Moving Pictures

After hours and hours of racking my brain for ideas, I stumbled upon this rally in Union Square, and ended up using it as the subject for my narrative video. The sound is pretty terrible, but I feel as if the final result came out alright.

I've begun to realize that everything I do seems to be more journalistic than strictly "artistic," and this is making me rather confused. In fact, I have kind of lost direction altogether. I thought that I was moving from the verbal sphere to the visual sphere, but now it appears as if all those books I (somehow) managed to read in the past month have affected my thinking. Hmm.

Anyhow - in comparison, here is the abstract video that I cobbled together from some rather mediocre footage recorded at Coney Island.

PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT: Crossing The Finish Line

Name: Bernadette
Age: 40-something
Job: Actor, singer, full-time mom
Location: Upper West Side

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

I think one of the things I really miss is people in my life who have passed away, I would want them to be here in the present, and the future too, share life and share experiences with me, because they were fun, I loved them, or they shared their insights, and I would just want them to be here, you know. To look into the future, to see my daughter growing up, to see me progressing with things, and just to be a part of their [lives]. If anything I would change, I think it would be my inability…being afraid to really ask for what I want.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Making a commitment to be present, to love the people in my life, and to learn to love each moment each day.

3. How do you imagine your future?

Living more from who I am creatively, creative expression, singing more, collaborating with people, and really beginning to support myself again that way, as a creative person, as a creative artist, collaborating, having fun, consistently. So for me, what does that mean - performing on the stage, collaborating with other people, recording music, and possibly writing screenplays, doing film. So whatever is creative, fun things, film things, artistic things.



Name: Yasmine
Age: 12
Job: Student
Location: Upper West Side

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

I would change, whatchacallit, when getting my cat, because she was abused, and she really hates people, so I have a lot of scars.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

My kitten - my cat doesn't like me, so my mom said I could get a kitten, and she's really nice to play with.

3. How do you imagine your future?

I would imagine my future living in New York still and living in a big loft, and having a dog and having a really good job that pays me a lot of money and people always wanting to party with me.


Name: Ettore
Age: 15
Job: Student
Location: Upper West Side

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

I would not change anything, because every decision, every thing I've done, every thing that's happened, brought me here, because I was born in Italy, and after some events I'm here now.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

I would just say my dad because, I mean, he's dad.

3. How do you imagine your future?

Older…I don't really know. I'd like to be a doctor, but let's see what will be.


Bernadette is Yasmine's mother. Ettore is, I'm assuming, an exchange student who is living with them. They all seemed to be great friends, and it was a pleasure watching them interact with one another.

Well, look at that. Today is the last day of the program (except for the exhibition tomorrow, which is from 2:00-4:00 pm at 66 5th Avenue/ 2 West 13th St in case anybody other than my classmates wants to come!) I am basically finished, with only a couple of small responsibilities remaining (shortening my artist statement, printing out the text of the interviews, and burning everything to a DVD). I am also not speaking today (or speaking as little as possible) because of the gigantic frog that has settled in my throat. I am not good at not speaking.

I'm thinking that I want to organize my photographs by the ages of the subjects, but we'll see.

ONE. DAY. LEFT.

PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT: Marriage, Window Light, and the Cough of Doom

Name: Peter Lobdell
Age: 63, almost 64
Job: straight job: teaching acting and playwriting at Amherst College; real work: actor, performer, writer, director in professional theater
Location: Morningside Heights

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future?

Well, that's very difficult I've got what I've been doing for the last 35 years, and I'm going to do it now, and I hope to carry it into the future. I work in the theater. And I've been married to Greta for 18 years and I hope to carry that into the future.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Greta, our home, and our work in our home.

3. How do you imagine your future?

If you live a life in the arts, you learn to...not let go of the idea of the future, but you don't anticipate it, because every single major breakthrough in my career and in my life has happened without my planning for it - it's always been an accident. We do our work day to day, and we hope to keep on doing it day to day, and that's the only future, is the day to day. Then, of course, a major breakthrough comes through, I get a Broadway show, I meet Greta. Those things can't be planned for, they can't be demanded, so all I want to do is keep on keeping on.






Name: Greta Gundersen
Age: "52" (artistic age) - in the art world, it makes a difference
Job: Self-employed full-time painter
Location: Morningside Heights

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future?

