Colour Project 4: Final

Untitled

In my art I strive to explore ideas of identity and past grandeur. I am fascinated by the press of time; what has come before us and what we have left behind; items once so important, now cast aside and forgotten.

This project is about that ideal of something forgotten. This massive plant, now almost completely subsumed and wholly forgotten by those who once placed it there and those who relied on it for their livelihood. It stands for decay, a past industrial age, now quietly disintegrating with time.
There is another aspect to it to though, this idea of the factory within the setting. It sits there like a monster simultaneously towering over a part of the landscape and an integral part of it. It is alien and foreign, but also a source of great life that the flora and fauna could not live with out.





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One last note: I mentioned this during my critique but I don't really feel as if this is the end of the project. I have had a lot of ideas and I definitely see a lot more work of this kind in my future.

Colour Project 4: Thoughts

For my final project for Colour Photography, I wanted to do something that was an extension of my earlier work in the class but also moved in a new direction. The reason for this was that I felt much of my work this semester had suffered from my busy schedule. The combination of being very busy with extracurricular activities and my other class commitments (both in silkscreening and video) meant that I was not able to commit as much time as I wanted to (and probably needed to commit) to the class and as such I haven't been that happy with my work. Based on this, rather than trying to go back on change up a project that I had cobbled together, I decided to instead just go in a new direction, as I thought a breath of fresh air, would breathe some life into this final project, an aspect missing in my other shown work.

After considering a variety of options, I decided that to go with shooting at the abandoned cement factory near the municipal water treatment facility of my town. I originally took interest in it when I saw the factory in one of my professor's photographs, but later visited the site and became fascinated with it. Nestled in the trees off a private road and almost entirely hidden from view unless you are almost on top of it, the factory is a monolith of a bygone age. Its aged signs, rusted parts, and highly suspect structural stability construct a fascinating portrait of abandonment mixed with nostalgic past; there is an oddly melancholic beauty to the entire scene.

The shoot itself was moderately successful, shooting on medium format after a long hiatus back to 35mm was really nice and I think that the pictures, though I did not have long to spend wandering about, were well chosen and well representative of the space. I do wish that I had had more time, or an assistant but as I was on a tight schedule, a few miles trek through wind and snow and trespassing, I am still happy with what I was able to do. Being at the factory again –the last time I was there was the spring– was an interesting experience and I have a lot of ideas for stuff to shoot in the future, but for now, I just have to see where to go with what I shot

Colour Project 3: Staged Narrative

Shift in Focus

At one point in your life sitting half-naked in a hallway is your morning ritual, but fast forward a few years and for many that is replaced by the newspaper. These images explore various habits we develop in college and what they often will become when we leave and start out real 'professional lives,' the juxtaposition of the two speaks to what we find important at a certain time and how our focus changes.

Colour Project 3: Thoughts

Unsatisfied with my last project, I decided to try (for this project) to again move out of my comfort zone and try working, not only with an assistant, but also with models and in a specified setting.

My original idea was to work within the confines of temporal juxtaposition to address the issues of identity and habitual norms in the context of college life and outside of it. I was going to stage, what to me was stereotypical or commonplace moments of college life in setting and scene and place within those images a figure that I manufactured a out of a post-collegiate context. My inspiration for this project came to me in the image of five or six college students sitting around a messy quad uproariously drinking PBR while a lone figure in nice clothing stood in the background mixing themself a strong drink in a shaker amongst assorted top shelf alcohols. The title for this image was taken from the popular DJ Kicken Song "Ain't No Party Like an Alcoholic Party," which speaks to the concept of an alcoholic party versus a party where alcohol is present and also what constitutes a night of drinking in college and what is one post-graduation.

However, after presenting this image and some others (a stack of Starbucks Doubleshot cans next to a French press and a bag of Kona cofee and the image of three people in a communal shower, two of whom were naked and the other clothed in a bathrobe, hairnet, and flip flops) and my general ideas about the project to the class, they brought up a lot of things that had previously not occurred to me. As opposed to the juxtaposition between in versus out of college, they drew my attention a lot to the ideas of class and, in my case, the differences in taste and lifestyle in the Unites States (the home of many of my classmates) and in Europe (where I ostensibly 'grew up'). They also confirmed my suspicion that my third image (in the shower) was not really relevant to my chosen topic.

As class was really not what I was going for at all, I decided to return to my project and try to brainstorm some more about how I could eliminate these and focus in on this idea of temporal juxtaposition. Interestingly enough, through this exploration, I started to think more and more about my sense of identity as an individual and how this project was about not just the temporal college-to-postcollege shift, but also the cultural shift as well.

Fall Break

During my fall break this year, I decided to go visit my family for first break in a few years. I first met up with them in Cleveland and we all went to see one of my cousins get married in Harkness Chapel located on the Case Western Reserve campus, which I brought along a camera and decided to shoot.
After this, we all traveled back to where the reside now, in Houston, TX, having moved this summer. I then spent a few days there and during which I traveled up to San Antonio to visit my friend who is going to school at Trinity University, located there.
The photos below appear off colour because I decided to, rather than use the nice professional film I have been shooting on recently (Fujifilm Pro 160 S and Kodak Portra 160 NC), to use some Kroger brand film that I found when I purchased my last 35mm cameras - the discolouration is due to the fact that it expired in 1999. The reason that I decided to do so is that I find the false colour readings that often come with shooting on expired film/printing on expired paper are very interesting and often surreal/nostalgic, ideas I thought appropriate for weddings. Once I left the wedding though, I thought that since I had started anyway, I might as well try to finish off rest of Kroger rolls, which I shot while back in Texas

Colour Project 2: Sense of Place

Spaces

To people, the edifices that surround us form a kind of visual white noise. Not only are they iconic in our landscapes, but in no small way do they also become integral to, if not the entirety of, the landscapes as well.

