Merry Christmas

I'm proud of all of you. Hope your day went well.

Your teacher and student,

Shane

Best Potraits from TIME 2010

This photograph caught my attention the most.. the most literal example of Aziz and Cucher's 'Dystopia' series. This photograph was taken by Jodi Bieber  and is featured in the Best Portraits from TIME 2010. Look through these portraits and pay attention to all of the different lighting techniques, I am relishing in the beautiful shadows and rich colors that develop within the frames.

Newly found jewels

This Guy is Just Plain Rad

Check out  Rotatori's Bloco den Notas.  Chris, if you're still watching the blog:  I think you'll dig him the most...

Link to Essay on Stephen Shore

Jacki, I can't be sure, but this essay may be of some help:

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2010/12/stephen-shore-uncommon-places-2004.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Americansuburb+%28AMERICANSUBURBX%29

Assuming people recognize their ideas, how should they look after them?

I don't believe you can look after an idea. That sounds like one of those Japanese electronic pets. It won't do much good. A good idea cannot be separated from the motivation it provokes. Probably, really good ideas are acted on because they're telling you to change your life, or do something about it.

I think we probably all have ideas that [are compelling], but we turn them away at the door. Because big ideas are scary. I think that is what inspiration is. Inspiration is something that blows you off the path that a moment ago seemed like your life. And most people are frightened of that, and they turn that idea away. They turn the inspiration away, because they'd rather have security. You have to be prepared to live in the wilderness. I'm making it sound too dramatic, but on the whole if an idea is really good, it will not fit in to the known framework.

You could say that's the paradox: if it's incommunicable, it means it's dumb. But if it persists, and you feel that you have to go somewhere with it, it will change you and end up changing the world. I believe that each of us creates the world. We create the world for ourselves. And we create if for others. I actually think that's what life is for. It's what makes life interesting, how we share this creative potential each of us has within the world. It can be very insular, just about fulfilling the potential of the work that follows the commitment to an idea, or it can be about being as open as possible to the unknown. Most people need a bit of both, don't they?

- Antony Gormley

Hope and Anchor

Jacki, spend some time on the Hope and Anchor tumblr.  It showcases a lot of young photographers who may have similar interests as you:  documenting their experiencing of the world.  The more I think about it the more it makes sense:  this is what will begin to emerge from young artists such as yourself:  work dealing with how culture deprives its occupants of 'real' experiences.  If you give in, right, you will be attached to a piece of technology most of your life fully unaware of all the beautiful little things that go on around you?  As an artist, you try to defy that or subvert that or simply say, "I ain't gonna forget the world outside fiber optics and microwaves."

Also, check out snapshot photographers...especially Stephen Shore and, perhaps, Wolfgang Tillmans (can only find examples of his work scattered here and there: go to the library).

I think you have a unique opportunity for a portfolio to look exceptionally diverse in terms of image quality and explicit subject matter, but be tight as hell in terms of one thing:  every image is a document of you either directly or indirectly experiencing something that you may want to term, oh, I don't know:  'the semi-sublime':  things that Ansel Adams and Minor White would have paid no attention to but that you, now, today, in this world of ironic sensory deprivation find so much beauty in.