Artist Entry: Martin Usborn 11.01.10

MARTIN USBORNE

Martin Usborne's newest series "MUTE: The Silence of Dogs in Cars" explores themes of loneliness, sadness, isolation, and the fear of being left alone.

Martin Usborne is a London-based photographer who specialises in portrait photography. He does work for private commissions, magazines, events and fashion, including children’s fashion. Martin’s work has also been exhibited and sold in a number of photography exhibitions.

Martin Usborne @ VideoJug

MARTIN lives in central London where he has his photographic studio.

He started his photographic career after a number of years working as a creative director in children's TV (which included dressing up as a furry white alien). Before that he studied psychology at Edinburgh University and then animation at Glasgow School of Art.

Martin thinks there is something magical about looking through the lens and capturing a bit of the world. 'You see an interesting array of shapes - people passing in front of a strangely coloured wall and -click- its yours forever. Its so easy it shouldn't be allowed'.

When Martin isn't photographing he is either rockclimbing (he is too heavy to pull himself up), meditating (he can't do the full lotus because he has bad knees) or he is writing his novel (he is stuck on chapter 3 - not having finished Ch.s 1 or 2).

"ABOUT Martin Usborne." Martin Usborne. Martin Usborne Photography, n.d. Web. 24 Oct 2010. .

QUOTES:

"I was once left in a car at a young age.

I don't know when or where or for how long, possibly at the age of four, perhaps outside Tesco's, probably for fifteen minutes only. The details don't matter. The point is that I wondered if anyone would come back. It seems trivial now but in a child's mind it is possible to be alone forever." ABOUT THESE IMAGES (MUTE: The Silence of Dogs in Cars)

Around the same age I began to feel a deep affinity with animals – in particular their plight at the hands of humans. I remember watching TV and seeing footage of a dog being put in a plastic bag and being kicked. What appalled me most was that the dog could not speak back. Its muteness terrified me.

"The images in this series explore this fear of being alone and unheard, both in relation to myself and to animals in general.

When I started this project I knew the photos would be dark. What I didn't expect was to see so many subtle reactions by the dogs: some sad, some expectant, some angry, some dejected. It was as if upon opening up a box of coloured pencils I was surprised to see so many shades of grey inside." - Martin Usborne

"Mute Faces: Photo Stories." Foto8. Foto8, 221 October 2010. Web. 24 Oct 2010. .

Award-winning photographer Martin Usborne will present a new solo exhibition, MUTE, at East London gallery theprintspace on Thursday October 21, 2010. The exhibition consists of photographic prints of dogs looking silently out of car windows in the dead of night. While you might think that this is a statement on leaving dogs in hot cars — it’s not. Rather, Martin is exploring the sense of loneliness and isolation that many humans (and animals) experience in modern times. These images are poignant and haunting.

The prints are for sale and 10% of proceeds are donated to the Dogs Trust to help its work rescuing and re-homing stray and abandoned dogs. Martin also has a book on dog photography that will be published next year. He is the owner of Moose, a Miniature Schnauzer.

"MUTE Exhibition by Martin Usborne." Dog Milk. Dog Milk, 09 September 2010. Web. 24 Oct 2010. .

The following are images from MUTE: The Silence of Dogs in Cars














'MUTE' An exhibition of unusual dog portraits by Martin Usborne

Martin Usborne

Martin Usborne @ Conscientious

Artist Entry: Lydia Anne McCarthy 10.25.10

Lydia Anna McCarthy is one of this year's Conscientious Blog Portfolio Competition Winners. Two of her three bodies of work really inspire my current work. Like myself, she has chosen to focus on using imagery from the neighborhood she grew up in to create a visual separation and barrier by layering photographs of screen. In "Merged: Experiments in Space-Time," McCarthy photographs her middle-class suburban neighborhood and combined it with overlays of images she has shot of screens:


QUOTES:

"My work is concerned with the concept of multiple dimensions in space and alternate realities that exist simultaneously in our everyday lives. I am interested in the potential for these realities to be glimpsed through our interactions with and experiences within our environment."

