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- © 2009 Best's Studio Inc DBA The Ansel Adams Galle...
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- PLEASE POST FIRST SEMESTER_LONG PROPOSALS HERE
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February
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The Photobook
ReplyDeleteSemester-Long Project proposal
Sarah Kramer
I am thinking about making my semester-long photobook based on the theme of “essential gestures.” I was inspired by a statement Mary Frank made in the book, Originals, by Eleanor Munro. Frank said, “I love the gesture of work, watching someone do work they do well or with experience, with certain essential gestures, nothing wasted.” I want to focus this semester on what I perceive “essential gestures” to be. What is essential and what is waste? I am not going to limit my subject matter to people. I will take pictures of anything I feel reflects necessity or essence. I may want to shoot a series images of someone performing a specific task. If I do this, it would be interesting to take video and convert it into stills and make them into a book, in sequence. I may, however, feel it is better to make the book a collection of 30+ totally different essential moments. I am leaning toward the latter honestly, because I feel it will be more interesting for the viewer and it will leave more to the imagination for me.
Right now I think it is important to leave my theme very broad so that I have some room to play around. I do not know yet whether I will want to incorporate Xeroxes, collage, or my own drawings yet. All of this will determine how I want the final product to look and read.
For the semester-long project, I would like to focus on creating a book that tells the story of my family. Growing up my family was important to me and, as I’ve spent more time away from my family, I have discovered how unique my childhood was. Politically, I disagree with my parents on most issues, but I am always intrigued by the way they raised me. As a child, I hated their environmentally friendly practices, homegrown food, and holistic beliefs because of how different it made me among my peers. But now my parents’ lifestyle has become my lifestyle. I would like to create a photobook that evokes this simultaneous rejection and embrace of my family. My story is intimately connected to how I grew up though this isn’t the most obvious influence in my life.
ReplyDeleteThis first decision I will need to make involves whether I will use a series of new photographs or existing family photos or a combination of the two. I also need to decide what perspective the story is being told through—my subjective perspective or a perspective that attempts to be more objective and removed. The photographs, regardless of which option I choose, will focus on the place of my family, the people of my family, our activities, relationships, and individual stories. I may need to isolate a more specific focus in order to provide a more concise book. This may lead me to include primarily photographs of my parents or my siblings or of our home.
The sequence of the book may be chronological, placing photographs in the order they were taken in order to show the passing of time and the growth of the people. I am also considering a sequence which highlights the passing of seasons—sections of photographs from summer, fall, winter, and spring that juxtapose photographs from different years. I think this option would show the cyclic nature of our lives and subvert the concept of constant progression forward. It would be interesting to try to promote the idea that as a family we all have a consciousness of ourselves and each other at many times in the past. The family is a dynamic whole, changing with time but always aware of what was.
For my semester long project, I have a couple of ideas… My first idea is regarding the use of space. I would like to observe the use of space. My idea comes from Irving Penn’s photographs of the same space with different people, studying their reactions. In this series of photographs, Penn sets up a corner space in his studio and chooses different subjects to stand in the corner. Each photograph, although the same space is used, is remarkably different and portrays personalities of his different subjects. I like this idea because people and their every day interactions really interest me. I also enjoy photographing people in general. I think that reactions to certain places and spaces show a lot about an individual without words… similar to opening up a present and seeing an initial reaction. I may or may not incorporate props into the space or spaces that I choose.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea that I have is to get up close and personal with people… photographing their faces and drawing out every detail in them. My inspiration for this comes from photographers such as Richard Avedon and Amy Liebowitz. The amazing ways that they (as well as many other photographers) photographed their subjects created amazing and alluring portraits. I have other ideas regarding the theme of being “up close” and personal as well… ideas including body painting and juxtaposing wild with tame (business with party) I think that this would allow for creative expression not only on my behalf, but on the behalf of those that I would be photographing. These are my favorite ideas and I would like to further discuss them.
