Weekly Artist Post: Rina Shapira

I stumbled across Rina Shapira on a Lenscratch article and felt rather intrigued by the imagery of Rina's work. Being one who has spent much time in old, dilapidated buildings, I was never one to literally put a narrative into the building or complex I was exploring. Rina's will to recreate stories behind these stories that cease to exist and add a sort of spectral element is quite invigorating to me. It almost seems as if she somehow took old photographs from the mid-1800s to early 1900s and placed them in somehow. Finding a way about talking about the past in a contemporary since that opens up a new way to bring about the conversation is exciting to witness and that is what I experienced with this series. 

Weekly Artist Post! Adam Landis

Jessie Edwards

Edwards' fabulous paintings from his so called "Real Life Paintings" portray still lives of banal, mundane objects that, arranged together become very interesting. Interesting juxtapositions, they are humorously relatable, some are more serious commentary on things in the lives of people who often get overlooked. Check the rest of his stuff out, he also happens to be a grafitti artist and a sculptor.

Weekly Artist Post - Kirill Kuletski - Hannah Nees

Kirill Kuletski is a photographer based in London, England. He was born in Russia and captures the mood of the places he visits. There is not much information about the photographer online, but I was able to figure out that these photographs were taken on his way to Death Valley. He often tries to capture the feeling he was overcome with when seeing these places for the first time.

I enjoy his work, because I can definitely feel a mood (especially in this series, "Imposition") that he is trying to get across. Even though I don't necessarily know the mood he is trying to show to the viewer, I feel that I know what he is trying to say????

kuletski.com

ALSO BUFFALO JUGGALOS

Hey. here's this amazing film that you all need to see. Short and sweet. No dialogue. Beautifully shot. Candy for your brain. It's a series of video portraits of the juggalo community in Buffalo, New York.

here's the tumblr link ---> http://buffalojuggalosfilm.tumblr.com

And you can watch the full film online at Mubi.com. Just start a 1 week free trial and delete the account afterwards if you want. I plan on keeping mine because Mubi offers a truly fantastic list of films every month.

Okay, I'm done endorsing. bye.

Weekly Artist Post.

Brice Marden - Painting/Printmaking.

Known as a “Romantic Minimalist”

The thing that still separates Marden from his minimalist peers is his inclusion of gesture, maybe still lingering from Abstract Expressionism. There is still room for accident, and idiosyncrasies in his work, that most minimalist artists edit out. Consider, Donald Judd’s sculptures. The epitome of Minimalist art. His work untouched by human hands, no mistakes, no human touch. In comparison to Marden’s work now. Completely created by drawing and erasing and then the medium itself. After a series of simple and completely captivating etchings, that Marden based off of Chinese Ideograms (symbols for writing) he started incorporating black meandering lines into his paintings. These Prints are some of the most gorgeous I've seen. 

His paintings are highly influenced by his drawings, and vice versa. He is continually adding and erasing from his drawings until he sees what he needs to paint. These painting now act as large color fields. Very different from his multi-panel works, but with the same emphasis of touch, color, surface, and tone. 

Anne Weekly Post WOW

http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/heres-what-happens-when-you-edit-photos-like-music <---

HERES WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU EDID PHOTOS LIKE MUSIC

I found this article on Vice's Creators project about artists who are using sound editors like Audacity to edit photos. This is done, to my understanding, by treating the raw data and meta data so that it is readable by the sound program. I would be really curious if this technique would work for videos as well or to edit sound like images?

Weekly Artist-- Lexi Wilson

During critique, the artist Elinor Carucci was mentioned for me to look at her work. The most prominent thing i notice is the use of touch in her images. The intimacy captured draws the viewer into these more personal moments shared between her children and her. The tenderness is emphasized by her use of extreme close-ups. At first glance, some of these images are bit startling, but familiar and universal to any family. I value her strong use of touch and intimacy and hope to portray that in my own projects.

