yet another person working with the dark...

but i really like bits of this (thanks to paul for the tip)

there's still hope!

Today I discovered the work of Gabriel Orozco which has cheered me up no end. These are his photographs (they are not connected, just the first I found after reading about him)

"Walking down 6th Avenue, I'll suddenly see something that intrigues me - a plastic bag, a green umbrella, an airplane tracing a line in the sky. That's how I get started."

In the chapter of the book I am reading (Photography Theory, edited by James Elkins) Margaret Iverson was talking about links between performance and photography and how since the 1960's artists have often turned photography from being a record of "what-has-been" into a question "what-will-be?" This was good for me as it was something that I have felt about my way of photographing, but have found really difficult to express in words.

The end of the chapter is another quote from Orozco "What is most important is not so much what people see in the gallery or the museum, but what people see after looking at these things, how they confront reality again" I found this particularly interesting as this has been the basis to all my projects on this course. It is an old surrealist concept, but in seeing it quoted in a relatively new context I felt reassured that I haven't gone too awry!

(today I am also looking at Richard Wentworth's photographs. I was familiar with his sculpture but hadn't really thought to look at is photos - I guess the internet is not so bad sometimes)

i guess it's a good thing that it exists BUT...

miroslaw balka's black box thing is so close to how i was thinking about and presenting my project... i guess it's back to the drawing board. 

a month or so to go and now i have neither the images or the end!

the way light struggles out of darkness

I have spent the past few months reading lots of things about photography and the photographs themselves, in an attempt to build at least some kind of foundation for this final project. looking at how being surrounded by images affects our memory and experiences. the loss of uniqueness - the concept of feeling "a little responsible for films we haven't seen, crimes we haven't committed" - our present becoming increasingly temporary - museums- history and looking at ways of showing work that reflects these things.

taking pictures that live up to my idea has not as yet been the most successful part of my summer. i want every image to be worth the effort and respect the viewer and as yet i am not so sure i have achieved that. i will post a link to photoshelter to those in my tutorial tomorrow.

I am sure this all sounds vague and pretentious...

Easy listening

This best explains where I am with my project - but I will add more before next week.