the explosion of new technology in the Silicon Valley – from the digital revolution through the rise of the internet while exploring the human side of technology development; the manic passion, struggles, and joys of the brave new world. In exchange for prints, Steve Jobs granted Doug the sincere and unlimited access necessary for the project. For years he documented Steve and his team everywhere from their labs, boardrooms, and off-site retreats.

The 250,000 photographs from this project are now archived in the Douglas Menuez Photography Collection at Stanford University Library. Tonight we will be seeing a preview of his next project, “Fearless Genius,” which revisits and expands upon the history and people of the Silicon Valley.”

On another double workshop weekend, I was able to assist and participate in Doug Menuez’s “Art vs. Commerce” class. As you can see from my introduction, Doug is an incredibly experienced photojournalist. He is also one of board members for the Center for Photography at Woodstock. For me, Doug is one of those teachers that uses his experience and learned information to benefit his students. Looking back at the notes I took in my sketchbook, they range from emotional advice to financial advice. It was quite refreshing to have a perspective that stretches the gamut of life as an artist.

As usual, we began the workshop with introductions. Unlike other times when one just talks about where they have been and what they do now, Doug asked the students to also describe their goals and what they needed to get there.

During portfolio reviews, Doug brought up the point of never showing anything that you’re not 100% proud of to anyone. This has definitely been something that I’ve learned over the course of this summer with nearly weekly portfolio reviews. Any mistake that you have in a print or image will stand out far more in a group of other artists, potentially even more than a great project. For example, one small spot of dust can really ruin an amazing print. Lesson learned : if you have to make excuses for any print in your portfolio, that image probably shouldn’t be in there in the first place...

For me, Doug really reinforced that being a photographer is a full time job…whether you’re actually on a payroll for it or not. He encouraged setting up schedules for yourself in order to keep on track of your photographic goals. These ranged from:
- projects : creating self-assignments to consistently push yourself technically and creatively
- financial : delegating certain percentages of your funds to savings, long-term liabilities, and short-term payables
- long term : writing down 6-month plans including what it takes to reach those objectives

These are the three areas I summarized from the weekend – all of which I realize are important, but can sometimes be difficult to sit down and actually manage. For my projects schedule, I would like to set up a photo project each month to accomplish from start to finish. That would include the research, production, processing, and sharing of the piece. Financially, we threw around lots of words like “profit & loss,” "revenue," and “profit margin,”…things I’m not quite ready to tackle. I intend to set up a plan, as rudimentary as it may be at my level, that can at least act as a starting point. Finally, my long-term goals are defined and written down in my sketch book…maybe, just maybe I will share them someday…

Doug had everyone bring in a portfolio along with a number of images they thought were close to - but not quite - good enough to make it in the top 20 selection. He then went through all of the images and chose his selects. He gave detailed explanations of why the images worked or didn’t and included an incredibly thorough analysis of where he could see us going with our work. As an intern, we are critiqued if there is time, and Doug was very generous in insisting to see my and Nikki’s work. Since I’m not from a photo-journalistic mindset, I was a little hesitant to bring in my work. Doug was really great at critiquing it and giving beneficial suggestions without imposing his personal style onto it. Summarizing his critique, Doug reminded me that with my conceptual approach, the photographs still need to be able to stand alone (without explanation).

The weekend invoked a lot of self-reflection and new realizations for everyone. It was interesting how the students ranged in age, experiences, and professions. Doug’s workshop was a great experience for those looking to find a balance between doing what they love and making ends meet. He was also encouraging in maintaining a personal style artistically even when you must work commercially. I think everyone left with a clearer vision of who they are as a photographer and the motivation to take their career to the next level financially and creatively.

(As a side note, I'm sorry the photos might not be as interesting in other posts…I think I got a bit wrapped up in listening to Doug and forgot a little about documentation!)

(Also check out Doug’s blog HERE!)

Susan Wides : Picturing Landscape

2009-09-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

Things have gotten quite busy at CPW! With lots of workshops, a change over of Arts Administration interns, and a new AIR, there is lots going on…and lots distracting me from keeping up with the blog. For any regular readers, I apologize for being distant…its not you, it’s me.

Megan and I got the chance to be part of Susan Wides’ workshop, Picturing Landscape, on a weekend when we had double workshops – the other being Joan Barker teaching Intro to Digital Photography. During my time in undergraduate, I never had an assignment that addressed the historical or contemporary approaches and ideas behind landscape photography, so this workshop was a welcome learning experience for me. Going into it, I knew that I would have a lot to learn and take in…kind of a blank slate as far as the subject matter went.

Susan has been in 18 one-person shows, over 60 group exhibitions, and is in a number of collections. She has had her work written about in a variety of publications such as the New York Times, Artforum, and the Village Voice. She shoots with a 4x5 view camera with intentional areas of sharp and soft focus. The images she creates can often be mistaken as miniatures. I found it interesting that in her work, the majority of the piece that is out-of-focus is just as significant, if not more, than the selected part that is in-focus.

We spent the first part of Saturday looking at student’s work, discussing landscape photography historically, and going over places we could go shoot in the Catskills. Being in upstate New York, the workshop was specifically focused on the paintings done by those in the Hudson River School. For those of you uncertain about that history, you can read a quick and easy overview HERE and look at examples of the paintings HERE.

Many of the Hudson River School painters came up to the Hudson Valley as a retreat away from New York City. At that time, NYC was the center of commerce in the US, and the Catskills were close enough for them to travel and far enough that they were able to escape from the filth of the city. The Catskill Mountain House drew in lots of wealthy people searching for the culture of the United States outside of the city.

A lot of these artists took a significant amount of artistic liberties in order to communicate their feeling about the place rather than a documentary view. During the time they were working, there was also an incredible boom of industrialization. The painters just chose to leave out these signs because they were more interested in talking about the raw nature that they had discovered in America. Often, the paintings referenced the ‘fear of God’ in their dark skies and embellished clouds.

Thomas Cole, the founder, was known for separating the optimal reality from visual reality. Sometimes he felt a subject was more interesting – even more real – if a veil of interpretation was put over it. The memory one has of a place tends to hold dominant features that are then illustrated as embellishments in the artwork.

Both Saturday and Sunday we chanced beating the rain in order to go out on location to shoot…

Susan encouraged us to think about landscape photography as moving beyond documentary and into addressing the relationship we have to a specific place. We talked about topophilia (a word I’d never even heard before), meaning ‘a love of landscape’ according to Merriam-Webster. She gave us a number of categories to consider when photographing:
- toponymic = the names we have given to places
- narrative = the stories or legends behind a place
- experimental = the dependence we have on the place for survival
- numinous = the spiritual or mysterious feeling we have in a place

There are also formal considerations to landscape photography. These may come off as obvious to some of you, but as someone new to landscape work, they were interesting to consider, even if it was just as acknowledgement. In most photographic work, you’re taking a 3-dimensional object and turning it 2-dimensional. In addition, you have constraints to work in as far as your film choice (the dimensions will change depending if it is 35mm, 120, 4x4, etc.). And, perhaps the most obvious, compositionally the things you are trying to capture are stagnant, not movable. We physically need to change our viewpoint in order to animate them in a way appealing to viewers. This challenge is what can separate art from documentation.