Whichever project I choose to take on, I want it to be funky (for lack of better wording at the moment) and very loud (maybe like Daft Punk… or maybe more like Girl Talk).
It's so difficult to decide on an idea for my project, there are just so many options!
ReplyDelete"Creepiest Book Ever"
With this idea, I would 'slurp' text and images from facebook and compile a book out of it.
In my current project, I am 'slurping' my content from media websites like washingtonpost.com and nytimes.com, as well as lesser-known media websites likes blogs. However, when I arrange the content on the page, I intentionally chop up stories so bits and pieces of it will appear scattered across the page, making a slightly less-than-intelligible mish-mash of content that imitates a newspaper, yet does not let the viewer focus on the detail of a particular stories. The viewer instead is forced to look at the overall picture, the tone of the content in general and themes that tie it all together. However, I (am trying to) insinuate hidden dimensions into the story by juxtaposing stories that make the viewer skeptical about the surface meaning of the content.
Taking this idea and bringing it a lot closer to home, I would take text and images from facebook and arrange them in a similar way. Since facebook is naturally non-linear, I would need to figure out a way to juxtapose the content in a way to tell the kind of story I would want to - which would most likely involve the insinuation of a fantastical dimension to the seeming banality of never-ending drunky-faced photos.
"Faces of Power: St. Mary's Edition"
This idea would require me to photograph students in important positions of power on campus a la Richard Avedon - the SGA president, people at The Point News, senators, club presidents, influential people, well-known people. The main point of the book would be to parody Avedon, of course. Since most of the people photographed would be at least somewhat recognizable, it would be funny to see them in the context of a serious piece about people in power - since when do these people have any 'real' power, we would demand? But behind the parody would be the idea that actually, power exists in a lot more places than we realize. However, probably not many people besides myself would find the book funny.
"Cannabis Should Be Legal, and Everyone Knows It"
This book would both celebrate cannabis culture as it exists today, and explore the punishment people receive from being caught enjoying the harmless drug. It would be far more than a clichéd pothead-friendly book, hopefully: after all, isn't it an interesting commentary on the hypocrisy of an America that will elect and practically worship a man who spent much of his youth enjoying cannabis and other recreational drugs; whereas our most prized athlete might be facing legal repercussions for a picture put online of him indulging in the drug? Not to mention that we have by far the largest percentage of incarcerated people in the world, many of whom are in prison for non-violent drug offenses.
For my final project, I am interested in creating a photobook situated around the incongruencies between capital-w War and my own Christian faith. As it stands now, I have a whole range of ideas for the project:
ReplyDelete- Collages, pulling on stock images from WWII (provided by pop history books board games, etc.) and splicing in the various victims of war – Holocaust survivors, interned Japanese, starving Russians, or desperate African villagers.
- Voices of victims of war, such the atomic bomb testimonials from Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
- Biblical quotations, from Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane to Isaiah prophesying a time when swords will be beaten into plowshares.
- War propaganda imagery
- Original photos; I have some cool conceptual ideas, but they might get me arrested for trespassing onto the Patuxent Naval Air force Base...
As the semester goes on, I hope to experiment with all these ideas and more. If anyone has any suggestions, or knows of any photobooks / artists I should check out, please let me know.
Rachel Reckling
ReplyDeleteProf. Colby
Studio Art: Photobook
2/3/09
Proposal 1 for SL Project
For my Semester Long Project, I intend on creating a photo book based around imagination. One of my favorite plays is William Shakespeare’s A MidSummer Night’s Dream. I plan to use the very last monologue of the play as the basis of my story. The monologue suggests that all of the events that happened throughout the play could be interpreted as a dream and an apology for possibly offending those who got lost in the dream. I think that I could do a lot with playing on the words of the monologue and create a short story about dreams. Each though could be a sentence and each sentence could be a page. I plan for my project to be extremely colorful, and almost like a children’s book. I will be using my own drawing skills as well as pictures that I will be taking and photo shopping to create a cartoonish look to my photo book. I want to use the last monologue of the play as a way to keep the reader thinking and imagining. I do not want the dream to end with the last page of my photo book. I want the dream to continue. I plan to do this by catching the readers attention with pop-ups, bright colors, glitter, and abstract shapes. I decided that I wanted to do a project like this because I wanted to incorporate my love for acting and the theater, which is my major, in my photo book as well as tell a story through one of my favorite plays. I think that the semester long project will be fun and interesting for me and I think that my concept is a good one. Plus, it is a complete 180 from my Found and Bound Project which is very dark. I want to show some versatility in my art work.
