2/19 update

I have been shooting a lot recently. I think out of these few Ive posted my favorite are the ones with the fabric dress is hanging on the radiator and the pearl necklace on the checkered floor. I like the contrast and the fact that you can see the grain on the fabric on the old radiator. I think the sequenes on it stand out and make it more feminine. I like the necklace on the floor because of the compositions that were created. I like the lines. I also think its great that in some of them you can see the reflection of the pearls in the shiny wall. I would really like to meet with you soon so that I could get your input on what you think of these images as well as the other ones I have not posted. I do like what I have done though with some of these, I think I'm getting closer to the idea that we have previously discussed. The idea of a voyueristic still life.

some new work

Here is some work Ive started with. I would call them sketchs, I dont think I want to have the beer can in the image. I wanted to show some type of trashy meets classy but i think it was too literal. I like the idea of having jewelery on a nightstand, myabe referencing some type of seedy one night stand with my hair/hand in the background? I'm not sure yet how I feel about this..

Anthony Goicolea Lecture

i thought Anthony Goicolea presented a very interesting artist lecture. He made it easy for me to connect to his concepts and did that in a non boring way. One thing I found in common with me and him is the way he works. He said that he worked mostly alone and used himself as the subject in the image. I have used myself a lot in my work, especially last semester in senior portfolio. My favorite series he showed us was the Kidnap series. I thought the red hoodies were powerful and a good decision. I liked that when i was looking at this series I felt like I was an outsider witnessing a private ceremony. Like in Incantation. This image was one of my favorite ones that he showed during his entire lecture. I was so intrigued by the shape of the fire in the image. Also that the hooded figures in the imahe appear to be worshiping and cowering from this enourmous source of power. It seemed very menecing to me, but other people looking at the image might think the boys body language and hand positions show that they are being warmed by the fire. I really enjoyd hearing him speak about his work. He was very passionate about his art and seemed thourghly invested in what hes been working on for about the last 10 years.

notes I wrote and am now digitizing

Bad girl feeling, secrets, sex, fashion, dark, vain, contrast, dirty, fancy, still lifes, presence..

Possible locations
alley
bathroom
-sink, tub, mirror reflection of something hanging, radiator, towel rack, behind the door, window sill
Bedroom
-floor, dirth clothes, scattered fashion magazines? jewelery box oveflowing, lingerie flung, makeup
Bed
Closet
-shoes, belts, dresses,
Vanity
Kitchen? (harder)
Elevator/stairwell
Bar
fancy area? grunge area
Shopping
-thrift store, boutique in carytown

Possible Props
shoes..heels
jewelery box
necklaces -broken, diamonds on night stand?
clothing
-dresses, jeans, underwear/bra/lingerie, sunglasses, purses, fur-mink, makeup/styling products, car keys to expensive car?
anything very feminine that could contrast strongly with the harsher locales and strong aesthetic.

Questions
Who is the woman felt but not seen in these images? What does she do? Where does she live? Why is she so careless with expensive things? Is she rich/poor? good/bad? slutty/virtous? Does she have money or does she use men to get what she wants? Are the locations that these objects in places that she lives in or is she merely visiting?

Paolo Ventura

Basically I want to extend on two images I found that Paolo Ventura took in 2003 for Elle magazine. I searched everywhere on the internet and was unable t find them. I have a book called "Italian Eyes: Italian Fashion Photographs from 1951 to Today" and they were exactly what I had previously seen in my head of images I wanted to create for my portfolio. One image is a radiator with a mosaiced floor. There are then big pearly balls on the floor that could be a broken big pearl necklace or shiny bath beads. The overall feeling though is that its a grungy area with a high class lady somewhere in the presence of it. The other photograph is a shiny clean bathtub drain. There is a white shower liner waving into the image at the top but the main focus of the image is the diamon ring laying haphazardly on the wet drain. Its uneasy to view the obviusly expensive diamond ring sitting on a drian that could take it away for ever. I think these images are perfect. I want to take what Ventura has started and make an entire series of grungy areas with high class expenseive looking props in them. I want to continue with the harsh ellen von unwerth type style that I have previously been working with but change my project to be still lifes only. Ventura used a muted pallette and strong lighting to acheive his images, I want to make them look even dirtier and harsh by making them black and white. I feel the lighting will not be the only contrast, that by making them black and white and grungy looking it will only show the contrast of the location and the object that much more.

Javier Vallhonrat

Javier Vallhonrat is a photographer I found when we went to the library last week. He was in a book called "Chic Clicks". I thought this book was great. it was full of fashion photographers that did work that could go into any category of "fashion photography." I liked Javier here mainly because I thought that his images had a real sense of light and mystery. It has an uneasiness and yet really high comfort level between the viewer and the model. Like we shouldnt be seeing them but the model is comfortable with it. His photos made the fashion look dirty and i liked the edge that he has. Theres also a real sense of voyuerism that I like and want to create in my series. I think that if you took the girl in the underwear off of the bed and left, a stocking or something, that could be like something that I may choose to put in my new work. I want dirty high fashion "voyeuristic still lifes" as we discussed in my individual meeting. Javier's color pallette is great too. I want to do black and whites again, but if I was going to do color I would choose a pallette much like his.

Last semester and this

I think that this semester I will have to push my topic in a new direction. I became very frustrated with my concept last semester and feel that I lost myself in it, unable to see it from the outside. I think that there must be some way to push it into something more interesting, the main question being what? I really enjoyed working in the aesthetic that I chose last semester so I would like to continue with that style. However, I do think that I need to experiment with very different locations and narrow my parameters down to mean more that just self portraits of me moving, trying to create "spontaneous narratives". They did not end up looking too spontaneous or narrative like so I feel like I need to re-evaluate exactly what I liked in my work and see what direction that could push me in. I know that I want to do better this semester, and I feel inspired to create something more interesting and insightful.