Month: November 2014

Quick Updates

November 27, 2014 / Rick / 0 Comments

Regarding the Rock and Roll call for entry, unfortunately I did not make it in. The juror, Paul Natkin, had a vision different from what I had submitted. I will be honest in saying that I was a little disappointed and that some of his selections left me scratching my head a little bit, but I did see where my images just didn’t fit in with his vision. I don’t doubt the man’s credentials – he’s taken one of the most iconic photos in the history of rock music (click here to see). I do want to extend a congratulations to all those who did get into what I am sure will be an extraordinary show. I’ll just have find another excuse to visit Minneapolis in the near future (better yet – Mankato – I love the topography of south central Minnesota).

Two other call for entries have garnered my attention. I am debating on whether to answer them or not at this point. The deadline on 1 of them is 1 December, so I have some things to think about.

This past summer and early autumn were particularly stressful for me. I decided to channel some of this into some more personal work for the semester. Here are 2 examples of this work:

I created a total of 14 of these. They received mixed reviews, mostly because there did not exist something to tie them all together. That, I confess, is a fair critique because all of these were reactions to different situations. A lot of my peers had their favorites. During the midterm critique, I was asked how I was going to make the audience want to look at them because they didn’t seem, to this person at least, to be something I was creating to visually please others. I didn’t remark at the time, but I did later answer that question in a private conversation with this individual – those who go up to see it will be the ones who want to take the journey with me. I didn’t mention the fact that I noticed this person did not go up to look at them closely. That’s a fact that made me think the question was a little unfair – if this person had gone up to view them closely, but felt forced to do so, it would have added a bit of intellectual weight behind the question. To be fair, however, it is entirely possible this person went up to look at them closely prior to my turn at critique, but absent any evidence of that happening, I will assume that this person did not. I was also told by another individual to avoid “art as therapy” as it is usually nothing more than a resting stop between projects. I remarked that these “resting stops” often are the genesis to some great things. This person then backtracked a little and told me that they weren’t trying to denigrate my work, but I’m taking that with a grain of salt.

The good news, at least in terms of the semester, is that I’m back to creating work that will satisfy the academics. I have the series discussed in my previous post (Condensed Information). This won’t be included in my final for the semester as the concept has morphed a bit and needs some more work to fully flesh out. I’ve also revived another concept that had to be put to rest due to equipment issues. This one is exciting to me and I will share it with everyone in about 2 weeks.

I’ve also been creating videos for my program’s video section. To be honest, if there is one thing that art school does well, it’s instill self-doubt in students. I have my opinions on why this is, but I’ll save those for a night when I’m feeling a little more akin to sounding off. Let’s just say that this section is the one where I feel the most in terms of self-doubt. But, here is one video that I think will become part of something good:

I’m finding that my work is trending toward focusing on the individual. I’m finding that everyone has a story to tell, and I find these fascinating. In fact, my to-be-revealed series deals directly with individual identity. With my previous portraiture series, I learned a lot about the people who participated, especially in the “Emotional Portraits” series. Through the video above (and subsequent series of videos I plan to make based off this), I may just learn something about myself. We will soon see.

I also have a couple of other concepts that I want to try out. These will start soon. For 1 I need to find a willing volunteer and the other I can start with a self portrait over the semester break. Actually, both will start over the semester break as that’s when I will have the time.

Last night I had a dream wherein I referenced, in a conversation with the other person in my dream, a past dream. I woke up this morning and my head was spinning from it. As I get ready to retire for the day, I wonder if something like this will happen again tonight. At one point I was keeping a dream journal. Things started getting a little vivid as I was keeping it and I stopped. I wonder if I shouldn’t start again with this dream.

Ok, these updates weren’t so quick, but things have picked up in the last month. I’m creating again, which is very good for me. I also still have a show to plan. At this point, I’m going to call it a night. Comments and questions, as always, are welcome.

Condensed Information

November 17, 2014 / Rick / 2 Comments

I’m not going to bore with you a big long academic style artist statement. But truth be told, it’s because I don’t have one at this point to describe this work. But here’s a little bit of a breakdown…

Sugimoto did a famous series in the 1970’s and 80’s whereby he set up his 8×10 camera in a movie theater (both indoor and drive-in) and he exposed the film for the entire length of the movie. He would start just as the projector started and would only close the shutter after the final credits rolled off the screen. Here his goal was to show us about too much information. Too much information, of course, is light.

I’m seeing things a little differently. The information from the screen comes at us in a constant stream and we must synthesize it as it comes. We have the luxury of those streams at that time. Here we condense the entire video into a single frame. Perhaps this is a representation of the fact that we receive so much information that we can’t possible synthesize it all. Or could it be a function of memory? We can take in the information fine when it is streaming, but looking back and trying to get to it – well, that’s a whole other issue.

At this, the final song in the album that is playing has come on and it’s time for me to go. Here are the 2 images I just created. This series will grow, and hopefully my understanding of its significance (as well as that of the series by Sugimoto). Rather than the venue, these are titled by the video that played for their creation.

As always, comments and critiques are welcome.

Kara Hearn – One Thing After Another

Kara Hearn – The Temporary and Heroic Transcendence of One’s Fate

Detail of the ceiling of the Florentine Baptistery

Sources

November 10, 2014 / Rick / 0 Comments

A big part of what I like to do regarding photography is to draw elements from other sources and work them into my own art. This commonly goes by the name appropriation. The subject itself can be a thorny one. There are issues of originality (think Sherrie Levine) and also, even more importantly, issues of copyright. I tend to draw from things I know are in the public domain, such as Renaissance art and publicly available graphics (such as NASA or CDC photographs. Even this gets a little thorny at times. I read somewhere that Microsoft owns the rights to digital representations of the Mona Lisa. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is really does negate the concept of Public Domain. Carrie Mae Weems ran into trouble with her “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried” series. To construct that particular body of work, she borrowed prints (that were at least a century old) from Harvard University and made prints of her own from the images. She was subsequently threatened with copyright lawsuits if she displayed the work publicly. I can understand Harvard being nervous about the physical prints, however, in my recollection of the law they had no copyright claim to the latent images contained within the print. Copyright law is a gray area, indeed.

