Some Final Research for Project 2.

   I have been looking for inspiration to guide me in the presentation of my final images, and I've stumbled across a lot of interesting work lately.


   This song doesn't really have much to do with the project, but something about listening to it helped me to visualize where I wanted to go with the photos. I think the eclectic mood made me feel more in tune with how weird it is to be glorifying rotting food. It helped me a lot while I was photoshopping! The video is pretty cool too.

   I also looked at the work of Fraser Clements, a New Zealand photographer who has a lot of weird subject material. He has some normal stuff too, but nevertheless, they all seem very advertisement driven. Most of the photos I looked at had bright colors, and some even were advertisements, like this one for Up & Go.

   Along with Fraser Clements, I've been looking at a lot of the artist's we've seen in lecture. Those that stick out the most to me are Hiroshi Sugimoto, Craig Barber, Martin Parr, Alfred Stieglitz, and Tim Davis. Here are some of my favorite photos by each of them:

"Thom" by Craig Barber

"Steerage" by Alfred Stieglitz

"KFC 2" by Tim Davis

Martin Parr

"Radio City Music Hall" by Hiroshi Sugimoto

   I've found that writing things out has helped me immensely with this project. I've written my ideas, drawn numerous pyramids, tried different layouts for my slides, etc. Here's an example from my workbook.

Food Advertisement Research.

   I've been looking at different food ads to try to mimic for my project. It seems that in general, most food ads have a white background, with the food in the center. It is the only thing in the frame. There is sometimes vignetting around the edges. There are, obviously, other types of advertisements, but these are the most striking to me and seem to be very common. Here are some examples:

 

 

 

   I want to try to mimic this aesthetic in my photos. I am hoping that even the rotting food will look like it could be in an advertisement.

Weekly Task 6.

   For this weekly task, I chose the most obvious of changes over time - day and night. I took these photos in the foyer of my apartment building. Although there are some minor changes, I think it's interesting that the change is not more obvious. I thought there would be more people in the day than at night, but it seems as though there are never people in the foyer.

Night

Day

Artist Model: Martin Parr.

   I know I've talked about Martin Parr before, but his work has strongly influenced this project, as well as a lot of my thinking about photography. I love his vivid colors, that seem almost like an advertisement, mixed with subject matter that is sometimes not conducive to such color. I feel as though this is somewhat similar to the style I want my time project to encompass. I want to use advertisement-like lighting and colors to show this nasty, rotting food over time. The photos we've seen in lecture have really stuck with me, such as these:

Time Project Update.

   I haven't posted any successive shoots after the first, because they are all the same subject matter. All the photos look basically the same. However, here is the progression of the chicken, 1 of 6 food items I left out to rot for a few weeks. I have not photoshopped them whatsoever, and I fully intend to.

   Here is my rotting food setup in my flat, near the beginning. I left everything there for almost a month. My flatmates are so lucky...

Time Research.

   While surfing the web, I stumbled upon this cool little blog that had a post about time lapse photos.

http://sindromecoleccionista.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/timelapse-el-arte-de-ver-pasar-el.html

   Quick translation: The post talks about what time lapse is, links to a neat video, relates time lapse to a video camera, and gives some info about technique.

   I really liked the first two photos of cityscapes, because that is somewhat the idea I think I'm leaning towards for my project.

   The first photo shows a city at different times during the day, and I think it is really cool and effective. The photographer didn't try to blend the lines of the different photos at all, which helps to distinguish between times of day. Although I like that it is chopped up, it is somewhat aesthetically unpleasing in the sky sections. The clouds are my least favorite part of the photo.

   The second photo is better, in my opinion. It is very plain, with not too much subject matter and not too many different photo segments. It is easier on the eye with only 4 sections, rather than the 6 in the above photo. I wish there was more of a transition, however, between the third and fourth photos. The sunset and night scenes have much more of a difference than the others.

   However, I do like these photos, and want to achieve something like this with my photos.

Craig Barber.

   Craig Barber is a photographer that I'm really fond of. He took some photos of me and coworkers at the vineyard. Here's his website:

http://66.175.212.172/www.craigbarber.com/?page_id=219

   It is sooo cool that I have my very on daguerrotype. A picture does not do it justice. It's much better to see it in person.