It's impossible to change anything from your past. It's impossible! Of course there are tragic events, and major hurts, but that's where I am now.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

My husband, my painting, and my hopes and expectations (for what I can paint). To stay involved with the painting, so that it will sustain me forever, and hopefully, recognition!

3. How do you imagine your future?

I don't know how to. Sometimes it scares me, sometimes I feel confident. I don't know how to imagine it, I don't, because anything could happen. I hope it stays with Peter, in our house that we built, and that we are creative forever, and we never die.

Greta and her husband Peter are the only non-strangers that I interviewed. They are two of my favorite people, because they are fun, intelligent, creative, and dedicated. Their marriage is like an advertisement for the institution of marriage (which I am generally somewhat skeptical about). If I were to get married, I would hope to have a relationship as (seemingly) loving as theirs. It was absolutely necessary to put their interviews/photographs into a single entry, because they are truly partners in everything that they do.

I think that their wonderful, wonderful faces represent their characters rather well.

In terms of photography, this shoot helped me discover the wonders of window light. Hail to window light, my friends! It is a beautiful thing.
(Note: photographs taken at the apartment at which I was staying, NOT in Peter and Greta's house)




(I have to say, being sick REALLY doesn't help one get a portfolio together. Go away, cough, nobody wants you.)

PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT: (Ah, ah, ah, ah) Staying Alive

Name: Brian
Age: 55
Job: Formerly a mechanic in Richmond, Virginia; now unemployed
Location: Greenwich Village

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future?

Oh yeah, there's a lot of things I would change. Heh, a whole lot. I would love to be young again.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Staying alive; surviving.

3. How do you imagine your future?

Better than it is right now.

You know, it's kind of interesting - I wanted to add on a bit to Brian's story from my experience interacting with him, but it seems that the photograph and interview speak for themselves.There's not really much more to say.

As usual, life has been a series of inner crises followed by a return to normalcy. The meeting with Lubianitsky was...educational, but perhaps not in the way that I imagined it would be. I still think that he is an amazing photographer, even if I do not completely agree with his views on photography. Here is a link to a nice online collection of his work:

People: Photography Exhibition

Although I was quite disappointed by our encounter at first, I think that I will forget my silliness and eventually return for further guidance from him. This excerpt from an interview with the Columbia Spectator illustrates the kind of valuable knowledge that he possesses:

"Lubianitsky explained that his greatest challenge is to capture the dynamism of his subjects. “‘People photography’ is most difficult because of the threat of people looking like still lives,” he said. To capture a person requires, in Lubianitsky’s words, “spiritual communications” at the subliminal level. “Every person on this earth is photogenic. It is the role of the photographer to present it. It is in the substance of the person. You have to feel it. I try to make the sitter a collaborator in the process,” he explained."

In other news (do I use that phrase a lot?), I rather enjoyed our class visit to the Guggenheim on Wednesday - the current main exhibition is titled "Haunted", and (in my opinion) contains more hits than misses. Although I became quite dizzy and a little nauseous from the spiral formation of the museum, I was, at the very least, intrigued by everything currently gracing its walls.

At the moment, I am racking my brain for a good topic to use in our narrative video assignment. I've got several possible ideas, but time is short! I want this video to be a bit more meaningful than the abstract one.

Update: New edit

PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT: Spirit

Name: Keni
Age: 40-something
Job: Spiritual comedian, lyricist
Location: Upper West Side

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future?

I would continue taking piano lessons instead of stopping when I was a kid, so that now I would be an excellent pianist.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Spirit.

3. How do you imagine your future?

Usually with my head, in pictures and thoughts and ideas - functionally, that's how I imagine it. I imagine my future as being more and more delightful, and with more awareness, less of me and more of everything else.

I have now interviewed 32 people, and am feeling as if I should stop, so as to make the editing process easier for myself. Even if I don't stop, I'll slow down - no more sign for me! I have a lot of pictures that I haven't edited yet, so that is what I need to focus on.

In the last few days, I've managed to get a bit more of a variety in the people I interview. It's interesting to hear the answers of people whose lives have NOT worked out successfully, because they have a rather different perspective on things.

Somehow, I have now covered almost the entire spectrum of ages. I have every decade up to the 70s (excepting children), with only a couple of years missing from each. It is a superb experience to (tentatively) be able to glean patterns from the responses, if only for my own edification.

