Assignment due tomorrow

I think the six pictures that we were supposed to print for tomorrow went well. I did have some problems with the developer, though, that affected the quality of my pictures. It gave them a strange color and they were very difficult to develop. I'm not really sure what was wrong with the developer, though. According to another girl in the darkroom, the developer was not old but it was a different type that didn't work as well or something. That was on Friday.. hopefully it has been fixed since then!
My pictures came out pretty good, anyway, though- different than how I thought they would look based on my contact sheets. I'm interested to see how everyone else did, as well.

Abelardo Morell

I definitely would have to say that Abelardo Morell is one of my favorite photographers. I found out about his work a long time ago and thought his pictures were really cool but it wasn't until last year that I really got interested in his work. I went to see him speak at a local photography museum and he explained how he made a bunch of his photographs, focusing on the camera obscura ones, which are his most unique pictures by far. Recently he has been focusing on color photography but in a way I like his black and white photos better, but that could be just because I tend to like the original ones more and also because I don't do much for color photography so I might have more of an appreciation for that than for the color pictures. It's hard to pick a favorite, though, but these are a couple that I like:

First 2 rolls of film

Today our photos are due for the motion shots and the depth of field roll. I am interested to see how they came out, especially the motion ones, which I think will be more interesting. This weekend I took pictures both in Boston and around Stonehill. I am more excited to see how the Boston ones came out because when I went to fanuel hall there were many good photo opportunities. Although trying to make interesting photos out of something that may not seem interesting is challenging and can be fun, Boston is probably my favorite place to take pictures.

Staged: Constructed Narrative in Contemporary Photography

Tonight I was able to attend the exhibit at the Cushing Marting Gallery here at Stonehill. Two out of the three photographers were able to make it, and they each spoke about their photographs, explaining the technical and artistic aspects of the photos in the exhibit. Thomas and Amy are both color photographers, and they both explained their background in film. Thomas focused on commercial photography whereas Amy was an actress for a period of time and focused more on film directing and editing. I thought that it was very interesting how their approach to taking a picture differed so much, but in the end the final result evokes comparably powerful and spontaneous looking images. Each artist takes on a different approach but the results end up being just what they look for. For instance, Thomas is a very structured photographer, planning out a picture to the most precise detail and telling people to pose exactly the way he wants them to pose. Each detail of his picture is created on purpose in an attempt to make the picture look spontaneous. The size of the images vary, as well, and he uses color in a very deliberate way. For Thomas, nonverbal communication is key, and he includes simple hand gestures in his pictures to convey a certain emotion.
Amy, on the other hand, also has very spontaneous looking pictures, but unlike Thomas her photographs actually are truly spontaneous, rather than planned out photographs. Her technique is to take a few pictures over the course of maybe even a few hours, capturing the most interesting moments at occasions with friends, for example. Instead of bringing outside objects or people into the frame, she chooses to work with whatever she is given to work with, trying to make something worthwhile out of that on the spot, oftentimes arranging herself around a scene with a couple of people. Some of these images even do look pre-constructed, like Thomas' photos, but they are not. I think it is very interesting how incredibly different their techniques are, but their end results both produces images that are exactly how they want them to be, spontaneous and creative.
Because I focused on black and white photography in high school, I was very interested in the black and white photos at the exhibit. Unfortunately, Ri Anderson was unable to make it to Stonehill. Some of the pictures in his series were creepy, as I'm sure they were intended to be, but others were more thought provoking than creepy, in my opinion. One picture titled "Room 408, Ramada Inn, Albuquerque, New Mexico" stood out to me. I thought it was a very well composed and brought in an element of mystery into the picture. The lighting also added to this element, creating a dimly lit atmosphere around the bed that the girl was lying behind. There were also travel maps and cameras on the bed, further adding to the story behind the dead girl and the man in the bathroom, who appears to not notice the girl. Overall, I was impressed by all three of the photographer's pictures in the gallery.