"I am always struck by the imposing, almost suffocating presence of Southern magnolias. The one you see here had its branches hung perfectly in a “v” form, creating two openings into a sunlit grassy field. With this photograph, the screen image fit well into the composition of the landscape and allowed me to fracture the space even more."

"Lydia Anne McCarthy." Eye Buy Art. Eye Buy Art, n.d. Web. 23 Oct 2010. .








In her other series "The Light" her use of light, color and subject matter of light filtering in through leaves and branches has a similar aesthetic to my own.






My Work:


Lydia Anne McCarthy

CPC 2010 Winner Lydia Anne McCarthy

The 50 States Project

Conscientious Conversation with Lydia Anne McCarthy

Idea Post: Gaining Inspiration from the World of Film 10.21.10

Most people relate to music, books, and poetry in the way that I almost solely relate to film. Ever since I was a child, I remember being nicknamed "Kid Video" and my poor parents were terrified of my addiction to film. I vividly recall my experiences with each film in the most acute detail. I simply could not be pried away from the tube. They scurried back and forth to our local video store, "First Video" to satiate my appetite for movie watching.

More recently I have been trying to utilize my knowledge and love for the moving image (film) as a means to translate my ideas into stills.



Cinematography- is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for the cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography. Many additional issues arise when both the camera and elements of the scene may be in motion, though this also greatly increases the creative possibilities of the process.

Role of the cinematographer

In the film industry, the cinematographer is responsible for the technical aspects of the images (lighting, lens choices, composition, exposure, filtration, film selection), but works closely with the director to ensure that the artistic aesthetics are supporting the director's vision of the story being told. The cinematographers are the heads of the camera, grip and lighting crewdirectors of photography or DPs. on a set, and for this reason they are often called

Directors of photography make many creative and interpretive decisions during the course of their work, from pre-production to post-production, all of which affect the overall feel and look of the motion picture. Many of these decisions are similar to what a photographer needs to note when taking a picture: the cinematographer controls the film choice itself (from a range of available stocks with varying sensitivities to light and color), the selection of lens focal lengths, aperture exposure and focus. Cinematography, however, has a temporal aspect (see persistence of vision), unlike still photography, which is purely a single still image. It is also bulkier and more strenuous to deal with movie cameras, and it involves a more complex array of choices. As such a cinematographer often needs to work co-operatively with more people than does a photographer, who could frequently function as a single person. As a result, the cinematographer's job also includes personnel management and logistical organization.

---

Cinema Studies (Article)

By Joerg Colberg
May 22, 2007

After reading this interesting article by Arthur Danto about the MoMA Jeff Wall show it occured to me what really confused me about discussions like this one (and many others I’ve seen recently): Reviewers and writers often spend considerable time on explaining why certain photography in fact isn’t really photography but, instead, painting or cinema. It’s almost like these reviewers and writers restrict photography to something that, in essence, is really quite mundane, and whenver a photographer falls outside of that mundane, then it’s not photography any longer. So we are told we are looking at a photo by Jeff Wall, but it isn’t really a photo, because a photo can’t possibly have the complexity that we see (some of the discussion of Andreas Gursky’s work falls into the same category). I can’t accept this, and I think part of it might be a generational issue: I never grew up thinking that photography’s role is restricted to the mundane.

It’s interesting how this whole complex has so many facets - just look at how people use “photography” and “painting”, with the latter always treated like a true art form, whereas the former still always can’t really be because… Yes, why? Maybe it is not because there is something inherent in photography that makes it more simplistic than painting but, instead, because we think there is.

Having said this, I think the one big step that is still missing for contemporary photography really to become an established and accepted art form is to get full acceptance for it, so that people might say how similar some photography is to painting (just like a movie might be poetic, or a symphony might evoke images), but they won’t write any longer that some photographer’s work really isn’t photography but painting or cinema.

Colberg, Joerg. "Cinema Studies." Conscientious Blog (2007): n. pag. Web. 21 Oct 2010. .

