Industrial Landscapes

As a contintuation of my exploration of space, I decided to try something a little more industrial. This building was formerly an indoor recreation center called Rex Plex in Elizabeth, NJ. They have an overall blue tone to them because silly me forgot to set my white balance and I haven't yet edited them. However, I quite like the cold feel it lends to them.

During critique a funny thing was brought to my attention. Almost all of my pictures share the same horizon line and almost line up perfectly when put next to each other. I always noticed that I have a certain style of framing things, but I never realized how geometric it was. My teacher referred to it as my way of looking at the world and my compositions are completely subconscious. From that we got into discussing composing my own landscapes due to how easily I could stitch these photographs together to create a world out of my vision. It could be very interesting.

Memories

“Most of the time, people want to believe they remain the same, but sometimes they also want to believe they have changed, and they shuffle and edit the facts in their memory to fit whichever belief is more relevant.”

Baumesiter and Bushman

These are photographs tied to my memories. In the prints, the squares are physically cut out and are meant to be aesthetically displeasing, or even awkward. My intention was to obstruct your view and ruin the cohesiveness of the photograph. I took out what I felt were essential details forcing the viewer to see what they want to see by either filling in the blanks, or projecting their own memories into the images.

Some Final Images

A glimpse at the last few images I'll be adding to the book, which I will be ordering momentarily.

More Houses

And more questions. I have been shooting in plenty of homes, but I still have not really answered: what is the question that I am asking my photographing these homes?

I figured that as I kept going the question would more or less answer itself, but not yet. 

And so I move on to more houses.

Day and Night

Today was freezing, so I decided to take some pictures. I want to focus on exteriors, mainly the facades of houses and buildings. I prefer shots at night, but I also don't mind pairing the two. As cold as it was, I did invest in a wireless remote for my camera, which has cut the time it takes for my night shots in half. It was absolutely worth it.

Notes

I had completely forgotten about this until I was looking through some random papers the other day. When we leave notebooks, my dad likes to leave notes. Lots of times they are to my mother, or they are about things he has done, or is going to do. Parts of them tend to be confusing, but for the most part you can understand what he is trying to convey.

This weekend I left a notepad out again and today when I came home I found this note.
Ever since he had a mild stroke in 2006, his handwriting has been all over the place and his spelling hasn't been the greatest either. I remember when I was younger how I would call him the human dictionary. He seemed to know how to spell everything, as well as how to explain everything. Maybe he'll start writing me letters.

Studio Journal: Recent Happenings

Things have been moving a little slower as of late. Thanksgiving came and went. It's nearly December. I haven't been as productive as I wish I could be, but this is what I've been working on as of late with my dad.

Studio Journal - Phillip Toledano

In regards to starting my project about my father, it was recommended that I look at Days with My Father, by Phillip Toledano. I have never been moved to tears before by artwork, but these photographs hit so close to home. Already I feel this will be one of the biggest influences upon my upcoming work and the series is nothing short of beautiful.

Studio Journal - My Dad

I've been thinking a lot about what my interiors work is turning into and after taking pictures again at my house, I started to think about photographing my father. He's 75 years old and his age, as well as health is beginning to catch up on him. It is an extremely sensitive subject for me and I am hoping that this can serve as a type of "phototherapy."

Here are a few shots from when we hung out together a few weekends ago.

Studio Journal - Jo's Apartment

A few pictures from a shoot this weekend. I accomplished exactly what I set out to do and I am very happy with how these turned out. This is probably one of my favorite interior spaces that I have investigated so far and I have a feeling that I will be back there soon. The lighting was beautiful and the bright wall colors lent to some beautiful photographs.

Studio Journal - Home Part 2

On Saturday I decided to revisit my house and take some more pictures. I focused more on cropping, as well as photographing more rooms and sections of my house. I definitely approached it with a different perspective than my last project and I am happy with my results. This weekend I have at 2 shoots planned in different houses, so we'll see how it goes.

Studio Journal - Seeing Through Things

I managed to scan some black and white film from my time in Italy. There is evidence that my idea has been sitting around in my mind for quite a while now in terms of spaces. I love the idea of seeing through things--down alleyways, through doorways, windows, etc. Also, stark contrasts between light and dark.

Studio Journal - Night, New Brunswick

I'd like to think of myself as being somewhat productive lately...

I managed to go out on Monday night and take pictures on my street in New Brunswick. There are a lot of shots that turned out extremely well, but I am still having a hard time with focusing the lens and autofocus isn't helping whatsoever. I took more of my time shooting these and double checking that they were in focus and some were still slightly out of focus, but for the most part everything is coming out exactly how I pictured it. Unfortunately I didn't have the same luck with my night shots from home and I need to go back and reshoot a few photos that would have been great if it weren't for the focus. I adjusted my viewfinder to help, but it's just too hard to see at night.

Studio Journal - Space is Found in Our Homes

"Memories are motionless, and the more securely they are fixed in space, the sounder they are." - Gaston Bachelard

Studio Journal - Night Shots

For my Photo II class I did a project titled The Urban Landscape, where I took black and white photos of Weehawken and New Brunswick at night. It was an experiment to see what I would come up with and it was successful, and I have been meaning to revisit the idea.

Tonight, I did just that. However, I used a digital camera instead of film this time and I am finding that I definitely prefer them in black and white because it creates such rich blacks. As I am reviewing the rest of my photos, I am also finding that a lot of the shots are out of focus because it's difficult to tell at night. I need to do something about that. Also, in the last 4 or 5

shots I realized the perspective that I like the most, but at least I figured it out for next time.

Studio Journal - Grandmother Says

On Thursday I accompanied Emily to the beach to see her Grandma. There is nothing like AC, home cooking, and tough love.

Since I'm taking Thesis this year and know that I generally want to focus on spaces, I decided to take pictures in her house as a means of exploring my idea.

Already, I am realizing something about my idea. I am not just feeding my obsession with furniture and nice lighting I am exploring the most intimate of places--the home.

This is a home that I have been to many times. It has been a part of my childhood and is well imprinted in my memory. Which is making me think of the difference between my photographs in people I know vs. people I don't know. However, in a sense the act of photographing a person's home is almost a way of getting to know them--through their things. (I can't help but think of Fight Club "The things you own end up owning you.")

Now I have something to think about. Maybe getting back into things won't be so bad after all.