All this being said, I learned a lot from this workshop as far as conceptual approaches to a subject I previously didn’t really understand. Below are some of the shots I took of the day…I know, I know, I didn’t really shoot an overall landscape – I have a hard time straying away from details!

Mary Ellen Mark : The World Observed

2009-08-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

Kelsea and I recently had the opportunity to work with Mary Ellen Mark when she came to CPW. Mary Ellen is one of the most internationally well-known women in documentary photography. She has covered a variety of areas everywhere from the circus to behind the cinematic scenes, the relationships between twins to prostitutes in India. All of these projects bring to light the humanistic aspect of subcultures. She has an exceptional range of publications, honors and experience in the field.

The first day of the workshop consisted of portfolio reviews for everyone in the class. Having 15 students, the class was full, and we had lots to look at. With this time, Mary Ellen was able to get a feel of what each person does and give advice on what they should try to push their work farther.

(my fellow intern, Kelsea, getting her work critiqued)

After reviews were over, we took some time to ask Mary Ellen questions about her work and her life. She then showed us a film about the circus she photographed in India.

The next day we were scheduled to go to the Ulster County Fair. Without fail, that was the day predicted for bad weather. With a few sprinkles in the morning, we decided to chance it and go anyways. Of course, it rained the entire time we were there and didn’t stop until we were walking back to the parking lot. This definitely made for challenges, but the students took it all in stride. There were plenty of places to shoot under a covered tent or indoors.

Kelsea and I had some time to wander around and take some photos of our own…

hey, thats me!
(photo by Kelsea Ellingson)

One of the interesting things of how Mary Ellen structures her workshops is that she asks the students to mail her in a contact sheet of what they shot at the fair. She then writes on the sheets and sends back her comments. I really admire this method of following through with the students.

Teen Camp Final Projects

2009-08-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

After telling you how wonderful our Teen Campers were, I thought I should post a few photos to prove all my gushing. They all chose ~10 photographs that fit a central theme - here are just a few of my favorites from each of the girls...

(photo by : Saraphina Mallon-Breiman)

(photo by : Lady Schultz)

(photo by : Donna Dunn)

(photo by : Katie Martucci)

(photo by : Rose Moore)

(photo by : Olivia Gardom)

(photo by : Lauren Cook)

Teen Photo Camp : Phil Mansfield

2009-08-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was given the opportunity to intern for CPW’s Teen Camp. This was a program that my boss, Liz, instituted that focuses on teaching the medium to middle and high school students. This year, by complete coincidence, we had 7 students that happened to all be girls. Having worked with teens before, I was a little apprehensive that with all girls there could be some cliques…but they immediately and continually proved me wrong. I was really pleasantly surprised with all of their levels of maturity and friendliness towards one another.

We began our 4-day program by learning basics…shutter speed, ISO, aperture, and other functions of their SLR cameras. Their teacher was Phil Mansfield, a CPW Staff member who manages our digital lab. I haven’t had much time to work with Phil, but seeing him around, I knew I was going to have a very fun, entertaining week. After only a 2 hour morning of instruction, I was floored by how great of a teacher Phil is! I was really impressed at how well he explained all techniques and how he managed to keep every student entertained…his extraordinary instruction was illustrated in our students photos. I can’t count the number of times I told fellow CPW staff/interns how impressed I was at their ability to grasp all of the technical information along with maintaining impressively creative compositions and ideas. I’ll try to post some of their images soon…

For the first day we hung around the center to shoot. I had the unexpected honor of being their model for the majority of the week…the girls made me feel very comfortable, but it was definitely the side of the lens I’m not used to being on.

Our first field trip was to Opus 40 in Saugerties, NY. I would try to explain it myself, but I think I would ramble on for far too long…luckily their website does a great job of concisely describing what it was:

“The work is an immense composition of finely fitted stone,
rising in ramps and swirling terraces around pools and trees
and fountains out of the rockbed of an abandoned bluestone
quarry. It spreads out over more than six acres.

It is the product of more than thirty-seven years of a man's life.
His name was Harvey Fite. He worked alone, using his hands and
traditional quarryman's tools, to build his masterpiece: Opus 40.”

Luckily the rain held out long enough for us. Here are a few images I shot there for myself…

and some of the girls (and Phil) in action…

The next day we went to the Byrdcliffe Colony. It was raining, so it worked out great to have access to an indoor space. The girls learned about window lighting, silhouetting, and got a chance to wander a bit and shoot the interior how they wanted. I unfortunately didn’t get any good images from that field trip – I was too busy practicing my modeling…you know, preparing for my new career path…

After gathering all of their images, Phil gave more great instruction about how to work in Photoshop. While I’m not a huge fan of altered images, I definitely use Photoshop to clean up scanned negatives, color balance, etc. One of the things that Phil said that really stuck with me was in regard to Photoshop versus the traditional darkroom. To summarize, he said that it shouldn’t matter the way you get to a final product as long as you’re proud of it. Instead of debating whether film or digital is better, we should think about if it is expressing your creativity to the fullest.

At the end of the camp we had a few hours where family and friends stopped by the center to see the work the girls had made throughout the week. We were able to print out some large format images for them along with put together a slideshow of their work. The girls got a chance to speak about what they learned and the images they produced throughout the week.

I can’t say enough great things about how the week went…I couldn’t have asked for a better group for girls or a better instructor to work with. It makes me think that working with teens might be in my future…

Doug Beasley : Zen and the Art of Photography

2009-07-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

“A camera is an extension of ourselves, an appendage to bring us closer to the universe. This is Zen in the Art of Photography. In discovering the universe, we discover ourselves.” -Robert Leverant

This weekend’s workshop was with Doug Beasley, founder of Vision Quest Photo Workshops. He has been leading these workshops since 1992 – ranging in length and location. Doug’s work focuses on the sacred nature of every person, place, and thing. His book, Japan: A Nisei’s First Encounter, documents his first journey to Japan, his mother’s homeland. He is planning a second trip in the fall where he will be able to spend 3 weeks traveling the country.

Doug is based in St. Paul, Minnesota, but also has a cabin in north Wisconsin. Clearly because he’s from the Midwest he is a really great person to be around =) From the moment he came into CPW he seemed very comfortable, calm, and friendly.

We began the workshop with introductions and a short morning meditation. Being completely new to any sort of meditation, those 7 minutes felt like much longer. The rest of the morning was spent doing a variety of written and photographic exercises. He encouraged us to try to photograph and think out of our element. One exercise asked us to work on developing a personal connection to the subject. Here are my results of two of them:

(I walked past these little berries the other day and noticed that they are now all sort of reds, purples, blues, and greens! I’ll have to photograph them again soon…)

I came across Larry, a CPW Staff Member, connecting with a crack in the driveway next to CPW. I think he is crouched down in 90% of my photos from this weekend! Behind him is my fellow intern, Nikki…connecting with…the street sign?

