Brandon Mabrouk-Weekly Post 7

George Steinmetz

George Steinmetz captures some pretty amazing subjects, gives you a chance to see how beautiful our world is. He travels all over the world and makes photos in these beautiful settings.  He uses a small paraglider to capture his work that he flies himself. He attaches his camera to a harness and captures them mid flight. Even though a good portion of his work is commercial there are still some great techniques it looks like he uses to capture these beautiful photos. My favorite would be the New York City skyline, growing up I would go visit my grandparents who lived in Queens and you could see all five boroughs from their 33rd floor apartment. 

Some of his land photos reminds me of how Edward Burtynsky captures his work, I'm sure they have different editing processes and equipment. His photos from the Dunes of Brazil are pleasing to view as well, you don't realize how beautiful this world is until you actually view it yourself. His photographs make the location look very promising to visit, as he flies over 14,000 feet in the air. His innovative idea has allowed him to take flight in some of the most amazing parts of the world and capture a photo at the same time. 

He wants the people to know he is a "photographer who flies, not a pilot who takes pictures," his confidence makes someone like me want to go outside of my comfort zone and make beautiful photos just as he is. 

Hailey Porth Weekly Post 7

Jonas Feige

http://cphmag.com/conv-feige/

Catherine Meadows Weekly Post 7

Vivian Maier

So I absolutely love Vivian Maier. I remember that there was a time last year when I posted a photograph I had taken (of myself in a glass window) to Facebook and someone had commented on it describing it as "very Vivian Maier". I of course looked her up because I had never heard of her, and fell in love with her work immediately.

Here's the photo I just mentioned:

My personal favorite series that she's known for are her self-portraits. As soon as we were assigned this appropriation project I knew I was going to pick her for my "my choice" photograph. I wanted to recreate one of her self-portraits. The reason I love these and find them so interesting is because of the many different ways that she finds to include herself into the photo. Sometimes all we see if her shadow, whereas other times she's hidden in the reflection. What I love about her reflection photographs are the fact that you can focus on what's behind the glass and then switch your focus to her on the other side.

Obviously Vivian Maier does much more than these self-portraits though. She's really an amazing street photographer. I highly suggest looking at the site I linked with her name up top and going through her portfolio. Her work is very impressive to me and I think she has a great variety of both color and black and white photographs.

Anna Luker Blog 2/28

Cindy Sherman 

Probably my favorite photographer, took a direction in life she had not started out with a became one of the most respected photographers of the late twentieth century. A lot of people confuse her work to be a self portrait series but its actually self portraiture.  Her 'Untitled Film Stills' is one of her most well known and recognizable works.

"For a work of art to be considered a portrait, the artist must have intent to portray a specific, actual person. This can be communicated through such techniques as naming a specific person in the title of the work or creating an image in which the physical likeness leads to an emotional individuality unique to a specific person. While these criteria are not the only ways of connoting a portrait, they are just two examples of how Sherman carefully communicates to the viewer that these works are not meant to depict Cindy Sherman the person. By titling each of the photographs "Untitled", as well as numbering them, Sherman depersonalizes the images." 

Her photographs show her dressed up in wigs, hats, dresses, clothes unlike her own, playing the roles of characters. In 1999 the average selling price for one of her photographs was $20,000 to $50,000, a hefty sum for a female photographer. 

"Even more ground-breaking was a 1999 Christie's auction in which one of the photographs from Film Stills sold for a reported $190,000. This bid was perhaps inspired by the Museum of Modern Art's lead: in 1996, they purchased a complete set from Film Stills for one million dollars."

Cindy's has had exhibitions all around the world. Also she has directed her own movie, "Office Killer."

Currently she is staying in New York and is working on some new projects, that are more straight forward photographs of characters and not so much the ambiguous narratives she has created. 

victoria garnett, Artist post 7, Feb/28/ 2016

Russell Scalf 

His work

Since I am looking into the military, I decided to do some research on military photographers this weekend. I stumbled across United States Air Force Photojournalist Russell Scalf. He had been named Military Photographer of the Year in 2014 for work he had done in 2013. His photography, along with many others, was reviewed by judges at the Defense Information School in Ft. Meade, Maryland. He also takes many other photos that are not affiliated with the military on his website.

In an interview he had done the question, "Do you have any advice for others working as photographers within the military" was asked and he answered, "The only person who can stop you from being successful is yourself... Talent can only get you but so far, I've become successful because I was willing to put in the work to get there". I felt that answer was right on point with anything that is is that you want to do. Its always important to put yourself out there regardless of your doubts and fears.

In the last photo, the lighting is perfect. The Airmen sitting in the inside of the plane in the light and the moon shining just above gives the photo nice composition and an interesting image to look at. The photo just above give a nice an crisp reflection in the Airmens classes. The very first photo I feel hits home to many people in the military that carry their loved ones photos in their pockets or wallets when they travel far from home on deployment.

Carra Roots- Land

I so happen to be drawn to the same type of photos in the exhibit. Those that are heavy in contrast and far in view. These seem to have caught my eye due to the fact that you can really see the land. The highs and the lows. Also how light creates its own patterns in the darkness, 

The first one i chose was that of Ansel Adams entitled “White House Ruins” When creating photographs, Adams says that he is trying to create the picture that was in his mind . He mentioned that before he had seen a picture similar to his but his is different because he took the photo to create and not to document. I really do enjoy the change of textures, patterns and directional changes within the photo. One thing leads you to another which keeps your eye within the frame of a large view. The darkness in the left bottom, balances with the darkness in the top right.

The second artist I chose was George Barker. His work is entitled “Niagara Falls.” This image is very similar to Adams photo above in the fact that they with contrast very nicely. The white and black are balanced well and flow into each other. Just as it says, you can tell that he took the time to think about what should have the most detail and what shouldn’t. He played with the mist that the water was making with he clouds in the sky and surprisingly gave those two things the most detail.

Rachel Trautmann's Weekly Post 2/29/16

Mike Stimpson

 Simpson specializes in macro photography. He uses LEGO figures as his main subject matter.  He began photographing LEGO figures when he got the idea to mix two of his loves; LEGOs and the history of photography. His earlier works depict classic photographic images with LEGO figures in place of the original humans photographed. 

I have been following Stimpson's work for years. I was originally drawn in for his use of LEGO figures being depicted in classic photographic images. When I came across his work, he just started working on his Star Wars series. That was what drew me to continuing to follow his work. A toy photographer seems kind of odd until you realize how many people in this world have to do it. Stimpson just takes the commercial aspect out of the images and adds human elements. He treats his subjects as if they were actual humans and I believe that helps with the overall quality of his images.