Colour Project 1: Rebirth

Phoenix

In this project I attempted to print some horribly mangled negatives.
As we seen the disintegration of the original image, false colour and artefacts of the process begin to emerge and thus a new image is born out of the wreckage of another.

Colour Project 1: Trial 2

After my initial failure, I decided the best way to re-invigorate the project for myself, I decided to I tried to step out of my comfort zone and buy a bunch of supplies, get an assistant and stage a metaphorical scene with objects, which I choose carefully for their assorted cultural/literary significance.

I took all of my collected objects (2 exact copies of each) and went to a nearby field. I then proceeded to destroy each object in a different manner, the destruction itself I filmed, making the process into somewhat of a performance piece itself. I then placed the mated object (the unbroken twin of the first) into the wreckage and photographed the scene.

Each photo was then going to be labeled with the metaphorical reference that the object was supposed to contain within itself. The point of everything was to speak to the idea that one always can continue on even through trials/hardship and in the wake of the destruction of the a value itself; that in my opinion, human will is insurmountable.

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Unfortunately, after all this planning, preparation, and process, fate through a wrench in the works and while I was developing, the spool on which I loaded my film, fell apart, and thus I developed my negatives as one large chuck, thoroughly ruining them all. As such I had to rethink what I had done, and where I was/could possibly go.

Colour Project 1: Trial 1

For our first project, we all wrote words on a strip of paper and three were chosen at random. We then voted on which of those three liked best.
What was eventually chosen was the words Rebirth/Renewal.

After some consideration, I decided that what I wanted to do was to photograph a space over time; specifically, a space waking up. After some consideration of the possibilities, I decided that the best place to shoot this would be in the the Perlick Commons, a glass atrium, with a small cafe-counter, near where I live that is a popular breakfast destination for students. My plan was to show the renewal of both the space (as the sun rose) and the people (as they partook in breakfast).

When I finally went out, I set up at early in the morning, at approximately 7:00 A.M. and was there for 5 hours, (until 12:00 P.M.). My setup was relatively simple; I had two 35mm cameras (a Canon AE-1 and a Minolta X-700) on tripods with one facing towards the counter/door to the atrium and the other into the atrium where the bulk of the people sat. I then took one picture in each camera every ten minutes for a total of 25 images. Through I had to dodge a series of questions about what I was doing (usually pointing to the sign that said time-lapse art project in progress was enough) and defending my little enclave of equipment from the morning hustle and bustle, there were no real problems with the actual process of taking the pictures.

Unfortunately, nothing really worked like I had hoped. The main reason was that I encountered three large, distinct problems.
The first was that my AE-1 has a light leak problem. I had it fixed once, which stopped the issue from being a constant blight but eventually had to buy a new AE-1 due to the potential for ruined negatives. However, that camera was stolen a few months ago and my other 35mm were broken/out of batteries, so it was either run the risk, or no second camera. Some pictures did come out but none were really printable.
The second problem was that I changed the F-stop between shots. I did this thinking that I wanted to make sure that my first images were not under-exposed and the last not over-, essentially entirely for consistency. Unexpectedly, that is exactly the opposite of what I got. Essentially, the short of it is that what I was counting on to show the passage of time was the movement of shadows along the walls and floors as the sun rose, but with the change of the aperture, the shadows were perfectly clear in some, and completely gone in others.
The third problem was really stupid. I forgot to change the ISO on my cameras from 400 (I had been shooting Delta 400 for the past two months) to 160 for my Kodak Portra 160 NC, which meant that a good deal of my film was over exposed.

All in all, I was found the project very interesting conceptually and I did have a good time shooting it but after developing the film, I was very unhappy with what came out, even the images that developed well. Also, the entire process took so long and I didn't really have the time or energy to devote another five hours one morning to reshooting the project so I decided that since it only produced mediocre images anyway. I would shelve this idea away for another time and try to go in a different direction.

Black/White "Colour" Print

Today in class we were asked to print a B/W negative using the colour process as a way to introduce us to the medium. Fortunately for me, I had already wet my feet in the colour process three semesters before and so it wasn't something that new/difficult to me.

The negative that I choose was incredibly boring and so in an attempt to make a more lively print, I tried to introduce an element of texture into the the print by scratching the negative.

Below is what resulted.

B/W Photography Project 5: Utopia Project

For the final project in my photography class we were invited to explore the concept of Utopia. Disregarding B/W film for this project, I choose to shoot this project in medium format colour film. Unfortunately, my camera stopped working and so I re-shot the project digitally (hence their are no negatives for the final prints)

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Throughout my life, I have been searching for meaning. Cynical, dark, agitated, and pessimistic in humour, I often view my surroundings through a prematurely jaded lens. With this nihilist approach in mind, I am more apt to scorn utopian thought and concepts than embrace them.

However, in the past few years, I have been trying to dig myself out of this self imposed hole and ground myself with a more appreciative view of the world. In this journey, I have latched on to various loadstones to anchor myself in reality. Moments, images, events, little glimpses or extended parts of my life; these have really taken hold of me in a strong way.

It is in these objects, fragments from a tumultuous life, that I have found my utopia. Each one brings another side of me: personal, emotional, and powerful. In them, I find my peace.

"Utopia is not perfection in entirety, but an interwoven mass of imperfections culminated into one individual's perfect moment"