Animations: Bringing Food and Foil to LIFE

Free Shoot #8

Photographic Lies

ALINE SMITHSON, take 2

I discovered Aline Smithson while at a Fourth of July party in my friend’s mother’s friend’s house. I was immediately drawn to a framed photograph on the hallway wall and, needless to say, learned it was the work of Aline Smithson. While I do not explicitly remember what the photograph was of (I think a boat in a lake…), I do remember being attracted to its strong use of light, composition and the sense of “purity” and simplicity it emitted. After divulging in more of her work, I was really impressed with her photographs and the approach she employs. I am particularly drawn to her ambition to explore everyday life with humor and integrity and capture the familiar, yet unexpected, through both black and white and color photography. She says, “The odd juxtapositions that we find in life are worth exploring, whether it is with humor, compassion, or by simply taking the time to see them” and I really admire this approach. Smithson wants herself and her viewer to “linger” within an image and is trying to evoke nostalgia and a “universal memory”. She successfully achieves this by purposively isolating her subjects in a certain manner (esp. in her children photographs) and limiting the amount of “action” within the frame. She often photographs a single person or a single object which, for me, forces me to ask more questions…why this one object? Why this one person? What’s the underlying significance of a half empty cereal bowl?


Her "Portrait of the Photographer’s Mother" series is relevant to the recent collaborative assignment in class and is thus worth mentioning. In this series (as well as Vintage Modern), Smithson is supplementing photography with hand oil painting in order to create color work. I personally find them very humorous and demonstrate her expansive creativity and artistic skills exceptionally well. Through her use of paint, she is able to individualize each photograph and make it evoke a distinct response. She is using a traditional painting off of which to base her work as well as traditional photographic techniques to create something very untraditional. I like it.

Reaction to Photographic Lies Assignment

This project was challenging but rewarding for a number of reasons. How to approach this assignment was the first major challenge for reasons that are rather apparent based on our class discussions; lying’s role in photography is extremely subjective and can be interpreted very arbitrarily. I chose to present a pretty straightforward and blatant lie by placing Bowdoin in locations other than Brunswick. The second major challenge this project presented me with was how to successfully convince people that Hubbard Hall was actually a part of the landscape of Italy, London, Copenhagen etc. Having no background of Photoshop whatsoever, the process of creating my photos was incredibly frustrating. At times I was made well aware of what a “language” Photoshop constitutes and me not speaking Photoshop fluently made the process of manipulating these images very time consuming and trying in the beginning.

Aesthetically and technically speaking, I am very pleased with the final results. I think the cityscape sunset images of London and Edinburgh were particularly successful due to the subtle incorporation of Hubbard Hall. In retrospect, I sort of wished I had used this approach for all my images because I think these were the ones that challenged my viewers the most. I spent a great deal of time questioning how to present my images and am happy with my decision to turn them into tangible “postcards”, which added another dimensionality of lying (even though they might not be that convincing). I would have liked to experiment more with the back of the card however, by perhaps including a written message. Unfortunately, a limited amount of time prevented me from exploring potential possibilities.

It was rather interesting to see how the rest of the class approached this assignment and I was particularly impressed with the varying degrees of interpretation. The wide assortment of topics speaks to just how subjective and interpretative photographic lies truly are.

ALINE SMITHSON

for Thursday's class....
Visit photographer Aline Smithson's website and feel free to check out her blog!


Things to think about when viewing her work...

• What series of Smithson’s are you drawn to, and why?
• How does her use of light affect her photography? In a lot of images, a stark contrast of highlights and shadows exist- do you find this appealing? Effective?
• What do you think of Smithson’s “paint treatment” on her photographs (particularly its use in the series “Portrait of the Photographer’s Mother”) How would her work change if she did not employ painting?
• Smithson often focuses on fundamental relationships/experiences and mundane objects. Why do you think this is? What challenges do you think she is trying to tackle and what larger purpose do you suppose she is trying to achieve through her work? How does the composition of her images translate to these goals?
  