After this we were instructed to go out and break our photographic habits. Doug gave us many suggestions, but the one that stuck with me was to “not take it so seriously, just have fun.” I tend to really think about most of the images I take. Coincidentally at this point, Nikki and I ran into Larry, who suggested a new way of ‘shooting from the hip.’ Instead of keeping our cameras at the same spot, we set them on auto and shot (somewhat) aimlessly at different angles and perspectives while walking from CPW down to the flea market. Here are a few of my favorite shots in succession:

(ok, this one wasn’t so aimless)

“To live a creative life, we must lose out fear of being wrong.”
-Joseph Chilton Pierce

We then were able to revert to our more comfortable ways. We were supposed to spend a lot of time with the subject until we felt like we could photograph it to its fullest extent. Here is my shot:

After lunch we headed to Overlook Mountain and the KTD Monastery. We walked down to the Dharma Path trailhead where we began a very slow, deliberate, walking meditation down to the pond at the bottom.

The path was lined with strings of prayer flags anchored to trees. I’m not entirely sure the meaning of them or their placement, but they were really interesting.

We then gathered near the pond and learned about light and shadow. Clearly, this part of the day was really stressful…

(nikki photographing in the foreground, my boss, liz, managing the participants)

The next morning, we did an exercise where we went from a broad picture and slowly eliminated elements. I photographed a number of different scenes, but was most interested in the outcome of this one. I was surprised at how different they all are just because I moved closer.

(I think my subconscious is trying to remind me how much I miss biking in the city…)

In the afternoon we went to the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper. After lots of instruction and history about meditation, we had a longer zazen – which means “facing the wall” - meditation session (though I think it was really only 15 minutes, apparently that’s a lot when you’re a beginner!). Instead of truly meditating I found myself thinking…a lot. You are actually supposed to clear your mind of thought, but it was much more beneficial for me to spend that time slowing down and clearly thinking through one thought at a time. It was really nice to have time to stop and be still. I was surprised that my generally million-track mind was able to focus steadily on just one thing for 10 minutes.

After meditation, we took a tour around the monastery grounds. I wish I could better remember what each image is of, but I really only remember vague descriptions. Here are some images from the cemetery:

(our guide telling us stories about the history of the monastery…)

One story I remember was about these little statue collections. They are placed all over the property. Our guide told us that a woman who came to visit was a healer and dealt with women who had abortions. These collections represent a sort of closure for those women.

The history of the land is really interesting. He told us how it was previously a Christian monastery, a children’s camp, and a communist camp. One of the remnants of the children’s camp is a swimming pool, now overflowing with trees and greenery.

And to maintain my cycle theme of this post…
Monks ride, too!

Doug gave us a lot of great handouts full of quotes and suggested readings. One of my favorite pieces was his “rules of photography.” Two of my favorites:
#18 - Don’t worry about the equipment you don’t have.
#22 - Editing is a virtue. With 3 choices, remove the weakest one. With two pick the strongest.”

#18 leads me to another quote that he gave us. I suppose I appreciate it because I only have a few years of experience in photography, therefore, my equipment isn’t very advanced. It was nice to have the idea reinforced by an artist I respect – its not about the equipment, its about the thoughts and images...

“When I started photography, I had very little equipment and made horrible photographs. Over the next ten years I bought all kinds of new equipment with very little improvement in my photographs. When I finally learned how to see, I got rid of most of my equipment and my images improved dramatically.”
-Brooks Jensen

It was an amazing weekend and a nice workshop to have in the middle of the season. Everyone (interns included) was able to really relax with a great instructor and remember why we enjoy photography.

Lothar Osterburg : Photogravure

2009-07-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

Our first multi-day workshop of the summer was with Lothar Osterburg, a master printer and fascinating artist. I highly recommend looking at his website, his pieces are really lovely. Lothar works with memories and cloudy ideas. In order to depict these things the way they are seen in his mind, he utilizes miniature models and recreates scenes. He often uses found materials from the street or everyday objects, like toothpicks. Lothar also teaches at Bard College and has been exhibited around the world.

I had tried photogravure once in college using a polymer. Lothar's method is much more involved, using multiple baths and needing a lot more precision in timing. The CPW catalog describes the method perfectly:

"Photogravure is a continuous tone photographic etching process which produces a quality and tonality range that exceeds those of a regular silver print by far. The blacks in particular have a richer, non-reflective, velvety surface, what a silver print never could achieve. These tonalities
are achieved by etching a copper plate gradually from the deepest shadows to the brightest highlights. This way the photogravure is capable of producing a much wider range of tones than any other photographic or printmaking process. The finished plate is printed like an etching on a heavy rag paper."

The first two days were spent at CPW doing the technical work and learning about photogravure. After getting some background on Lothar, hearing about his working method and looking at a lot of test prints, we began prepping the plates. The student's cleaned plexi, sensitized a lot of paper, and printed out digital negatives.

Then it was back outside to learn more about timing and levels of the 6 etching baths.

Lothar has an incredible energy about him, which kept the students interested even though it was a lot of information to process.

The next three days were spent at Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY.

Using their facilities, the students were able to prepare their plates, learn about inks and printing technique, and aquatint.

Finally, each participant was able to print their plate to paper. The students each walked away with at least one test print of each plate. They all seemed to have had a lot of fun over the 5 days and were excited about the possibilities that the medium held for their work. Having had a little bit of experience with photogravure before the workshop, I knew how complicated the process can be. Lothar was a really amazing teacher, he was able to explain an incredibly complicated process in a matter of days.

Tanya Marcuse : The Body (part 2)

2009-07-11T20:22:00.001-07:00

Here are a bunch of the images I took when Nikki and I finally got time to shoot the models...we only had about 45 minutes...30 with the guys and 15 with the girls. It was really exciting to have images to work on that really felt like my own art, not just documentation of the workshops! I tried to really narrow down to those that best showed what we did and those that I like the most...I don't want to overwhelm you all!

Here are some images that I tried to shoot in accordance with the workshop, examining the body. It was definitely outside of my norm and different from the way I'm used to looking at things (I think?):

A lot of the images that we looked at as historical examples and inspiration seemed to focus on muscles, bone structure, and the details of the body that could easily be overlooked. The rest of these are more like what I was used to shooting...

One of our models was Paul; a regular CPW model and yogi (someone who practices yoga). He was incredibly willing to do whatever the students asked...whether that meant climbing up in to branches or suspending himself between two trunks. He was also really interested in seeing the photos each student took, so he (along with Erica) came to our critique on Sunday.

I'm not sure which one I prefer...black & white or color? paul in focus or the envelope in focus?

Miss Nikki in action...

Paul wanted to show us his crazy yoga skills...he was able to hold this pose as long as we needed.

