Tuesday, March 31, 2009

1oh!4

SameTime 1:04 is a spontaneous photography project taking direct inspiration from SameTime 7:15 (Michael Lease, Kate Macdonnell, Bryan Martin, Jesse Sommerlatt, Brad Walker, and Soung Wiser; http://www.sametime715.com).

After hearing about SameTime 7:15 from our teacher Michael Lease last semester, a friend of mine approached me and asked me if I wanted to join her and two other people in the SameTime 1:04 project. I was uber excited to join the project. The members of this project, Amber Bender, Ben Hostetter, Rachel Rainer and myself. I saw this project as an opportunity to make an image everyday and work on my creative abilities. I thought it would be useful to force myself to take at least one photo everyday. However, in our project, the text is almost as important as the image. Sometimes the text seems more meaningful than then image and other times it is the other way around. It is challenging to find time to upload the an image everyday, but taking the image has become routine. I like the fact that I have incorporated SameTime 1:04 into my day to day stage. In addition, I like the challenge of taking different images in a familiar place. For instance, I have class two times a week at 1:04 which forces me to be creative with my shot so viewers are not seeing the same image two days a week.

Overall, even though we based this project off someone else, this is a good exercise.  And while we understand that there could be many improvements to the format and style of the project, our group looks forward to the final project and working hard to make this project a success. 

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

domesticated

Who: Amy Stein
What: Guest Lecture
Where: VCU Commons Theater

Amy Stein is a photographer and teacher based in New York City. Her work explores our evolving isolation from community, culture and the environment. 

Her most popular series is entitled "Domesticated" in which she uses taxidermied animals and places them in everyday communities. Each picture was based off a story from the local community. Therefore, her images are narratives of a small community and its interaction with the local wildlife. Personally, I thought that this series of images was her best work so far. The stories behind each image are interesting and relatable to anyone who has lived in a small community. The compositions are well thought out as well. 

The series she is currently working on is entitled "Stranded." Stein travels around the country taking pictures of people whose cars have broken down on the side of the road. I thought she did a good job of addressing the questions people had about approaching a stranger and asking to take there photograph. I do not think this series is as successful and the previously stated series, but the idea behind it was fascinating. I think there was a gap between the images and the idea. 

Overall, Stein was a good speaker and seemed to have well thought out ideas and concepts to her images. She attempted to send a message with each of her photographs. Even-though she was not always successful, in my opinion, her images are interesting and the ideas are strong.  I enjoyed hearing the stories behind the photographs.