Possession

In life we are obsessed with out material possessions by spending much time focusing on what we have, what we want, and if what we do have is better than what others have. Due to this we are fueled by a want for money in order to gain these new objects. But does it really matter? We can't take it with us. I feel this focus on possession has a lot to do with my series. The subject wants the light and isolates herself in order to keep it as just hers. No one else's. This is due to the preciousness that the subject puts on the light and resorts to cutting herself off in order to keep it hers. Through this decision, the subject is no longer in charge and is yet again dragged back into this obsession with attaining material.


"In the underground of the museum, down where the digs took place, one can physically see the layers of city and settlement on Pointe-à-Callière, from the initial aboriginal inhabitants through the founding of Ville-Marie, to the governor’s mansion that was once located there, through urbanisation, industrialisation, and so on.  The physical remnants of the buildings, and artefacts are there for the viewer to see." (Spatialities)


"Brighton has the remnants of the material culture of the Irish immigrants and Irish-Americans.  Finding glasswares with symbols of Irish nationalism on them suggests that the movement had some traction amongst the tenement dwellers of the Five Points."(Spatialities)


"Urban Archaeology & Material Culture « Spatialities." Spatialities. Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://spatialitism.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/urban-archaeology-material-culture/>
This article was a nice informative recount of the author's experiences with archaeology. It was interesting to see how she and others in the field interpreted the material they found at these sites. She also talked briefly about the museum that is centered around three sites and how the found material is on display in the museum.

Addiction

This has a lot to do with my project due to its new conceptual turn, in which it deals a lot with obsession and purposeful isolation. The movement of the photographs has this addiction undertone by showing first the subject controlling the light, but soon one sees the light is what drives the subject to draw themselves back and into isolation. This is the same pattern addictions follow. First it is something some one thinks they can control and monitor, but soon the tables turn and the addiction overcomes them, isolating them from friends, family and their life in general. The article talks about how prior to the development of modern psychology, people saw people with addictions as morally flawed, instead of having a serious mental disease. This idea of being morally flawed i think could extend to my series, due to this obsessive, magical quality to the images.


"It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain - they change its structure and how it works. "(Drugs, Brains, and Behavior)


"Those views shaped society's responses to drug abuse, treating it as a moral failing rather than a health problem, which led to an emphasis on punitive rather than preventative and therapeutic actions." (Drugs, Brains, and Behavior)


""Drugs, Brains, and Behavior - The Science of Addiction"" Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.nida.nih.gov/scienceofaddiction/>.
This article had a lot of information, but it did get a little too Above The Influence as it went on. It focused a lot on the psychological aspects of addictions and it briefly stated past opinions on addictions. The first two pages were very informative from a general psychology standpoint, by explaining the reasonings behind addictions as well as the actual brain's illness when dealing with addiction. On the next pages though, the focus was much more on preventing teen drug abuse and awareness of the harmful effects of drugs which didn't really have anything to do with my project. 

Tamara Lichtenstein

Biography:
Lichtenstein was born in Bolivia but grew up in Houston. Her work deals mostly with females in a fashion photography style, but she does have some images that include couples. She says Ryan Mcginley is a major influence in her work which one can see from the style she shoots in. She says she photographs everything which is very apparent when looking at her large flickr stream (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tamgutlich/).


Like Sofia Ajram's work, her style in using the light in certain photographs is similar to how I am looking to have my last photographs look. While Sofia's was more fine art, Lichtenstein's have a much more fashion feel to them. I especially like the use of the light to block out the models face in the first picture. This idea could work within my series when it comes to showing how the subject is more controlled by the light.


"Inspiration is never forced, it just happens."- Tamara Lichtenstein


"Lately, I have been shooting a lot of people, which is my favorite thing to do. Everyone looks completely different, especially when it’s in a different environment, so there’s always countless ideas in my head." -Tamara Lichtenstein

http://www.tamaralichtenstein.com/

Interview

Sofia Ajram

I feel Ajram's work directly correlates to the ideas that I had discussed with in my individual meeting this past Tuesday. Her work deals a lot with the same ideas of creating an alternate reality as well as using similar techniques in using light. I feel her first image is very much like the kind of image I want to create as the last image of the series  in which the light takes over the subject.

