Kerry Kilburn Blog Post 3/14/2016

Three photographers I will use as references are:
Takashi Homma (Mushrooms of the Forest - photobook): for the elegant simplicity of his mushroom shots and his ability to get great shots against white backgrounds;

Agnes Thor for her "found" still lifes - which are fantastically composed and lit;

Autum Sasala for the color and lighting she manages to achieve in the macrophotography she makes using her iphone.

The most important idea I culled from both my own work and the critiques was that appropriation - even when it's appropriation from multiple artists - can result in a body of work that has its own voice and that includes pieces that share ideas, themes, and/or formal qualities. We saw this in every critique - and I can't speak for anyone else, but I was honestly surprised to see this in my own work. I also learned how important the editing process is - the process of placing individual images next to one another to see what kind of meaning can emerge synergistically. Again, we saw how powerful a technique this is in every critique, and, even though I've created series of photographs in other classes, I was amazed at what emerged when photos I thought were independent of one another were put together.

I was interested to see that the theme of aloneness/loneliness arose for more than one of us - it was certainly a part of my own work and tends to run through a lot of my images and series of images. Another important theme that ran through the critiques themselves was that the viewer of an image creates his/her own meaning about that image, regardless of what the photographer thought he/she was trying to express. This is something I especially need to remember, both as a photographer and as a viewer of images. I was actually proud of the readings I heard of my own work - they were much richer than what I tend to see in it myself, and that is the kind of validation that helps me value my own work.

So much of the content I saw was inspirational that I hardly know where to begin. First, a few students are clearly gifted at creating powerful, unsettling tableaus. This is not something I aspire to, but something I admire tremendously. I saw some fantastic portraits, and was inspired to work on my own portraiture, both in general and as part of this project. Finally, many of my classmates have wonderful ways of working with light; I'd like to explore some of their lighting concepts and incorporate them into this project.