Today I am supposed to meet with Leonid Lubianitsky (a well-known Russian portrait photographer who happens to be a friend of the woman with whom I am staying). I am excited but slightly anxious. I think I have been improving steadily, but it's always a bit nerve-wracking to be critiqued by a professional, especially one who was an assistant of the photographer who is your main inspiration. I am sure that he will be able to give me some excellent advice. So far, these are the questions that I have decided to ask him:

- how does one create tension with the subject? (I am actually getting a lot better at this)
- where should the thinking stop and the intuition kick in?
- what attracts you to a subject?
- how does one translate a person's character into their face?
- what should the ratio of good photographs to bad photographs be?

In news unrelated to photography, I took a nap yesterday afternoon, and I feel SO INCREDIBLY REFRESHED. Unfortunately, I also have a bit of a nasty sunburn from our trip to Coney Island - I literally (no, not at all literally) bathed in aloe vera last night. That same sun has taught me to photograph in terribly bright daytime conditions, though, so I am not too bitter.

I was hoping to be more into the video part of the project, but I feel that the "footage" I get with the dinky quality of a point-and-shoot is not especially inspirational. I'm sure that an amazing director could do wonderful things with any type of camera, but amazing I am not. I'll just have fun with it, I suppose, and do my best to produce something decent.

Update: New edit

PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT: Puppets And People And Photography, Oh My!

I am finding that I love, love, LOVE this project. At the moment I have responses from people ranging in age from 12 to 72, and it is fascinating to see the similarities and differences in peoples' values. People are responding quite well to my sign, although I imagine that my "data" is a bit skewed towards extroverts (which one must be to reply to such a request as mine).

This photograph, taken at the Brooklyn Bridge Park in the DUMBO region, is of the members of the unusual puppetry act Puppetyranny!, Zac Palladino (24) and Leslie Rogers (25).

Their responses:

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future?

Leslie: I want safety back. Safety would be really nice. And health insurance.

Zac: Yeah, safety.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Zac: Cheap living. Free fun - as much of it as possible.

Leslie: Definitely fun.

3. How do you imagine your future?

Zac: Poorer, and poorer but maybe funner and funner?

Leslie: Poor. Poor but still fun. Increasingly poor. Possibly more debt. More debt, more fun (until debt takes over).

(These replies show both the positive and negative aspects of joint interviews. On the one hand, people are more comfortable and less intimidated by the camera when they are not alone. On the other, friends tend to echo one another with their responses.)

Update: New, and hopefully improved, edit:


Update 2: Aaaaand numero tres:

Age

I have decided upon a project, and I am actually quite excited about it. I realized that I've been photographing a lot of elderly people, because I am so fascinated by the stories told by a person's face (particularly when that person has lived a long life). Here is my artist-statement-which-is-not-really-an-artist-statement-but-rather-a-project-proposal (I shall be editing it):

After a 2-year period of self-education and development in photography (with a focus on various types of people photography), I have discovered a tendency in my work to be somewhat repetitive in style. Although I believe that I am proficient at what I have been doing, I would like to improve the level of variety and creativity in my portfolio, giving me an opportunity to discover exactly what I wish to create. Throughout the time during which I have been photographing, I have found that the character given to a person's face by the process of aging is a fascinating and beautiful phenomenon. As a result, I would like to focus my project around the concept of human youth and aging, comparing and contrasting the visual and, more significantly, the individual and personal effects of aging on people. I hope to accomplish this by photographing individuals in all age groups, making sure to provide them with a context of life experience (perhaps by asking a few very simple but specific questions about their past, present, and future to enrich the content of the photograph).

My questions:

- Job/Name/Age (if willing to tell)

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present future
OR
Would you change anything from your past?

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

3. How do you imagine your future?

I will be lugging around my laptop to record the answers in GarageBand, and am hoping that each interview/photo session will take approximately 10 minutes (as I will ask for relatively short answers). I'm going to give my poster board idea a try, but will give it up if it doesn't give me the results that I want. I will try not to get frustrated with myself if I do not achieve perfection, but will aim towards doing my best work. I've realized that I need to think of this in terms of Project Runway (Parsons connection!) - the designers usually have a short amount of time to make their outfits, but they know that they must do their very best if they wish to succeed. To do well, however, they must also remain aware of their limitations.