The model here with Paul is Nick. We didn't get any individual time with him, but at the end of our time with Paul, the student shooting Nick asked if we would mind doing a few of them together.

After the day of shooting was 'technically' over, Nikki and I got a quick 15 minutes to shoot the very gracious Amanda and Erica. We began one-on-one and then with both...

(again, b&w or color?)

When it comes to editing, I'm generally pretty liberal - for some reason I can't decide which I like more between this one above & the one below...

Tanya Marcuse : The Body (part 1)

2009-07-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

Tanya Marcuse, an internationally exhibited photographer whose work centers on the body and historical objects related to it, taught this weekend’s workshop. She received her MFA from Yale and soon after was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship. Despite the fact that she has many other fellowships and publications under her belt, she is one of the most personable and down to earth artists I’ve met. Kelsea and I had an incredibly honest conversation with her at the Len Prince and Jesse Mann opening at Photosensualis. She gave us some really great advice about what it means to be a female artist in today’s world. We discussed the difference between having a career, having a life, and having both.

This was my first time dealing with nude models in photography…so I was a bit unsure about the weekend. Tanya made everything very comfortable and interesting. I haven’t ever truly had an interest in photographing nudes, but I now appreciate and understand many aspects of the theory and symbolism behind it. We had some good conversations about how a small piece of clothing can sometimes mean more than none, how environment greatly affects the image, and how to approach a model. Tanya was a really great teacher.

Because I shot so many images from this weekend, I thought I would post them in two separate posts...1 with my documentation of the students and locations and 1 with the images I shot as a workshop participant. The workshop was structured so that we spent the morning at CPW going over student work and the afternoon on location shooting a handful of different models. The houses we went to were really wonderful, one with an amazing yard and another with an inside that you could photograph for years without capturing it all…

The group discussing their approach before we began shooting

Tanya advising Michael on his shot

Ray and our wonderful model, Amanda

Apparently I wasn’t able to deal with the nudes yet…so I bonded with the bunny =)

And Liz (my boss!) bonded with Bella

The second day we went to a house with an unbelievable amount of character. I admit, I abandoned my intern duties for a little bit in order to capture some of the uniqueness about it…

The owners had an incredible amount of books...there were literally rooms with every wall lined with full bookshelves...I would love to live there...

So it looks like this is possibly the only true documentation image I have from this day!

This is where I sleep...

2009-07-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

I've had a couple requests to see photos of where I live, so here they are!

My house is an old converted barn so it is very open and has lots of character.
The first room is a large screened porch, where I spend lots of time reading...upon entering the house you are met with this door - it is from the original barn :

I haven't gotten a chance to photograph the downstairs quite yet, but I will add photos of those as I get them. Its very open, retaining some of the original layout.
Once you go up the stairs, you have my balcony:

Then a little open area where I keep my photography stuff - sorry, its kinda messy:

If you turn around from there, the little purple stairs lead into my room. On the right is my makeshift closet:

And on the left would be my tiny little bathroom:

Seeing as the walls are slanted, this is the best shot I could get as a broad overview of my room...yep, living out of those white storage bins, a mattress on the floor, and makeshift cardboard box tables:

...and the views from my window:

Elinor Carucci & Alan Rapp : Publishing a Photographic Book

2009-07-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend’s workshop was packed with information about what goes in to getting your own photography book published. While I am very far from being ready to publish anything, I still took a handful of really great points out of it. This workshop was a good example of something that I never thought I’d be interested in, but still managed to learn a lot from.

Elinor Carucci is an Israeli born photographer, currently based in NYC. She told us an incredibly endearing story of how she went about publishing her first book. After getting her BFA in Jerusalem, she moved to the city with the intention of staying for 3 months in order to get a book published. She made a maquette, which is basically a mock-up book of what you envision for your work, and went around the city trying to get a meeting. After lots of work, she met Alan Rapp of Chronicle Books. He believed in her project and eventually got everything into the works - 8 months later, the book came to fruition. Throughout the weekend, Elinor constantly reminded us that she just needed one person to believe in her (= Alan). The two of them were a perfect balance of technical, professional advice and the heartfelt, emotional journey.

Elinor has been exhibited around the world from NYC to Israel, London to Prague. She is currently living in NYC and teaching at the School of Visual Arts. Her first book, Closer, is a collection of intimate photographs of her and her family in the most honest, emotional way. After her Saturday night lecture, the other interns and I all agreed that her raw honesty is really appreciated. Her photographs prove that she is open about everything that happens in her life. When asked “how far is too far?” she responded saying for her nothing is too far. If it is real, how can it be too much?

A lot of the workshop was spent going over very specific questions about publishing. This group was a little more advanced and wanted to know more detailed answers than broad questions. One of the more interesting parts to me was when Alan went over the different parts involved in the proposal to a publisher. In order to propose your idea, you need to know a lot about the business and competition behind your project. It seemed to me as though proposing your idea to a publisher is a similar act to how the publisher will sell your book to the public. Alan has more than 15 years of experience in publishing and has worked with a number of well-known photographers.

We spent part of both days giving everyone a chance to show their work and get specific advice on what might be a good next step. It was really interesting to compare Elinor’s comments on the project concept and quality versus Alan’s advice on ideation for a book.

We also went over a lot of self-publishing options such as blurb, lulu, etc. Alan brought along a lot of examples so we were able to pass around each one and compare print quality, size, paper type, and more.

It was really great to meet Elinor, someone whose work I’ve admired for years, and Alan, someone with a lot of experience and valuable real world advice. They were very relaxed and excited about how well the workshop went. Even though I might have to hold on to this information for years until it is personally useful, it was still a great weekend.

My Barista Job

2009-07-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

While being an unpaid intern, it was necessary for me to look for a flexible, low-stress job while I’m living in New York. When I came out to interview, I spent a little bit of time at a local coffee shop getting a bite to eat and picking the barista’s brain about the town. I noticed that they were hiring, so I filled out a presumptuous application and told the manager that I’d be in touch…
Upon getting the internship position, I contacted the café, and was offered a position there (over email, strangely). Having a job lined up before I even moved to the city was an immense relief!

I was really excited to get my hands back on an espresso machine. Once you’ve been trained as intensely as we were by Christopher at Espresso Christoph, it’s often hard to go to another café and watch (or listen to) them make your drink. Being able to make myself a drink was something seriously missed…(for those not in that unique EC family, its fine for you to think I’m a little crazy right now – totally acceptable. For those who are, you understand…)

For starters, the atmosphere of the shop is truly lovely. It is on the second floor, so it has a nice little view of the main street. There are skylights, a couple couches, a variety of tables, and a few seats at the counter. Considering my bedroom here has one small window and a bed as my only seating option, the café is much appreciated by me.

Another nice part is that the coffee is self-serve, so no more asking “would you like room for cream??” Just give them the cup & let them figure it out…

(sorry, not a very exciting image)

Another perk, we only have 3 syrups and 2 sauces! I’m sure the original ECers can remember when we had, what…25 different flavors? more?? It definitely makes cleaning syrup pumps go much quicker. It also makes those ordering a gross flavored latte decide in under 10 seconds (especially since they aren't listed on the menus?).

