Started back up again

I had to kick my own ass in gear today and photograph a little bit. A mixture of things have driven me to pick up the camera again - having no work or school has made me feel useless and I needed to snap out of it. I used that feeling to try to fuel me to photograph. I just watched the Woodmans on Netflix on Francesca Woodman - who was a photographer that Greta told me about and actually referred me to the documentary. She said she'd think that I would like her work and boy was she ever right. Watching and learning how she thought - reminded me a lot about myself in some ways. Her sensitivity made my sensitivity real. I know I sound psycho but it pushed me to photograph again. I also had a dream two nights ago that I killed a friend's baby - not on purpose - I mean, it was strange and I woke up wondering what it could've meant. The baby girl died of suffocation in my dream. Which is what I feel was something that I may have been feeling lately. Suffocation. Lack of air. Of life. After texting my older sister (who is pregnant) - I know - wrong person to tell - she was shocked haha and then said "That's your fear of having kids." So, I photographed.

I am rusty.

Ken Riley: 5 Photos

Sequencing...

So this is what i have so far and it is to size the amount of space i will have on my wall. The images on the bottom are ones that will be taken out or will replace another. Is this still too many images for a display? idk..... Also, the photos are about 13x20, 20x13.

Weekly, Stefan Hancock

I went to the closed Kmart this weekend and photographed the outside of it. I wanted to try out making a diptych with imagery pulled from Google Maps, showing the same spot from when it was closed and opened. The Google image needs to be aligned some, but I wanted to see how it holds up first. I also want to potentially add other Google Maps imagery.

Edited Artist Statement

I'm still having trouble ending it haha but here is the edited statement:

I am Latina – a woman of Latin descent. Religion and faith are embedded into my culture and my immediate family. I did not just practice my Catholicism at Mass or on Ash Wednesday or just on Easter and Christmas – for me, it was my identity.

For a long time I dared not to ever question my upbringing within the Church, but throughout the years I’ve become more curious into finding answers within myself.

In this work, I am exploring my religion and asking why it was so profound to my family and me. Through these photographs, I am documenting the connection between the Catholic religion and my family and how it affects and reflects within each individual. In capturing images for this body of work, the line between the home and the Church begin to blur and one is projected as a reflection to the other. I begin to examine the relationship between “saint” and “sinner” and question if it is even possible to be recognized within a portrait. Are we true to who we were expected to be and according to whom? These are some of the questions I hope to explore throughout these photographs and will continue to explore.  

Latest set up idea

Thinking of taking out the 9x12 in the middle.

Artist Statement

So, i've rewritten my artist statement and I thought about writing it as if it were a page in a journal... BUT I want feedback on it to see if its a good idea or not lol

April 25, 2014

Isolated, quiet, weird… Growing up, I felt this way and the people around me, including my surroundings, reminded me of it all the time, but it wasn’t until I moved to Suffolk, Virginia that I really realized I was this way and why. My parents divorced before I could establish memories from real events and my mother was in the military so we (my mom, older sister, and I) moved to new locations every 3 years. It always took me long to get comfortable at my new addresses, but even when I did I was never fully to the point where expression was easy, so I, a lot of the time, stayed to myself and even when I was in company I somehow still always felt alone.

I moved to Suffolk in 2005 and everything about it was unusual to me. The atmosphere wasn’t close to being similar to the cities I lived before. I was living in the country, or what I used to call it, “The Middle of No Where”. Land and woods surrounded my house. I could walk down the street and stop to see a deer standing next to me. As I would ride through the 2 lane, one-way traffic highway to get to any destination, out my window I would see cotton fields – it was my first time ever witnessing one - vast amounts of empty space, or maybe just one tree standing in the middle of it. Moving to this city, at the beginning, was the worse thing I could possibly think of. To live in a place like this just could not be fathomed. As the time passed and I began to get comfortable, I spent a lot of time unaccompanied and I began to appreciate that I was able to do that. I could sit outside and be completely alone with the sound of ambient noise as if it were silence. I could do it at nighttime without having a worry and see the stars in the sky. I did this frequently, and it made me realize that this city actually reminded me of someone I knew, and coincidentally, that person was me. I wanted to explore Suffolk and I did. I wanted to learn why this city that I hated so much became therapeutic to me. I traveled around Suffolk with my camera with me and the things that stuck out to me, the things that I somehow felt a connection and was compelled to, I would snap a photograph of it. Suffolk, the peanut capital, this solitary place, and the first placed I didn’t have to move away from became my home and became a story I wanted to tell through photographs. But this is just a chapter in my isolated, quiet, and weird journey.