http://www.elinorcarucci.com/

Last Minutes With Oden

Last Minutes with Oden (2010) directed by Eliot Rausch

Raven McCarter - Gasland

GASLAND (2010) directed by Josh Fox

The main thing about GASLAND is that it is extremely important, scary material, and if previously uninformed on it, eyeopening stuff. The director, narrator, “star” of the film is a likable guy (Josh Fox) and you can see that the doc is coming from a pure and personal place. He is genuinely worried about the place he calls home and wants to get the info out because no one else is. The film is very thorough in explaining exactly what is going on. Some may deem it a negative, but I think the neverending wave of personal stories of those effected and their struggles with those responsible are important and effective in demonstrating that this isn’t just a few incidents and it makes things more real/personal to put faces to the statistics. It screams THIS SHIT IS HAPPENING and SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE! There are two striking visuals that I can’t get out of my head. One is the great poster and DVD cover of Fox playing the Banjo with a gas mask on, near one of the drilling areas where the chemical smog is extremely dangerous. The other being the visual of those people actually able to light their so-called “safe” tap water on fire, terrifying. Even though he is a nobody, Fox does what he can to grill some of the people responsible for the drilling or those capable of stopping it. The uneasiness they show and the lack of substantial answers they give tell you an awful lot. The Congressional hearing is as telling as anything. These guy are truly embarassing. It is interesting to see their faces when asked to drink a glass of the water they deem “safe for consumption”. The discussions of how the drilling came about, the laws changed, the contracts signed etc all leading back to Bush and Cheney is maddening, but not the least bit surprising.

Weekly Post - Anne

https://citizenfourfilm.com/    <------ official film website

I'm hoping this is not news to anyone, but the National Security Agency of the United States government has programs in place that have the outreaching ability to see the metadata of any calls,texts, internet communications anyone, virtually anywhere in the world makes. And public knowledge of these programs is due to a former employee of the NSA, Edward Snowden, releasing this information to journalists in 2012. Citizenfour is the Laura Poitras documentary about Snowden that includes actual footage and interviews with him in the hotel room in Hong Kong as he was releasing the information to Poitras and other journalists. The film itself is smart and beautifully shot, but its the greater message and information that is most important to me. The film doesn't include any real government secrets for the most part that weren't already publicly known. It does however, paint a very intimate and responsible picture of Snowden that until this point was missing. The access the filmmakers had to him is incredible for such a highprofile and now controversial man. This film is the 3rd in a trilogy of documentaries by Poitras about post 9-11 America with the first being My Country, My Country about US occupation in Iraq and the Oath about Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Not surprising either is that Poitras is consider a "flagged" or "high threat" individual by the US and currenly resides in Berlin in order to protect her film materials from US inspection and confiscation.

Weekly Artist Post!! Adam

Simon Chaudoir

I've recently been infatuated with the film A Fantastic Fear of Everything, This week I watched it 3 times. The cinematography and lighting in the film is outstanding, the way scenes are composed are especially amazing. The mood is perfect. The story follows Simon Pegg portray a British writer going completely nutters, paranoid from his most recent work on serial killers. Chaudoir's handling of perspective, shadow and light color amaze me; I've been taking notes each time I see the film. Regardless of your style, I feel that everyone can benefit from watching this film. (correct me if I'm wrong but it is my understanding that the lead cinematographer is the one responsible for composition and lighting)

netflix to the film 


here are some stills that don't do the film justice

Lexi Wilson-- weekly artist post

Shane emailed me an artist a few days ago that is a senior in the photography program and the Rhode Island School of Design. I was actually pleasantly surprised that the artist was around the same age as us, because it gives me hope that I can make work this good. Ellis Marksohn makes work as a tool for therapeutic growth. His work questions a lot of his past experiences while also questioning self-hood. Here is his artist statement which I found to be an important part when analyzing his work.

“Maybe 30 seconds, maybe a minute. I’ve never been good at those sorts of calculations. I know we’ll all complain about the absence of light until one day in spring when there is a sudden recognition of what we have gained.
Home is the safest place.
After graduating from high school, I moved out of my parent’s house and converted my apartment into a punk venue. I had a sweet tooth for chaos and longed for rock bottom. Eventually there were too many holes in the drywall that I never learned how to spackle shut, so I moved back home.
As best as I can remember this is how it happened. A hockey puck struck my father’s forehead. I know I threw it, but all I remember is screaming “Leave and never come back.” My mom was in my bedroom, crying for me to stay. I got in my car and started driving, but realized there was nowhere to go. Turning the car around, I sped back down my gravel driveway. I imagined driving straight through the wall and into the kitchen. I imagined a glorious Don Quixote cry for help, but the wall stood still while the car buckled against it.
A week later I arrived at a wilderness rehabilitation program in the middle of the Utah winter. It is all a learning process. I needed to burn down something pretty before I could talk to you. Even still, sometimes I wake up in the morning and forget to shave my beard for months.”

