Idea: Relaxation

I think it's interesting how much I have been thinking about relaxation lately. I feel like it's something that I don't get to do anymore. Which is probably why a lot of the memories I have been thinking about for this project deal directly with relaxing actions and a more relaxed time in my life. I'm sure that I still had stress back then but that seems to have faded out of the memories.

"Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles."~Charlie Chaplin.
"Tension is who you think you should be.
Relaxation is who you are." ~Chinese Proverb

"It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes." ~Thomas Aquinas

Text:
Simply Relax: The Beginner's Guide to Relaxation by Sarah Brewer

MLA Citation:
Brewer, Sarah. Simply Relax: The Beginner's Guide to Relaxation. London: Duncan Baird Publishing, 2000. Print.

Artist: Natalie Young

I'm interested in Natalie Young's series The Farm because I feel like it relates very closely to ideas that I want to explore in my work. Her work has a really strong emphasis on family, place, memory and storytelling which are concepts that I'm trying to figure out how to deal with in my project. I like her style of working, the idea of returning to a specific place that you have some sort of relationship with and photographing it really appeals to me. I am hoping to be able to travel to several places that I have strong memories or relationships with in the coming month.

Bio:
Natalie is an award-winning photographer based in Los Angeles, who splits her time between fine art and commercial work. This past year, she was named one of the Top 50 Photographers in PhotoLucida’s Critical Mass competition, as well as being nominated for the prestigious Santa Fe Prize for Photography. Natalie’s fine art work has been featured in such publications as SHOTS, Artist’s Showcase, and Migrate, and she was recently interviewed by Rangefinder Magazine and the Thoughts on Photography podcast series. Her work is in the collection of Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and has been exhibited widely.

Quotes:

"Young's photographs often explore the connection of past to the present, and the relationship of people to their environment (Burnstine)."

"Her...images show the beauty of her family’s farm with a sense of place, a history, and all the stories to tell. An American journey we all can be a part of(The Flat File)."








Interview/Article:
http://www.rangefindermag.com/storage/articles/RF0110_Young_Mues.pdf

Representation:

Fine Art-http://www.kevinlongino.com/

Commercial-http://www.wonderfulmachine.com/city/los-angeles/photographer

Artists Website:
http://www.natalieyoung.com/

Bibliography:

Burnstine, Susan. "Rare Visionary." Black and White Magazine Dec. 2009: 31. Web. 27 Sep 2010. .

"Lishui Photo-Natalie Young." Wall Space Gallery The Flat File. Wall Space Gallery, 26 Oct 2009. Web. 27 Sep 2010. .

Artist: Jan von Holleben

I'm choosing Jan von Holleben as my artist this week because I think he is super creative in his work and that is something that I need. After really getting into work for my project I'm feeling kind of lack luster about my ideas and feel in need of inspiration as to how to take this project to the next level.

Born in 1977 in Cologne and brought up in the southern German countryside, Jan von Holleben lived most of his youth in an alternative commune and identifies a strong connection between the development of his photographic work and the influence of his parents, a cinematographer and child therapist. At the age of 13, he followed his father’s photographic career by picking up a camera and experimenting with all sorts of „magical tricks“, developing his photographic imagination and skills with friends and family and later honing his technique in commercial settings. After pursuing studies in teaching children with disabilities at the Pädagogische Hochschule in Freiburg, he moved to London, earned a degree in the Theory and History of Photography at Surrey Institute of Art and Design, and became submerged within the London photographic scene, where he worked as picture editor, art director and photographic director. He quickly set up two photographic collectives, Young Photographers United and photodebut, followed more recently by the Photographer’s Office.

awards

2009	Aesthetica Award – Runner up / London Lead Award – Auszeichnung / Hamburg
2008	Backlight Artist’s Residency, Finland Bronze – Idn + graniph Universe Award / Tokyo Nomination – Joop Swart Master Class, Amsterdam
2007	Florence Biennale Award for Photography / Florence Photographery Masters Cup/ London-Beverly Hills PHE07 Best Photography Books of 2007 for ‘Dreams of Flying’/ Madrid Gold – PX3 Photography Award / Paris Gold – Best CP Award / Munich Finalist – Cedefop Award / Thessaloniki Gold – Art for Aid Award / Amsterdam

solo exhibitions

2010	Nur gespielt, Städtische Galerie Friedrichsbau, Bühl Best of 000-010, Gesto, Porto
2009	Mutatis Mutandis, Farmani Gallery, New York Liebesorte, c/o Berlin Microhumanoids, Galerie Baer, Dresden
2008	It’ll happen here, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta Dreams of Flying, Graniph, Sydney Dreams of Flying, BZ Galerie, Freiburg Kleines Glück Grosses Spiel, UNO Gallery, Stuttgart The Snowbed, Radialsytem, Berlin*

Quotes:
Nothing stops Jan Von Holleben from creating the shot he wants, not budget, not locations, and not gravity. We love his youthful spirit, and that he uses his imagination to create fantastic frozen images of flight from some supplies from the garage, a few neighborhood children, and the end of the street, or the backyard(Creative Tempest).

