Family Comfort Food

Sorry I'm so late to post, i accidentally accepted the invite on the wrong account and it wouldn't work, but just now when I tried again it does. SO..

After our options for the class assignment I felt like doing something family oriented. Everyones parents makes a dish that just gives you this homey feeling, like being a kid again. Im going to photograph my family comfort food in all its italian goodness. This will also be a way to cook and eat real food for a while. I plan on the shots being memory like so tilt & shifts will be used and the setting will be somewhat plain on a wood cutting board that makes me think of my kitchen as well. Ill be shooting some polaroids as well because I feel the food should be documented in color or maybe ill just buy color film...i need to compare prices.

New Idea - Convenience Stores

So, after thinking about it I decided to change my idea.

I'm now planning on taking a series of photos of convenience stores, with the basis of conformity. Using the Bechers as inspiration, my goal is to take photos that although different, will be framed and shot exactly the same, to push the idea of conformity.

The Bechers have worked primarily in more of an industrial subject matter (water towers, grain elevators, cooling towers, etc.) Given my current location and generation, I feel that a convenience store is the most worthy candidate of such a study, although I am open to suggestion.

--David

Reflections

For this project I will be photographing reflections in puddles. I will be focusing on the image in the puddle thus creating a soft focus around the puddle. I will be taking these either early morning or evening to keep out the reflection of the sun. I'm debating on if i want to have some human interaction with the puddle or just have it be the image in the puddle. I'm going to print these either 12x 18 on 13x 19 paper or some other smaller size on the 13x19 paper. some experimentation will be needed.

Open 4x5

Im not 100% on what I want to do for this assignment yet. I do know that i want to work a person. I am thinking about doing something with the feeling of loneliness. I have to find more places first before i deicide on a final idea. I have one in mind so far.

Portraits

I plan on doing color portraits using black and white film. I'm still a bit unsure if I want to take the pictures in the studio or on location. Pretty simple overall, I might make them up a bit more than plain because that doesn't do too entirely much for me. We'll see.

Landscapes

Im not 100% convinced about my idea i might change it but for now i was wanting to do open spaces like landscapes and having a figure in the background where you can barely see them but its noticeable that their is someone. I would like the figure to be nude giving the idea of youth and nature and purity. Im still working on it not sure if i want to go with this idea just yet though.

So for this assignment I want to take the ability of analog cameras to create double exposures to my advantage. I've been look at this artist (Link) for my inspiration. Still not quite how he created this exactly, but I want to definitely create my own spin.

open 4x5

For my assignment I am looking into portraiture. I plan on shooting with ambient light in black and white. I am thinking about photographing that various people that stay in a specific hotel room and ask them why they are there. I want to get little glimpses into the lives of others with writing and find a common thread between them. I am influenced by Jim Goldberg’s Rich and Poor series. I am contemplating the location changing I am not completely sure yet. I am also wondering how I will include their story in my photo if i do at all.

Trashscapes

My plan for the moment is to play around with something that I control but not necessarily something that I can plan out or organize. My plan is to take photos of my trash on a bi-daily basis, or before we take it out to the dumpster. Extending the bellows out, in a sense I'll be using the idea of miniatures, but with things that aren't necessarily miniature. I'll be shooting on black and white for this assignment.

--David

Collection As Memory

Still life is what I purpose to do. Although miniature, architecture, landscape and portraiture are all areas of photography I do want to explore. Still life tops my list on many levels. My first realized fascination with still life was with a volume of books that my mother would purchase piece meal at the grocery store. I must have been no older than seven or eight. The books were design for a young audience, filled with illustrations that explained everything from clouds to insects, the south-pole to the planets; in short a child’s illustrated encyclopedia. But what really stayed with me to this day were the glossy covers. On the cover of each volume was a still life, a variety of objects carefully composed, (sometimes with a landscape as backdrop, perhaps with a barn and silo), a still life that in essence shouted out the wonder of all things. In many ways the covers resembled Joseph Cornell’s box assemblages, a visual puzzle or rhyme designed to intrigue. It is unfortunate that the books disappeared when I left home, the template for my idea is gone. My fascination with all things also had me collecting from a very young age as well. To this day I have been accused of saving everything and indeed have many collections of various kind. Each collection or random box of stuff serve me much like a time machine, with each object I have a connection, a memory that is often stronger than photographs from the same period. How these memories serve me is something to ponder. Through the photographic process of locking down the objects new life as still life I will access what value the objects continue to hold for me. Association to object and place are both a blessing and curse; it is no wonder that to become a Jesuit Priest you must renounce worldly possessions as a test of your faith. Yet on the other hand the husbandry of both object and place are critical for the success of future generations.

I did some test shots today to see how the idea translates, if my images are flat I will attempt what I call the landscape of density.

For assignment 3 I’ll be shooting boxes that I have created out of thread. I shot some of the boxes for the blow up assignment, and will be re shooting with color film. I want to show a different space that isn’t necessarily real in our world. I want to have a very shallow depth of field with directional lighting toward the center. The concept isn’t necessarily a story and isn’t necessarily about anything in particular. It’s more about color, depth of field and trying to obtain the lighting I want to create a sort of surreal world.

fake freedom

For this assignment, I would like to take a small vacation from my normal portraiture-based images and go more in a landscape direction. However, I would also like to keep the human element there, however small it may be, and it will probably not be the main focus of the image. I would like the element of landscape and human interaction to kind of mesh and display equal importance. I would like them to be in black and white, and I am thinking of putting some kind of concealing factor on the human presence (head covering, some kind of sack or sheet.) The figures will be in a pose that suggests long awaited freedom or ecstasy (the coverings will suggest that this idea may just be an illusion.) I will shoot probably towards the later afternoon, on the weekends, and I would like to try for some desolate coastal scene and perhaps something more rural too. Final print sizes I will have to determine after the photos are created but I would like to have them fairly large.

I have recently been inspired by the work of Justine Kurland and would like to emulate some of her style for these photographs.




Assignment 3 Proposal