i have found myself exploring techniques and subject matter which I would normally stay away from. i've turned my f-stop up past 4 for the first time... (which was a requirement of our first assignment) i also was forced in our first assignment to blur and capture motion which influenced me in the following assignment. one more thing I have started is mastering Light Room and have started editing and manipulation my images which is something I rarely, if ever, do in my 35 mm work.
these were for our "sense of place" assignment and mine was the back seat of a car. there is a lot of personal information that i will omit for now that caused this project to blossom, but i learned a lot about my OCD and controlling nature in shooting and composition and the project was meant to be an exploration (and exploitation) of that. The loss and capture of my control over image making. I had someone else drive me around so I could shoot from the backseat and have no real command over what would be next on the route. i didn't look ahead but stayed focused out the window, through my lens as things flew by. a student in the class applauded me on my excellent framing and the straight horizontal lines seen in repetition throughout my slides. I confessed that I highly manipulated them to ensure that aesthetic. my ever insightful and opinionated teacher, Corbett Fogue (who is 2 years my junior, and a great fellow film photographer), pointed out that my need for control was seized as soon as I had the opportunity to gain it. in this case, through editing.
i love and hate the project as it was a great personal exercise as an artist, but a subject matter and aesthetic i find banal and i find myself longing to shoot these assignments with my film cameras...especially since my current assignment i am working on is the master/apprentice project, for which of course i chose the great master, William Eggleston who has a huge influence on my work.
Posts
