February 22, 2010 Artist Entry: Ryan Schude

I remember first seeing Ryan Schude’s work years ago on a Flickr account he’d created to highlight his studio work. It’s amazing to see the transformation he’s undergone from amateur to true professional who lives and works out of Los Angeles, California. His work is reminiscent of Gregory Crewdson’s in that he stages these highly elaborate narratives that utilize light and shadow in such a way that tells very interesting and bizarre stories. His use of dramatic lighting and color really exemplifies the essence of a tableaux. In my current work, I am very interested in creating a more elaborate and personal environment in the studio. I am trying to overcome the confines of a studio setting and bring more of myself into my portraits by defining the environment to create a more intimate space. Seeing Schude’s work inspires me to push my concept further and really try to create successful narratives.

February 15, 2010 Artist Entry: Todd Hido

I’m really not sure why or how the name “Todd Hido” came to float around in my brain or when exactly came across his work. In the middle of my search for photographers, his name popped into my head. Unaware of the reason my mind remembered his name, I typed the words into my search bar and came upon some truly amazing bodies of work. Hido’s latest body of work “House Hunting” has Hido roaming the streets of suburban Los Angeles to photograph scenes of these homes with only the ambient light that peeks through windows from the light indoors and street lamps that illuminate the exterior and surrounding areas. Hido has the ability to create these film noir-esque scenes that evoke a sense of loneliness, despair, and isolation. The images he takes of these scenes are unique portraits that each have their own eerie personality. I really enjoy Hido’s design aesthetic and his use of ambient light to tell a story. I too search for abandoned homes and buildings to photograph. I like to explore these sites to photograph them as a sort of visual record that tell a story of the people that once occupied these spaces.

February 18, 2010: Idea/Research Post

I really want to photograph things with my headlights...anything, all things, people, rooms, homes, streets, back roads, all desolate...just lit with headlights. There has been this park that is literally right down the road from me and I wanted to take a model and go out there to shoot, but trying to get someone to come with me at all hours of the night is difficult. I have a habit of just wanting to go out and shoot by myself, but I know that it really isn't the wisest choice. I want to start lighting scenes or subjects with headlights. TOMORROW!

Artist Lecture #3: Hank Willis Thomas

I always like to come to each lecture without any prior knowledge (if I can help it) of the artist, their work or their intentions so that I don’t any preconceived expectations for the lecture. Today was one of those lectures that I was so glad to know nothing about because it absolutely blew me away. For the first time in quite a while I felt motivated and inspired to create new work. Hank Willis Thomas was undoubtedly one of my favorite VCU lecturers to date.

From the start of his lecture, he revealed his earlier work and I cannot even begin to explain how invaluable that was for us as student’s to hear an artist talk about their real beginnings. I found it interesting that he said he was unprepared, as it came across as one of the most intelligent and well thought out lectures I have ever attended. His motivation was resonant throughout his talk and in turn I felt that his passion and desire to create things he was passionate about rubbed off on me.

I loved the intro to the lecture when he showed the two images side by side of President Ronald Reagan and Mike Tyson in the 90s and then the complete shift to our world today with President Barack Obama as our nation’s leader and Wladimir Klitschko as the Heavyweight champion of the world. Most of his work “is a result of an exploration and subsequent appropriation of the language of advertising.” He said that he thought of “logos as our generations hieroglyphs” as we as a consumer culture become slaves to corporate branding. His work had me think back to Penelope Umbrico’s work and related the two- how both artists utilized advertisements and imagery in similar ways. One of the most powerful things that Thomas said was in reference to his cousin’s death. That during the process of laying our loved ones to rest we are still making decisions about what casket is best (we are told that it is the most expensive) so even “in the process of grieving, we are still being marketed to.”