I AM GOING TO MAKE THIS WORK.

L Is For The Way You Look At Me

I think that one of the reasons that I most enjoy portrait photography, and find it to be a challenging and enjoyable experience, is because I tend to fall in love with my subjects a little bit. The choosing of a person to photograph may seem like an arbitrary process, but there is a significance to the people who catch one's eye. I have, however, been interested in attempting to flaunt this bias - for quite a while, I have considered buying a poster board and markers, writing "Give 5 mins, make a student photographer happy!" and standing on a corner somewhere, working with whoever ends up volunteering. I've actually already bought the materials, now I just need to get around to doing it...the trick is, I can't let the photographs become banal just because they are voluntary. This may not be an effective method, but I would like to try it out nonetheless.

I met this woman in Little Italy, the neighborhood that is basically populated solely by tourists. I was attracted by her bright clothing, distinctive face, and brazen manner of smoking in the middle of the street, disdainful of the crowds around her. It turned out that she was from Slovenia, and actually spoke a bit of Russian; I don't think that we discussed anything of importance, but I really enjoyed her confident, frank manner.

"Can I smoke?" she asked me as I framed the photo.
"Of course," I replied.
"Good," she said with a sniff of derision, "because people in this country always seem to disapprove of it."

As my mother is part of the elite, ostracized group that is smokers in the United States, I understood this sentiment perfectly.

Printing

Today in class, we began to print our photographs. It is certainly nice when one's work finally take a physical form, particularly after so much squinting at and fiddling with the images on various screens. This is the first photograph that I printed - it came out rather well on the first try. Nonetheless, as it is an example of my attempts to do something different, I figured that I would critique myself.

Subject: I chose this girl because of her distinctiveness; perhaps unsurprisingly, she immediately caught my eye. She may be yet another unoriginal hipster, but something about her interested me. I quite like her clothing, because it contrasts well with the setting. I also like the extremely attentive, full-profile stance of her dog, because it provides the photograph with a nice sense of geometry. Overall, she is modeling a little bit (unintentionally?), but a sense of tension remains.

Composition: Whenever I hasten to bring the camera to my eye, I seem to struggle with corners and edges. It may stem from the slight nervousness that I feel when taking a portrait (which may be ironic, considering the fact that I like portraits the most). This could be why I began repeatedly taking the closely-cropped face shot, which I seem to screw up far less often. I don't think I did TOO badly with this image, but it's a bit messier and more crooked than I would have liked. Maybe I'm over-thinking it.

Distracting elements: I'm happy with the angle that I chose (as the others didn't work as successfully), but I wish that the guy in the background wasn't visible. I also may have preferred not having those heavy shadows in the shot, although they might also be contributing to it (I haven't decided yet). I would also have liked to blur the background a bit more (which may also have helped with the guy).

Color: In some ways, I like it; in others, it feels like too much, particularly in the background.

Focusing: I'm actually pretty happy with this, although I think that I could have made her face a teeeeeensy bit sharper.

Overall, I'm kind of stuck with one big question: am I actually any good at this, and if so, what is it that I'm good at? I feel that only a week ago, choosing a project idea would have been a piece of cake; now, however, I feel stuck in a dense fog of ???

Where do I even begin?

The Rules of Photography

For this entry, I am going to use an image that is not necessarily a departure from my previous style because it fits with my discussion.

I met this man on a street corner, obviously attracted by his beautiful camera. His name is Louis Mendes, and (as I learned when he handed a copy to me), he even had a newspaper article written about him. He wanders around the city with this camera, attracting attention and potential customers. Then, he gives them the photograph that they want, and receives payment.

He challenged me to take a photograph of him, and I began stepping back, in an attempt to follow my new policy of fewer close-ups. He, however, directed me to step closer; then, he had me take a picture with flash, which he apparently preferred. The lesson: the customer is always right.

He said a lot of things, and I will admit that my Swiss-cheese-brain has lost a lot of it. However, I remember that his general idea was this: if you want to make money, you should be able to please the customer, and to take advantage of any attention that you garner.

It was definitely interesting to hear his opinion, but I think that it contradicts with my current goal. At the moment, I think that it's more important to discover myself as an artist - after all, I want to deserve the money that I make, and be able to clearly know my vision.