Giving Up The Gun

“High school, it seems, has changed. It has become competitive. Young men and women — 13 to 18 years old — must work more or less tirelessly to ensure their spot at a college deemed worthy to them and their families. So rather than living their adolescent lives — lives brimming with desires and vitality, with vim, vigor, and brewing lust — these kids are working at old age homes, cramming for tests, popping Adderall just to make the literal and proverbial grade. And for what? So they can go to a school that puts them in debt for the rest of their lives. School has become a great vehicle of capitalism: it quashes the revolution implicit in adolescence while simultaneously fomenting perpetual indebtedness.” -Daniel Coffeen 


I just want to leave this here. 

Pyramids

My project most recently has been based on self made filters and effects. So far I've tried spit, tape, paper (to make a vignette, and it worked!), dry erase marker, and just moving it to make it blurry. I think I want to go out to a craft store or even a 99 cents store and see what things I could possibly turn into a filter. I definitely want to buy cellophane and see how it would look.

I found a site that has a bunch of awesome homemade filters:
http://gizmodo.com/5846828/24-photos-from-crazy-homemade-filters

Things ranging from cheese to tights to the lid of a Tupperware lunchbox. The best part about this project is the amount of experiment that I get to do to find what works best for me. Essentially, I can try to turn anything into a filter... so maybe scratch going to the store to find something. People are so creative and decide to use what's on their hands to make a filter, and I am capable of doing so.

While writing this blogpost I got inspired to try some effects out!

 Through a perfume bottle: 

Through a fisheye viewfinder: 

Playing with a flame:

I really like all of these, but I really love the ones with fire. The fire looks like leaks you'd find with film and it's a great touch. The perfume bottle was cool, but the only obstacle was trying not to get the logo in the picture. I just picked up three things I found in my room and turned them into effects/filters. Yay for DIY! 

Google Poems

I saw someone make a Google poem so I wanted to try it out! Here are some attempts: 

To Moscow and Quickly

For the past few days, I have found myself uninspired and not enjoying what I was doing. It seemed so boring and meaningless, but you always have to face that to see a final product. I was presented with a new project to work on with Katherine. She gave me her tankas to read and I was asked to take pictures  to go with them. This project deals with both photography and design- what looks right, whats aesthetically appealing to the eye. I started looking at some books that Luke gave me. I really liked Mario Testino's work a lot. He's well known for his fashion photography, but the pictures I saw today were a mixture of his pictures such as landscapes and other random snaps. There was a grittiness to every picture and there was something about it that gave me confidence about going forward with this project. Katherine's tankas were the inspiration I needed in my life. She is such a great writer and I'm happy that she's a new addition to my artistic community.

The Great Flatsby (A Review)

This was a film I had anticipated for months. The first trailer left me skeptical and completely displeased, but after viewing the second and third trailer, I decided to give it a chance. Once I purchased my ticket, it finally hit me that I was going to see The Great Gatsby- hoping it would live up to its name.

Within the first thirty minutes, there wasn’t much to do but cringe at the overly done and unrealistic CGI. There didn’t seem to be any effort in making it seem remotely real, and sometimes it was hard to tell if it was an animated film or not. I couldn’t help to giggle at its intolerable artificiality.

Let’s not forget about the atrocity that was the editing of shots. My eyes were being tortured by the visual chaos that ensued. While many argue that the overbearing cinematography was part of the visualization, it was more annoying than extravagant. It was distractions after distractions and took away from any chance of it being enjoyable.

You would think the soundtrack could possibly redeem the film as a whole and embody the Roaring Twenties vibe, perhaps even provide a contemporary interpretation of music from that time. Think again. Jay-Z, Beyonce, and Andre 3000 were some of the many artists that made it on to this soundtrack. That was a curveball in itself and saying that any of the songs had a jazz influence would be quite a stretch. 

Although this movie had its fault, the casting was executed almost perfectly. It seems that every character was portrayed and chosen with thoughtful consideration. At times Toby Maguire was trite and made the viewer feel uncomfortable, but he managed to capture the observant personality of Nick Carraway. Leonardo Dicaprio and Carey Mulligan brought magic to the audience with their wonderful performances. The dynamics between every character provided a sense of reality in even the most excessive scenes.

Despite your love or disdain for this film, there was no doubt that it brought a new sense appreciation for such an important and beautifully written work of literature. This was most definitely a true Baz Luhrmann film, but to call it a true interpretation of The Great Gatsby would be oversimplifying its many downfalls.  With that, I give you dedicated Gatsby fans a warning: this may be your picture perfect Gatsby or your worst nightmare.

Taro

It seems that I keep stumbling upon many great photographers unexpectedly. I was listening to an album by a band called Alt-J (they are wonderful). Their last track is entitled "Taro." Some lyrics are a bit difficult to understand because the singer is British, so I decided to look them up. The first word is Indochina- very relevant to my life because I just finished watching the film Indochine in French class. That was the first nice discovery! They then make a reference to Capa. I wasn't sure who this was referencing, but after looking at possible meanings of the song, I discovered that it is about the photographers Robert Capa and of course- Gerda Taro (the song is about his death and his reunion with Taro).  Just my luck! I was so incredibly happy to find this out. I then decided to find out more about them. 

Robert Capa was a Jewish-Hungarian combat photographer and photojournalist during five different wars: Spanish Civil War, Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II, 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War. 

You may recognize his photos from the Normandy Invasion. 

I think the most incredibly aspect of his work is the risks that were involved to capture something so violent in a unique way. 

That picture was taken from the Indochina War. Extremely moving and heartbreaking. 

Other famous photos by him include:

Obviously something that sets him apart (and other great photographers like Robert Frank and Gerda Taro) is the way they were able to capture different time periods and important moments with more of a personal connection for the viewer. 

Gerda Taro was also a war photographer and is often regarded as the first female photojournalist to cover the front lines of war and die while doing so. Ain't that something. I can't find many of her photos online, but she has a book that I am definitely going to purchase. 

So far this quarter has turned out to be heavily research based on new photographers. I wasn't expecting this at all. To be honest, I didn't think I would come across so many photographers accidentally. The fact that the past three people I have researched were found by simple tasks such as blogging or listening to music makes it even more enjoyable and exciting to learn about. I do believe that the things we begin to love start following us and appearing everywhere. Perhaps because we pay more attention to them, or perhaps because things happen to work that way. 

And with that I leave you a quote by Capa,

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough." (And for you Luke- "It's not enough to have talent, you also have to be Hungarian.")