Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Women of the Military documentary update!

We might have landed an agent to distribute the documentary! Hopefully it will get picked up in the near future and America can meet some of the fine women who have served this lovely nation!

Women of the Military.


Monday, June 29, 2009

Don't Wanna See Your Face, You Better Disappear...


I know some of you are really touched by the death of Michael Jackson and I guess I can understand your attachment to your Thriller album but snap out of it. Wacko Jacko was an adult who knew that popping pills and not eating was horrible for ones health, right? He could've changed his habits with a little self-determination and by surrounding himself with people who wouldn’t feed his addictions. Yeah, I've read he had a shitty childhood and was forced to work nonstop...I get it but sometimes you just have to let the past be in the past. I saw a video on CNN where the House of Representatives held a moment of silence for Michael Jackson on Friday. Do they do this for the troops that have been killed everyday in Iraq or Afghanistan? I'm sure they'd have to come up with something a little more honorable to say about the soldiers who have passed...I mean, they can't commit on their "style of dancing." For the record, 11 U.S. soldiers and 331 Iraqi Security Forces and Civilians have been killed this month. Since June 25th, 14 U.S. soldiers have been wounded in action. There have also been 38 coalition military fatalities this month in Afghanistan. So this is my moment of silence for those who have passed and who have not been acknowledged…One day our backwards country might get the bigger picture, until then Michael Jackson will flood our televisions, websites, and the ones who should be recognized will continue to slip through our hands.

I could careless about Michael Jackson’s death...my heart goes out to those who have passed and to their families.



Iraq Colalition Casualty Count.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Has college...

made me "one of them?" I love learning, reading, etc but I'm fucking busy with pure bullshit all the time! Math homework? Nonsense. Is photography art? Who cares. Take photos if you want...call them art if you want...if anyone tells you they aren't art look at who is saying it...probably some ironic asshole who thinks they're important. Fuck 'em. I need to graduate now...not in a year. And who thinks it's good for an 18 year old to go to an Ivy League school? What will an 18 year old get out of an Ivy League school besides a skewed vision on life? Our lifestyles and wants breed assholes.

War Photography.

Tomorrow is my last day of classes, so naturally today/tonight I'm writing a six page paper, studying for two finals, and wishing I didn't procrastinate.

My final paper for my History of Photography course is about War Photography. I've fallen in love with a few photographers...



W.Eugene Smith.



Robert Capa.



Margaret Bourke-White.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Flag Day Parade in Hudson, NY.

















Monday, June 01, 2009

Is photography art?

My assignment: write a three page paper explaining why I believe photography is or is not a form of art. I posted this question on twitter but as some of you know, you can't really have a discussion on a site that only allows 140 characteristics. So, here I am.

Art: "Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression..."

Visual Art: "The visual arts are art forms that focus on the creation of works which are primarily visual in nature, such as drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, and filmmaking."

Photography: "Photography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a film, or an electronic sensor."

Twitter responses: "Digital, no. film, usually. some say the camera doesn't lie, but that isn't the truth. digital manipulation, yes. darkroom, yes."

"In my book, yes, photography=art. It uses specific means to reveal the world via the artists' unique eyes/perspective. Dorky?" No, you're not dorky!

Text message response: "I think it's an art because the artist let's the person know what they are feeling through their eyes."

So...

Appeals to the senses or emotions? Feelings? Is it the photographer who has the power to actually do that? When another human being looks at a photograph, they determine if it is worth a two second scan or $150,000...they determine if they allow a photograph to stir up feelings, to make them contemplate, to make them question, to make them laugh, cry, want to be there, they in turn take a photograph and manipulate it to how they want to see it. What is really the art of it? A photographer capturing and freezing a moment that might be beautifully lit, slightly awkward, allows you to see the vulnerability of another human or a landscape, an innocence that normally one would pass by, or is the photographer being selfish and only presenting what they choose, in turn cheating the world out of other points of view? Maybe the art of it all has nothing to do with the one snapping the photograph. Maybe the art of it is ones ability to recognize there is something there...but a photograph can symbolize anything to anyone depending on their emotional state, where they have been, what they have seen, what they haven’t seen.

Manipulation? Anything can be manipulated. A painting, a sculpture, words, love...if manipulating something means it's not art...then why stop at photography? Maybe some photographs need to be manipulated to be stronger, to get their point across, to evoke rage, happiness, in a person. Is there art is manipulating something so perfectly the person viewing it doesn't even know they are being manipulated? That in itself could be art.

I was walking in San Francisco once and stopped to look at a painting. I made the comment that I could've done that...I was told, "but you didn't." It was that simple. That painting was so simplistic that I couldn't even wrap my head around it...what was I suppose to see? Maybe I saw nothing because I didn't want to see anything. Someone probably purchased that painting for a few thousands dollars and I would've just as easily pissed on it.

Is photography an art form?

Thoughts!