The Sun Rise

Uta Barth Homage

Uta Barth is an artist whose photographs explore the nature of vision. She tries to show the difference between how a human sees reality and how a camera records it. She also examines visual perception and how the incidental and atmospheric can become subject matter in and of themselves. In many of her photographs, Barth tries to focus the viewer's attention on the process of perception through the depiction of incidental objects that are in nondescript surroundings. Throughout some of Barth's series, she investigates both literal and metaphorical aspects of perception by trying to capture the image one keeps after turning away from an object.

Uta Barth is known to not care at what her camera is pointed at but more interested in what is seen through the lens. Barth is most known for her series Ground and Field, which is a series of photographic blurs which were caused by focusing the camera on an unoccupied foreground. These photographs test the connection between the descriptive clarity of photography and the haze of one's memories. One of Barth's newest series is focused around the moment when light begins to transition and fade. This series, Sundial, are a collection of photographs that operate between negative and positive, shadow and light, and visibility and invisibility.

Liquids

This series of photographs was probably one of the most enjoyable project that we have done. All we had to do was bring a liquid and shoot it at high shutter speeds. The end product was amazing because I could see every ripple and drop that no human eye could catch. We mixed so many different types of liquids together and these shots are only a few that I shot. After we were done, I had about 500 shots which I edited down to about 150 shots. This series was created by trying out high shutter speeds and just having fun.

Mass Production Portraits

For this mass production portrait assignment, I had to come up with a style and idea for a portrait that I would want to recreate with 100 people. I chose to combine two things that don't normally go together which was red solo cups and formal portraits. I would set people in front of a black background with very formal lighting and give them the red solo cup and from there it was up to the subject to create their actions. My portraits spanded from akward smiles to outrageous poses. The only thing that I really struggled with in this assignment was capturing 100 portraits. I only managed to shoot 44 portraits. All in all this assignment was fun and pushed me to think outside the box by making me create my own style to shoot the portraits in.

The Road

The roads we take become a part of us and that is what this series is about. Every road that we have taken in life is part of who we are. Roads show us where we have been and also help us find out where we are going. Roads are an essential part of our day to day lives and because of this they have become a part of us. These roads that we take connect us as human beings to each other. Since I am a senior, next year I will have to discover new roads. I will leave behind the roads that I know, and begin on another new road. The roads that we choose to take predict the outcomes of our choices. Roads take us to new and or familiar places, but no matter what road you choose to take that road become a part of you.

I chose to take photographs of these specific roads because I drive them almost every day. These are the roads to get to my girlfriend's house, and not only have I driven and walked these roads a million times but they have become a part of me. These roads are some of the most important roads because they lead me to something that is very important to me. These roads have become a part of me and I will always remember these roads because they remind me of good times.

Portrait Photographers

Martin Schoeller:
I like the style that martin Schoeller presents in his portraits because he captures the details in each subject's eyes. He stays consistent with capturing the lights in the subject's eyes.

Brian Smith:
Brian Smith creates a very simplistic photograph which is very appealing and formal. I like the style of the black background but being able to have the subject pop out from the background. He puts the focus on the face and sometimes hands.

Brandon Voges:
I like Brandon Voge's style because he makes unique pictures that are very detailed. He makes unique series that are of people hanging upside down or high speed portraits of people shaking their heads. I want to capture his unique style in my portraits.

Annie Leibovitz:
The style of Annie Leibovitz is very appealing to me because in one picture she tells a story. She uses the background and props to tell a story without needing extra photographs.

Richard Avedon:
I like the style of Rachard Avedon because he creates deep blacks and bright whites with his overexposure. His pictures are not only unique with the border but they pop because of the deep contrast.

Chaos.

This series is about capturing chaos in a place where order is kept all the time, my high school. In order to make this series, I put the camera on a slow shutter speed and manual focus to cause the pictures to appear blurry and have a slurred kind of effect. These photos are complete opposites of an orderly photo which is clear and crisp. These photos are show the motion of everything kind of like how you see the motion of a tornado by just seeing it. Chaos is present even when we think it doesn't.

Pinholes

Experimental



My experimental pinhole is a double exposure of two doors. This kind of intertwines with my school series. It kind of shows a double door. School









My school series of pinholes is of doors around my high school. I shot them from the inside out because natural light coming through helps define the doors. Home





My home series of pinholes was focused on shooting through a window. I wanted to see what would be the result if I pointed my pinhole through a screen window. I wondered if it would show the screen or if it would blur.

Noumena

Noumena – Dust Particles

My noumena project is of the dust particles that are in the air. No one really realizes they’re there till that one moment in time when the light hits them and they appear. Noumena is defined as an object as it is in itself independent of the mind (dictionary.com). Dust is something that itself is not perceived, interpreted, or incapable of being known but only inferred from the nature of experience. Dust is literally everywhere but we never actually realize it till we directly interact with it. The pictures in this series try to capture that moment when we realize that we are interacting with something we have always been interacting with. We are constantly breathing in dust particles, but we never think about it. These pictures capture the dust particles that I see in the moment, but some may not even experience dust particles or see them as I do. The pictures try to capture the moment of noumena which is not normally perceived. There is no way to really prove the dust is in the air and noumena is basically the existence of which is not capable of proof.

In my pictures, the dust is the main thing that is in focus and this draws your eye directly to the main point of the picture, dust. In this project, there was a lot of trial and error in trying to find ways to capture the dust. Only one of the images was shot in natural light and this is because capturing dust in natural light is extremely hard. You have to have the right time in the day to where the sun is hitting the dust particles. Therefore, all the rest of my images are captured in artificial light. The dust has been agitated in all of the photos so as to be seen in the light. Also the pictures are extremely close to the light source because the light has to be able to bounce off the dust. I tried many times to blow dust off books, but if the light wasn’t right there’s no way to capture the dust. I also had to use manual focus because the auto focus wouldn’t focus on the dust but the light source or the background.

My Photographic Evolution

Photo I:

Photo II:

Photo III:

My photographic journey started in Photo 1 with creating a picture completely from photoshop.The photo from photo I is off of the first roll of 35mm I ever shot. It shows the basic compositional tools that we learned and applied. My photo I year is shown and represented by a basic picture beacuse that year was very basic.

Photo II is represented by my compositional series that I made at the end of my Photo II year. This picture shows how i used the basic components of photography and how I have advanced in creating a picture like the one above. The picture is not just one basic photograph but three put together to make a shaking effect. The photo represents the maturing and growth that had occured in photo II.

Photo III is represented by my noumena picture because that is the most current thing that I am working on now. It is very conceptual and abstract which is sort of like the photo II photo but nothing like the photo I photo. This picture represents where I am now which is finding my style in photography.

I have gone from the basics to finding my style. This brings up the future and where i plan to go with my photography. I plan to focus on advancing my skills and maybe focusing on sports or portrait photography. I love photography because when you make an amazing image there's that feeling of accomplishment. My photographic journey started with basics and has evolved me into the photographer that I am today and into the photographer that I will be in the future.