Unfortunately, our only grinder is similar to the old EC decaf one – meaning, it is much slower, doses off center, and isn’t super consistent. Because of its slowness, the accepted practice here is to let it grind until the chamber is about ½ full and have the espresso sit until you need it…for example, when I opened today, the chamber was about ¼ full of last nights grinds that were intended to get me through the first hour or two of my shift. (Go ahead, ECers, you can cringe).

Our café is responsible for all of the coffee and alcoholic drinks for the restaurant, so I’ve slowly been learning how to bartend. It has been really nice because it allows me to learn without actually having to make drinks right in front of the customer. I’ve definitely had to consult the recipe book a couple of times to teach myself how to make a certain drink…but no complaints so far! Alcohol tends to bring in more tips than coffee, and apparently people in tourist towns tip well, so I’ve made between $15 and $20 during a 5 hour day shift. Not bad when you’re used to a dollar or $2 extra…

Alright…and now the moment of truth…please, ECers, grab a drink, a tissue, a cigarette, whatever you may need to get through this…

Yes, its true…we “proudly” serve Starbucks…
I was surprisingly able to drink it just fine the first few shifts I had. Now, however, I can barely stomach the smell when it is brewing. LUCKILY my manager is great and she had been working on getting a local roastery involved. As of a week or two ago, we serve Starbucks regular, Starbucks decaf, and one Green Mountain brew (local). From what I’ve heard word of mouth, he roasts flavored coffees, but instead of using flavorings or syrups, he will actually throw whole almonds or hazelnuts or cinnamon sticks into the mix. The one we served last week was “Snickerdoodle” (yep…); we also have a Cinnamon-Hazelnut on hand. I chose to brew the Sumatra for my last 2 shifts and it is definitely good. Its not Intelligentsia amazing, but it is much better than Starbucks and its fresh (not as flavorful as a Sumatra should be, but a good cup nonetheless).

Because we serve Starbucks, they insist that we have a certain brand & model espresso machine. Here she is, in all her (pitiful) glory…

Unfortunately, my coffee snob comes out in full force when I talk about this machine. At this café, we are taught to judge the temperature of the milk “according to the sound it makes” instead of thermometers or touch. However, the water pressure in the building is dependent on the kitchen and the dishwasher, so you can’t actually count on a consistent steam. I thankfully revert to my EC ways and rely on touch much more than sound. On top of that, we have one steam wand designated for milk & half and half, the other designated for soy and chai. (hmm…) Also, when i presented my technique with foam, no bubbles, thick but with a glossy sheen, I was told that "people in woodstock prefer bubbly foam."

As far as shots, they have one portafilter for a single shot, one for a double, and one for decaf (single shot only). This means, when you tamp a single shot, you aren’t on an even surface because it only has one spout. Also the tamper is entirely manual, no pressure sensitivity like I’m used to. And now, I have two options, you can choose which one is worse…

A) Our double shots pour at 8 SECONDS.

B) Our decaf espresso comes from PODS.
(I truly never though I would utter that word)

For those with some knowledge, I shot a detail of the “shot timer panel”…

KEY = ½ shot…full shot…2 ½ shots…2 full shots…manual flow (for “cleaning”)

I’m still working out how my morals relate to this concept. We also pour into little silver cups, so you can’t really tell the volume or crema. I miss my clear shot glasses…

To end on a positive note, my coworkers are pretty great. There are only 5 of us that work there and we are generally single-staffed = nice for tips, not great for relationships. We get a free meal after every shift (an amazing perk because the food is ridiculously good!) so I’ve had a little time to chat with each co-worker while I’m eating, but it’s not the quality bonding time I was used to at EC =) Here’s Frank, our lone male employee, super happy to be at work!

It feels good to be back in coffee again...

(as a disclaimer, I decided after writing this post to omit the name of the café…after all, they are currently my only form of income…)

oh, woodstock...

2009-07-02T19:07:00.000-07:00

This is the scene at the building next to CPW last weekend. Just another day in Woodstock…

Fawn Potash & Danielle Correia : Encaustics & Photography

2009-07-01T18:54:00.000-07:00

(just to warn you, this post is kinda crazy with photos, but they all seemed necessary!)

Our Encaustics workshop was a small, intensive, 4-day class with an amazing group of people. Our teachers, Danielle Correia and Fawn Potash, are wonderful teachers and artists who have been involved in encaustics for years.

Until a few weeks ago, I had no idea what “encaustics” were. The process involves applying and painting with hot wax and pigments. Our workshop was “Encaustics & Photography,” so the majority of our pieces started with a base image. We began the weekend at the Center making cyanotypes, preparing digital negatives, printing straight images, and prepping panels to use as the basis for our encaustic projects. Here are Jill and Daly hand-coloring some photos to use as the background for a panel:

And our cyanotypes! It was great because we were able to spend time working outside. The process involves coated paper (prepped by the interns), a negative, UV light, and water (and peroxide, if you want to bump up the contrast of the print).

We also went over toning of cyanotypes. An original produces a range of blue tones, but Fawn taught us how you can use chemicals and varying orders to turn them to red, purple, brown, etc…

On Monday and Tuesday we met at R&F’s building in Kingston, NY.
We spent the majority of those days in this room:

Having a small class was nice because it gave us all enough room to spread out. Jill and John, however, chose to share a table together. They came to this CPW Workshop as a gift to themselves, celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary. They were an amazingly adorable team the entire time – they printed together, prepped together, and encaustic-ed (hmm…that’s probably not a word) together. For each panel, John would coat, Jill would work on it, John would give his input & work a little, and then she would refine. Everyone loved seeing their constant encouragement and cooperation.

Against a separate wall was the coating station. Each panel begins with a few coats of wax fused with heat guns. This helps protect the image from deteriorating once you start painting and carving into it.

I loved how the simple process of applying wax and fusing it to get a smooth surface looked on a straight photograph. The smaller your panel, the easier it is to get a smooth surface. I used these two 5 x 7 inch photographs to try that technique. I was really surprised at how different an image can look with just a few layers of wax:

Danielle was the representative from R&F that coordinated the demonstrations at their studio. Here she is teaching them the basics of applying and fusing layers.

She demonstrated a ridiculous number of techniques and tools, basically showing how almost anything is possible to experiment with. This shot is just a handful of tools that I found on Danielle’s workstation.

And here, she is demonstrating how to dip an image:

I really loved how the dipped paper looked, too – it takes on this translucent quality and makes the paper stiff enough to work with, but still fragile enough to maintain the quality of paper without being attached to a board. When it comes to encaustics, apparently I’m a bit of a purist. I did one copy of each image in a recent project...i hope to go back and stitch into them:

Being a workshop, we were all encouraged to at least try every technique we learned about. Another technique is combining pigment sticks with encaustics. These oil-based pigment sticks give a much bolder look and let you paint directly on the surface – kind of like a big crayon. Here are just a sampling of the colors they had available:

I tried it in two different applications. First, by carving into a wax coated panel while painting with encaustic:

…and on a dipped paper, which is obviously much more delicate. I’m not saying it’s a work of art, but this is how that one turned out:

I was really impressed with how well Daly incorporated both aspects into her panels – and her workstation definitely proved it:

Nikki, on the other hand, got really into using photos as a base and using the encaustics as a straight painting method.

