Nature's Artificial Sweeter

Natures Sweetner

Title of exhibition: Natures Artificial Sweetner

Proposed Date of exhibition: 2^nd September 2010

Social Implications/ Theme of Exhibition: Global warming

I have chosen to this this piece as I want to communicate the social awareness anout the implications that global warming has within our world. In modern day society Global warming has become an increasingly debatable and controversial issue. Early spring arrival is just one of the many affects that global warming is having in our world, particularly within nature. Natures Artificial Sweetener, an installation piece has been designed to evoke social awareness to this overwhelming issue and portray a futuristic view of how nature will operate with the effects of global warming.

Natures Artificial Sweetener is an installation piece that is going to merge both the artificial and natural world. The concept will incorporate nature through the use of a barren tree on campus and the artificial with the use of PVC material sheets in the form of carnation flowers.

I am using a barren tree as my canvas which will infact represent a lifeless dead tree. Trees are a soild structure that tend to remain on this Earth even when they are no longer living. This will portray a futuristic vision of a sterile , lifeless society in the wake of climate change.

I have assembled carnation flowers out of yellow PVC material. . I have chosen carnation flower in yellow as it symbolises disappointment. A thought that I am trying to evoke from the viewer if nature is to head down this path due to global warming in years to come. I have also used yellow as it is a bright colour that will attract viewers to the installation piece. It is an colour representing optimism, energy and creative thought which is what is needed for viewers to get pro-active.

The installtion piece is a floral inverse piece so to speak having the flower arrangement reversed from branch to trunck.I have chosen to place the carnation flowers on the trunk of the tree and the start of the branches. They will be placed on this area to give a sense that the flowers are emerging up and covering the whole tree. The idea of the placement of the flowers is to show the growing and emerging take over that global warming is having with our natural world. I also chose to do this because I want to represent an upside down feel, an upside down way of nature which is what nature may become if we ignore the the Earth's changing climate.

A a bare tree situated amongst an outdoor eating area is the location for this installation piece. It has been decided to install the artwork there as it is a public forum and global warming is a public issue. It will hopefully will evoke thoughts, ideas and communciactaionn with the viewers.

This artwork will be installed before class on Wednesday 2^nd September. It is estimated that the starting time will be 7am taking up 2 hours. The special installation need required will be the use of ladders to help install the piece within the trees.

Sodum, South Georgia

(Image courtesy of www.ironandwine.com)

Sodum, South Georgia is featured on Iron and Wine's second album "Our endless numbered days". It is another track that gives inspiration to making a short film. This song is a good representation of themes such as life, death, loss and time elapsing. Through its simplistic sound it has a strong country feel which is where I want to base this short film. I feel lyrically and musically there are so many avenues I can take with this track.

To build a home

(Photos curtsey of: www.thecinematicorchestra.com)

It is a requirement whilst studying Digital sound and video to create and shoot a short film as a final assessment. For my inspiration I will be using The Cinematic Orchestra's track "To build a home". This song which is beautifully composed also exudes a controlled element. The songs explores themes of love and loss through its poetic lyrics. It also explores the themes of living and death as well as escapism from the natural world.

These are themes I plan to look into whilst I go through the process of creating my short film. Another important aspect is the photography displayed on the singles covers. As this is a photography blog. I want to use still life photography within my short film. This will make it very me and incorporate some new works that I can explore. It always pushes me to explore new themes such as the ones above with my photography. The album photography has a beautiful warmth to it, with its natural components and organic colours. I want my short film to involve nature and the photos these covers display are inspiring.

"My Special Day"

A View From My Window

All shots are a view from my bus window. It was a long and arduous 10 hour journey across New Zealand, but the beauty speaks for itself.

Montage...

My friend Matt helped me out with this montage assignment I had. After a few trails he was able to perfect it and thus the end result.

Matt is a photographer too. We share alot of the same photography influences and ideas as well as being different in alot of ways too. Its always fun to share ideas for shoots and different photographers with him. Matt can be checked out on www.mattgp.com

Over exposure...

I love over exposing to my own advantage. I mainly use it with my black and white photography. Editing elements such as the brightness, contrast and highlights is something I like to tamper with. I like to give the highlights within the photo a glow and darken the shadows. It really defines the photos black and white qualities within the image. With my subject matter I feel it makes it look gritty along with the added grain.

Reflection...