His focus on the visual representation of childhood, ‘Child-History’ and concepts of ‘Playing’, come from his teacher training coursework: he combines these theories with his personal experience and childhood memories.

Interview/Article:
http://180mag.ca/0702/holleben/holleben.html

Gallery Representation:
http://farmanigallery.com/en/Exhibit/JanvonHolleben/JanvonHolleben.php

Artist Website:
http://www.janvonholleben.com/

Idea: Nostalgia

Childhood Family Photo.

Definition:
Nostalgia-

1: the state of being homesick: homesickness.

2: a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition

Nostalgia is a seductive liar. ~George Wildman Ball

True nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories. ~Florence King

Text:

Yesterday's Self: Nostalgia and the Construction of Personal Identity. by Andreea Deciu Ritivoi.

Ritivoi, Andreea Deciu. Yesterday's Self: Nostalgia and the Construction of Personal Identity. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002. Print.

Nostalgia is at once everything that my project is about and yet what I hope for it to transcend. My project is all about wanting to return to places and things that are past, specifically my past at least to begin with. However my ideas about memory and its inability to be truthful are an exploration of reality which is basically the antithesis of nostalgia.

Wafaa Bilal Lecture Question/Response.

Questions:

1)With your last project "...and Counting" you chose to do a real life performance piece as opposed to a digital piece. Was this more fulfilling and if so why?

2)Most of your video installations revolve around viewer interaction with the piece why is this so important to you?

Response:

Three words for the artist:
Political, Performance, Persecution.

I really enjoyed Wafaa Bilal's lecture. He is the first artist I have heard speak that has had such a strong political aspect to their work. It was interesting to see an entire body of work that was so extremely focused. I think that one of the best things that he said during his lecture was that he strives as an artist to be an "initiator as opposed to an imposer." I really took that to heart as a great approach, especially because his subject matter has the potential to be so polarizing.

Interesting fact about the artist:
Despite his artwork being so serious he has a great sense of humor, I.E. the joke about The Night of Bush Capturing being an Al Qaeda porno.

Original Questions:

1) Based on his lecture I don't know that one is more fulfilling than the other but he did say that he doesn't predetermine the medium he is working in. Rather he tailors the medium or delivery method to each specific project.

2) During the lecture he did speak directly to this point by saying that "the use of virtual or digital mediums allows him access or the ability to reach people in their Comfort Zone and bring the issue there. As well as being a way to just engage with people outside of a gallery space."

Most Engaging Piece:

I think that "Domestic Tension" was probably the piece that I was most interested in. It seems like such a simple thing and like it wouldn't be that bad, but after seeing the video and hearing him talk about the experience it was extremely powerful. The fact that he developed his own version of PTSD after only thirty days in that enviroment is extremely compelling. It made me think about what it must be like for the people and families in any war situation that have to live through it without even a glimmer of hope as to when it will end.

One thing I can't wait to find out is what his next project will be, he seemed fairly certain that it was going to cause a ruckus whatever it is.

Artist: Keith Carter

I became interested in Keith Carter's work for his personal aesthetic. All of his imagery has a very distinct style to it. It starts with the shallow depth of field but I feel like it's also in his strong compositions. I would really like to develop a specific style or aesthetic for my work this semester as a way to tie my project together. I also really enjoy his work because of the everyday nature of his subject matter and how he creates an emotion with it. It's encouraging to see work that is so successful without being overly complicated.

Bio:
Keith Carter is an internationally recognized photographer and educator. Born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1948,he holds the endowed Walles Chair of Art at Lamar University Beaumont, Texas. He is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Regional Survey Grants and the Lange-Taylor Prize from The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. In 1997 Keith Carter was the subject of an arts profile on the national network television show, CBS Sunday Morning. In 1998, he received Lamar University's highest teaching honor, the University Professor Award, and he was named the Lamar University Distinguished Lecturer.

Quotes:
"It’s not that these pictures are telling you things you didn’t already know, but rather that... they’re reminding you of things you’ve deep down always known but somehow forgotten, because life has a nasty habit of simply becoming too daily, too dependent on thought at the expense of feel (Wittliff)."

"Working in black and white, and citing Henri Cartier-Bresson and Eugene Atget as seminal influences, Carter favors a classical style of photography that's a bit out of vogue at the moment, but never really loses its audience. Conceptually straightforward and unabashedly beautiful, Carter's timeless, graceful pictures are like the photographic equivalent of comfort food--looking at them makes you feel better (McKENNA)."






