Week #4: Write-up

Marla Schreiber
Untitled 

Marla Schreiber
Untitled

This week I’ll be discussing some of my own photography, as well as that of my older sister, Marla. She took a dark room photography course when she was in CEGEP, and did some similar projects that we’re doing in class this semester. I remember her placing me in different rooms of our house in order to capture the best lighting and to create a lot of contrasting shadows. We spent an entire afternoon one Sunday staging the “prefect” shots for her project. One photo that she took is of her fiancé Adam who was then eighteen. I loved that picture so much that I decided to draw it in graphite. To this day, it’s still hanging on the living room wall of his parents’ home. The other photo that stood out from her album was of a man walking his son home from school. I’m really drawn to the composition, and I like that the subjects didn’t even know they were being photographed.

My photography is amateur, but I enjoy taking photographs and capturing memories. I had the opportunity to travel to Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia a few years ago, and one of my favourite things to do is to look through all of the photos I took. Each one has a story behind it and reminds me of a specific day in my life. I don’t know if they’re technically “right” or not, but I consider some of my shots to be aesthetically appealing. According to Michael Smith, I like to do "my own thing". He wrote in his article that, "the more we live, the more we understand, even if that understanding sometimes consists in knowing how very little we really know. And of course, the more we understand, the more we can put into our own work— our own photographs." I thought that was a very appropriate statement that truly describes what kind of photographer I am. 

Sandra Schreiber
Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Sandra Schreiber
Franz Joseph Glasier, Franz Joseph Waiau, New Zealand

Sandra Schreiber
Somewhere on the side of the road, South Island, New Zealand

Work Cited

Smith, M. (2011). On Teaching Photography. Retrieved from http://www.michaelandpaula.com/mp/onteachphoto.html

Week #3: Write-up

Rachel Baran
Delusions

Rachel Baran
Fade

After telling my sister that I was on the lookout for some interesting photographers, she sent me a link to Rachel Baran’s write-up on the French website Buzzly (http://www.buzzly.fr/les-auto-portraits-puissants-et-surrealistes-d-une-jeune-fille-de-20-ans.html). I was immediately interested in her surrealistic works, and I love how she uses Photoshop seamlessly in order to create unnatural effects. She also includes typography and hand written elements to some of her final photos. Rachel is from the United States and lives in Ohio. I was shocked to read that she is only 20 years old and has such an amazing talent. (Then I read some of her writing online, and thought that she sounded like a 13-year old with the amount of “likes” and text message abbreviations she had used). She likes to travel in order to find interesting scenery for her photo-shoots.

Rachel’s style ranges from somber imagery including bloody horror scenes to high fashion editorial shots that I could picture (no pun intended) in Vogue or Zinc magazine. She also takes a lot of self-portraits, and transforms herself in order to create an interesting photograph.

The images that really stood out to me are her “pixilated” photos. I find it ironic that she chose to add a pixilated effect when the majority of photographers try to avoid pixilation at all cost. She chose specific parts of her photos to digitally alter and manipulate. I like the contrast between the crisp parts of the images and the blurry portions. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/beee33/

Work Cited

Brice. (2014). Les AutoPortraits Puissants et Surréalistes d'une Jeune Fille de 20 Ans. Buzzly. Retrieved from http://www.buzzly.fr/les-auto-portraits-puissants-et-surrealistes-d-une-jeune-fille-de-20-ans.html

Baran, R. (2014). Rachel Baran. Flickr. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/beee33/

Week #2: Write-up

Christopher Boffoli
Photo from Big Appetites series

Christopher Boffoli
Photo from Big Appetites series

Christopher Boffoli
Photo from Big Appetites series

I would like to thank Facebook for introducing me to Christopher Boffoli. I was scrolling through my newsfeed a few weeks ago, and stumbled on his Big Appetites series. Christopher is a photographer, filmmaker, writer and journalist from Seattle. He’s travelled most of the world and documented his adventures through photography and film. This well-known series has been published in print and online in over 100 countries.

The television programs of his youth, and some of his personal experiences, inspired Christopher. He was a small person in a large world. He chose to work with food because of the vibrant colours and interesting textures he could achieve simply by using the proper lighting. Food is also a universal subject that can be recognized by all types of people regardless of culture, language and location.

Another inspiration for this series was the project Travelers by Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz. They created small dioramas inside snow globes. Some were whimsical and beautiful, but Christopher was more attracted to their disturbing works. All three artists work in the same scale and photograph the tiny details.

Christopher works with foods that are in season that he can purchase at local farmers’ markets. He also likes to use iconic American foods and name brands such as Oreo Cookies and Twinkies. He hopes that those foods will spark childhood memories in his viewers. All of the figures are extremely detailed and hand painted by the artists. 

This type of photography is very precise and technical. Michael Smith wrote that, "technique... gives form to expression, it also helps to shape and modify that expression." I believe that Christopher's macro photography shows a lot of expression through the movement that he creates (even though nothing is actually moving), and the vibrant colours he uses.

Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz
Traveler 78 at Night

Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz
Traveler 218

http://www.martin-munoz.com/main.html

http://bigappetites.net/series/

Work Cited

Boffoli, C. (2012). Big Appetites Series. Retrieved from http://bigappetites.net/

Martin. W. & Munoz, P. (2014). Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz. Retrieved from    http://www.martin-munoz.com/main.html
Smith, M. (2011). On Teaching Photography. Retrieved from http://www.michaelandpaula.com/mp/onteachphoto.html