Artist Blog XIII - Brain Matiash

In relation to my project I have chosen to highlight Brain Matiash, a high dynamic range artist. His work primarily focuses on architecture and urban exploration. I feel that my furniture images have similar qualities to many of his urban photographs. He is looking at urban decay and destruction in the eyes of making beautiful photographs and I think he is successful. High dynamic range is technical, because it requires using bracketing and post-production software to stitch the photographs. Brain said “in my experience, nine brackets gives me all of the tonal information that I need plus some insurance on the highlight and shadow ends of the range[1].” In my own personal experience I find that often times negative two stops, zero, and plus stops tend to work well for a bracket. However, there are times when a lot more stops are necessary. For the most part I feel 9 shots would definitely encapsulate the detail in even the most difficult scenes. I often debate whether or not to include people in my project; however I must agree with Brain when he says, “I wholeheartedly appreciate and admire photographers' abilities to capture those insanely fleeting moments of life that would altogether dissolve into the ether had it not been for that one timely shutter release. I just don't subscribe to the notion that only people can create these moments.[2]” I don’t believe people are necessary to have an emotional impact, but I do think including them makes it easier to get an impact. I enjoy the challenge of trying to do it without people.

[1] "The School of Bracketology with Brian Matiash - Blog - LensProToGoBlog.com | LensProToGo Studios Blog." Blog - LensProToGoBlog.com | LensProToGo Studios Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2010. .

[2]Matiash, Brian . "Urban Elements." Welcome to ProPhotoResource.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2010. .

Biography

A little bit of Brian
Thank you for visiting my Photo Blog. I hope you enjoy your stay and welcome your return.
I am a commercial architecture photographer, writer, and lover of all things social media. When I am not out photographing the ever-shifting trends of exterior and interior design
, I am roaming around and exploring the city to capture the forgotten corners and loose ends that so often get overlooked.

I have spent the past several years learning and mastering the use of High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging to provide my photos with a level of realism not normally captured with conventional photography. I am the author of monthly columns on ProPhotoResource and Lensflare35, where I shares tips, tricks, and techniques to gain the most out of HDR photography. I am also an editor at 'HDR Spotting', the leading gallery/resource dedicated to showcasing HDR images.
My images have been published in a variety of news and magazine publications, as well as displayed in various art galleries in Boston, MA and New York, NY. Some of my work has gained media recognition and has been published in the Boston Globe, the Improper Bostonian, and several online Photography and Travel Blogs. I was also the winner of the 2008 and 2009 Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk Contests for the cities of Boston, MA (2008) and Brooklyn, NY (2009), and was featured as the Boston Globe’s ‘Photographer of the Week’. I was most recently featured as the Lightroom Featured Photographer in the July/August issue of Photoshop User Magazine, put out by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
For a little bit of my biography – I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY but currently live in Framingham, MA with my wife, Lisa, and two dogs, Zilla and Chaca.
Matiash, Brian. "My Portfolio | Brian Matiash PhotoBlog." Brian Matiash PhotoBlog. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2010. .

Links -
Artist’s Website - http://matiashstudios.com/ , http://brianmatiash.com/blog/
Reviews/Interview - http://www.lensprotogoblog.com/blog/2010/7/28/the-school-of-bracketology-with-brian-matiash.html
http://www.prophotoresource.com/home/item/600-urban-elements.html
http://vimeo.com/10690679