Free Shoot #7: My Favorite Season

LOMOgraphy

Having no prior knowledge about Lomography, I find this photographic approach incredibly alluring and fascinating…and the fact that the tool is a cheap, plastic, portable camera makes it even better. The Lomo approach proves, as Margot addressed in her own response, that flawless technology and expensive cameras are not prerequisites for good, and even great, photography. Whether one likes or dislikes the images produced with a Lomo camera however, is not nearly, in my opinion, as signficant or valuable as the process lomography promotes. What I am particularly drawn to is the aim to “study and document the world’s surface by taking millions of snapshots of it”. Lomography and its 10 golden rules specifically, encourages photographers to divert from traditional norms and take risks. It challenges us to spontaneously capture the world in which we live and embrace the so-called “flaws” of the Lomo camera and the unexpected images it produces.

Being somewhat of a perfectionist, taking risks is something that I have personally struggled with and have been more reluctant to practice in photography. In a self-portrait assignment last year for instance, we were not allowed to look through the viewfinder, which, quite frankly, drove me nuts. I hated not being able to see what I was taking a picture of- what the composition looked like, what was in or out of focus, etc. I am learning to embrace a more spontaneous approach to photography which is perhaps why I am so fascinated and attracted to the Lomo philosophy. The website says, “lomographers shoot as many impossible pictures as possible in the most impossible of situations from the most impossible of positions”- what a great way to employ photography. I too think that Bowdoin should consider investing in some of these plastic, imperfect gadgets.

Thoughts on Eric Hansen

While I am not entirely fond of Eric Hansen’s work itself, I certainly admire his methodology and ambition. His work is truly unique and, as he mentioned in his website introduction, enables him to artistically endeavor in other mediums. The scenes he fabricates demonstrates his vivid imagination and ability to fashion an “imaginary timescape”. Hansen’s utilizes every capability of the camera extremely impressively- his use of lighting, time exposure, fous and filtration are all important factors in creating his images. The fact that he refrains from working digitally or with Photoshop speaks to how much can be done with the “old fashioned”, analog method (reminds me of Jerry Uelsmann’s work). I am especially drawn to his use of light, which I think works particularly well with his decision to produce black and white images. The lighting enhances the mystical and supernatural feeling his images emit and adds another dimension for the viewer to ponder.

As to whether these images are lies or real is a debatable subject and, as we are well aware of based on our discussion in class last week, can be interpreted various ways. While the place Hansen is photographing is not a “real” place you or I could visit, it is one that exists for Hansen and one that he created by sculpting, painting and building. When I visited his studio (spent fall break with Britt) I was able to locate a variety of the pieces from his photographs on the walls and shelves. What he builds is real and tangible, but what he suggests through his images is not- it is based on “somewhere beyond the ordinary conscious world”.

Free Shoot #6: Making Strides

Lying through Photography

In Vicki Goldberg’s article about photography and fairies, she writes, there is “a clear indication that the medium most dedicated to realism and most ineluctably tied to this world has also been striving to reach another one and investing in magic along the way”. This statement, in my opinion, illustrates the enormous potential of photography. I personally value photography for its ability to capture and express the realism of which Goldberg writes. There is nothing more fantastic than “freezing” a fleeting moment before your eyes and then sharing this moment with the world. Photography has the power to expose the nuances, the inequalities and the events of everyday life and ultimately, provide documentation of our reality. Often overlooked, and on the rise, is photography’s ability to present an altered reality; one inundated with slight adjustments or outright lies. The camera as a machine itself, along with the increased capabilities of technology, warrants this manipulation. Technical choices regarding depth of field, shutter speed and double exposures enables a photographer to shape what the lens views. The photographer is also capable of manipulating the subject material itself; creating fictitious moments and suggesting a different reality is entirely plausible if the photographer has the necessary creativity and ability to execute it. It is important to employ both realistic and unrealistic approaches as each one demonstrates the possibilities this medium permits. Photography has the potential to depict reality as well as the potential to create and convince others of a different “reality”. It is a medium that constantly challenges the viewers and makes them question not only the subject material itself but also the legitimacy of the subject material. What in the image is real and what has been manipulated?

Free Shoot #5: Maynard Art