December

Tacit Knowing

More recent images:

Still working with mostly abstract color images and exploring light and perception, but I don't know where it's going yet. Right now I'm into the idea of tacitness (Tacit Knowing by Michael Polanyi) and the role it plays in our motives behind making art and using images, etc.

Bathrooms

I'm reading a book that Annie Hogan lent me called The Object Stares Back by James Elkins. He mentions that bathrooms are the room best designed for seeing; it is also the only room perfectly sealed against seeing, and is a space of absolute privacy. I like photographing rooms and living spaces as much as the next photographer, but there is something especially appealing about bathrooms. This is a photo I made last year of my friend Rachel-

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Authenticity

Hans Aarsman Ted talk from 2009

Google street view

Doug Rickard:

I saw some of Doug Rickard's photographs at the MoMa yesterday...images taken from Google Maps. They are very reminiscent of color street photography from the 70's- Eggleston, Stephen Shore, etc. Rickard's images are published in a booked called "A New American Picture", which seems to be a riff on Walker Evan's "American Photographs".  Knowing the artist's intent gives the photographs a new dimension though...I'm not that into the idea of an artist "taking photos" using the internet, but a phenomenon like Google's street views is a part of our media-based and image-swamped society that can't be ignored. I started looking at some other artists working with this process-

Michael Wolf

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Jon Rafman: http://9-eyes.com/

and

Apres Garde: http://buchr.tumblr.com/

Recent photos

I've recently been wandering around New Brunswick taking pictures with my 35mm. New Brunswick is kind of enigmatic to me- almost like a twilight zone. (I could probably say that about any place after living there for a while.) New Brunswick is a college town, it's the "Healthcare City", it's close to New York, it's known as Little Mexico in some parts, other parts are "shady"...there is really no definition for it. (Again, you could probably say that about anywhere if you really got to know it). These photos are taken mostly around French Street-an area that a lot of students don't frequent-where the separation of class/culture in our community is made clear. I'm kind of interested in documenting the different sides of certain overlooked parts of New Brunswick in a photojournalistic way, but I also enjoy making images using just the streets and light/shadows and overgrown land plots as my subjects. I'm going to stick with color film; its printing process and the resulting image are much for appealing for me than that of black and white. 

This last image interests me a lot- it was the first image made on the roll of film where the light seeped in...I don't know where or when it was exposed- it's just an accidental image that happens to have been made using a camera. 

11/11/11

Today in thesis class Gerry announced that next week we will be submitting a first draft of our thesis proposals, which should be something of a synthesis of our blog. Frankly I haven't been using my blog as a true outlet for what i'm working on and thinking about, so transforming my blog this far into a thesis proposal would amount to something pretty shallow. Although I think my lack of blog enthusiasm during the first two months of the semester partly reflected my lack of artistic drive (which has taken a turn for the better recently), it also reflects the trouble I frequently have with organizing my ideas and convictions. I am hereafter going to use this blog more so I can really address just what it is I am trying to get at.