Images -

All Images © Brain Matiash

Lecture - Conversations with Sally Mann

I feel fortunate to have had the honor to see Sally Mann at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  The presentation was in the form of a conversation between a panel and Sally Mann, rather than the typical artist presentation.  The panel included leading photography scholars Vince Aletti of the New Yorker and Brain Wallis from the International Center of Photography. Unfortunately, the flight which Melissa Harris of Aperture Magazine was taking was delayed and she didn’t make it. Initially they introduced Sally Mann and talked about connections to other artists, particularly in relation to the controversial nature of Mann’s work.  Mann’s earlier works which involved her children were often argued to be pornographic.  Although still controversial to some people, on a whole people have seemed to get past this, on the basis that Mann was the mother of the children and had seen them in all stages of life. Besides the nudity, there is nothing really pornographic about the images.  The main themes of her work seem to be sexuality, mortality, and vulnerability.  The talk was presented in connection with a collection of her works titled “Sally Mann The Flesh and The Spirit.” The collection featured her newest work, pictures of herself and her husband which comment on  themes of mortality and vulnerability.   It was also mentioned that the pictures of her husband were interesting from the standpoint of the human gaze on the male, which is something not usually touched upon in photography.  One thing that really struck me was just how humble a person Mann really was.  She said making a perfect print with a 8x10 format camera was really difficult, and she was just lazy, so that’s why she used equipment that didn’t function perfectly.   I don’t think this is really true.  I think she uses methods that will enhance her projects' themes. One thing that I thought was interesting was her take on when to release projects and how to never lose motivation.  She said, “Never put out a body of  work until you are one-third of the way into a new body of work.”  She also mentioned that you should have more than one project going at the same time, in case you get bored with one of the projects.  That was interesting to me in relation to my own project, because I’m trying to work on two different projects now and have ideas for other projects as well.  I think this helps me to keep my ideas fresh and allows me to back off from one project if I get bored with it and work with the other.  Ms. Mann said that she draws the line on her work when dignity is lost.  I think that it is important to know when to stop and draw the line, because there are some things which, ethically, should never be photographed.

All Images © Sally Mann

Idea Blog XIV - Urban

The word urban defines much of what my project is about, which is town or city life. In both Artific and Abandoned I introduce the influence of human growth and modernization. When one searches for the urban landscape, links often relate to construction. I find that images of construction are very interesting because each shot is unique. A few minutes or hours later the building has completely changed. On the other side of the rope, when things start to decay you also are likely to not be able to get the same shot. Abandoned buildings and objects are far from static. They are always changing. I tried to focus my projects on the impact of human consumption that comes after the main construction. Tim Davis said in The New New Topographics: Photographs Man-Altered Landscape that images showed places “whose most visible quality seemed a lack of visibility, a sense of unattendedness, of life that has escaped being chronicled—of spaces waiting to be photographed.” It’s interesting to think of buildings that are being constructed as places waiting to be photographed. I wouldn’t think that my furniture was waiting to be photographed but maybe it is, maybe it just takes the correct individual to recognize its beauty. I think that urban photography has the ability to show more than just the material of the environment. Miriam Paeslack states in an article about Maria Sewcz, Wiebke Loeper, and Elisabeth Neudörfl “Their work deals not with the material urban environment and its transformations, but with their use of architectural shapes and urban signifiers as individual psychological topographies. These images hint at notions of loss and transformation, revealing to us subjective, highly selective glimpses of the post-reunification German city [2].” To me this touches on my desire to want more than just to have a traditional landscape. I seek deeper meaning in the ideas that these landscapes are man-made and not natural occurrences.

[1] Davis, Tim. "The New New Topographics." Aperture Magazine Sep. 2010: 16-17. Print.

[2] Paeslack, Miriam. "A country disunited? Urban photography in post-reunification Germany." Journal of Architecture 11.5 (2006): 543-550. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.

Idea Blog XII - Origin

Origin -

While thinking about both my project and the recently reviewed artist Ferit Kyas, I began to consider origins.  I haven't shot very much outside of the city, but most of the shots that were outside of Richmond had been shot around my home town.  I feel that there is always a strong connection to one's roots that tends to be expressed by artists.  Even though I have been in Richmond for a while, I wouldn’t say I have the same viewpoint toward it as I do toward my hometown of Williamsburg, where I have spent most of my time.  Ferit Kuyas' work “has auto-biographical roots: I got to know the connections and spent quite some time here.[1]”  Kuyas also commented that although the photographs in “City of Ambition”  are documentary, showing the progress of Chongqing city development after receiving municipal status, he doesn’t consider himself a documentarian.  He said the ability to express his emotions in his images is very important to him.  I hope that my images are expressive of my emotions. 
Photographs are expressive when it “interprets, rather than describes, what we see to others. It tells a story, going beyond conveying information for its own sake. It often becomes metaphorical.[2]”  Hopefully my images are telling the story of the impact humans have on the natural surrounding environment.

[1] Kuyas, Ferit. "CITY OF AMBITION." gallerybook. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2010. <feritkuyas.com/city_of_ambition/>.

[2] Douglis, Phil . "Photograph as Expression. ." PSA Journal 76.3 (2010): 30-32. Print.

