9/13 Blog Evaluation

Paul Thulin has read your blog up to this point/entry. Your blog is currently up to date and complete.

9/28/09 Artist Post: Michael Wolf

Michael Wolf questions the differance between public and private spaces. In his series Transparent City, and its companion Transparent City Details, is not only about Chicago but also about how by intruding somebody's space shows them as the true person that they really are. He is usually distorting the solitary lives of a person by showing what kind of things this person shows in their life, such as what type of things people have on their walls and what exactly they are doing when they are photographed. He is looking into what is usually overlooked by society just by showing these small details. He remains very attentive to society by noticing these details within an image.
Kenneth Baker, critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, has written of the "formal intelligence and acuity of observation" evident in Wolf's photographs.

After talking with Paul, I decided that I want to intrude on people's space without them necessarily knowing. Michail Wolf's series "Transparent City" was the best place to start looking. He intentionally steps into the part of people's lives that they do not necessarily want everybody to see, what they do in their own private lives. This is a line that I am incredibly interested in crossing.

Gallery:
http://www.stephendaitergallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?ArtistID=188

Website:
http://www.michaelwolfphotography.com/pages/gallery.html

Interview:
http://www.lensculture.com/wolf_interview_1.html

9/24/09 Word Post: Social Norms

The study of the powerful impact that norms have on both thought and behavior is a well-established area of research in the social sciences, especially in the fields of sociology and social psychology. Social norms are the behavioral expectation and cues within a society or group. It is “customary rules of behavior that coordinate our interactions with others.”(1) Social norms indicate the “approved” way of doing things such as the way you dress, speak, and appear in general. However, you must keep in mind that what is acceptable in one social group may not be accepted in another. Good and bad are defined by social and cultural norms and these definition change from region to region, generation to generation. Social norms are even established with body language and non-verbal communication. As most of us know, social norms, such as handshakes, nodding, winking the eye, opening doors, pulling out chairs for ladies, standing when a woman enters the room, looking someone in the eye, not looking someone in the eye, dressing up to go to church, or walking on the street side when accompanying a woman, are all examples of social norms formed from societal and cultural traditions. Failure to stick to the rules can result in severe punishments, the most feared of which is exclusion from the group.
This topic seems to fit right into what it is that I am trying to convey in my images. By going through social networking websites, I have noticed the types of pictures that people post of themselves online. They tend to follow “social norms” set on them by society. I haven’t been able to differentiate between all of the types of images posted online, some of the easier ones of point out would be the ones with a camera held at a higher angle, the ones of the persons reflection in the mirror, the ones taken with cell phones while driving, and the ones that accent the types of assets that are wanted in a person. I have a lot more work to do but it helps that there are so many different terms that are helping me along the way.
1. Becker, Howard S, 1982, "Culture: A Sociological View," Yale Review, 71(4): 513-27
2. Fine, Gary Alan, 2001, Social Norms, ed. by Michael Hechter and Karl-Dieter Opp, New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation
3. Greif, Avner. 1994. "Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies." The Journal of Political Economy, vol. 102, No. 5: 912-50.
4. McElreath, R.; Boyd, R.; Richerson, P.J. (2003), "Shared norms and the evolution of ethnic markers", Current Anthropology (1): 122-129

9/21/09 Artist Post: Sebastiano Salgado

Brazilian photographer Sebastiano Salgado is one of the most respected photojournalists working today. He has dedicated himself to chronicling the lives of the world’s dispossessed. Salgado, born in 1944, did not even begin his photography career until 1973 and did not get his first book published until 1986. He began by documenting manual labor world-wide.

“More than ever, I feel that the human race is one. There are differences of colour, language, culture and oppurtunities, but people’s feelings and reactions are alike.” Salgado’s respect for his subjects and his determination to draw out the larger meaning of what is happening to them, has created an imagery that testifies to the fundamental dignity of all humanity while simultaneously protesting its violation by war, poverty and other injustices. He focuses mainly on people who survive day-to-day: physical laborers, refugees, victims of famines, and most recently groups who migrate because of natural disasters or civil unrest.