1. What have you done?
2. Why have you done it?
3. How did you get there?

These are the questions we are ponder as we close in on our photography unit.
I have continued on with a folio I have been working on for the past few years. I chose to portray images of that explore the isolation, decay, destruction and abandonment that can be seen in various locations and objects. I wanted my images to resonate a sort of chaos and show the human side of destruction and intervention. I focused on working with wreckage's, mass messes, rust and textures. My photos appear to have a grain, granule particles that appear once edited. Digital photography does not exhibit a film grain so I edited my photos to have that appearance. I decided to do this for two reasons. The first is I love film photography and the grains that you can get from it. I wanted to resonate that look as it adds an older dimension to my photos. Secondly I wanted my images to have the appearance that they are on the verge of being a image of a painting. Through the grain and use of colours some images can be seen borderline artwork.
I have enjoyed this unit. I have enjoyed being able to pick a subject matter that I wanted to explore, especially because I have such great interest in it. I enjoyed that this pushed me to make sure I went out and explored. I have always explored, ventured for my photography but having course work and other life importance's finding time came be an issue. This unit gave me the time.
This unit has also opened me up to styles of photography that I want to explore and styles that I would like to stay away from.

Matt Weber

www.mattweberphotos.wordpress.com

Matt Weber is one of my favourite street photographers. Weber explores the depth and diversity within the streets of New York City. His photos are of different natures some on portraiture, signage, 9/11 , fights and politics just to name a few. Majority of his work is captured in black and white with Weber using colour where necessary.
I have been thinking that I want to venture out into street photography and create a body of work depicting the lives of strangers. I have worked on the same folio for about 5 years now and am looking to continue with it to some degree, but would like to focus on new a subject.
The candid, yet composed world of the city and people around us seems like the avenue for me. Monochrome photography has always been a passion of ,mine and find it will be the perfect element in giving my new body of work the sophistication and edge it needs.

Feeling Rusty...

Rust. I love rust. It is an element that ties alot of my folio together. It puts forward the ideas I want to present within my folio such as abandonment, destruction. As I like to edit my photos rust is a great thing to work on when using burning, saturation and changing the colour depth settings. Rust has this amazing burning quality that makes alot of my stylised photos the "pop" it needs.
The first picture displayed was a random snap. A friend on me were having a photo happy day. Heading towards another abandoned location we drove past this wall. As I saw the burning orange rust from the window I knew we had to stop to capture this simple yet effective side wall which no one would ever view. Its those little in between snaps that get me excited!

Dorothea Lange, Riverbank Gas Station, 1940

Courtesy of: www.masters-of-photography.com

Dorothea Lange,Plantation Overseer and His field hands(near Clarksdale, Mississippi), 1936 Courtesy of: www.masters-of-photography.com

Dorothea Lange,Cross Roads Store (Person County, North Carolina, 1939

Courtesy of: www.masters-of-photography.com

Dorothea Lange's documentation of life, the land and surroundings in America during the Great depression is truly inspiring stuff. These photographs whilst candid show great composition, timing and evoke many feelings.
I particularly like Lange's,Cross Roads Store. I think it tells a compelling story about American lifestyle within the 30's and shows a unity between the diverse races pictured.

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange is another American documentary photographer that I have an abundance of admiration for. Lange is best known for her documentary style throughout the depression era showing a human side of the tragedy caused.
Lange worked for the Resettlement Agency (RA) a U.S federal government program which relocated struggling urban families to new communities planned by the federal government from 1935 to 1939. Here she was able to document the life of the poor and forgotten through a momentous period in modern day history.

Monochrome Photography

Texture

I really like photos with texture. I like the dimensional quality it gives to them. It provides a realistic view even to the most abstract of photos.

I like to work with the textures of metal, plastics and hard rubbish. In particular I like the rusted look of taking pictures of metals. It gives a sense of grittiness and at times can be seen as mechanical.
The photo I have taken here shows the texture of the metal. It looks course , rusted and sharp and is the focal point of the photo. I also see the texture of the holes within the metal, I can imagine the feel of running my hands over and in and out of the holes. Surrounded by hard rubbish this photo is in theme with my folio of decay, abandonment and destruction.
Working with texture is something I would like to further explore and have already with my previous photos.

I absolutely love this piece of graffiti. This is one of the styles of graffiti/ artwork that I like to do myself.

I was also drawn to snap this picture as I like the way her hair intertwines and wraps around the corners of the walls, it is reminiscent of Greek Mythologies Medusa. I can just imagine the hair going even further and wrapping around the whole room.