I love what this process does for the artist and can resonate with his intent. His process and artwork shows the effect of love and what it can do in his life when it come to healing and self evaluating.

http://www.onwardforward.com/blog/2014/1/20/ellis-marksohn-burn-down-something-pretty 

Weekly post

Kaylynn Deveney Started a series photographing a couple who lives together in a nursing home. Many visits later she is no longer seen as a photographer but more as a friends. She has established a relationship with this couple so strong that it reflects in her images. I have been focusing on my grandparents. Something that is no where near complete but just in the most recent visits my camera doesn't seem as strange to them. They don't notice it as often. I still have far to go on being on the more intimate level that Deveney has achieved. But progress is always nice to see. my nanny enjoys to snap at me now that she "can't move without that bloody camera around"

Scott Csoke-Weekly Artist Post

María Moldes

María Moldes is a Spanish photographer living in Alicante, Spain. She studied psychology when she went to University and received a grant that is now allowing her to take photos full time now. With her two series, Gamma City and Escenas de la vida radioactiva she isn't worried about fancy equipment, she's just trying to capture her subjects. She mostly uses her iPhone and says she "wears dark sunglasses and tries not to look inconspicuous." She is really interested in the aging people of where she lives in Spain. 

Weekly Artist Post - Edgar Martins - Hannah Nees

Edgar Martins is a photographer from Portugal, born in 1977. He takes photographs of non-traditionally beautiful things. This series above is from "This is not a House" created in 2008 in American cities like Atlanta, Georgia and Bakersfield, California. Over his career as a photographer he has photographed forests that were once on fire, airport runways, and different parts of Iceland. He has been in many exhibits throughout the world and still works on different series. 

In the series "This is not a House", Martins is taking photographs of houses that have been affected by the mortgage crisis in the United States. He shot these photographed for the "New York Times Magazine". One of the reasons I enjoy these photographs so much is because they kind of resemble my work, but only because some of them are buildings at night. I want to use external lights like he does. I think his concept is very interesting, and it connects in every photograph.

http://www.edgarmartins.com/

teddy artist post-kenneth price

Kenneth Price is a filmmaker from my hometown, Durham, NC.  He has spent the last 7 years creating 2 documentaries about the local hip-hop producer, Patrick Douthit, commonly known as 9th wonder.  Douthit is a Hip Hop history professor at North Carolina Central University and recently was accepted as a Harvard fellow and is teaching there for three years.  Price has intensely shadowed the producer as he goes about his life, conducting interviews along the way.  His two films about him, The Wonder Year, and The Hip-Hop Fellow have screened in film festivals all over the world.

http://www.pricefilms.com/

Raven McCarter - Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America

'Upon its release in 1991, TRIBULATION 99 became an instant counter-culture classic. Baldwin’s “pseudo-pseudo-documentary” presents a factual chronicle of US intervention in Latin America in the form of the ultimate far-right conspiracy theory, combining covert action, environmental catastrophe, space aliens, cattle mutilations, killer bees, religious prophecy, doomsday diatribes, and just about every other crackpot theory broadcast through the dentures of the modern paranoiac.'

TRIBULATION 99, the ufo masterpiece mockumentary by director Craig Baldwin. 

Weekly Artist Post - NAT

Hi,

I've recently become aware of why I am so interested in a certain list of films, and it's because Harris Savides was Director of Photography in all of them. My favorites, and most highly recognized are Zodiac, Milk, and American Gangster. With each film, Savides used light as another creeping character; using smoke/fog, reflections, car windows, dim TV screens, to enhance the atmosphere. It seems so simple, to light a scene the way it would look in real life so that it is not distracting, but to see it thought out and done so well is stunning.  When I work, I forget that I can make photographs the way I would imagine making a film.

Note to self: Slow down. Consider less obvious lighting situations. Add depth. Make a story out of only a few frames. Create Characters. 

Zodiac (2007)

American Gangster (2007)

Milk (2008)