My Semester Long project will be entitled 24 hours in 24 days. Although there are 24 hours in a day, my project will take me 24 days for it to be accomplished. This is because my intentions for my project is to take four pictures on a certain hour on one day from the east, south, west and north of wherever I am, and another set of pictures at the next hour on the next day.
ReplyDeleteTo elaborate more, I will be using the 24 hour clock format. Therefore on Monday at 13:00 (1pm) I will take the four pictures whilst on Tuesday the pictures will be taken at 14:00 (2pm), Wednesday, at 15:00 (3pm) and so on until I get to 24. My inspiration is my brain for constructing this idea and the purpose of the project will probably be to illustrate where I am during certain time in a day and my surroundings.
I will most likely modify this project various times but as of now this is the proposal and it’s a project, am looking forward to commencing on.
Renessa’s Semester-Long Project Idea:
ReplyDeleteProposal One
Idea of an Interactive Children’s Book
Thinking about the semester long project I want to create a book that is an educational tool for young children. So basically I want to create a children’s book. I am still toiling with the idea for the theme of the book but I am thinking about doing a nature themed book, that is both informative with text but also interactive with hands-on, feel and learn activities. For example I want to bring the elements of nature into this book, such as trees and the elements of trees, water, dirt, grass, etc. I want the book to have different sections. I am drawing on my inspiration from children’s books such as The Magic School Bus.
I am not sure who I am going to do a historical research for this project. I want to do an author who specializes in creating works for children, but not just literature. I am also drawing some of my inspiration from media television shows such as Bill Nye: The Science Guy and Zoom. I like these shows for inspiration because they take science and make it interactive, entertaining, and fun, which is what I want to do in my semester-long book.
For the semester long project i plan to show the change that has occurred in the tobacco farming industry in Calvert county due to the governments interaction. I have lived in Calvert county for quite some time now and have become very passionate on the topic and the transition that the farming industry went through in Calvert county. I still want to do a fair amount of research but basically the government paid Maryland and Calvert county farmers to stop farming tobacco, few farmers resisted and continuing farming tobacco in small fields but most of the tobacco farming industry has gone to waste and ruin. A handful of farmers had started farming soy after tobacco but the actual tobacco barns are now decrepit. I plan on talking to previous and present farmers getting some insight. I want to show what once was such a thriving industry, and that is what i want to do my semester long photobook on.
ReplyDeleteFor my semester long project I am thinking about doing a series which documents a mundane activity. I would document this by zooming into the site of action. For instance, if someone was washing dishes in a house, I would photograph the house, then the hallway, then the person standing at the sink until the last photograph which would be a close up of them holding the sponge against the dish.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea I have for my semester long project would include a picture I took in the Gambia of a little boy in a village up country. He is posed barefoot standing with his arms crossed in front of Baobab trees in his village. I hope to take a series of pictures of people in a similar stance in various settings. I have not really figured how I want to incorporate text yet, or if I need to.
Finally, another idea I have is to document a day in a way that I can express my OCD for numbers. I attribute personalities to numbers and have numbers I like and numbers I don't. I would somehow convey the personality of the number using image and text. This seems like it would be hard to do, but it's my favorite idea so far.
