final post!

So this semester has been long and full of a billion ideas.
Something many people don't know about me is that it's extremely hard for me to stick with a project for more than two weeks. (i'm sure that this class has picked up on it) I know that that sounds horrible for an artist, but something i've always like about being a photographer is that most of my projects are usally pretty short term, or i can come up with different ideas by the week or day. So this semester was really a huge challenge for me. Sticking with one thing the whole semester. which, of course, i couldn't really do. At first i decided i wanted to do images incorporating QR images, but after only a few weeks, i got bored. And then i decided that i wanted to do polaroid transfers. Which i did NOT get bored with, my camera just broke, and the supplies were very hard to get. but this made me really think about what i love about photography. The spontaneity of a film image vs a digital image. I feel very passionate about this issue even as the semester comes to a close. Lately i've only been shooting film. so i figured it would be only right for me to make pinhole images. Something i've never done before. They ended up looking more like paper negatives, but i really enjoyed doing this. I liked the disciplin of having to sit still for sometimes 5 minutes long for an exposure and then going and developing the image just as i would with any other image in the darkroom.
So here is my final product. These were my favorite, and the ones that came out the best.
I displayed them side by side against a wood material because i thought that it brought it back in years. These tiny photos are kind of like daguerreotypes,which were some of the first images to be produced. they had a very long exposure time, and they were very very tiny. This made them very intimate.
For me, this series was more intimate and for me than anything else. I was becoming one with my images, as lame as that sounds. I had to focus on every single detail of the frame and the exposure, and every single movement i made would effect the image that was produced.
I am very happy with the outcome of these tiny images, and im glad i stuck with it for more than a few weeks. This is a big step for me!!!

sleep is for the dead

it's only tuesday, and i've already spent 24 entire hours on CCAD's campus( i do not live here) wide awake. ahhhh finals week, can you smell the body odor and stress?

here are some of my pinholes from the last week and their inverse counterparts.
:)

Can't wait for this year to be over! it's a bittersweet feeling though I guess. One more semester in my entire college career? talk about scary
I think this one is my favorite, because it was shot at night and it looks completely like day except for the light streaks from a car. my exposure was 5ish minutes.

everythings going as planned.
been shooting a whole lot of everything lately.
ready to finish up and move on to bigger and better things this summer photography wise
film all summer.
:)
this class has definitely made me become more aware of my need to go back to film photography.
with polaroids and pinholes and everything else ive experienced this semester, ive definitely grown as a photographer and a student. im excited to see what's to come.

Pinholes are going good/bad. I shot more this weekend, but apparently my dark bag isn't as dark as i suspected. and so i have little grey pieces of paper. WHOOPS. more to do more to do!!!
Not much of an update, but I'll post more over the week.
on another note, i've been shooting lots of film lately too I'm really excited about it. :)
here's one of them

So I realized that i'm dumb and I saved my last blog post as a draft but it's up now.:) I LOVE Technology!!!

Ive been shooting my little pinholes. They are sort of difficult to gage, but i think i've decided around 2-3 minutes is a good exposure time. Luckily, i can change my aperture on my pinhole.

here are some of the images that I captured.
They look a bit wonky, but I think that's the fun of it. It kind of takes you a second to figure out what they are because they're tiny paper negatives.
I will bring them into class so you can see them in person. I was having major scanning issues so I couldn't scan them at school. Again, YAY TECHNOLOGY <3

Garage sales and 5$ bills

So, going home to new jersey was not as bad as I expected. I got a few great things out of it, including a new twin lens reflex. Mind you, this little guy was built in the 1940's in Chicago. It is a Spartus SPARTAFLEX. Sounds epic right?
I found this to be an awesome opportunity to not only shoot more with medium format films, but also I think it'd be fun to turn this baby into a pinhole camera! which is exactly what I did!
It didn't take much, really just some light tight tape. But it's a whole lot of fun.
This camera will produce 2.5x2.5 sized pinhole images. I know that they sound tiny, but the end product will be much bigger. I intend on making several of these small paper negatives, and then turning them into positives, and then posting them all together, so it's a huge mass of tiny little images that you won't know what they are until you get up close. :)

here are some images of the camera

paint cans popcorn cans, what's the difference?

So I am making a pinhole camera, and i've been trying to figure out what to use that wasn't a paint can because i want to make this project more difficult than need be, and also, i want bigger images than a small paint can, so i'm using a three different kind of popcorn christmas tin. i have to paint it black still, but i'll do them this week and have the images up by this weekend before spring break :)

here is my can

i just need to get the wooden part!

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=11865&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=23082

this is the website im using!

i hate technology.

sooo im blogging from my phone right now because my internet decided to not work.

once again i hade to change my idea because my polaroid camera decided to die with 30 dollar film in it. insert me crying her. so after meltdown number 56 this week i have decided to make some pinhole cameras. its a one shot deal. its new and fun and exciting still while i figure out my polaroid issues. anyone have an old polaroid 600 camera i could borrow.

im going to go cry now.

see ya.

i will post photos this week of my new pinhole camera im making that will have no wires no batteries

UPDATE

Just a short update,
been shooting more film. Charlotte gave me another 600 camera, which is unfortunately broken, but Dan and Duncan said they could fix it (they must be magical). unfortunately it's a camera that has only expensive film. i've been keeping a close eye on camera/film deals on ebay but so far, some are 600$! i will scan in my new Polaroid images tomorrow. I just wanted to update you all on where i am at. but so far, right now, for the cameras that i have, film is going to be 30$ and very hard to come by.

money money money money MONEY

EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT.