Artist Statement and Set Up

So as much as I hate to say it - I may have to cut some of my images out because I don't think they will all fit. This will however, make it easier to view in the gallery. I will need help on which ones to omit - although I do have some in mind already. Anyway, this is my Artist Statement that may or may not be on audio for the viewers to listen to in my voice. I will discuss other details on the setup on Thursday - I need feedback!!

Artist Statement

I am Latina. Religion and faith are embedded into my culture and my immediate family. I did not just practice my Catholicism at Mass or on Ash Wednesday, Easter and Christmas – for me, it was my identity.

For a long time I dared not to ever question my upbringing within the Church, but throughout the years I’ve become more curious into finding answers within myself.

In this work, I am exploring my religion and asking why it was so profound to my family and me. Through these photographs, I am seeking the connection between the Catholic religion and my family and how it affects and reflects within each individual. I intend to capture evidence of the Catholic influence within my family and examine how these influences have affected us and have molded us into who we are today. I begin to examine relationships between “saint” and “sinner” and question if it is even possible to be recognized within a portrait. Are we true to who we should have been? According to whom? How far have we gone away from what we were taught? These are some of the questions I hope to unveil throughout this series.

So I had two ideas for my layout, My first was this:

I didn't inset photographs with these because my next idea was more of what I wanted to go with and I thought about using a lot more photos than shown here. I want to use up my space with photos in a way that each photo is seen easily by the viewer. So I came up with this:

I'm thinking of maybe using between 5x7 - 8x10 printed photographs but they will be framed & matted.

5 Photos - Ken Riley

Latest in the Crying Men series is my friend, Allen. 

Taken during the Art Department's trip to DC Saturday. I've always wanted to go to the new WWII Memorial so I snuck away and found this on the West wall. From what the placard said, the stars represent the 418000 American lives lost during the war.

  

April 5th Photos

Took these today, wondering if they will fit in with my series, I also re-photographed the tree and the graveyard... I will post a set up sketch (like Stephanie did) later on, or tomorrow of my idea of how to show my series on the wall. I also plan on bringing back more old photographs that I think I want to use to go with my series. I'm also working on revamping my artist statement (i'm a little stuck) but when I get somewhere with it I'd like to share it to get feedback.

Set up idea

This was a set up I was thinking of doing but I'm not sure if I want my images to go low to where the viewer has to bend down to see the bottom. I also don't know how I would print them - diptych or triptych - not really sure. I want this to be an experience for the viewer but I don't want it to intimidating either. It might be too much.

Portraits: 14 8.5x11

Landscape: 4 17x22

Smaller Landscapes:  4 5x7

Weekly, Sannah Kvist

Swedish photographer Sannah Kvist photographed students with a pile of all of their possessions in a pile in a corner titled "All I Own". This work is relevant considering I live on campus and am forced to move around a lot, and am forced to contemplate why I own some of the things I do, as are a lot of others (look at the dumpsters at the end of the spring semester near on campus housing!). This work pertains to consumerism and shows that no matter how little space we have, we will find a way to fill it with useless things. I remember a time when I was moving out of one apartment into another and had to pile all of my things in a corner in a temporary apartment in between leases and looked just as distraught as the students in these images. 

Weekly, Stefan Hancock

Matt Emmett - Forgotten Heritage

These photographs by Matt Emmett are from his series Forgotten Heritage where he has gone around and photographed places that have been forgotten all around the world. He says in an interview that anything abandoned and hidden from view is what he's most attracted to photographing. Some of his subjects included abandoned prisons, theaters, commercial buildings, steel plants, and more. You can see more photos from there series here.

5 Photos by Alli (sorry they're late)

From my trip to Birdsong Peanut Factory