Biography:

Ajaram is a young photographer from montreal who just recently graduated from Dawson College in Montreal, with a degree in graphic design. Her work deals mostly with depicting these alternate worlds she creates. She became well known in photography after beginning to shoot for magazines in 2007.


Quotes:


"A great deal of things inspire my work. History, for the most part, sums it up rather well. What has happened, within and without, universally, and what has yet to happen but will be documented by time. That being said, I have never experienced this history firsthand, so the visual aesthetic of my work is due to my lucid dreams and vivid nightmares. I feel as though I need to document them in some way that others may experience what I have seen." - Sofia Ajram

"Women influence my photos. Women are sexy. Women are seductive, powerful from the core in a wild way that’s virtually inexplicable. I like to document that sexuality.” - Sofia Ajram

website

Interview

Fantastical

I find my work has a lot to do with this particular play due to its setting and this idea of being cut off from "reality" for a night.  I have been looking into the different visual adaptations such as sets and movies of this film to see how each director portrays this fantasy land. I find my work in a way has some dramatic story that goes with what lured my subject into the forest, as with the characters in this play. I also like the idea of adding in a supernatural element but in a fun, not sinister way. These forest fairies, who had in the past been portrayed as evil creatures, are portrayed as cheerful creatures who create unharmful mayhem for amusement. I don't know that I necessarily in my work therefore, want to give too much a dark overtone. I want there to be some playfulness with my images yet at the same time this dulled feeling of sinisterness.


"Shakespeare must have derived his forest spirits from oral folk traditions." (The Pathology Guy)


"So far as I know, Shakespeare is the first writer to portray the faerie folk as tiny or cute."(The Pathology Guy)




"Enjoying "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare." The Pathology Guy. Web. 17 Nov. 2010. <http://www.pathguy.com/mnd.htm>.
This website is extremely informative and easy to use for readers who are somewhat familiar with the story. It gives a brief synopsis of the entire play as well as analyzes the characters. This site also gives some fun facts about the play, such as that the portrayal of the fairies in this play had some influence over Walt Disney's depiction of fairies in his stories. Also the author gives some facts about what elements seem to have inspired Shakespeare to when writing this play, such as folk lore.

Alex Singh Response

I loved that instead of speaking about his work, he showed us a performance of it.  the use of the projectors not only displayed his work but also set up a simple form of stage lighting. I was somewhat confused when he first began because I didn't understand what all these short tangents had to do with one another. After a while I realized his performance was all about associations no matter how far of a stretch the associations were.  Even in his non performance art pieces he still draws on this idea of interconnectedness. He even wrote one story in which you never find out the resolutions because each chapter went off into some side story from the original one. I feel his work can be described as clever, circular (as in talking in circles), and connected.  Although the form in which he presents his work is different from project to project, his work still seems to embody all these things.

I found his most compelling work to be the creation of his own written language using graphic block formats. The concept of actually creating you own language in order to tell a story is true committal to one's work. I wonder though if his audience has as much trouble looking at this kind of work as I know I would due to the over-complicatedness. His work in which he did an installation in an actual house creating this space of a meth lab that suddenly turned into a grand museum was an interesting idea and artwork I would love to experience. His work always has something to do with a performance whether it is through an experience such as in the house, or if it is one of his association lectures.

VMFA submission

Sally Mann Lecture Response

I absolutely loved the Sally Mann lecture. It was refreshing to know that such a respected and famous artists is able to remain so humble when talking about herself as an artist. She was not only insightful but also hilarious when talking about her work, why she does certain series, and how she deals with other's reactions to her work.

So many things she said during the lecture stood out to me, not just when talking about her work, but also when giving advice to the audience about how to work as an artist. One of the first things she said was never to put a finished work up until you are 1/3 of the way through a new project so that you are not constantly stopping your work due to criticism. Also she said that she tends to work on multiple projects at one time so that she can deal better with forcing herself to create new work. She says despite all the negative comments she has received, she keeps working due to how stubborn she is.

When asked about how she developed her style she replied "it's really kind of laziness" and that you "have to open yourself up to serendipity." Though she says this, one can easily tell by looking at her work that serendipity is not purely the case. Her work can be described as boundary breaking, emotional, and dark. Her most recent work "Proud Flesh" I found most compelling after she told the audience though this work deals mostly with extreme intimacy, it also is a way for her to deal with aging and how disturbing growing old is to her.