Appetite for Destruction

The Hotel Hell- California Hotel

These Photos again were taken at the same abandoned location as the one below. This is my favourite photo I took on the day.
I tweaked the saturation and fiddled around with burning effects. I wanted to do this to give the pages of the phone books a burnt out feel. This also worked well with the wheel of the bicycles, lifting the colour and creating a more rusted look. Both the rusted wheel and the burnt books work together. The burning effects also worked on the painted lines on the asphalt. All these elements give the picture a burnt out and old junk feeling.
I also like this photo due to the composition of the books bringing you into the photograph.

The above photo was an outdoor shot of the Hotel Hell location where I did a shoot. Keeping in theme with my Urban Decay Project this location fits well.
I lifted the grass here. It fits well with my style of using stauration, solarizing and over exposure. I decided to saturate the grass to a lighter green and bring out the dead brown grass to lighter levels as it is quite dark in the original. I decide to do this as the grass becomes a colour you would see graffitied on the Hotel itself.

I took this is a picture at an abandoned location. I tried to salvage the over exposed image by adjusting the exposure i.e.: brightness and contrast. The over exposure, burning effects and lack of sharp defined lines and grittiness of the photo is the aim of the concept and style of photography I like to do.

Richard Misrach, Desert Fire #153 (Man with Rifle) (1984)

Courtesy: www.artnet.com

Richard Misrach, Drive-In Theater (1987)

Courtesy: www.artnet.com

Richard Misrach, Desert Fire #1 (1983)

Courtesy: www.artnet.com

Desert Cantos

Desert Cantos is a series of works by perhaps my favorite modern day photographer Richard Misrach. Desert Cantos, a series Misrach has been worked on for over 35 years explores desolate landscapes, gritty decay and mans relationship with the land. His works appears to stylised as a documentary depicting the southwest American landscape.

For the past 5 years I have been documenting my own series of photos entitled "Urban decay". Like Richard Misrach I have focused on the decaying facades , buildings and the land all within Melbourne. I too also like to explore themes of destruction and abandonment. These themes are quite confronting and powerful. Examples of these themes can be seen through Misrach's photographs Desert Fire #1 and Drive in theatre, Las Vegas.

Seeing Misrach's work inspires me to keep further exploring the one subject, in varying ways.
Desert Fire #153 (Man with a rifle) is my all time favourite photograph. It captures everything that is powerful in relation to man and the land. It shows both sides of control, one that man has through the obvious pointed rifle and the control the land takes upon them. Having an appreciation for the wilderness and the barren American land I feel connected to this photo and it power really recinates with me.

When Misrach was brought up in todays class I was just so thrilled.I am in utter awe of Misrach's works.

Out and About at School

Portrait of a Stranger

This is one of the photographs I took whilst on assignment in class time. Our tutor had given us a list of over 15 shots to take, one being a portrait of a stranger. I'm not really comfortable putting up any of my other shots. The surroundings, the effort and photos all felt to forced and therefore are not worth viewing. This picture was the only decent "rough draft" photograph I could display. Aspects that I enjoy with this photo and want to work on further is the incorporation of clothing within portraiture. I like the look of the subjects jacket being removed and blurred bringing his face and chest to the foreground. I decided to give the photo a lighting change. I decided to do this as I wanted to frame the portrait with the branches above.

Man Ray Picture/Painting

Man Ray, Primate de la matiere sur la pensee (1929)
Courtesy: www.arthistoryarchive.com

Man Ray, The Misunderstood (1938)
Courtesy: www.artshouston.ning.com

Man Ray

Last weeks documentry on early photography had prompted me to do some further research. In particular I wanted to further explore the genuis of Man Ray.

Man Ray
The thing I love about Many Ray was his modernist and surrelist style. Many Ray's photographs depict dreams, disres of sometimes an unreal surrounding. He delves deep into the subconsious mind and does remind me of the Salvador Dali of Photography. Man Ray's paintings are again in the same surrelist style, reminicint of Dali, yet individual. Ray's works such as The Misunderstood (1938) display a dream like, other world and uses colours expressing these ideas.

I love Man Ray's use of solarizing which was brought to the forefront through his work. It idividualised his "aliminium sleek" style. I too enjoy using such effects. Photos such as Primate de la matiere sur la pensee (1929) shows his use of solarizing.

It is through Man Ray's exploration of the unconscious mind he is able to portray his surrealist style
and unite both painting and photographs.