At the end of the last day we spent some time going around the room and seeing how everyone’s tests turned out. I was shocked at how good everything turned out! Here is Daniella, my table partner and an R&F instructor in California, showing the class and instructors all of her experimentation:

Laula created one of my favorite pieces from the weekend. She kept it very simple, just using the pigments sticks with encaustic to draw over an original photograph:

It was a great 4 days – everyone was really excited to learn and play around with all the new material. We really couldn’t have asked for a better group to take this workshop. It was really cool to learn it myself, too. Encaustic is not a very well known form of art, but it is growing in popularity and recognition. The natural materials and process made it even more interesting to my tastes. And now that I have had time to try the methods on my own, I have even more respect for those who practice it professionally!

(The two happy interns for the workshop, Nikki Tappa and myself)

Barbara Ellison : Getting the Best Results from the Canon Digital SLR

2009-06-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

Last weekend’s workshop was a technical OVERLOAD - in the best way possible! Our teacher for the weekend was Barbara Ellison, a long time Canon rep from Virginia. She has photographed for huge events such as the Kentucky Derby, the US Tennis Open, the Olympics, and Clinton inauguration. This woman has a extraordinary wealth of technical knowledge.

Our class this weekend was wonderful. We had 6 students, a Canon Powershot rep, and a CPW Arts Administration intern taking the class (along with Kelsea and myself assisting Barbara). The two other CPW interns were in another workshop with Linda Connor, an honored educator and photographer from San Fransisco. From the minute the students stepped in the door they were excited to be there and ready to learn. Their experience levels ranged from zero SLR to zero digital so we began with the basics. Barbara asked us to change our mindset about the limitless quality of digital images. Instead, she suggested that we imagine we are shooting film and that each click of the shutter is costing us anywhere from 25 cents to a few dollars. The idea is that we will shoot more intentionally and compose more purposeful shots if we don’t have the choice to delete a “bad one.”

The majority of the morning was spent going over controls, dials, and buttons all over the cameras.

A little bit of oogling over and experimenting with lots and lots of nice equipment...

We then moved on to the local flea market to put our recently acquired skills into practice. Jess, one of the CPW Arts Administration interns (which basically means dealing with shows and the gallery), found a table full of old matchbox cars.

The next day was spent learning about lenses and flashes…and how to handle both in different situations. We then went out with borrowed lenses and flashes to the Village Green, the center of Woodstock, to photograph and learn more in an environment. Here are a few more images of people in practice and learning from Barbara.

I’m convinced that Ashly couldn’t help but lay down for the majority of her shots – every time I turned around she was rolling in the leaves and dirt again! All of the students left seemingly a bit mentally overwhelmed, but very excited and ready to go out and photograph using all of the techniques they learned over the weekend workshop.

Platon : The Art & Craft of Portraiture

2009-06-09T15:46:00.000-07:00

Our first workshop of the season was with Platon. Bright and early Saturday morning, he glided in the door with his witty, charming British personality, two assistants and three interns in tow. A little background on Platon:
- he has photographed an astounding number of famous personalities, many of which can be seen in his book “Platon’s Republic.”- he is one of the few people to have taken a portrait of Vladimir Putin; this photo awarded him the 2008 World Press Photo Contests’s 1st place.
- he shoots for a range of publications including The New York Times Magazine, Time, Esquire, and Rolling Stone.
- he shot this recent portrait of Michelle Obama for the cover of Time.

Looking past this wealth of experience and fame, he was also a really great teacher. The entire weekend revolved around portraiture and the experience between subject and photographer. The class consisted of an incredibly broad range of skill level and experience; one man had been out of photography for quite some time and was ready to jump back in to portraits, another traveled all the way from Puerto Rico just to work with Platon, a few were college students. We began with some exercises that forced us out of our comfort zone and into each other’s personal space. Luckily, it was a great group; everyone was excited to learn and willing to try just about anything (and after the giggles subsided, we learned to be more comfortable with our subjects). This is an image from one of the exercises where our partner had to talk about the most honest, emotional event that has happened in our lives while the photographer had to follow the random aperture orders Platon was yelling out. Paul told me about the happiest and saddest moments:

Another exercise was blind contour line drawings. While this seemed expected from an art student perspective, many of the other students had never done one. The results surprised many of them. Here are the ones Carol did of me:

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing intensive portfolio reviews for 19 people (15 class members and the 4 CPW interns).

The next day we learned about the workflow of Platon and his team as well as their lighting setup. Having never been taught anything about studio lighting, this part was informative with little tips and tricks…one thing Platon mentioned was that he was telling us these things in hopes that we can learn from the mistakes he has made instead of having to make them ourselves. He then gave us a demonstration of how he photographs his subjects.

After the technical tips, we were all given a chance to pose and shoot. To make things worse, we all had to photograph with a land camera. Because few of us had used one before, it gave us the added challenge of thinking about how to use a new camera along with the techniques Platon had taught about making your model feel comfortable. I can easily say that the majority of us were nervous to perform in front of the entire class. It was much more difficult than it looked…Platon, however, was fantastic at making you feel at ease with the challenge.

We each shot 4 images. One of Platon’s interns, Michael, chose to shoot me, so in return I decided to shoot him. Unfortunately, I didn’t put together that it wasn’t full frame viewfinder, so Michael got decapitated in the first three images. The last pose was my favorite and I think it came out best…

We ended the weekend by choosing our favorite images and taking them outside. We then passed them to the person next to us and they ripped it into 4 pieces. After taping it back together we were told to remember that when we get torn apart, we can always put ourselves back together again (awwww…..)

lilith

2009-06-02T15:01:00.000-07:00

I was in the process of converting my computer from "this is for school" to "I really graduated" when i realized that I never posted my advanced digital final project. So, here it is...many thanks to my friend, Erin, for posing for me...

The beginnings of Woodstock...

2009-05-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

The dust has finally settled here in Woodstock, NY. I arrived on Friday, May 20th with my parents, my harp, and a U-Haul in tow. When you (temporarily?) move across country, you aren’t allowed to bring your whole life, so “moving in” took about 20minutes. My parents left to return the U-Haul and check into their place while I took some time to organize. My space is really amazing…a balcony, bathroom, den, and huge bedroom all for $400 a month (everything included)…you can’t find that in Milwaukee! Everything is still a bit in shambles, so you will have to wait another week or so before seeing pictures of it.