My first question was somewhat answered. An audience member asked her what her reaction was to the child pornography accusations, in which she responded by simply saying "I had no idea those pictures would push so many buttons." She said that unlike many artists you see in the news today, she did not set out to gain recognition through shock value.

My second question was answered as well, since some of the images that were shown during the lecture did have color in them. These images did not seem as successful though as her black and what images. I felt they lacked the soft, flowing qualities that her other images have.

Eugenio Recuenco

Recuenco autobiography:

"Eugenio Recuenco is a Spanish photographer who is a pain in the ass because he always insists on doing whatever he wants. He works for quite a number of clients both in the advertising and editorial fields all over the World who are also a pain in the ass, because they always want to do whatever they want. Out of these fights between hardheads it has been possible to rescue the images for this Web site, some better, some worse, but made with lots of enthusiasm and with the support of a great team who refer to themselves as "The Eye of Frosker". The latter is an entity that has came to the earth to bother some and also to amuse some others. If you are one of the latter, stop fooling around and get in." 

I find I am extremely drawn to Recuenco's work due to his images having such a strong base in fairy tales, mythology, and other forms of storytelling. Many of his images in his portfolio fit into a series by depicting an actual story as you go along. He is not only an artists but is an author as well, who has a vast array of stories he has depicted. I want my work to have a loose progressing story line like his work has. I want it to be clear that I am telling a story, of otherworldliness, something inspired by imagination, fairy tales, and dreams.

Quotes:

"I use many things as inspiration, one of them are the classical paintings. They are dramatic, histrionic, and all the volumes they get with the use of the lighting. A light that is so far of the modern sophistications of the photographic studios. If you analyze carefully that paintings, the light is so simply, but perfect at the same time."- Eugenio Recuenco

"I feel darkness more attractive than night. For darkness I understand craziness not detectable at first sight." - Eugenio Recuenco

Website

Interview

Sung Yeoul Lee Artist Lecture Response- 11.12.10

I found the Sung Yeoul Lee artist lecture to be extremely intriguing because I was able to hear about art-making from the perspective of someone in a different field. To him concept seemed to be equal with his craft. He starts out with a general concept yet his final outcome is more important in the physical aspect. All his work deals with a central theme of people's relationships and how they interact or do not interact. His work could be described as social, wearable, and illusions. His latest work especially embodies all these descriptions. I found this work most compelling because he creates a simple form of technology that becomes a prominent part of the wearable sculpture.

While working on his undergraduate, he began using metal to create cubed objects that could transform into large objects, which directly correlated to the skyline of Seol, which he grew up around.  He became very well known during and after his college experience for his work with creating eyeglasses that were useful yet not something that would be worn by the public. One of his first eyeglasses was actually inspired by Morpheus from The Matrix. Soon after he decided to come to the USA to work on his graduate degree. Through this drastic move his work became extremely influence by people's relationships when creating his work because he said he found it hard to create relationships with Americans.

Both of my initial questions were answered. The first about what kind of relationship he is critiquing was addressed when he was describing why he started creating his work in Graduate school. The second question had to do with whether or not he would want to use clothing when creating his work. I feel he would be willing to use some non traditional material in order to create a form of clothing in his future work. After seeing his lecture, I feel my only question left has to do if his glasses he created as an undergraduate, had anything to do with how people interact as well, or if it was more craft and practicality oriented.

Sally Mann Lecture 11.13.10

1. What has your reaction been to recent child pornography cases against artists doing series similar to your "Immediate Family" series?

2. Would you consider using color images for some of your work, or is the lack of color an important element in your series?

Sung Yeoul Lee Artist Lecture- 11.12.10

1. You work seems to deal a lot with how people interact with one another. Is this more of a critique of our lack of interaction or just a critique of the ways in which we interact with one another?

2. Your pieces mostly take the form of wearable art such as jewelry and eye glasses. Have you considered using clothing as a form as well?

Robert & Shanna

The surrealism and overall nature of the work this team produces, gives me a somewhat new idea in how to guide my series. They achieve the total effect so well because they create their environments rather than search for it. This approach could work well with my concept since it does have to do with one creating their own world. The use of soft focus as well as the use of color or absence of certain ones, makes me wonder if my images could work in a monotone format or if the color is what makes the overall mood so successful.