Winter in America was amazing. His cousin’s death obviously had a tremendous impact on his life and explained his series “Pitch Blackness” as a combination of 3 ideas that congealed. This series dealt with loss, and exploring the complexities of black and white all the while he was trying to “learn to see or be myself without his shadow.” The stills from this film appealed to me with vibrant color and shallow depth of field- they were a fantastic compliment to the film he created about a tragic event that drastically changed his life. I also really felt inspired by his “Bearing Witness: Murder’s Wake” series in which he attempted to photograph people that knew his cousin in hopes of reconnecting with him through those that knew and spent time with him. I loved how he used blank spaces to indicate those people that his cousin had affected or come to know in his lifetime, but that Thomas had never known. Those were moments of his life that were unknown to Thomas and in turn he was unable to document.

I could really go on and on about this lecture for days, but perhaps I should save that rant for my own personal blog. I felt that Hank Willis Thomas’ lecture was extremely relevant to us as students and artists that appreciate his willingness to share his ideas and beginnings with us. His work is truly to be admired.

Artist Lecture #2: Paul Pfieffer

I always enjoy going to lectures at VCU, but some I feel are more stimulating and interesting than others. Today I attended Paul Pfeiffer's lecture and found it interesting that he was grouped into the category of sculpture rather than video artist. Pfeiffer's work involves appropriating appropriated films that vary in lengths and played over and over again on a loop.

One of my favorite series he created was his "24 Landscapes" in which his source was a number of found images of the beautiful Marilyn Monroe removed through the photo editing process from beach scenes as if to imply that these landscapes were about her even in her omission. Although she was physically moved from these images, she is still directly associated with them. Pfeiffer stated, "the origin of these pictures are both important and not important- it's counterintuitive. The intention was to take these images and manipulate them, but also to call attention to the origin of the photographs...but once that information is lodged in your brain, that information is there forever...You forever associate those images with that which is omitted." In the case of the 24 Landscapes, there is no evidence that would lead you back to Marilyn Monroe, other than the fact that those photos once contained her image...as a result you will forever associate these landscapes with her.

"I like the absurdity of taking a still or almost still image and calling attention to the fact that what I am doing is intended to be something that is viewed more as a still." - Paul Pfeiffer

February 11, 2010: Idea/Research Post

Last semester I took a filmmaking class with Jake Dodd. At the beginning of class I felt really enthusiastic and excited to create a film, but the excitement quickly turned to dread as I found programs like Final Cut and DVD Studio Pro, etc. to be extremely time consuming and difficult. I really struggled in that class until the very end when I really pulled my final film together into a piece that I was really proud of!

As inspiration for my film I was told (by Jake, and now Paul) to check out Alan Berliner's film "Wide Awake: Portrait of an Artist as Insomniac." The film was absolutely brilliant...and the fact that Alan Berliner was not only a filmmaker, but fellow insomniac, made me optimistic about creating work about it. I recommend this film to everyone, because his films leave no detail overlooked. It is obvious, after seeing such a personal film, that he is not only talented, but extremely successful in creating his films.

My idea is to create work similar to the footage I captured for my short film. I really enjoyed filming and thinking in a still photographer's mindset. It was hard for me at the time to figure out how to film or what to film, but after shooting some footage, I came to realize that utilizing my knowledge of still photography (composition, lighting, mood, etc.) really helped me create a story...

More recently I have been photographing homes at night, taking careful notice to shoot the subtle evidence of fellow insomniacs that dwell and exist within these houses...by shooting the glimmer of light that leaks out onto the lawn from the window during the late night hours, the street light that illuminates the asphault at 4am, etc.

More recently, my idea is to not only shoot these night scenes, but to also try and blur the subject to help illustrate this sense of the surreal that insomniacs feel as a result of being extremely overtired...

February 8, 2010 Artist Entry: Amanda Friedman

I have no idea why I have never heard of Amanda Friedman, but I want to say that I am so glad that Paul told me about her! Friedman, a photographer from Los Angeles, shoots night photography. The very first image that I saw of hers were these beautiful trees...I don't even know what kind of trees they are but I want them to exist in my yard. The colors and organic texture and shapes of these winding trees are absolutely gorgeous. OK, enough about the trees. The images look like scenes from a movie I would love for it's cinematography. There isn't a lot of info about her, but her photography is really awesome. She really uses the ambient night light to paint her scenes.

For some reason I couldn't pull her images off her site, so here is her website: www.amandafriedman.com