Interview:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/may/28/sebastiao-salgado-photography-kuwait

Gallery:
http://www.masters-of-fine-art-photography.com/02/06/salgado01.html

Artist Website:
N/A until 2010

9/17/09 Word Post: Twenty-something crisis

The twenty-something crisis is defined as “the state of simultaneously wishing to be old (and therefore taken seriously in steps along the career path), coupled with intermittent pangs for a quickly disappearing youth.” It is about trying to balance your need to have some alone “me” time and your want to go out, for days straight, with your friends and get wasted, showing that you are still the same person as you were in your college days.
They also call it the "Quarter-life Crisis." It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now. Suddenly change is bad, and you try and grasp onto the past because you already know what that was like. You find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't.
"The way I look at it is a transition to adulthood," said Abby Wilner (1), a 28-year-old who is working on a second book about her peers. "It's taking longer than ever today because of college loans, debt, competition for jobs, more and more people living at home with their parents, and people taking longer than ever to get married. This phase, this transition, is becoming a more tumultuous process."
Knowing that there are people out there dealing with the exact same thing that I am currently dealing with does help me understand that everything will be ok in the end. It makes me feel like I am not so strange for not knowing where my life is going, or what exactly it is that I want to do. Finding this crisis made it easier for me to find words to describe how I am feeling, taking me one step closer to be able to find images to portray such a thing.


1. # ^ Goldstein, Meredith (September 8, 2004). "The quarter-life crisis". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/09/08/the_quarter_life_crisis. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
2. Robbins, Alexandra; Wilner, Abby. Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties. Tarcher, 2001. ISBN 1-585-42106-5

9/14/09 Artist Post: Rineke Dijkstra

Rineke Dijkstra is a Dutch photographer, born in 1959, that attended school at Rietveid Academie in Amsterdam from 1981 until 1996. Once out of school, Dijkstra started working as a freelance photographer. Her first exhibition was in 1984 and since then her work has been shown all over Europe and the United States.
Dijkstra tends to work in series, concentrating on individual portraits. She focuses on people in a transitional stage of their life, such as adolescents and pre-adolescents, new recruits into the military, and women after giving birth. When shooting images, she tends to use a minimalist, non-distracting background so that the viewer is forced to view the isolated subject with all of our attention. Dijkstra does not glamorize youth at all, she just shows them how they are. She does not try to show a pretend “awful reality” either.

Gallery
http://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/rineke-dijkstra/
Review
http://prague.tv/articles/art-and-culture/rineke-dijkstra-review
Artist Website
n/a

Since there is not an available artist webiste, however, the following website has a lot of images and information about Rinek Dijkstra.
http://oneartworld.com/artists/R/Rineke+Dijkstra.html

9/10/09 Word Post: Adult

The above image is the first image that popped up into google image when I typed in adult. Notice how not a single person in this image looks happy. Is this really what I am looking forward to attain for the rest of my life???

What exactly does it take to be considered an adult? Does that mean it is time to grow up and forget all about the whimsical dreams that I held so dearly as a child? An adult is a biologically mature, full-grown being.

Below is a random list of things that were put together by myself, my friends and people found on the internet to say how you know you are no longer a child.

Just one peanut butter and jelly sandwich doesn't do it any more.
Driving a car doesn't always sound like fun.
Being bad is no longer cool.
You have friends who have kids.
Saturday mornings are for sleeping.
You are taller than the slide at the McDonald's playland.
Your parents' jokes are now funny.
Naps are good.
Hitting girls is no longer considered flirting.
When things go wrong, you can't just yell, "Do-over!"
The only thing in your cereal box is ... cereal.
You actually buy scarves, gloves, and sunscreen.
You WANT clothes for Christmas.
You don't want a Camaro because of the insurance premiums.

You say to your friends: "Why don't we get together for dinner?"
You drink wine frequently.
You are legally old enough to drink everywhere in the world.

When you pay your own bills.

There is food in your refridgerator.

You don't have to ask your parents if you "are allowed" to do something.

When you don't feel like going out drinking Thursday, Friday AND Saturday.

You know what an IRA account is and think that it is a good investment.

While you are a student, everything is perfect. You go to class, sleep, eat, and then do whatever you want with the rest of your time whether that be studying or going out with your friends. It is pretty idealistic. So, do you blame me for not wanting to leave this oasis for what? The "real world??"

I am beginning to think that I have the "Peter Pan" complex. This is pretty much self-explainatory but in psychological terms it is a deep-seated belief that one will never, and must never, grow up. The characteristics of the personality include attributes as "irresponsibility, rebelliousness, anger, narcissism, dependency, manipulativeness, and the belief that he is beyond society's laws and norms." (Yeoman) Maybe not to the full extent but I hold certain that I do not want to "grow up" completely and that I still want to have playfulness throughout my life.

Yeoman, Ann. Now or Neveland: Peter Pan and the Myth of Eternal Youth (A Psychological Perspective on a Cultural Icon). Inner City Books, Toronto, 1998. ISBN 0-919123-83-X

A little more digging

Recently, while researching deeper into reaction images, I realized something. It is not that I am really interested in the types of emotions people emit. It was more about how I was causing these reactions from people whether it was by saying something offensive or stepping into their comfort zone. Everytime I did a project dealing with reactions, I was placing my discomfort onto these other people. I decided to dig a little deeper and figure out why.
I have been trying to constantly figure out in my life, where I am at this point. I feel caught in the middle at age 22. I am at this point in my life where I am still wanting to act like the playful child but trying to be a responsible adult. I want to figure out exactly how to portray these anxious feeling that I constantly have, instead of forcing somebody else to feel this way.

9/7/09 Artist Post: Paul D'Amato

In this past week, I have been looking at photographers that use deep emotion in their images without having to create that feeling. Paul D'Amato does just this. The tension in his images is always balanced by some type of resolution. D'Amato puts himself in situations where he is going to be the "tension" in the community he is interested in photographing, whether that is because they are a different race or different class. D'Amato says that he wants his pictures "to have the widest possible emotional range." D'Amato does not photograph anybody that he does not consider beautiful. Through his subject's body language you feel as if they are revealing a personal look into their life, but they also keep a certain part of themselves hidden. It is a tricky balance between what is revealed and what is kept secret. In most of D'Amato's images, the subject is not even posing. They are just caught in the midst of what they are doing, in their usual hustle and bustle. He photographs people in their natural environment, which may be what I find to be so intriguing about him.
In D’Amato’s images above Isela (Image 5), Anxious Bride (Image 4) and Quebradita (Image 3), he is just being part of the crowd while taking his photographs. He happens to catch the exact moment in which something spectacular is happening. In Anxious Bride, it is clear just how “anxious” this poor bride is. It was impeccable timing that lead to such a strong image that portrayed as much emotion as this specific image holds.
In the above images April (Image 2) and Twins in Gangway(Image 1), D’Amato finds this perfect opportunities and photographs them. The subject of these photographs is very much aware that he is there but they do not change how they are acting. D’Amato says that “the important thing is knowing how to recognize the certain way a look will communicate in a picture.”
My work relates because I am constantly trying to figure out how to convey a certain look through and image but have not completely gotten a knack for it. Although I may be aware of what type of image I am looking for, I do not necessarily know how to go about finding that image without creating it myself. I am hoping that by looking at artists such as D’Amato I will be able to find their influence and put it to use through my images as well.
http://www.pauldamato.com/work/

9/3/09 Word Post: Child

"Children show me in their playful smiles the divine in everyone. This simple goodness shines straight from their hearts and only asks to be lived."
-Micheal Jackson

Going with my new thought process, the word child is the direction that I want to go in. Today I sat down and came up with every word possible I could come up with to describe a child. I then sent out a mass text to almost everybody in my phone and asked them to describe a child as best as they could. The most common answer I recieved back by far was playful. Following closely was niave, energetic, loud, and innocent. The words playful and innocent seems like the obvious choice in trying to describe a child. The image above shows pretty much everything that people used to describe children. They are always acting goofy and crazy.

"But the adult is not the highest stage of development. The end of the cycle is that of the independent, clear-minded, all-seeing Child. That is the level known as wisdom. When the Tao te Ching and other wise books say things like, "Return to the beginning; become a child again" that's what they are referring to. Why do the enlightened seem filled with light and happiness like children? Why do they sometimes even look and talk like children? Because they are. The wise are Children Who Know. Their minds have been emptied of the countless minute somethings of small learning and filled with the great wisdom of the Great Nothing, the Way of the Universe."

Benjamin Hoff
Source: The Tao of Pooh

It is known that children are often seen as innocent. They seem to be incredibly carefree, without any real responsibility. This is the stage in life that we all seem to want to return to later. But as children, we can't wait to grow up and get into the "real world." Trying to figure out what exactly it is that I am still trying to hold onto from my childhood will help me figure out the reasoning behind it. I am scared that as I grow older, and become more "responsible" that I will lose the inner child in me and that I will not be able to find her again. What if I lose my curiosity? My creativeness? Maybe I won't but maybe I will just change the way in which I use them.

Hoff, Benjamin. The Tao of Pooh. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1982.