Jeff Wall

Insomnia 1994
Transparency in lightbox 1722 x 2135 mm
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
Cinematographic photograph
© The artist

The set for this work is an exact replica of the kitchen in Wall’s studio. The man seemingly suffering from a nightmarish episode of insomnia is an actor. The claustrophobic atmosphere is emphasised by the awkward positioning of the furniture – tables and chairs are placed at angles that defeat their function, and appear to block the fridge and cooker from opening. The door and cupboard, half ajar, could be read as metaphors for the mind, in its struggle to find an escape into sleep.

"Insomnia." Tate Modern: Jeff Wall Photographs 1978-2004. Web. 21 Oct 2010.

Put the Days Away by Sun Airway from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

This is one of the most inspiring cinematography I've seen in a while. This independent film has a great, story, soundtrack and beautiful cinematography.

Cinematographer: Tim Orr

Artist Entry: Martien Mulder 10.18.10

MARTIEN MULDER

I have a strong emotional connection to the beautiful lighting she utilizes in her personal work, more specifically, her landscapes. Mulder's imagery evokes a sense of loss and sadness, especially in her use of light, shadow and color.

Dutch-born Martien Mulder combines portraiture, fashion, landscape and still life photography. She lives in New York and her pictures have appeared in magazines such as Purple, 10 Magazine, French Vogue and Fantastic Man, and exhibitions have been staged in New York, Amsterdam and Tokyo.

Martien discovered her love for photography as a teenager. Her first pictures date from her high school years, when friends would pose willingly in her home-made studio. After her art history studies, with a major in contemporary photography, she decided to take her own pictures more seriously. By composing handmade books of her photographs, she established a visual language that connected to the magazine world. She started travelling the globe, wherever assignments would lead her, and created personal work at the same time. She has always been interested in the relationship between people and their environment.

The variety of her subjects asked for a strong consistency in style and approach. Martien creates stories that are truly minimalist. People seem to be at ease in front of her, and static objects are brought to life by her quietly focused attention. The essence of any subject is revealed without force. Her pictures are “pure”, “personal” and “universal”, and therefor find their way into magazines, advertising campaigns and galleries.

Up until today her handmade books are a very specific way to present her work. The books are visual stories that reflect a personal experience. With a focus on the natural and the real, Martien is always looking for the things that are delicately abstract. As a stylist once said of her work: “It has a rare and lovely lightheartedness. She is one of the few photographers out there who is doing work that does not undermine one’s self esteem, the way so many fashion or beauty images do. Her work is calmly reassuring.”

http://martienmulder.com/about/

QUOTES:

"It’s really important to have pictures you believe in published in magazines that you believe in, because they are seen by the people you want them to be seen by. Magazines are a huge platform for creativity. And there are so many and they are so specialized. if you choose well, and if you have a precise idea of your work, you can use the magazines to communicate beyond what your picture can communicate. It is the context that matters a lot, when your pictures go off into the world."

"I enjoy pointing my lens at many different subjects in search for the same result…a calm delicately abstract representation of them."

"It depends on who I talk to and what their references are. But to someone who doesn’t know much about photography, I tell them I shoot portraits. I try to portray things as they are. People, but also spaces and objects sometimes. I create pure and personal images of my surroundings in a very easy, calm and reassuring way."

Tillmans, Wolfgang. "Interview with Photographer Martien Mulder." BaseNow:Where speech is free and talk is cheap.. BaseNow, 12 December 2008. Web. 16 Oct 2010. .













Interview with BaseNow

Martien Mulder on Booooooom!

Kahmann Gallery Represents Martien Mulder

Exhibition at Kahmann Gallery Highlights 10 Years of Martien Mulder's Work

Martien Mulder Photography

Idea Post: Memory 10.14.10

MEMORY

Images holding the essences of memory;

biding time, waiting, celebrating...

barely discernible stories of who was here and

what happened there;

visions of imagined spaces-layering time

within abandoned, unoccupied and frequently

dilapidated interior rooms and exteriors;

there is always something.

- Carol A. Beane

Jill Price can recall every detail of the last three decades of her life — whether she wants to or not. A rare memory condition causes Price to experience continuous, automatic playback of events.

"My memories are like scenes from home movies of every day of my life," she writes, "constantly playing in my head, flashing forward and backward through the years relentlessly, taking me to any given moment, entirely of their own volition."