Late Friday night (around 1:30am actually), my friend, Christine, showed up from DC. She took the weekend off to help me settle in and explore Woodstock with me. Being Memorial Day weekend, the town was pretty packed. I’m interested to see if it is always this busy on the weekends, or if it was overflowed because of the holiday. We did a lot of the tourist-y things like going to the markets, visiting all the little stores, and eating at LOTS of the fun restaurants. I got to introduce them all to my new place of employment (Joshua’s Café) and my internship (The Center for Photography). The majority of the weekend was spent just taking it easy and finding where everything is in the town.

After an amazing breakfast at Oriole9, my parent’s left on Sunday, which meant a drive to Albany and a little bit of a haphazard tour around the city. While they were here, I let Dad be on camera duty and barely took any pictures myself. I'll see if I can post some from him later...After dropping them off at the airport, Christine and I tried to figure out what to do for the night. We ended up basically extending what we had already done…going to a few more places to get quick bites to eat and sitting at an outdoor bar for what turned into a few hours

On Monday, Christine and I woke up and headed to Bread Alone to get coffee and a quick breakfast. Bread Alone is Woodstock’s local coffee shop that also had an amazing lunch menu (meaning very vegetarian AND wallet friendly!). We stopped by the natural food store to pick up some things for our day and headed to the mountains. Our first hike was 5 miles up to Overlook Pass. It was definitely a tough hike (visually, a lot like Lapham Peak, for all you Delafield’ers who know, but basically a constant climb). We came across an old, abandoned hotel before getting to the top…

It would be an amazing place to do a photoshoot…though getting equipment up there would be a challenge. I was exhausted when we got to the top, but it was definitely worth the view…

The walk down felt like it took about 20 minutes, much of which was spent running (or leaping?) because we couldn’t slow ourselves down…

At the base of the hike is the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra monastery. It is the largest Buddhist monastery in the eastern United States, so of course Stine and I had to see what it was all about…here are a few pictures taken there.

We met a woman who worked there and she encouraged me to come by for some of their ceremonies or teaching nights. I’m definitely excited to go back and observe…she mentioned drums and incense and chanting…I can’t pass up seeing what all that is about!

After that, Stine and I headed to find the Kaaterskill Waterfalls; one of the higher falls in New York. After a little bit of confusion and nearly giving up, we finally found them. The hike up was only ½ mile and had a definite man-made path of stones and tree roots. It was really fun to hike up while following the waterfall the whole way. Upon reaching the top all I wanted to do was lay down on the rocks and relax. Stine climbed a little farther while I stayed here and enjoyed the view…

When we were done and fully relaxed, we hiked back to the car (passing a guy with a Brewer’s shirt), and headed back to my place to shower and get ready for dinner. We went to the Garden Café on the Green, the sole vegetarian restaurant in Woodstock. The meal was amazing and incredibly filling (so much that I get leftovers for lunch today!). After dinner we walked back home where we went through my portfolio, talked about what I wanted to do with my summer, and tried to plan a time for me to visit her in DC.

Today is my first day “alone” in Woodstock. I have plenty to do to organize and get caught up on things I put off for the last few days. The other interns from CPW and myself plan on getting together for a drink (or two) tonight to meet each other and talk about our time in NY thus far. Tomorrow, the internship begins…

Go. Brewers.

2009-05-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Now that I’m (nearly) settled in Woodstock, I got some time to go through what happened the days prior to my leaving…these images seem to be a little collection of things I'm going to miss about Milwaukee...

I insisted that we go to a Brewer game and tailgate before I left. It’s something that I know I’ll miss here and was a good way to spend time with these guys. Luckily the rain held off until after the game...

the thesis installation

2009-05-14T07:34:00.001-07:00

The night has come and gone...and our thesis opening was a HUGE success!!

I think we were all surprised at how large of a turnout we had - so thank you to everyone who was able to come! The support is very much appreciated.

...but for all of you who had prior engagements, I'm publishing the installation of my piece. As noted on my invite, the installation really is what made the piece come together; the promo card was just a teaser.

'One and a Half Trees'
The average American household receives one and a half trees worth of junk mail each year, the majority of which goes directly into the trash.

For this shoot, I collected 16 utility sized garbage bags of paper waste. After spending so much time with paper shreds, it only made sense to shred the photograph...

Because the paper strips had a slight curl to them, people saw the back side of the paper as they entered the gallery (on the right side of the image). Once they walked around the front of the image, to the spot we see here, the image was slowly realized. Below is the final image, without being shredded...

After getting so many questions throughout the night about how I executed the final installation, I thought I'd add a few little hints to my process...

i'm moving to woodstock!

2009-04-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

i'm trying to get better at posting here more regularly, but today (ok, actually monday, around 1:30pm) bring very exciting news!

i just found out that i was chosen as an intern at the Center for Photography!!! what does this mean?
- in 5 weeks, i will be living in woodstock, ny
- i will be 1 of 3 interns, all of us are relocating from "a couple hundred miles away," so we're all in the same boat
- i will be meeting & assisting a new professional artist every weekend
- i will be working part-time at a cafe as a barista/bartender
- i will finally have time to read all those books i've wanted to, do all the projects & experiments i've wanted to, and change a few things i've wanted to (with 24-hour access to the entire facility including their digital lab, darkroom, and library!)
- i'm getting a kitten!
- you all need to come visit me =)

this is literally the opportunity of a lifetime, and the best thing that could possibly happen for me at this time in my life and photography career. i'm so excited!!!!

while i'll be sad to leave milwaukee & the friends i have here, the excitement about this opportunity is overshadowing it for now. the last two days i've woken up and realized that its a reality...it isn't just a dream. i could not be more happy!

if you want to read more about what i'll be doing, look here:
http://www.cpw.org/Internships/pages/interns_wpw.html

and if you want to see the facilities i get to use, look here:
http://www.cpw.org/DigitalKitchen/pages/digitalkitchen.html

and if you want to see the people i'll be working with, look here:
http://www.cpw.org/About/pages/about.html

here's an image of the center, the building i'll probably be spending 18 hours a day in...

so, wish me luck...i'm sure there will be a few more "i'm moving to woodstock!!!" postings before i go. also, my main project is going to be setting up a blog to show you all what i'm learning and what i'm doing with photography, and also to write about the experience of moving to woodstock as a whole...

(I'M SO EXCITED!!!)

the thesis, the thesis

2009-04-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

it's coming up! it'll be here before we know it, so mark those calendars:

who - me and my 12 other photography family members...we're graduating, come on!

what - a year's worth of research and work all wrapped into one show.
(what, really - a LOT of shredded paper)

when - may 1st, 6pm to 9pm

where - Kunzelman-Esser Lofts
710 W. Mitchell
Milwaukee, WI

here's the front of my show postcard, so if you don't get one personally, just think of this as your personal invitation. just a little teaser...

(and word is there's an after party at art bar, so the night just gets better and better...)

still. tension.

2009-01-12T16:02:00.000-08:00

The point of starting this blog was to have a place to post my photography stuff (along with other interesting things) without having to put it on facebook. (fyi to all, facebook claims all rights to ANY image you put up, even if you delete it, so be careful!)