So i changed my idea from the QR Codes.
I changed my idea because i just didn't feel passionate about it.
i am a senior now as of this semester and i really just wanted to do something that made me excited about making art and photographs.
so i decided to go back to taking Polaroids with this film i bought for my polaroid 600 camera. the film is very rare and very expensive, so i have to choose each shot very carefully. i want to do transfers and emulsion lifts with these photographs and at the end i will have a series on different hand made papers.
i am so excited about this project because it makes me feel excited to be making art again. i really needed this spark of inspiration to really make me excited to do what i love to do.


so of course I should have known that money would be a set back in this project, but I am determined to continue on with my new idea of using Polaroids.

the idea i have is to take photos and then do Polaroid transfers with them on home made papers.

the transfers are really beautiful and are a lot more than just taking a photograph.
the transfers would look something like this



as for the film/camera issue, I've been looking on ebay for a new camera that would be easier to buy film for.
if not, i'll be continuing to buy the 28$ for 8 exposure impossible project film.

update update update!

I have been reading up on qr codes and different ways to use them. these small codes are almost like the new UPC codes. UPC of the future!

these are some links i found on QR codes and what they are most useful for.

http://www.foxypropaganda.com/qr-codes-top-reasons-to-use-qrcodes/
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=46402543055&topic=7185
http://www.readwriteweb.com/biz/2011/01/how-small-businesses-use-qr-codes.php
http://www.fastcompany.com/1720193/13-creative-ways-to-use-qr-codes-for-marketing
http://notixtech.com/blog/27-ways-use-qr-codes


reading up on QR codes has really taught me a lot. it makes me more excited for this project.

here are some more creative ways in photos to use these codes.






I will also rewrite my artist statement as I continue my project. The beginning of this project started off pretty fast paced and now I'm at a stand still just waiting to do more shoots in the studio which will happen this weekend. I will also be doing a shoot for my hair salon and i will probably use some more shots from that for this project.

Artist Statement

Smart phones do not make Smart People.

People ages ten to one hundred and ten, are connected. A buzz comes from a back pocket or bag 2000000 times a minute anywhere in the world. We are connected to people in the next room, across the country, and out of the country. These images show just how connected we are with our mobile devices. By taking an image of someone and replacing a part of it with this QR code,the viewer curious to see the rest of the photograph. When scanning the code with their "smart" device, the viewer will be brought to the image, without the missing piece. This series of photos will show that without our mobile devices, we feel like we have a piece missing. How can we be in the know 24/7 if we do not have phone, messaging, email, and internet at our fingertips? There was a time when we were not so dependent on the phone or internet. What would happen if we left our phones at home for a day? Go ahead and try it. You wont be able to see the finished product of these images instantly. Feel uncomfortable? Me too.

Zack Attack inspiration.

So this is where it all began
Flashback to the early 90's. Sitting in my living room eating Trix Cereal and watching "Saved by the Bell." Mid class, Zack Morris pulls out this BOX from his back pocket and answers it.

Zack Morris is my first recollection of a cell phone. Zack and his "mobile" phone, even though it was the size of a 6 foot 7 army man's combat boot, generated a frenzy.
Flash forward.
it's 2011. I can guarantee everyone in this class room has a cellphone that is within reach. I find myself checking it for a text message even while writing this post. Constantly checking it. My cell phone is actually an extension of my hand, if you didn't know. Email, Social networking,GOOGLE. Anything I want at the touch of a button. We are SO reliant on cell phones,ipods, ipads, iANYTHING. A day without a cellphone for a 20something college student is like living without food. Or so we think.
Flashback again to the days where you had I mom call my best friend's mom on the house phone to ask if she could come out to play because I was too scared of the phone.
Flash forward.
I spend hours a day texting/calling my best friends.
I call my mom once a week.

We are so dependent on this piece of plastic to keep in contact with people.
but now, phones not only call and text, they are capable of scanning, taking photos, GPS, etc.



If you have a smart phone, or any phone that is able to download "apps", this little block of black shapes can take you almost anywhere on the World Wide Web. It could bring you to an artists website, someone's contact information, a video, a product's information, ANYTHING. With just one scan, your phone can now take you above and beyond anything you ever imagined.

This generator, and our obsession with cell phones, is my inspiration for our semester project. For about a month i have been dabbling with the idea of how I could incorporate this image in my work.

I am most passionate when i work in the studio. If i can not control my light, i feel uneasy. for this semester I would like to do a series of portraits that will have this QR generator over a part of each photo, making it unreadable unless you scan the code with a smart phone. For every photo i will generate a new code.
this project is to show how a part of us (not ALL of us, but mostly all of us) are so very attached to being connected constantly and our phones are a part of us.
Think of these codes and the missing pieces of these portraits as this is what people see. People see us with our devices, our smart phones, iphones, i pads, lap top computers, etc. We are technology. When people look at each other we judge constantly, we look at hair, clothes, shoes, cell phone, lap top brand (what? you go to art school and you don't use a mac? shun shun shun.. yes i did hear that in the days that i was rollin' with a gateway computer)

So basically, in a nutshell, this project that I plan on doing is to show the connection between us and our wireless devices. Without them, we feel like there is a missing piece. I will show that with these photos. The QR code, the missing piece, can only be viewed with a cell phone.
(the completed photos will also be up on my blog for those who do not have the access to a smart phone.)