Sunday, October 30, 2011

Imi Knoebel


Imi Knoebel is a German artist I discovered during a visit to the Hessel Museum, at Bard in New York. He is primarily known for his paintings, and sculptures. Knoebel is also noted as being good friends with Blinky Palermo - whose retrospective is currently the main attraction at the Hessel Museum. However, the primary body of his work being shown in the main gallery, is a series of thirty plus images which were apart of his projection series.
The image to the left is a sample, but does not do the photographs shown in the museum justice. In his images Imi plays with reality - in photographing desired spaces and playing with casted light which seems natural, drawn into fantasy by a projection in the room. At some instances the falsification is almost unnoticeable, in others it is so apparent the images turn more into abstract paintings. All the while though Knoebel keeps the viewer rooted to the material by showing the notches in the film & number count. Imi experimented with a couple of projection series, I believe his first two were with standard film Photography. The later images where pulled from a video that Imi Knoebel had recorded and stilled. I believe the example image is from the video series. The images shown at the Hessel Museum are photographs shot from a standard camera. They are amazing.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

TED Talks

This is a link to the TED talk I was talking about.
It's Vik Muniz who is an amazing artist and does things that are clever and often hilarious.
http://www.ted.com/talks/vik_muniz_makes_art_with_wire_sugar.html

There is also another TED talk that I love and it is one by Adam Savage from Mythbusters. I feel like me and him have a lot in common in the way we think about objects and he's an amazing artist in many ways. I could listen to both of these people talk for ever.
Enjoy.

http://www.ted.com/talks/adam_savage_s_obsessions.html

Love this crowd; Cowboy Studio and the Photo Expo 2011 in NY this weekend

Firstly, the Photography Expo 2011 this coming weekend at the Javits Centre in NY. Check out 2011 Photo Expo. Its free to register for basic access and is going on at the Javits centre. All the latest and greatest photo stuff will be shown and lots of goodies to be had!

Lighting: continuious and flash (strobe)

I came across this great site for Lighting. Actually, its for purchasing lighting at a very reasonable price and they also have a great blog which is worth a read on tips and tricks of lighting.  See here for some tips on strobe lighting, which are very useful. They also have monthly specials. They also specialize in LED lighting, which is very cool and kewl!

Sometimes, the use of an additional light (now this may be a clip-on or a portable flash head or an LED light) can really make the different between a good image and a great image.

Also, I've been trolling the web for some good lighting videos for you to see: from the simple to the more complicated. Do not shy away from viewing these videos, as they will give you an enormous amount of information from which to learn some skills.

Learning about Flash (strobes) and photography using Flash

Flash Photography 101: A beginners guide  This is a thread on a photo site, Very good!
This dude (Neil) posts to his blog everyday and its usually something pretty interesting and always to do with photo/lighting. He is a photographer who shoots in NY. He will be at the Photo Expo this weekend doing demos.

Videos: Basic Flash
Using a  flash meter
Shooting outdoors using a portable flash
Shooting indoors for butterfly lighting
One light studio portrait
Shooting a model in the studio:
High Key portraits using flash
Low Key lighting

Pocket Wizard and using high sync speeds to stop motion.
Low end flash slave for $8 review

Check some of this stuff out!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

the symposium has been cancelled

Everyone, the photography symposium has been cancelled. One of the three people speaking had an emergency and will be unable to make it so it will be rescheduled for the spring, this time as an all-day event. My History of Photography professor gave the announcement monday.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Resurect a Polaroid Land Camera

This popped up in my inbox in my "Instructables" email newsletter just after we finished the snapshot project but I'm still going to do it. It's instructions on how to make a Polaroid Land Camera work with regular AAA batteries not special camera batteries and shows you where you can buy the pack instant film for it. Apparently Polaroid stopped making the film (as we all know) but Fuji didn't, and has said that they don't plan to any time soon. So it also gives links to where you can buy film.
I'm currently bidding on a Land Camera on ebay and it's so far up to $00.06. Yea, really cheap, $8.29 if you include shipping.

Here is a link to the article with instructions: http://www.instructables.com/id/Resurrect-a-Polaroid-Land-Camera/

Here is a link to an ebay search for land cameras: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Polaroid+Land+Camera&_sacat=15230&_dmpt=Film_Cameras&_odkw=Land+Camera&_osacat=15230&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Jason Salavon

http://salavon.com/work/


Annie told me to check this guy out and his work blew me away! Read up on it, some of his work looks rather simple but what he does to make them is amazing.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Shows to see in Chelsea this coming week

SOME  but not all  NYC SELECTED SHOWS TO SEE:
September 26, 2011      

If you want the full list, email me and I can send it to you...the following are my picks!

LOWER EAST SIDE

Sadie Benning / Participant / 253 E Houston / thru 10/23

TRIBECA & SOHO & NOHO & EAST VILLAGE & MURRAY HILL
Pepon Osorio / Feldman / 31 Mercer / thru 10/22
Papertails curated by Valerie Hammond & Kiki Smith / 80WSE / NYU / 80 Washington Square East / thru 11/5
Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life / NYU Grey Art Gallery / 100 Washington Square East / thru 12/3

CHELSEA & WEST VILLAGE
Gary Schnieder/  David Krut/ 526 w 26th / thru oct 22nd  (This is OUR Gary Schneider)
Alex Katz / Gavin Brown / 601 Washington - 620 Greenwich / thru 10/8
Anthony Goicolea / Postmasters / 459 W 19 / thru 10/15
Lisa Yuskavage / Zwirner / 519-533 W 19 / thru 11/5 Opening 9/27
Nick Cave / Shainman / 513 W 20 / thru 10/8
Robert Wilson / Cooper / 521 W 21 / thru 10/29 Opening 10/1
Andy Warhol / Gagosian / 522 W 21 / thru 10/22

Matthew Barney / Gladstone / 530 W 21 / thru 10/22
Roy Lichtenstein / Cooper / 534 W 21 / thru 10/22
Science & Exploration / Horton / 504 W 22 / thru 10/22
Vik Muniz; Matthew Metzger / Sikkema / 530 W 22 / thru 10/15
Paul Villinski / Morgan Lehman / 535 West 22nd / thru 10/15
Nick Cave / Boone / 541 W 24 / thru 10/16
Richard Serra / Gagosian / 555 W 24 / thru 11/26
David Byrne / Pace / 508 W 25 / thru 10/1
Social Media / Pace / 510 W 25 / thru 10/15
The Oakes Twins curated by Lawrence Weschler / Cue Art Foundation / 511 W 25 / thru 10/29
Do Ho Suh / Lehmann Maupin / 540 W 26 / thru 10/22
Polly Borland / Kasmin / 511 W 27 / thru 10/29

MIDTOWN & UPTOWN & HARLEM
De Kooning thru 1/9; Cy Twombly thru 10/3; Thing-Thought: Fluxus thru 1/16; Etc. / MoMA / 11 W 53
David Levinthal / Gering & Lopez / 730 Fifth Ave. @ 57 / thru 10/22