And how I’ve managed to go off on a tangent in my opening paragraph. I actually intended to make this about stuff I find.

There is a place here in Houston called “Texas Art Asylum.” Inside this nondescript building is a veritable treasure trove of castoff items. One can find post cards, cassette tapes, rusty nails, processed film, slides, photographic prints, old electronics, little green army men – let’s just say there is a lot of stuff contained in that establishment. I mainly go in and purchase the prints, the processed film, and the slides. It’s a good day indeed when $2.00 will yield you 155 frames of 35mm color film. In my most recent visit, I acquired the aforementioned film, along with some medical school CT scan slides and a rusty spike (which will be used in an upcoming photo project).

Scanning the film and slides, however, is the hard part. It just takes a long time. I also had a bit of a backlog from my last visit to Texas Art Asylum. Today I finally managed to finish the scanning of the new items and got to work on some of the backlog. The backlog consisted of slides from E-6 film. I don’t normally look at the slides before buying them (except for the medical slides). I find the discovery process during scanning yields some amazing inspirations. Imagine my surprise when I scanned the slides and found some to contain images of Renaissance Art. This was definitely a pleasant surprise. I even found one of my old favorites:

Detail of the ceiling of the Florentine Baptistery

I don’t know who painted this scene of Hell on the ceiling of the Florentine Baptistery. The detail in the film is amazing, and having this particular piece from which to draw inspiration is going to be fun. I even found one with an image of Titian’s “Venus of Urbino.” I have many more to scan, and hopefully I can find some more classic art pieces. There are only so many vacation pictures I can stand.

Anyway, I just thought to share this little tidbit with everyone. Just for grins, here are 2 pieces I created using elements from other works. The first is from my own photography as well as elements from items purchased at Texas Art Asylum. The second is a creative commons digital representation of the “Rokeby Venus” and a CDC micrograph of an Ebola virus.

Mhothainn na Spirid/Mhothainn an Phian (2013)

The Rokeby Virus (2011)

Rock and Roll Work pt II

November 8, 2014 / Rick / 0 Comments

The call for entry for the Rock and Roll show at the Minneapolis Photo Center has been answered. I submitted a total of 6 images to this show. In the end I chose 4 performance images, 1 of a stage set detail, and another of the equipment sitting on stage, waiting to be picked up. This was by no means an easy decision, as I have hundreds of good quality images in my archive (from thousands taken) and I had to narrow down to around 5. I say around 5 because the entry fee allows for 5 images, with each additional costing US$10 per image.

These images were chosen for what they represent in the heavy metal genre on the side of the performer. King Diamond, with his theatrical stage show, brings forth as much fury and power as any other more aggressive band. The inverted cross represents the adversarial nature of relationship of heavy metal (and all of rock music) and religion. Depravis Nocturna of Spectral Manifest brings forth his own fury while maintaining a strict focus. As the most important instrument, the electric guitar is easily the most universal symbol of rock and roll. Even when it is not being played, the potential energy is barely contained within. Jeffrey Nothing epitomizes the horrific nature of some of the subject matter of heavy metal. There exists a certain mystique to the rock and roll artist in everything from the lifestyle to the live performance. Aaron Meyers, with the lights seeking him out, maintains and projects that mystique from the shadows as he plays his guitar during an extended solo.

I want to greatly thank Stevie, Brenda, and Justin for their help in curating this entry. Without them, I would have had a very difficult time focusing (and even beginning). And Stevie gets an extra thanks for bringing this call to my attention.

I am under no assumption that all of these will get in, but at least 1 would be nice.

So I guess the waiting begins. It’s time to go live my life while the juror makes his decision.

When It’s Not Your Best Side

November 8, 2014 / Rick / 0 Comments

Normally I would wait until I got home and had time to think about the images before I would even think of posting them. This particular case, however, is one where I felt I needed to get it out. I’m literally in my school’s lighting studio right now, posting this with my laptop on the school’s wi-fi.

This semester is one where I’ve turned inward. In my past work, I strove very hard to minimize myself in the photograph and to keep it about the subject. Aside from silly selfies with my wife, I normally fiercely resist putting myself in front of the camera. I felt the need tonight.

I looked at the shots halfway through. An overwhelming sadness came over me.

I think I better go home now.

Rock and Roll Work

November 2, 2014 / Rick / 0 Comments

I know this rare burst of blog-writing productivity may come as a shock to some. Every once in a while I decide something is worth sharing.

I’m in the process of answering a call for entry to a show in Minneapolis that is all about rock and roll. In fact, that’s the title of the show, “Rock & Roll.” The subject can be interpretive. It can be pretty much anything to do with the music, although I think promotion shots may not be welcome so much. On that I would need to ask, since one of the images on the website (taken by the juror) is what appears to be a promotional shot. This looks like it’s going to be an interesting show, nonetheless.

Currently I’m curating my images for the show, and hopefully will have a collaborator on that soon. Right now it involves picking through about 6 years of work in order to find the best images. I have come across some that I honestly forgot I took. I look back on some of these and can remember how I felt when I was in those photo pits taking those shots. I want to share some of them with you. These may or may not reflect the final images that I submit (I can submit up to 5, with the option for more should I choose to pay more). These aren’t in any particular order and is only a small sample of what I am going through right now.

Click on each thumbnail to view the larger version.