Museum Visit: Chris Jordan

On Thursday during class we went to the Museum of Art in the PCAC to see Chris Jordan's Running the Numbers exhibit. The focus for his work was sustainability and using photoshop to create images that were very large and in your face. I enjoyed this exhibit because it was fun to look for all the different objects in the photographs. I liked how each smaller object or series of objects created something larger within the image. I thought it was creative how he created some really great images using hundreds of smaller images.

I think that his work is successful because at first you see one larger image but as you look closer at each image you see that it's made up of hundreds of smaller ones. In order to see all the aspects of his images, you have to walk up close to the piece and really look at it. I think he is trying to tell us that we have to look at everything we do, close up, especially in regards to sustainability. Everything we do affects our planet and our environment and if we are only looking at the big picture, we won't be able to see how each little part of our daily lives, affects how long planet Earth will be able to sustain us.

Here are some examples of his work:

I really enjoyed looking at his work and the sort of over-stimulation aspect of these large images.

Self Portrait

Artist Lecture: Joan Marie Kelly

Today, I listened to Joan Marie Kelly talk about her work in Singapore and India in the the sex slave industry. It was really interesting to hear about how she was working with these women, using them as her model and showing them that they are worth more than just sex. She paints and draws these women in such a beautiful way while still preserving their heritage. I liked especially how she was allowing these women to draw and paint in sketchbooks and on their own portraits. I also really enjoyed seeing how this project originally started with her painting people in a local hangout place in the Red Light District.

She didn't really explain how she began working in Singapore and I wish I could have stayed longer during the lecture so I could have asked that question. I didn't know that Singapore was so strict and after learning that prostitution was legal was even more surprising. I felt kinda of bad for the students she was talking about because it seems like they don't really have any freedoms and the way she described how the government controls their every thought is so foreign to me because here in the U.S., many schools and state governments encourage personal thoughts.

Joan Marie Kelly's artwork is really interesting and I like how she's breaking out of the norm by working in Brothels. I enjoyed this lecture and I'm glad she took time to come out to UNH and speak to us.

Still Life: Project #3

For this project we had to create a still life or diorama and photograph it using different light sources or different angles. I'm not really into creating my own still life and photographing it, so this was out of my comfort zone. I'm not totally thrilled with the outcome, but for what how it came out, it's not horrible. I have these mini American girl dolls and these tiny tea sets and I decided to create scenes with them. This was my end result.

Shift of View: Project #2

For this project we were working with the different camera movements on the monorail camera. I enjoyed this project partly because I found out that the camera I bought does all the movements which increases it's value, not only in this course but in my future work with photography.

My subject for this project was to photograph old buildings and luckily I live in a historic town which features two forts that were used in wartime. The first three photographs are the ones I used for this project and the location is Fort Stark in New Castle, NH. The remaining two photographs are of the old Naval Prison on the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard located in Kittery, ME. Technically, you are not allowed to photograph this building but I got permission to do so which was very exciting. They're not my favorite pictures but I hope to be able to go back again and reshoot.

Poetics of Space: Project #1

This was my first experience using my 4x5 Calumet Monorail camera. Over the course of this semester, I have fallen in love with this camera.

Bill Paarlberg

I saw a little segment on Chronical on News 9 tonight featuring this artist. I thought his drawings were pretty cool. He went to school for math and now does these drawings.

Here is his blog about Portsmouth, NH:

http://illustratingportsmouth.blogspot.com/