A World of Its Own was a very interesting exhibition which showed photographs created within the walls of the studio. It was quite unique, interesting, impressive and not so impressive to see the ways in which photographers experimented in their studios.

The exhibit changed my view on studio photography and also the overall understanding of history and what’s possible especially with light. A World of Its Own where messiness and experimentation can flourish. The experiments can be technical, aesthetic, even emotional. A place where I learned that in the studio or “art museums”, anything goes–you just have to know how to market yourself with sophisticated vocabulary which professor emphasizes and truly believe in your work. Talent doesn’t play a big role here. To make it big you need to have tight connections with art critics, dealers, gallery owners, curators etc. I think who you know really is a big key to success. Well let’s just put it like this-the world is seriously twisted when something like this gets sold for $44 million. I love art and I think the piece is OK but museum quality? or $44 million!! Come on give me a brake…

See link: http://twentytwowords.com/canvas-painted-blue-with-a-white-line-sells-for-nearly-44-million-4-pictures/

Anyway back to the subject. I thought there where some very great pieces at MoMa. Like for example the portrait of a mannequin by a French artist, Valerie Belin was quite striking in person. It was my favorite piece at the museum. Looking at the picture you realize that our perception of beauty has been distorted by the “beauty industry” because it takes awhile to realize that it is a portrait of a mannequin not a photoshopped model. When women are photographed they are touched up to look like mannequins, so why not just take portraits of them. Brilliant.

For the location project, I decided to do Astoria Park. I really love going there whenever I want to go for a walk, and I thought it would be a great place to take photographs and show others the beauty of it and how calming it is for me. I had problems with the lighting because sometimes it would be sunny and then get dark.

For my self portrait I decided to get images of a normall day to catch the attention of the face expression. So I hope that accomplish the homework with the simplicity of the images.

This is really cool

http://topinfopost.com/2014/03/22/a-man-spent-years-taking-photos-of-one-small-town-when-you-look-closer-youll-see-why

MOMA has an outstanding collection of photography that comes to life in many portrait sizes. The sharp quality and detail varies between each photographer, giving off different moods or abstracts. Studio photography is pretty much under the beholder’s control. It’s both easy and hard at the same time, because creativity is heavily involved. Originality plays its purpose and MOMA’s new gallery perfected it.

MOMA changed my view on studio photography by learning how to create your own world indoors. My experience as a studio photographer has rationally developed while viewing the eye of another photographer. Our job is to allow the viewer to see, how we see things. Light and shadow is the most controllable feature. Adding more or less element, changes the image dramatically as much as color.

Valerie Belin’s, Mannequin Series of 2003 stood out highly towards my interest. The whole image was a detailed head shot of a very beautiful mannequin. It was very wise of her to produce a black and white image which revealed areas of hard and soft light. The direction of light helped the model look more life-like to the viewer’s eye. A large portrait for further admiration tied in well, along with shallow depth of field. Harold Edgerton’s, Indian Club Demonstration of 1939, was also a well produced image on the opposite life of photography. He created a more inverted studio field, where light isn’t involved. He formed movement in a trailed quality with a precise gesture of everyday life. I refer this as a still-motion graphic with a unique use of strobe light. The exposure is different and he found an interesting way to capture motion within a few seconds.

Along with the NYT’s review, I do agree that the exhibit explored the “means of mediums”. It produced many works from different artists, and original experiments. Although many of the pieces do not demand attention, majority stood out on its own. There were a few dull pieces that weren’t fully modern, but overall it complemented basic photography. Here and there were a few repetitive practices that showed the photographers impression. Each exploration was unique; although colored portraits were hardly produced. Color and space is a big emphasis in the modern world. Also, each room carried a mixture of old and recent art. I believed it could have been more organized amongst its group.

I was a little confused about this project, because I thought we only had to take pictures of ourselves. When I found out that we could use objects to represent us. Then I decided mix them both. I chose dream catchers, an elephant that I got from my trip to Colombia, and my music which all symbolize me. This project was very fun, I got to shoot again outside my studio. I used natural light when taking pictures of myself.

In this project, I tried to put most of the things that, most of the time I use in daily basics.

i thought it was fun to put almost everything that I think makes me. and i notice that i use a lot of colors and didn’t notice until I saw the pictures and they looked quite colorful =).