Point of View

This is my results from the point of view assignment where we were asked to shoot an object from different perspectives.

Constructed Realities

Here is some of my work from last semester.  When I had started school at Ramapo last fall, I had never used a Mac, photoshop, or anything but the automatic settings on my camera.  I still have a long ways to go but I really enjoyed working on these assignments.

This is a composite image I had made from a combination of five separate photos.  The back ground is  Ocean Grove beach and the three buildings and plane have been digitally inserted.  They are the beautiful, historical buildings of Asbury Park located on the boardwalk.  I was so happy that in the original image I was able to capture that gentleman walking away from the beach.

This is an image consisting of several photographs of my daughters and my niece.  They decided to jump in the water on an uncharacteristically warm November day! The positions I had captured of their little fluttering bodies running in and out of the water inspired me to create this image. I placed the youngest one in the bunch, Riley, at the base of this spiraling pyramid because she looked particularly strong in this image making her the foundation.

What if the animals took over the circus?  These animals have had enough! It appears that they have eaten the rind master and have place me in their cage! I am having a little fun while trying to learn photoshop! (This is a combination of about twenty different images).

Editing Assignment

            I really had a difficult time producing 200 quality images for the editing assignment.  Struggling with the constant snowfall this winter, I felt trapped in my own home, leaving the house for only the occasional trip to the supermarket.   This assignment forced me to play on my feelings of confinement.   Regardless of what category my photos fell under, they all had the common theme of restriction or close spaces.  Even when I ventured out into the woods, my pictures still represented these feelings I was experiencing.

            This assignment also helped me as an artist to try to express other emotions than the ones I usually convey in my artwork. Rather than focusing on beauty or love, I was now trying to show some of those opposing feelings.  Tight cropping to even outdoor scenes further elaborated on this point, restricting the eye from moving too much around the picture.  The lighting also appears cold and depressing. Even when just going back and viewing my images again, they give me a sense of an eerie quietness that I wish to be washed away by the upcoming spring.

Obsessing . . .

The severe winter we are experiencing has really put a damper on my creativity.  I have to make the best of being confined to my home and try to get some work done.  I get my first idea for the assignment, skin! I will photograph a variety of body parts from the members of my family, cropping the images and give them some sort of obscurity; I am looking for texture. I get this idea after looking at my mothers hand; she is young looking for 54 but not her hands, they look older today.  I take them, but I am not satisfied.  I try other things too but find that I am not happy with one image.  I start to cook.  I can't stop thinking about the assignment and I pick up my camera again.  I will photograph my spices as I go along.  Here I go again, making a mess. I pull out different pieces of china and plate the spices but it doesn't look right. I try the granite countertop, getting closer but what else? Then I place them on bamboo cutting boards and my distressed wood table, this works best.  I ransack the pantry, now I am shooting everything.

Stumbling upon Julia Margaret Cameron

Last Fall, my husband and I packed up the kids and headed for city.  First stop, the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.  We made great timing and miraculously found a superb parking spot! Wow, a relatively painless start to what turned out to be an eventful trip to the museum.  As parents, we try to expose our children to different things (art, music, food, etc . . .) but, as most parents know,  even the best of intentions don't always turn out so well.  My girls, Julianna and Riley (ages 4 and 2), were not in the mood for art that day and could only focus on the cupcake cart outside (I admit I was being just a tad ambitious to try and combine homework and family time). My husband John tried his best to keep them amused so that I can catch a glimpse of the photography exhibit but he could only keep them at bay for so long. Despite their best efforts, I did discover many great photographers in that brief trip including Julia Margaret Cameron.  I think what drew me in the most about her work was my disbelief that these photographs had been taken in the1860's and yet still contained so much symbolism and beauty, which are things that I didn't equate with images from that era.

A few months after my trip to MOMA, it was time for me to assemble a portfolio.  Looking to produce some stronger images, I started to shoot with Cameron in mind.  She was said to be obsessed with capturing beauty.  I always found that it was very hard to capture my own children's beauty and that pictures did not do them justice so I tried approaching the task as if I were her.  In my series, I photographed many of the surrounding people in my life: my daughters, my nieces, my cousins, and my friends. I was happy with the outcome of this experiment!

My niece Chloe:

  

        

My daughter Julianna:

My daughter Riley:

Julianna and my niece Sofia:

Sofia . . .

My cousin Rebecca

My cousin Shanna

My friend Valerie

My first meeting with Julia Margaret Cameron . . . 

The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art