NPR:Blessed and Cursed by an Extraordinary Memory

Price, Jill. "Blessed and Cursed by an Extraordinary Memory." NPR (2010): n. pag. Web. 11 Oct 2010. .

Jennifer Karady: Visualizing Memory, Photographing War Stories


I'm interested in the way our memories affect the way we remember specific locations or reminisce about certain places from our past. How these locations become sites of sadness and loss, hope and fear, etc.

Emotions Outlast the Memories that Drive Them
Franklin, Deborah. "Emotions Outlast the Memories that Drive Them." NPR. NPR, 13 April 2010. Web. 11 Oct 2010. .

Artist Entry: Phil Underdown 10.11.10

Phil Underdown

RELATION: Underdown's imagery really reminds me a lot of photographs I took last semester for my senior show. His attention to detail and focus on the ground level relates to my imagery and process.

WORK/QUOTES: "The Trapper's Lament" During the course of the last year a large number of beavers established themselves along the small, crooked creek that winds along one side of my property in the Adirondack park in upstate New York. As they built more and more dams and eventually began felling trees adjacent to the house, threatening access to the fields as well as the house's septic system, a trapper was reluctantly called in. I am still wrestling with this decision, and decided to photograph what was left behind after the beavers were removed. These images of the aftermath of that decision depict a landscape where a variety of forces and impulses collide, photographs of a crime scene where I am both chronicler and perpetrator. Here is a landscape where our mythologies of nature and the realities of our daily lives combine in an uneasy confusion, an analogue to our relationship with the environment on a cultural as well as a personal level; I moved to the Adirondacks because of my love of nature and I try to live my life with respect and concern for the future of our planet. I recycle, I drive a Prius, I give money to environmental organizations... and I kill Beavers. This is the landscape of that confusion, the trapper's lament. - Phil Underdown, "The Trapper's Lament" "Darius Himes Selects Phil Underdown for 1st Curator's Choice Award!." Hey Hot Shot! (2010): n. pag. Web. 11 Oct 2010. . Grassland 2005-2009
In the 1940s, a wetland was filled and leveled to create an airstrip. An artificial grassland was born. Over time the original trees and plants of the wetland returned only to be cut back by mowers and grazing animals. In the 1990s, the abandoned airstrip became the Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge. Now the runways crumble as plants sprout through cracks in the tarmac, and the sun, rain, and snow take their toll. Mowers still cut the grass to hold back the succession to forestland. From the outside world, development, changing agricultural practices, and habitat loss slowly press on its borders. Grassland exists in a hybrid state. Like an imitation of a natural landscape, it attempts to be something that it never was, and can’t be without constant intervention. In this mowed plain, the ultimate ordered terrain, we see a panorama of policy; of decisions made in faraway offices where flatness and straight lines flow from an engineer’s pen rather than from some natural process. Trees appear like plots on a map, isolated in Grassland’s vastness, only at the edges allowed to grow unchecked. One year this half gets mowed, the next year that half. A tractor fills the niche that would be occupied by brushfires. For the grasshoppers who make constant take offs and landings in the late summer, or the coyotes whose droppings remind us of their presence, the creator of these runways is irrelevant. After four years of photographing in its 500 acre expanse, I am beginning to bring Grassland into focus. These images are a type of fiction; a story of a place told through the traces of its inhabitants—a tire mark here, a bird house or a puddle of broken glass there. Signs of its past, present, and future mark its rationalized topography like small-scale reenactments of the dramas playing out in the world around it. An archeology of the present, the images depict the landscape of this time--managed but wild, planned yet unpredictable, expressed not through traces that have left their mark for centuries or millenium, but through phenomena that are more fleeting and ephemeral, some playing out over a season or years, others lasting a mere afternoon.

Underdown, Phil. "Grassland." Phil Underdown Photography. Brooklyn Digital, n.d. Web. 11 Oct 2010. .

Hey, Hot Shot Winner, Phil Underdown- Interview.

Hey, Hot Shot!

Feature in Fraction Magazine

Phil Underdown