Ferit Kuyas

The series by Ferit Kuyas that caught my eye was “CITY OF AMBITION,” a series that takes place in Chongqing.    What drew me to this series was the atmosphere.  The images often feature a foggy background.  Apparently it is called the town of fog and is constantly foggy.  I have always been very attracted to images that are shot in the fog.  To me it conveys a timeless emotion that’s almost mystifying.  Ferit Kuyas said “Like most of my work also this project has auto-biographical roots: I got to know the connections and spent quite some time here.[1]”  I can relate to shooting what I am familiar with. I went back to my home town the other day and happened to be there during a magic hour. I shot a lot of photographs and some time-lapse video.

[1] Kuyas, Ferit. "CITY OF AMBITION." gallerybook. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2010. <feritkuyas.com/city_of_ambition/>.

Biography

Ferit Kuyas (1955) was born in Istanbul, Turkey. He studied architecture and law in
Zurich, Switzerland and graduated 1982 in jurisprudence from the University of Zurich.
1986 he started his career in photography and is working mainly on personal projects
since. His most recent project is City of Ambition – Fast Forward in China, a book with
cityscapes from Chongqing, China.

Kuyas, Ferit. "Biography | Newsletters & Infos." gallerybook. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2010. <feritkuyas.com/portfolio/info/?page_id=32>.

Pictures © Ferit Kuyas -

Links-
Artist’s Site - http://www.feritkuyas.com/
Reviews -
http://elizabethflemingphotography.blogspot.com/2010/01/ferit-kuyas.html
http://huffphoto.blogspot.com/2010/09/fog-ferit-kuyas.html
Gallery-
http://www.luxphotogallery.com/photographers/-bffe6dba87/

Alexandre Singh - Questions / Experience

Alexandre Singh was by far the best lecture that I have ever attended at VCU. The fact that he actually gave a performance to start the lecture not only struct me as being unique, but an intellectually engaging and useful way to spend my time.  In his presentation he spoke about the  thought process that is associated with a dream state or intoxicated state of the mind.  I would describe his work as intellectual, story-telling, and performance art.  At first I was having a lot of trouble following because I was frantically trying to take notes about the lecture. When I stopped taking notes and just sat back and tried to take in the whole presentation I found it was a-lot more enjoyable.  The interesting thing about his performance was how there would be stories inside stories inside stories.  Many times through the lecture he would reference pop culture.  At one point he referenced the movie "Inception" in relation to the planting of ideas within dreams and how the mind works. He talked about many types of mental associations, including linear, cross-linear and tangential.  I really had a sparked interest in learning about the mental process in relation to dreams after his presentation.  Besides his lecture presentation, he has a very interesting body of work.  The project which probably had the most relation to mine was the “School of Objects Criticized.”   In this project he had selected many objects to display in a gallery setting. All were named and personified via a voice over and spotlighting.  Watching a movie of people engaging with the objects who were talking about the 20th century art was certainly interesting.  One thing that was mentioned on the web as well during his speech was his interest in making a full length film.  He didn’t really stress that he was getting closer to actually doing it, but that is his goal and by doing each project he learns something and gets closer.  He said the audiences role in relationship to his lecture isn’t really important; however, he hopes that he is educating people about how the brain operates.  He did say that he makes art for himself first and everyone else second.  This is really how it should be. if you are not happy with the work but everyone likes it,  then I personally feel you are failing as an artist. Your art should reflect something about you.

Questions - 
Do you think your progressing near making a full length film?
What do you think the audiences roll is in relation to your work?

Contests Entered -

in-habitation:
Well got an email back, maybe next time!

Dear Eric,

We at Booksmart Studio wanted to thank you for your submission to "In-Habitation". It was a long and difficult selection process with submissions from all over the Country and In the end only a small selection of images could be accepted. Unfortunately your work was not selected for this Exhibition.

We encourage you to visit us for the Opening of the show to be held on January 7th 2011 from 6-9 to meet other artists and guests.
The final selection has been posted to our blog. click the link below to check it out.
http://www.booksmartstudio.com/blog/

Sincerely,

David Ohl
Booksmart Studio
250 North Goodman St.
Rochester, NY 14607

flowers-trees-birds-bees:

Nanpa Summit: