Digital Imaging: This week we played around more with various masks but in particular we worked with quick mask mode. I think it’s going to be a pretty useful little tool.
This quick mask video is helpful for Photoshop:
This quick Mask video is not helpful for Photoshop:
Sadly I wasn’t in Crit & Theory on Tuesday but the readings for this week were:
Laura Mulvey’s well-known essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”
Rosalind Krauss’ “In The Master’s Bedroom”
Kate Linker, “Representation and Sexuality” available in Art After Modernism: Rethinking Representation
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Lighting class this week was all about painting with light.
We practiced using one long exposure and a flashlight.
We then took multiple shorter exposures and used a flash to illuminate. I don’t use Adobe Lightroom (yet) but a cool feature is that you can import images from Lightroom into Photoshop as layers and then turn then turn them on or off depending on how you want the lighting to look .
After lunch was crit time. I’ve been getting a few emails asking about what I’ve been working on. One area of exploration has been working with webcams:
In Past Tense, Present Tense we were a bit all over the place. One student gave a presentation on a few photographers he liked including Chris Killip and Alec Soth. Another student gave a presentation on nude photography which included lots of photographers from Tierney Gearon to Araki.
A recent article in The Observer considers the issue of child nudity in art (photography): HERE
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That just about does it for Week 9. Right now, I’m still thrilled with my decision to return to school and have no regrets at all. I don’t agree with all of the readings, but I do feel that they are pushing me to be more considerate in how and why I make images. I’ve also found that I’m looking at and considering other work in new ways that had never occurred to me before. Given my reasons for returning to school, these are all great changes!
Meant to tell you that I taught my Anthropology and Art section last night, which generated a pretty good discussion on photography and ‘authenticity.’ We used the following readings plus film (have you seen it?):
Benjamin, Walter. 1969 [1936]. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” From
Hannah Arendt, ed. Walter Benjamin: Illuminations. New York: Schocken (pdf, pp. 1-15).
Sontag, Susan. 1990 [1977]. “Melancholy Objects.” In On Photography. New York: Anchor Books,
pp. 49-82.
Steiner, Christopher. 1994. “The Quest for Authenticity and the Invention of African Art” and
“Cultural Brokerage,” In African Art in Transit, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 100-156.
Photo Wallahs (1991, Dir. David and Judith MacDougall)
I namedropped you and K.