Thursday, May 10, 2007

Email to J.

J-

I did get the forward - thanks - looks tempting. I am mulling over applying. I think it is time to start making better work, or at least, work that will look good in a powerpoint portfolio. When I assembled everything at the start of the search, I had a look at the black and white holga images in powerpoint and thought they looked way too flat on my monitor - I think that powerpoint compresses the images with makes them lose contrast. So I bumped up the contrast significantly (in powerpoint, until things looked respectable on my monitor), and then I sent the on their way. Later, I actually used a projector to look at the powerpoint images and was horrified - the projector adds all kinds of contrast, there was essentially no grays in my images. So, I think it is time for new images, time to submit images to juried exhibitions, and time to think about what images survive powerpoint well.

I have been following YYT's blog. He writes so obliquely that it is hard to tell what is going on. He also names his cameras, which I appreciate, but I have no idea what kind of camera he is talking about. So he doesn't sound like a gear-head when he writes -

"The MFA/4H Fair this year is certainly going to be an anticlimax as once again I have to head over there for crit week – the crits are happening before the show actually opens.

This time I don’t even think, I pick up Joãozão, 10 rolls of film and head west when I get down from the train. Back to the way it used to be one camera – pretty trusting considering how rickety Joãozão has become – limiting non-productive options.

I wander. I try to wander streets that I usually don’t go down, but again try to choose those that seem rife with potential. I went from areas with people heading someplace else to begin their day through areas empty, to an area where the day was well underway.

I did try to get past the area that I had parked when I had to head out to the western suburbs. Having time to kill I did venture down cul de sacs. I tended to stay away from the main drags and the meat packers. Away from the Starbucks but wandering the mix of rotting meat with exposed wood loft condos."


Which is essentially a really poetic way of saying "working at the school sucks, they are full of themselves, I grabbed my medium format fuji and a crap load of film and shot in the loop to kill some time". YYT makes it sound like a much higher calling.

I also noticed this at Jonathan Gitelson's blog

http://gitelson.blogspot.com/2007/05/final-critique.html

I am jealous, of course. Of Gitelson, for getting students to investigate. But also of the students, for having the energy and courage to investigate. Jeeze, this is becoming a blog post.

Brian

Wedding Portrait.


I have been enjoying the Strobist (http://strobist.blogspot.com); a blog run by a photojournalist who breaks down how to use off-camera flash as inexpensive and very portable lighting. It seems like material that would be easily teachable to students in future courses, and I get geeked by equipment.

But it also dovetails nicely with an idea that has been rattling around in my head about photographing photographs - contextualizing how photographs are seen and used in family and personal life. Here's the first go.