Do we think beauty, or do we feel it?
Richard Seymour
3 weeks ago on May 10, 2012 at 04:20pm
Paul Shiek, Dead Men Don’t Look Like Me
Opens today at Stephen Wirtz Gallery (49 Geary, San Francisco)
The Pond.
The Forsaken 2.
Deborah Parkin, from Stillness in Time
Parkin creates wet plate collodium photographs. This one has been printed on glossy paper, which emphasizes the liquid nature of the process.
These are part of the exhibit “This is your world” at Gallery Carte Blanche (Valencia Street, San Francisco). The show features four female photographers from Europe (Aela Labbe, Julie Cerise, Saya Chontang, Deborah Parkin). The photographers explore the dream-like quality of different photographic processes (wet plate, Polaroid, etc). Gwen has done great job of curating this show and the hanging is intelligent. It’s dense - there are many photographs on one very long wall, but your mind follows the work and as you transition from one photographer to the next, it makes sense. At every size the prints look fantastic, you can buy them on the Carte Blanche website.
Ruined Polaroids
Sara (New York Model)
(via victor-hawthorne)
missing pieces by micmojo on Flickr.
Day 4
19th April 2012
I asked people to close their eyes and simply think about how they feel their projects are going; I chose to do this because I wanted to capture each individual’s emotion. Once I had left them to ponder these thoughts for a minute or so, I asked them to open their eyes and look directly into the camera; the moment they did so I took a photo. The reason I chose to take this approach was because I personally feel the moment someone opens their eyes after intense thinking, there is a split second in between opening their eyes where pure emotion is displayed before it is lost, as if you are actually looking into their soul.
The aspect I enjoyed the most from this was the varied display of emotion; some people looked completely at ease, whereas some people appeared worried, or even stressed.
I then developed these negatives from this film and wondered how I could collect ‘blemishes’ on this negative. I decided to tape these negatives to the floor of the base room and placed a sign next to them asking people to purposely walk on them. I will collect these negatives tomorrow and develop some photographs of these when it is next possible to use the darkroom.
I am excited to see the outcome of not only the photographs, but the outcome of this technique too, to see how successful this approach has been.
1 month ago on April 23, 2012 at 10:02am
Day 3
18th April 2012
Today has mainly been a day of reflection; I have spent today looking through my notes and research and refreshing my mind of this. I have also sorted through my research file and put it into order, such as typing up journal entries so I have back-up copies.
I have also began reading ‘The Portrait of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde, as I have frequently heard of this book, and how it relates with beauty and appearance. Some quotes which I have already found interesting include “Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault”. I find this quote quite powerful and feel that it links strongly to my project; my interpretation of this quote is that those who look at things which have the potential to be ‘beautiful’ as ‘ugly’ are simply casting these objects aside, without truly knowing these objects, such as their stories and experiences. Whereas, those who find these objects ‘beautiful’ have taken the time to know these objects, and looked past first appearances in order to do so. There are more layers, some a lot deeper than others, to an object or person that can be explored further and can’t be seen or explored by judging something based on general appearances.
1 month ago on April 23, 2012 at 09:48am
Catholic Nuns and Prostitutes.
Lingerie Model and Woman in Girdle.
Mark Laita‘s photo essay: Created Equal takes an incredibly interesting look at American culture. The comparisons he constructs are both stunning and intriguing.
(By the blind architect)