A few weeks ago I was in a small independent show with two other lovely ladies. The opening was AMAZINGLY successful! We were so happy to see all of our family and friends, and to have so much support from students and professors. All of the crazy last minute shooting and installing was worth it for all of the excitement the night brought...

Here are 3 of the 7 images that I had hung along with my artist statement:

"insidious"

This project evolved from a collection of environmental and humanistic writings concerning the problems our society is facing today. We have been taught to "think green" but not to consider the implications it has on us as human beings, our quality of life, and the relationships we have with each other if we ignore such issues.

"The planet and all its inhabitants are today threatened by a
potential global ecological crisis that is all the more dangerous
because of its gradual and cumulative effect. Our only hope is for
a radical change in society, not just in its economic systems or
governmental structures, but in the basic values people are
prepared to live by and to incorporate in their social and
economic institutions."
-Dr. Arthur Lyon Dahl, United Nations Environment Programme Coordinator

And here are a few images Heidi took of the event:

(the very packed Feed Shop)

(heidi & me, 2 of the 3 artists in the show)

(thank you, thank you to all my models! i REALLY couldn't have done any of this without their willingness and support!)

more experiments...

2008-10-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

My photography professor recently loaned me a Holga. I've never used one, and was incredibly excited to see my results. I was only able to scan in a few negatives, but there will be more soon...and hopefully the next round will be better exposed and less blurry.

I'll definitely be using more of this method - fun, fun...

production, production

2008-09-27T19:47:00.001-07:00

The last 26 hours have been the most productive of the semester so far...

I spent Friday night entirely developing my portfolio...around 2am, I made the final pdf. There is still a little design work needed in the typography, but the photo choices are all made. My goal is to send it off by thursday at the latest.

Today was spent working on my photography thesis project - minus the 15 minute break I took to get coffee, the 2 hour break I took to go see Choke (based on Chuck Palahniuk's book) and the 1 hour break I took to eat dinner with 2 good friends. I've been researching, choosing, and developing photos since 8:00am. At 10:00pm, I am reviewing my process and deciding whether I should begin working on copy or if I should go get a drink.

Here is a taste of what I"ve been working on...4 of the 15 I have put together.

don't judge too harshly, it's only the first of many steps...

back to school...

2008-09-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

I am now on my second day of school, and we have already had a project due and a critique in my photography class.

The assignment was pretty cool. My teacher has these cards called "Oblique Strategies," developed by an artist and a musician. Supposedly, the phrases on these cards are inspirational enough for you to be able to create an entire collection of work based on it.

My group's phrase was "simple subtraction."

And here is the photo i took:

We interpreted simple subtraction as a way of simplifying things in your life and subtracting negatives. I chose bicycles because of the simplification of problems you have when biking rather than driving (parking tickets, finding a space, gas, etc), and the environmental impact that you subtract when you choose to use your own energy rather than introducing more negatives to the environment.

Here are the other two that I made, but didn't end up using...

changing things

2008-08-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a while...nice to see you again.

A lot has changed since I last wrote. I've taken vacations, I moved into a new room, I've seen great shows. And the culmination of these events has convinced me to rework my mentality (whether I can actually do that or not). As a disclaimer, I have a lot to write about tonight...and I'm in a bit of a stressed mood, so I apologize for the lack of effort in entertaining writing...I just want to get it all down.

Moving:
My new room is excellent. My new roommate is excellent, too. And I have my harp! It's been nice being able to come home and see it. It's almost a connection like people have with cars or pets. I needed my harp to be around. Thought I've played only a few times each week (and yes, my 14-foot-ceilings have phenomenal acoustics), it's comforting just knowing that I have the opportunity to practice again. I don't feel guilt when I don't practice when I go to my parent's house anymore because it's always a possibility. I've even spent a few quality mornings & nights with the harp, ignoring the cell phone, redefining the calus', and realizing how rusty I've gotten. It's fantastic.

Shows:
Bon Iver - inexplainable. I cried three times. I got to see it with a few of my best friends. Please check them out if you haven't already. And if covers are your things, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hnAY05A9PE

Vacations:
I'm a bit of a traveler. I tend to spend every last penny I own on spring break trips to Italy, Ireland, or France. My first taste of life outside the US was to the Czech Republic in 4th grade. This summer, however, the farthest I've gone is about 400 miles, to the northwest side of Wisconsin. I spent the last few days up in Hudson, where everybody thinks they're actually from Minnesota because they can walk across the bridge and be there. Even their news at the end of the night covered the Twins and the Vikings, no mention of the Brewers. I was able to spend about 36 quality hours with a great friend who now lives in D.C. Originally from Hudson, this incredibly intelligent, change-the-world kind of girl and myself were content spending hours sitting on her back porch drinking coffee (or wine, depending on which side of noon it was). Those few hours made me realize how unbelieveable (some) people are...that girl has helped change my life more than she probably knows. Another remarkable thing about Hudson was the drive up there. After a gross miscalculation, i ended up having 150 miles more to drive than I had anticipated. Quite a disappointment when you assume to be ariving in about 20 miles...yet 170 still awaits. To ease my annoyance, I put on the Fleet Foxes and took a few more breaths. The trip up to Hudson was driving into the sun the entire time. Unfortunately, my super trendy aviators don't block as much sun as was probably needed to take that, however, by about 7pm, I was able to take them off. For the next two hours I watched the most incredible sunset I've ever experienced. The sky went from purple to blue to green to orange to yellow. This was no typical sunset. More than once I felt the need to pull over just so I could look at it long enough...

My first vacation was to Manitowoc. Yep, only an hour away from Milwaukee, I still called it a vacation. I went with a friend who lives there. After an unfortunately hung-over morning, quenched by Culvers at 10am, we spent lots of time with her family and old high school friends. We relaxed...visited all the local landmarks...and saw some of the best fireworks. After half an hour of straining our necks looking up at them, we were calm, tired, and happy. Not too many exciting things happened in Manitowoc. It would be much like coming home to Delafield to visit my family...no plans, but a perfect break.

My middle vacation of the summer was to Door County - Sturgeon Bay, to be exact. My friend moved there in April and we had been promising to visit ever since. This friend was the kind of girl I expected to see every day when she lived in Milwaukee. Whether that was because I worked two blocks away from her house or because she worked a block away from my house, we managed to always have fun together - even if it was just sitting on her bed drinking beer and listening to Fleetwood Mac. Back to the vacation, Door County was also a phenomenal break. Two others came up with me, and though all of our plans of camping fell through (due to the rain), it is still a trip that will go down in the books for me. We slept in her grandma's house, got rained out of dinner, and roasted marshmellows over the kitchen stove. It couldn't have been better...

Damn, Wisconsin...you definitely know how to perfect the things you're known for. The beer on the beach, sunsets that last an hour or two, and lasting friendships with quality people can't be argued with. It's no Colorado or New York...regardless, I'm glad I spent my last 3 months here.