Corinne Vionnet's "Photo Opportunities"

I had an idea similar to this based on my childhood memories. I tried creating some work like this a few years ago, but it never worked the way I had hoped. But Corinne Vionnet did something pretty amazing. Here's what her site says about her work:

Photo Opportunities
(2005-2010)
Series of photographic works entitled "Photo Opportunities", from hundreds of snapshots of tourist locations culled from the Internet. By collecting and then bringing together successive layers of around a hundred similar "photo souvenirs", these images conjure up questions about representation and memory of places.

Check out her website for more images and more essays regarding this work.

Angela Strassheim Lecture

Last night, a handful of CVA students and I attended a lecture by photographer Angela Strassheim. David Little (photo curator at the MIA) was there to ask questions of her work and lead the discussion. After the lecture, we all headed over to the MIA to see the work.

David and Angela during the lecture

"One person can see it as sweet and loving, and one person can be terrified by it, and they're looking at the same image." - Angela discussing something she likes about photography, and something that she discovered while showing her older work.

Her new work "Evidence" consists of photos of DNA evidence left in the walls / floors well after familial homicides. Here's a quote from the MIA New Pictures website:

...During a six-year period between her undergraduate and graduate studies, she earned a living as a forensic photographer, taking pictures of crime scenes and autopsies. Since 2009, she has applied this on-the-job experience to produce Evidence, a more nuanced and less scientific examination of domestic crime. These photographs reveal the eerie vestiges of past lives in homes that are now inhabited by new families...

She sprays the area where the crime occurred with a substance that reacts with the iron left behind from the blood. She does this in completely blackened rooms so that the blood and DNA evidence BECOMES the light source in the photo.

"It's about loving relationships with family members. It's about people that LOVED each other." - Angela during the lecture.

"I've found these to be 'Memorials of Light'." - Angela during the lecture.

After the lecture, we headed over to the MIA to see some of the work in person. Here's some of the "CVA Photo Club" as we were getting ready to leave:

If you want to see more, check out Angela's website. Or take a look at the video below produced by the MIA:

"Art Student Owl" - a new meme

There's another new internet meme out there. It's called the "Art Student Owl." There's a great tumblr page that was created by a sophomore at the School of Visual Arts in NY. She takes submissions of this meme and puts up the ones that she likes. I sifted through 50 pages of them because I could NOT stop laughing. Here are some from her blog that I thought were especially true / funny / close-to-home:

Here are some that are PHOTO RELATED:

I know that feeling after going outside after being in a darkroom for HOURS.

And finally, here are a few that I feel like I MUST comment on, being I'm a professor at an art school:

I warn my students about this ALL the time.


Probably because the work you TURNED IN was great, but you were missing pieces.


This happens in my 2D Design class. All. The. Time.


I try NOT to let this happen - I'm always telling students "there's gouache on your chin."


Always on the look-out for this...


My Color Theory class in a nutshell.


Unfortunately, I've been known to do this. Ask my students. Sorry.


NEVER! I don't like alcohol enough, and I don't NOT like my students enough! ;)


Not COMPLETELY true, but not completely false either....

Hidden Assumption

This quote has been hanging up in the basement of the College of Visual Arts (Western Building) for years. There will be some major construction down there over the summer, and I want to make sure I don't forget this:

Keep in mind the one assumption you should always make; namely that you and others don't understand each other. Assume that others interpret what you say differently from the way you do, and that they mean something different from what you think they mean. Until you've gone through a rigorous process of information gathering and assumption challenging, it's wise to assume that even if the words sound familiar, you’re speaking two different languages.

- Naomi Karten

Lost Blizzard Photos Find Their Way Home

Back in January, I posted about this roll of shot but undeveloped film that was found in NY. The person who found it was trying to find the person who shot it. (Click here to go to that original post and see the video.)

Well, through the magic of the internet, the man who found the film was reunited with the woman who shot it.

Screenshot from his video

Here's the video of his trip to meet the photographer...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI93y2oJ4ck

The last 30 seconds took me by surprise and left me happy.... hopeful....

A Peek Into Ansel Adams' Darkroom

Photographer Marc Silber got a chance to go into Ansel Adams' darkroom and produced this little video. Once you get past the pseudo-cheesy 20 second intro, the rest is pretty interesting. It's a nice peek inside Ansel's home / darkroom / process as told by his son, Michael. I love hearing the stories behind some of these images.

If you have 17 minutes, turn up the volume and enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZlovMptjyQ

I love seeing Ansel's "blueprints" for how he made his prints, and how his son can NOT translate them (at the 5:55 point).

You can see his unique darkroom set-up at the 8:50 point.

Did you know Adams dried his test sheets in his kitchen microwave? I didn't. Probably not the safest idea.....