Interview:
http://articles.latimes.com/1994-08-09/entertainment/ca-25318_1_keith-carter

Representation:
Howard Greenberg Gallery
http://www.howardgreenberg.com/
Catherine Edelman Gallery
http://www.edelmangallery.com/
McMurtrey Gallery
http://www.mcmurtreygallery.com/
G. Gibson Gallery
http://www.ggibsongallery.com/
Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery
http://www.pdnbgallery.com/Site/HOME.html
Photo Eye Gallery
http://www.photoeye.com/Gallery/
Stephen L. Clark Gallery
http://www.artnet.com/gallery/239/stephen_l_clark_gallery.html
A Gallery for Fine Photography
http://www.agallery.com/

Artist Website:
http://www.keithcarterphotographs.com/home.html

BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION:

McKenna, Kristine. "A Poet of the Ordinary." Los Angeles Times 09 Aug 1994, Print.
[NOTE: Italicize "Los Angeles Times"]

Wittliff, Bill. "An Essay." Keith Carter Photographs. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sep 2010. .

PARENTHETICAL CITATION:
(McKenna), (Wittliff).

Idea: Individuality

Sorry, but I couldn't help it. I think this is such a cheesy interpretation of individuality but I think this image is Hilarious.

I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality, I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say in paint.
-Georgia O'Keeffe

Individuality is founded in feeling; and the recesses of feeling, the darker, blinder strata of character, are the only places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making, and directly perceive how events happen, and how work is actually done.
-William James

Text:

GEORG SIMMEL ON INDIVIDUALITY AND SOCIAL FORMS
Simmel, Georg. Georg Simmel On Individuality and Social Forms. 1st ed.

Chicago, Il: The University of Chicago Press, 1971. Print.

My work this semester is going to be stemming primarily from my own personal experiences and how they relate to the person I am now or how I relate to them now that they are past. I am a firm believer that experiences both good and bad shape who we are as individuals and that the more we know about ourselves the better we will be able to successfully communicate our ideas to others.

Artist: Prabuddha Dasgupta "Longing"

I found Prabuddha Dasgupta’s work in relation to his series “Longing” which focuses strongly on memory. I find this series interesting because it’s journalistic approach to memory is the opposite of what I want to do with my work. I want to use memory to retroactively create a photographic biography or history of sorts. The one thing that I really take away from his work is the non-linear or imprecise nature of memory, which is something I am interested in exploring in my own work.

Bio:

"Prabuddha Dasgupta is a self-taught photographer who grew up in the cultural chaos of post-colonial India.

In 1996, Prabuddha Dasgupta broke a taboo by publishing 'Women' (Viking Books), a controversial collection of portraits and nudes of urban Indian women…

In the decade that followed, Dasgupta pursued a variety of photographic projects, while unapologetically straddling the two worlds of commissioned and artistic work, bringing to both, a bold, individualistic sensibility that very quickly placed him in the ranks of major photographic talent in the country.

Dasgupta's work has been exhibited internationally, both in solo and group shows, and published in Indian, French, English, Italian and American magazines. He is also the recipient of many grants and awards, including the Yves Saint Laurent grant for photography in1991, and his work is in the collections of many individuals and institutions, like the Museo Ken Damy, Brescia, Italy, and Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italy." (“Aicon Gallery”)

Quotes Regarding Artist’s Work:

“The intent is to create an oblique, non-linear narrative, which seeks to evoke through the selective memory of my experiences, a journey of the viewer’s own.” (Burn Magazine.)

“Time and space, the two frameworks so embedded in our psyche, become irrelevant in Dasgupta’s compositions. He goes beyond explicit spatial and temporal locations to explore the triumphs and victories of an individual…” (“Safron Art”)

Examples of Artist’s Work:

Artist Interview:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100208/jsp/entertainment/story_12079117.jsp

Link to Representation:

http://zphotographic.com/

(Previous Representation: http://www.bodhiart.in/ )

Link to Artist’s Website:

http://www.prabuddhadasgupta.com/

MLA Citation:

"Home and the World Artist Biographies." Aicon Gallery. Aicon Gallery New York London, 27 02 2010. Web. 6 Sep 2010. http://www.aicongallery.com/exhibitions/2010-01-28_home-and-the-world/bios/.

Dasgupta, Prabuddha. "Longing." Burn Magazine. Burn Magazine, 21 06 2010. Web. 6 Sep 2010. http://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/06/prabuddha-dasgupta-longing/.

"Profile: Prabuddha Dasgupta." Saffron Art. Saffron Art Management Corporation, 2008. Web. 6 Sep 2010. http://www.saffronart.com/auction/auctions02/..%5C../events/2007/manup07/manup262/..%5C..%5C..%5C../artist/artistprofile.aspx?artistid=2629&a=Prabuddha%20%20Dasgupta.