Biography:

"Much has been written about Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison, the husband and wife team whose photographic tableaus took the art world by storm more than six years ago. Creating a genre unique within the photo world, the ParkeHarrisons construct fantasies in the guise of environmental performances for their Everyman – a man dressed in a black suit and starched white shirt – who interacts with the earths landscape. Tapping into their surreal imagination, the artists combine elaborate sets (which can take months to construct) and an impeccable sense of wit and irony, to address issues about the earth and mankind's responsibility to heal the damage he has done to its landscape." (http://www.edelmangallery.com)

Website
Gallery
Interview

Grad School App #2

Rochester Institute of Technology

I find I am very drawn to this school due to the location as well as its prestige as a fine art school. The student as well as faculty work uses photography as a gateway medium into creating artwork. Much of the work starts out or ends as a photograph but has so many other elements that add to the process to create the final image. This school is very different goal wise from SCAD due to its fine art approach with more emphasis on concept. Like SCAD though, it still focuses on using the education process to further the careers of its students by providing classes that teach about how to presnt oneself as a professional photographer through building up a portfolio as well as finding career opportunities.

Professor Work: Myra Greene

"Myra Greene was born in New York City. She received her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and her MFA in photography from the University of New Mexico.  She enjoys exploring photographic processes to engage issues about the body, memory, the absorption of culture and the ever shifting identity of African-Americans. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally including Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, California; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia and Sculpture Center in New York.  Myra is the recipient of the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Photography in 2009 and has completed residencies at Light Work in Syracuse New York and the Center for Photography at Woodstock." (Myragreene.com)

Student Work:

James Bellucci

"I grew up in the rural town of Jefferson, Maryland. In 2002, I received a B.F.A. in Photography from Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, West Virginia in spring 2002. In spring 2003, I joined the Blue Elephant, a collaborative art space while working as an Executive Assistant at the Delaplaine Visual Art Education Center in Frederick, MD.
In June 2009, I received a M.F.A. in Imaging Arts and Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY. Currently, I work as an Assistant Registrar in the Office of Collection Management at George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film and teach photography as an adjunct professor at Monroe Community College." - James Bellucci

Grad School App #1

Savannah College of Art and Design

I had been previously drawn to this school while in high school and searching for undergraduate schools to attend. What draws me most to this school is that thier photography program seems to be much more technique based rather than conceptually based. I feel if I am going to invest so much money into furthering my educations, I should pick a school that will give me better tools to work in the advertising world which is where the most money lies. While I do feel that VCU has given me a good base, the images that are shown in the student gallery for both graduate and undergraduate work at SCAD, look more like the work I need to be producing if I want to work commercially. For example, in one of the photos on the website, it shows students working with studio lighting to photograph a Porsche. Not only are these students learning how to photograph an object that seems rather difficult, but they are also getting to work with a prestigious company while learning to do this.

Professor's work:
Liz Darlington

"Liz Darlington is a photographer from New Zealand. Her specialty is photographic digital media, and her background is in the television and new media industry. She has exhibited throughout the United States and is represented by the Krause Gallery in Atlanta. She had her first solo show in her home country in 2006." (SCAD)

Student Work:

Cheng-Hua Wu is an Taiwanese photographer who graduated with a M.A from SCAD in 2010. Wu's work deals with burnt fashion photography advertisements as well as long exposures that deal with artificial light in landscapes.

Direction

I feel recently I have come to a point where I feel I have hit a road block. I don't know how to move forward, I feel I am only sidestepping in my new images. I like the story idea but I don't want to push the fairy tale idea too much. I feel I have already exhausted this concept in prior work. Yet somehow my images always go back to some kind of story line. I feel this somewhat has something to do with my interest in fantasy and mystery novels, in which I become so immersed in the story line I sometimes forget the characters do not actually exist. I feel since my series have such a narrative based quality to them, I have a form of writers block. I'm not sure where to take my story. I feel it has so many options while at the same time so few. I have been looking to writer's block tips online to try to get myself out of this hole. Mostly it suggested taking my mind temporarily out of my story line and hoping the break will give me a new perspective.

"It's not that there aren't plenty of topics to write about, the problem is we often feel we need to say something new. The reality is that not much is genuinely new. We all stand on the shoulders of giants."