For my semester long project I am thinking about doing a series which documents a mundane activity. I would document this by zooming into the site of action. For instance, if someone was washing dishes in a house, I would photograph the house, then the hallway, then the person standing at the sink until the last photograph which would be a close up of them holding the sponge against the dish.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea I have for my semester long project would include a picture I took in the Gambia of a little boy in a village up country. He is posed barefoot standing with his arms crossed in front of Baobab trees in his village. I hope to take a series of pictures of people in a similar stance in various settings. I have not really figured how I want to incorporate text yet, or if I need to.
Finally, another idea I have is to document a day in a way that I can express my OCD for numbers. I attribute personalities to numbers and have numbers I like and numbers I don't. I would somehow convey the personality of the number using image and text. This seems like it would be hard to do, but it's my favorite idea so far.
I have considered many ideas for my semester-long project, but the most compelling concepts have all been linked by one distinct characteristic: the unseen, or seldom seen.
ReplyDeleteAs we grow familiar with a place, we begin to limit our interaction with it, and we form habits of movement through our local environment.
Unfortunately, this process of familiarization turns places that were once unknown and mystifying into racetracks along which we speed in our daily lives.
Inspired by my Point Lookout pilgrimage, I want to depict some familiar scenes at an odd time of day, or from unique vantage points.
One idea I have is shooting late night shots along the St. Mary's River, setting up a tripod as far out in the water as possible, and shooting the night scene from 1 foot above the water. I should either use high ISO film, or long exposure for these shots.
Another idea is shooting two collections of campus landmarks, one from 15-20 feet high (at the top of a step ladder), and the other from ground level.
My plan is to work on the idea "waiting/looking for spring". Documenting the progression of the campus from winter to spring. Hopefully shooting in the same/similar locations throughout the semester. I want to work in the wet-dark room and in the DIL for this project adding color to black and white photos I think would make for an interesting effect.
ReplyDeleteI have an idea, but I am not committed or entirely satisfied with it yet.
ReplyDeleteI would like to shoot portraits of friends/families/acquaintances. The portrait would be on one side of the spread and on the other a series of photographs that "explain" them. However, the individual may not in these pictures. I want to see if I am able to make the connections between the portrait and the images. How acculturatly can you portray a person through images? I imagine the portrait being simple and the corresponding images being much more stimulating, crowded, colorful.
For my project, I would like to "combine" photos. I would like to combine objects or scenes with emotions. In the printing process, I would use the same paper to develop two different photos to layer them on top of each other. This is inspired by something that happened last semester. Two people accidentally developed two different images onto the same paper and the result was very interesting. I would like to use this idea to pair the portraits of people with a separate image.
ReplyDeleteFor my semester long project I want to tie in pictures of American and Japanese culture together. While I was in Japan for study abroad I taught students from primary to secondary school about Washington D.C. using a picture book of DC. Just as the DC photobook showed famous sites of DC, I will show famous (or at least significantly important to me) sites of Akita, Japan and Happo_cho Japan. I am thinking of having a picture of the district on one side and then a picture from Japan on the other. These paired pictures will either compliment or work against one another.
ReplyDeleteThe concept is still in its preliminary stages but this is the main idea.
When I first saw the collection of books in the DIL, I was immediately able to identity my group’s book because of its eye catching cover. The title pages we used to introduce each section, with the book’s title text on the top of the left side, and the bottom of the right side letting the viewer know whose section it is, turned out very well.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, to physically see, touch and hold the final product of the book was fantastic. It was an accomplishment of all our works.
I looked at my section more than enough times, and was pretty pleased with my end result. The space I left for the gutter was precisely balanced with the space from the edge of the page. The texts I added on the pictures are visible and the pictures are very clear and not pixilated which was something I was a little worried about.
The only changes I would make in my section are my last two pictures. This is because the tint colors I chose to use on them, made the pictures appear darker than they initially were. Moreover, as a group, I believe that our collection of ideas varied a lot that the final collection seemed to have a positive and negative “Spirit of St. Mary’s.” All in all, the final arrangement seemed to have balanced with the order we placed ourselves.