Blurb books…

I loves seeing the other classmates books. One that particularly stood out in my mind was the book on the beaches of north county San Diego. I think that the author of the book was Donovan. I loved the pictures in the book and I could really tell that he spent a lot of hard work editing both the photographs and his book. He put many panos in there and I thought that was a really good idea. With the panos, you could get the full effect of the beauty of the beach the photo was taken at. I think my favorite section of the book was the first section on Oceanside Pier. The pictures that Donovan took there turned out amazing. He could probably blow some of those up and sell them if he wanted to. There was also a picture of birds flying that I thought was really cool. It was just really neat to see such amazing photos of beaches that I see all the time but in a different way. One thing that really made a difference too was the size if his book compared to the others. The book size was very large and it made the photos look great.

rick smolan

I really enjoyed Rick Smolan. He is such and interesting character. He is so inspiring and seems to have a great passion for taking photographs. This video definitely got me very motivated and energized to go out into the world and photograph anything. That was the message that I got from him. You just have to let everything fall into place and let the structure of life go to pieces. When that happens, inspiration comes to life and good pictures will come into place. I really liked how he had a purpose for his photographs too. He wants to change the world with them and open peoples eyes to worlds they might not have access to. I definitely admire that and think that it is a great thing for someone to aspire to.

roni horn

Roni Horn kind of creeped me out. The photos of the clowns were a little disturbing in a way. I’m not scared of clowns or anything, I just think it is a very strange subject to take photos of. Especially in the way that she took them. I liked her water photography. I liked the way that she caught all the different patterns and shapes that it takes. All in all, I wasn’t that impressed with the work that she has done. It seemed like anyone could have gone and taken those pictures themselves if they really wanted photographs like that. I thought they looked a little amateur. I thought it was interesting though, the way she displayed so many photos of the same subject matter at one time. Normally, an artist will have one photo or art piece that is unique and one of those displayed only. Roni Horn had a whole collection of similar pieces and it created a sort of series.

But these pictures were just plain weird.

MoPA Gallery

Beloved Daughters

This installment of photographs was very powerful. To see images like the ones on display here, really makes me appreciated how fortunate I am in every way. I don’t want to call these photographs depressing, but they are not at all hopeful. The two separate projects the artist Fazal Sheikh had on display were about death and suppression. The exhibit Moksha was portraying widowed women living in a town where they devote the rest of their lives to Krishna and then pretty much wait to die so they can be reborn. The other exhibit, Ladli, portrayed young women and girls in the true light that hits them on a daily basis: oppression. His images are definitely thought-provoking and eye-opening. I think the second exhibit was more powerful to me. I had such strong reactions when seeing the photographs of the young girls and women in such conditions as they are in the pictures. I just felt like there was no spark in their eyes like you would normally see in young people. It was missing from them and it made me very sad to see.

The Photograph as Witness

This exhibit was also pretty powerful. There was one picture that, for whatever reason, has been stuck in my head and I’m lucky that I found in online to put in my post. This picture:

This picture scares me like nothing else does. This photograph, I believe, was taken in the mid 1950’s and the part about it that scares me so much is the sense of idolization that the littler child has for the one with the gun. Kids brains are like sponges and for him to see that look of hatred in, what I’m assuming is his brother’s, eyes, and along with the child’s access to a gun like that, that definitely made an impression on him for sure. For some reason, this picture hit a nerve in me and for the rest of my time at this gallery, I kept thinking about these two boys expressions and it made me feel very uncomfortable.

There was an image I saw by Sally Mann that I found really cool. I think it was called “Tobacco Spit”. I love how the little girl is so angelic in comparison to the dirty older man. She almost glows in a way and it makes me wonder what she is doing there in that kind of a setting. The contrast in this image is very interesting.

This gallery was my favorite one to visit because of all of the different images to see. There was also a selection of student work that was kind of fun to look at. It’s always interesting to see what children view through the lens of a camera.

Ordover Gallery, Solana Beach

This gallery was such a visually inspiring treat for me to go to. I went to this gallery not knowing what was going to be on display. When I got there and realized it was images from Tuscany, I was so excited. Tuscany is one of the places on my “top places to visit” list. These photographs were almost dreamlike. The colors and textures were really fascinating. I would love to go to Tuscany one day and see the sites that these photographs show. I love how she brought out the many tones of gold and yellow found in that region: the leaves, the moss on the roofs, and even in the fog. I thought it was interesting that there was work displayed by Abe Ordover himself. I had kind of wondered who the Ordover people were and now I know that it is a man and he is also a photographer. Here is one picture that I really liked. I love the look of the fog seeping through the trees. I looks almost like water running through a valley. I enjoyed going to this exhibit very much.

Ordover Gallery, San Diego Natural History Museum

I finally went to see the museums over break and I was so inspired by the work I saw. The Ordover Gallery at the San Diego Natural History Museum was holding a display of work from several artist. The theme was Baja California. I was really looking forward to seeing this since, well, we are so close to Baja. It’s always interesting to view something so familiar to us in a different way; in someone else’s perspective. The main photographer on display here was Ralph Lee Hopkins. His images were striking in every way. I loved all of the photographs of the animals. I really liked a photograph of a sea lion. The expression on his face was priceless and I loved how the bubbles were coming out of his mouth. Even though the landscape was pretty familiar to me, because I have been to Mexico before, I still enjoyed looking at these photographs very much. I did not feel bored for one second. Seeing the photographs inspired me greatly. I would love to be able to take photos like those artist do. I hope to be able to practice more on Photoshop  beyond this semester to improve my skills. I really enjoyed my visit to this museum and I will most likely go again when another exhibit is on display.

pics from my book

These are just some pictures from my book. The first one is an actual screen shot of two pages of my book. Those pictures are from a photo shoot I did with two of my best friends. We painted our faces and went up to the roof of their apartment in LA at 3 in the morning to take pictures. It was a blast.

The second picture is another page of my book. I put a lot of these photobooth pictures in my book. This one is of my Nonny, mom, sister and me from when I was about 4 years old.

The last picture is a polaroid of one of my friend’s neighbor’s son. His name is Marty and he’s got the funniest personality.

book pages…

i cant decide how i want to display these…. this way?

or this way?

my book

So my book is going to be a book full of funny face pictures. I have a lot of polaroids and photo booth pictures that I am going to use and I might do a little writing in the book as well. The writing will probably just consist of me talking about the people in the pictures and what the occasion was. I really hope that it will turn out cool!

These are my cousins. For whatever reason, Trevor, the one in the front, decided to do that as his funny face when I asked him to make one… haha

Collier Shorr

This photographer made me feel a little uncomfortable at first. I didn’t quite understand her attraction for the wrestlers. It was a kind of awkward the way she had a likeness to the high school boys. I thought her photos of the friends she made in Germany were really interesting. The ones of the guys in uniform were really cool. I liked how you could really see in their expressions the change in attitude from when the guys were wearing the American uniforms as opposed to the German uniforms. Their entire attitude changed from one picture to the next.