Perception

In my class this week we are having a discussion on perception of the artwork/piece and how viewers react to work. Here is my contribution:

I think my imagery grabs peoples attention within the first few moments they see it, however I keep getting people questioning whether or not it is art. I have not shown many people my thesis work, so these comments came mostly in response to my NYC @ night stuff. The last 4 months or so of last year and the first month and a half of this year I had my work up on a pretty regular basis here in New Rochelle, in Chelsea in Manhattan, and Harlem. I think people look at me, and then question whether or not it is art. I do not dress crazy, I am no longer all pierced up, I am always nice and gracious when I meet people, but I find dialogue about my work to be tedious. I often feel socially awkward and hate public speaking.. I am learning to get over that, but somewhere I am not being artsy enough or something. The reasons I shoot are wrapped around the notions of death, global warming, apocalypse, cruelty of time, beauty of now, questions of reality, science and philosophy, and scary world news stories etc etc. I often feel odd engaging people in this level of conversation. I am socially uncomfortable sharing that side of myself in public. So I think people think I am just shooting pretty colors.
I took an anthropology course here at AAU, and I remember an essay where a woman recounted the friendly empty American social interactions. We are polite on the surface, but the meanings of our words and the meanings of our interactions mean 2 different things. We say hello, how are you? We don't really want to know, and it is hard for me at art openings to become the person who answers truthfully.
So in saying this perception is everything. It starts with whatever the viewer sees first. Artist, building art is housed in, wall composition, and then the piece itself. Everyone is different and so what happens when one is alone with the piece is personal to them. I think so many people have come to understand the art world as exclusionary and do not understand once they choose to engage in it their vote counts too. The idea of the sensitive viewer is a device used to make others feel that because they do not appreciate a piece it is not the piece it is them. Yes it is true that a piece I do not like today I may like tomorrow, but it is also true I may never like the piece.

Also here is last weeks thesis image:

Some more inspiration

So I watched this documentary last night and I HAVE TO SHOOT DETROIT!!! anyone wanna sponsor an artist?!?!? The decay of this once vibrant city is exactly what I foresee happening all over America in the next few decades. Anyway please watch this.



what do you think?

I know this has nothing to do with photography in itself, but it has everything to do with my artistic flow. I feed on documentaries, books, and pretty much all information to get my visions.

Happy Easter!!

Thanks to my sister, I had some extra time this week, and that allows me to enjoy this beautiful day fully without the idea of hw tagging along with me. Woohoo!!...

I have a few non related things to share regarding my photography in this blog.

1. This week in my Concept and Critical Analysis Class we are finishing the book Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes. As a photographer and someone with my Bachelors in Philosophy I am loving this book. It is the philosophy of a photograph. Very interesting stuff, depending on what your into.

2. I found a great place to get Camera Equipment repaired and over the spring break I had my Canon EFS 10-22mm lens repaired and OMG I never knew it was that broken until I shot my good friends house the other night. Here is the image from that shoot, which I am ecstatic with. Although the shadows are a little deep in parts of the image the overall color quality is what I am going for and the clarity is amazing. These images are going to be printed large and so there is a vast difference between viewing them on a monitor and seeing them in person, but I guess that can be said for all of my work, well actually any art work period needs to be experienced in person, but I digress.. here is my thesis development image for this week.



3. I purchased another external hard drive, my first 1 terabyte drive! And so now begins the long drawn out process of backing up and organizing my entire photographic catalogue. I am kind of excited about doing this, but also a little intimidated. Taking 1000's of images and filing them away so they can be found easily is daunting. Also I need to twin my drives, another task all you people with critical info on your hard drives need to consider doing. (Twining is when you make an identical replica of a hard drive so just in case one fails you have a copy, you then store them in separate locations so that you are safe from theft and fire). So much to think about, but if you do not back up your work, when your computer or hard drives fail, AND THEY WILL FAIL, you will have nothing). So over the next few weeks/months I will be backing up my work and as I see imagery I would like to share I will post it.

With that said HAPPY EASTER!! or have a beautiful day in this lovely weather if you don't celebrate it.