"Try researching and writing about a completely different topic area. You might not publish the piece, but by immersing yourself in new areas and concepts, you might gain new insights on your chosen field."


"How To Overcome Writers Block | SEO Book.com." SEO Book.com ~ SEO Training Made Easy. Web. 04 Nov. 2010. <http://www.seobook.com/how-overcome-writers-block>.
This article was extremely helpful in giving me ideas on how to deal with writer's block. It gives seven different options that one can use to try to get past the block. Most of them deal with not thinking about the subjects at all or trying out a different subject in order to gain a new perspective. One of the points even suggested excersie and another suggests "creatively borrowing" ideas in oder to point oneself in the right direction.

Zoe Beloff Lecture Response

"Hysteria Like cinema only existed in the moment it happens."

"Interested in the embodiment of the unconscious."

Zoe Beloff's lecture took me by surprise due to her tricking the audience the entire time. I had found myself  growing somewhat disinterested half way through the lecture, because I felt I was being given more of a history lecture rather than a lecture about this artist's work. After she answered Drew's question, admitting that the man she was telling us about did not exists, I felt delightfully tricked. Suddenly I felt she had made her audience a part of her artwork. Her medium was not just 2D photographs, drawings, and videos, but it was also performance art. I found this work was the most compelling due to this.

I would define her work as recreations, trickery, and story-like. Beloff created entire lives for these people she come across such as the mental patients, and especially Albert, who she had claimed created these dreams journals. Her work is also very much focused on recreating the sounds and photographs that she found of these women in hysteric fits.

I found I was most interested in her fascinations with the records found of mental patients. I didn't realize that she was this interested in such an interesting subject that she would actually create musicals about them. I love that her work was very much based on her research into the records of these people.

My questions were not clearly answered this time since she focused really on only two of her projects. The second was not answered at all (1. Your work seems to deal a lot with the idea of the supernatural and psychic. Have you ever experimented with using photography to create ghostlike images in a stop motion effect?) but, the second one was somewhat answered by her answer to one of the questions at the end about how she decides upon what medium to use for her work.

My main questions that remain after the lecture deal with me still trying to figure out what she created under the name of Albert and what was truly found drawings and photographs. I still am somewhat unclear about if she had really found all those Coney Island photos or if she had recreated as she did with the hysteric women.

Zoe Beloff Questions

1. Your work seems to deal a lot with the idea of the supernatural and psychic. Have you ever experimented with using photography to create ghostlike images in a stop motion effect?

2. While some of your work addresses the relationship between technology and imaginations, you still choose to use film for your work. Have you considered using HD video for your work?

Gregory Crewdson

I find I am extremely drawn to the cinematic elements of Gregory Crewdson's photographs, as well as the eeriness that the viewer finds when looking at them. He uses light not only as an aesthetic quality but also as another presence in the photograph. This is the same kind of feel I am going for. Using the light as a presence, as another character reacting to the figure. I want to try to move my work indoors again since I have many images I am happy with from the outdoors. These images give me insight into how to make drama out of the mundane feel of the suburban interiors. 


Biography:


"Gregory Crewdson was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 26, 1962. His first experience of photography, at the age of ten, was a Diane Arbus retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. At sixteen, he played in a band called the Speedies, whose first single was titled "Let Me Take Your Foto." In 1985, he received a B.A. from the State University of New York at Purchase, where he studied photography with Jan Groover and Laurie Simmons. He graduated with an M.F.A. in photography from Yale University in 1988. For his thesis project, he took photographic portraits of residents of the area around Lee, Massachusetts, where his family had a cabin." (Metroartwork.com)


Quotes:


"I think the process, in my mind, is as important as the picture itself."- Gregory Crewdson


"I think that, in a sense, there's something about photography in general that we could associate with memory, or the past, or childhood."-Gregory Crewdson

Website

Interview

Gallery

"Gregory Crewdson Biography and Artwork - MetroArtWork." MetroArtWork - MetroArtWork. Web. 01 Nov. 2010. <http://metroartwork.com/gregory-crewdson-biography-artwork-m-61.html>.

Alone

Psychologists have recently noticed that people have become increasingly isolated socially from each other in the present. Due to all of the virtual gadgets that are now the norm in our lives, communication and companionship seem  to have taken a back seat. "Remarkably, 25% of Americans have no meaningful social support at all - not a single person they can confide in. And over half of all Americans report having no close confidants or friends outside their immediate family. The situation today is much worse today than it was when similar data were gathered in 1985,"(Psychology Today).  We have moved out of the comforts of company and into our own self involved worlds. "Even Americans of a few generations ago used to benefit from a richness of community life that has all but disappeared, as we've witnessed a long, slow retreat into the hermetically sealed comfort of our fortress-like homes..."(Psychology Today).

The idea of social isolation has a lot to do with the themes present in my work. My figure lives in some form of isolation with this mysterious relationship with the light. Others are never present in this mental world although much time passes. The idea of how we have begun to stray away from others and form a band with ourselves really touches on what my work has to do with.

"Social Isolation: A Modern Plague | Psychology Today." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness Find a Therapist. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-depression-cure/200907/social-isolation-modern-plague>.

I found this article to be very interesting due to the evidence it showed about how we are drifting apart. I raises great points about why this is happening due to new gadgets as well as the hours we work and commute. I found it very interesting though to read about how this so negatively effects us because we are meant to live in small groups that we grow close with. We are made to have companionship. The articles brings up the sad statistics about how so many people (25%) feel that they have no kind of companionship or support group.

Richard Misrach

Richard Misrach's work is similar to mine in his concept of how we have a large hand in the environment. We effect how it looks, yet we never stop to notice the absurdity of this. I also have been interested in his work because I am very drawn to the style in which he shoots. His work is the complete opposite of mine in the sense of aesthetics. While mine is extremely dark with high contrast, his work has a much softer and lighter look to it.

Biography:
"Richard Misrach (born in Los Angeles, California in 1949) is an American photographer known for his photographs of human intervention in landscapes.
Misrach graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1971. He first started photographing with a 35mm camera to foster social change. Since the late 1970s he has photographed using an 8x10 camera and color film. Misrach has one child, Jacob and lives in Berkeley, California."(Robert Mann Gallery)

Misrash is well known for his landscapes that show and obvious human hand in them such as tire tracks in a dessert and crowds of people on a beautiful beach. His most popular work, Dessert Cantos beautifully mixes this with soft lighting.

Quotes:
"Misrach's photography is sometimes referred to as cultural landscape photography as it shows human intervention in the landscape." (Robert Mann Gallery)

"As interesting and provocative as the cultural geography might be, the desert may serve as the backdrop for the problematic relationship between man and the environment. The human struggle, the successes and failures, the use and abuse, both noble and foolish, are readily apparent in the desert. Symbols and relationships seem to arise that stand for the human condition itself. It is a simple, if almost incomprehensible equation: the world is as terrible as it is beautiful, but when you look more closely, it is as beautiful as it is terrible. We must maintain constant vigilance, to protect the world from ourselves, and to embrace the world as it exists." -Richard Misrach

Artist does not have a website

Review

Gallery

"Biography: Richard Misrach | Robert Mann Gallery." ARTINFO - The Premier Site for News about Art and Culture around the World. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. <http://www.artinfo.com/galleryguide/20291/6826/6306/robert-mann-gallery-new-york/artist/richard-misrach/biography/>.

Memory

In my psychology class we have been discussing how our memory works and how there are many elements of our lives we never remember because we choose to ignore it, so once we stop seeing, hearing, or feeling it, our brains loose the information forever. There are three different types of memory: Sensory Memory, Short-term memory, and Long-term memory. The amazing thing about sensory memory is that our brain absorbs all this information at every second, yet we only remember it for a few seconds. The small amount of information we do remember makes it into our Short-term memory, but most of this information only lasts in our brain for 30 seconds to 3 minutes. I feel this topic of how our brain remembers stuff, has a lot to do with some of the concepts in my work. A lot of my images have to do with discovery, but it is rediscovery of things that are already there, that we do not pay attention to, so it never makes it into our long-term memory.

Quotes:

"Usually, the STS is described as having a limited storage capacity (seven, plus or minus two items) that 'decay' and become inaccessible after a relatively brief interval (estimates range from 12 to 30 seconds)."-Human memory Model

"To do this, the theory must specify properties of the processes and stores. For example, a store might have a "maximum capacity" --- in other words, a maximum quantity of information that it can hold at a 

given time. If we know a store's capacity and what happens when that capacity is exceeded, we will be able to predict that certain information will be forgotten at certain times." -Human Memory Model

"Human Memory Model." Human Systems Integration Division at NASA Ames. Web. 20 Oct.2010.http://humanfactors.arc.nasa.gov/cognition/tutorials/ModelOf/Knowmore1.html.

This article gave me good scientific facts that I could use to cite information and then tie it into my project. The article provided a brief overview of the three types of memory and shows the movement from one to the next. Senory memory is all the information that our brain takes in. This form of memory though, only lasts for up to 30 seconds. The second form of memory is short-term memory this kind of memory last for only 30 seconds to 3 minutes. The third kind of memory is long-term memory, which is stored for over 3 minutes and on. Very little of our daily life ever makes it to this stage. From this information I was able to conceptualize these ideas and apply them to my work.

Arthur Tress

Although Arthur Tress's work is visually different from my work, his photographs still deal with a similar concept. His work places much importance on the subjects actions and locations in the shots. I love the small details in his photographs, such as the sun outlining one of the figures in the second image down. The images have an erie quality, yet the images are not out of the ordinary subjects and there is nothing distinctly different about the subjects. Somehow though, through the lighting, angles, etcetera, he is able to produce an alternate reality from reality.


Biography:

"Arthur Tress was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY on November 24, 1940. He took his first photographs while still in elementary school in 1952. He attended Bard College where he studied art and art history, world culture and philosophy under Heinrich Bluecher. While studying, he continued to photograph and began making short films. He graduated in 1962 with a B.F.A.  After graduation from Bard, Tress moved to Paris to attend film school, but soon left. After traveling through Europe, Egypt, Japan, India and Mexico, he settled in Stockholm, Sweden and worked as a photographer at the Stockholm Ethnographic Museum. In 1968 he moved back to New York with a commitment to becoming a professional photographer. He had his first one-person exhibition that year, "Appalachia--People and Places", which was held at the Smithsonian Institute and the Sierra Gallery (New York City). He then worked as a documentary photographer for V.I.S.T.A. from 1969-1970. Arthur Tress was one of the first artists in the 1970s to break way from street photography and develop a more personal vision, which included manipulating that realty in front of him instead of being just a passive observer."

 - Alex Novak  (Novak, Alex. "Arthur Tress." Rev. of Arthur Tress. Web log post. Contemporary Works. Web. 17 Oct. 2010. <http://www.contemporaryworks.net/artists/artist_bio.php/1/6606>.)

Quotes: 

"Photography has an amazing ability to capture the fine detail of surface textures. But far too often these intricate patterns are loved by the photographer for their own sake. The richness of texture fascinates the eye and the photographer falls easy prey to such quickly-caught complexities. The designs mean nothing in themselves and are merely pictorially attractive abstractions. A central problem in contemporary photography is to bring about a wider significance in purely textural imagery." - Arthur Tress 

"I’ll push myself to complete a series, because sometimes when you get to the end of your rope, you can go beyond and actually invent something new – something you hadn’t seen before." - Arthur Tress

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Magic

Magical realism has become an extremely important part of my series. I have turned the light from being a character to becoming more of precious, magical item while still mixing it with every day life. I am trying to have my figures dressed in every day clothing to give a clear dating to the images, yet I keep the locations in places that are much more ambiguous. Reading about magical realism in literature as well as in art, helps to give me ideas on how to go about this process. I want to create images that could easily be seen on a every day basis, yet I want to change one detail about it (the light, and the subjects interactions with it) in order to throw off the viewer.

“Magic realism is the opposite of the "once-upon-a-time" style of story-telling in which the author emphasizes the fantastic quality of imaginary events. In the world of magic realism, the narrator speaks of the surreal so naturally it becomes real.” -B.J Geetha

“…the supernatural is presented as mundane, and the mundane as supernatural or extraordinary.” – B.J Geetha

Geetha, B.J. "Magic Realism in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude." Periyar University. Web. 13 Oct. 2010

This article was extremely effective in clearly describing magical realism as a literary and artistic genre. The article also acts as an analysis of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s story “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” The author describes how Marquez uses the elements of the story to make the reader question real life political events occurring in Columbia. He then goes on to describe the main events in the storyline that deal with loneliness a person deals with, whether voluntary or forced. The article mostly helped though, to give examples of magical realism through analyzing the storyline.