Experiments

Presentation has been an issue for me since the beginning of this project. After trying both a luster paper as well a mat paper (almost a printmaking type paper) I have decided that I am not a huge fan of how the prints look on stiff paper. It just doesn’t look right. And so, I have been looking for something lighter and possibly transparent for a few weeks now. I printed some on transparencies, which I think work better in some ways, but I still wanted to test more materials. This week has been the start of those experiments.  Using a light-sensitive dye I exposed negatives of my multiple exposures onto fabric. I have a variety of fabrics at this point, as well as different types of negatives and different ways of applying the dye. It has been a major learning process so far, and I still have lots of problem solving to do, but I’m excited about the possibilities with this.

The first round didn’t go well at all. My images basically didn’t show up at all.

The second round of tests went much better. You can actually see an image somewhat, which was exciting, but I am still hoping to figure out how to get more detail in future tests.

The Cost of Forgetting (part 4)

I recently gathered and painted enough objects to shoot a new color. It was a pretty quick shoot resulting in only a few images, and I’m still wanting a bit more variety in objects, but overall I really enjoy how these turned out.

I also just finished spraying objects with the next color this evening (as you can see below), so I should have some multiple exposure images to share this week!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

The Cost of Forgetting (part 2)

Time for a few more images from my current graduate work! If you missed the last post, I would suggest reading it first, so that this post will make a bit more sense. This time around I am sharing the multiple exposures from the white objects. I still have the glass ones to share, and then hopefully by that point I will have a new color ready to photograph and post.

Happy Monday everyone, I hope your week is off to a great start!

 

The Cost of Forgetting (working title)

I have recently been sharing with you all simple images of still life scenes. In some of those posts I vaguely mentioned that they were essentially just components of my current graduate work, but that I wasn’t quite ready to share those images yet. Well, after sitting on them for a few weeks, and talking to a few professors about the images, I am ready to share. I will be sharing them over the next week (or longer), with the first set being of the blue objects, so be sure to check back for more.

The title of this post is my working title for the series. It is something that popped into my head while writing this post, so it is likely to change, but for now that is how I will refer to these images. The series is more or less a visualization of the difficulty of remembering. Trying to recall things that perhaps aren’t very important or monumental can cause confusion in most of us on the best days, but for those that have something that impacts their memory (things like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, PTSD, and numerous other disorders, diseases, etc.) it can be extremely difficult. I have been researching memory, and various things that can affect it, but of course still have a lot to learn (as do researchers). My images have sort of progressed along with my research; as I learn about memory and things that make us forget my images shift and change.

These images were all in-camera multiple exposures. They range anywhere from 3 to 9 exposures (I can’t recall the number per each image), and then minimal editing was done to the final images. I have also been thinking about presentation ideas for these (since my thesis show is quickly approaching), and have some exciting things planned (to try at least).

So, enough rambling, I hope you enjoy the first set!

White Still Life

Another round of still life images for you all. These were shot the same day as the blue still life, as well as the second round of glass still life images. I have been loving the simplicity of these still lifes; they are quiet and rather understated, two things that I really appreciate these days.

Blue Still Life

If you have been following along lately, you have seen that I am photographing monotone still lifes. Besides the glass and white objects, I also shot some blue objects. I don’t have as many objects painted blue at this point as I would like, so hopefully after building up some selection I will re-shoot and have more images to share.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful start to their week!

 

White Still Life

Besides the glass images, I also shot a round of white objects. The end result for these will be similar to my Remembering The Everyday series, but for now I want to share just the single images because they are interesting me as well.

The composites are finished, but I need to live with them a little longer before I decide to share them. I may however share more of the glass still life scenes in the mean time. And, as a bonus for this post, here are two images I took with my phone while wrapping things up and playing with the light.

 

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Remembering The Everyday.

I normally don’t share work from the early stages of my projects anywhere online. They tend to be private pieces for me (and professors/classmates). But, I am excited about this image, and am excited about where my work is going, so I have decided to share (though just this one for now).

As some of you may recall, my work deals with memory. I am investigating how the things we interact with every day impact memory, and how they become memories themselves. Maurice Halbwachs’ “Space and The Collective Memory” has had a big influence on me, as well as an essay by Ollivier Dyens. Halbwachs talks about the need for the stability of the every day in order to form memories. Yet, as Dyens points out, memories themselves are unstable and constantly changing. The juxtaposition of these things fascinates me.

In terms of technical aspects, this image consists of around 10 different photographs stacked together to form one final piece.

 

With my big mid-program review (the meeting that decides if I’m an official MFA candidate or not) coming up, I will be busy creating many more images in the next few weeks. Hopefully after that meeting is done I will feel comfortable enough with the work to share more with you.

Happy Monday everyone!

Leaves

In my last post I mentioned that my work is now dealing with collections. I have just started with this process, and so have only been working with one collection so far. Every fall I have the tendency to pick up a few leaves that I find nice and pin them to my walls for a bit. The leaves actually sparked my first collection piece. I started by placing the leaves on my copy machine and making simple black and white photocopies I also scanned them to see what I thought of a digital, color image of the collection. I have over 200 leaves copied and I finally had to force myself to stop picking them up. Once I had a large number scanned I started to piece them into a large Photoshop file, which is what I am sharing with you all today.

 

Once I printed it out I realized that this is not the direction I want to go. The color and the format of the digital print are not doing what I want them to do, and so I will be leaving this behind for the time being at least. I debated sharing this here, but decided that I wanted this blog in part to be a place to show my progress and thought process on my work. I will be printing some copper plates this week and so will be sharing those with you as I work on them. Be on the lookout for another post soon!

304/366 – Studio Wall

Today was a rough day. I was sitting in my studio waiting for a ride (my car was getting fixed), and I shot this while I waited. Tomorrow I get to fly back to Minnesota for a few days to meet my nephew for the first time, so I may not keep up on posting.