My Response to Waves 1958-60 by Berenice Abbott

Exquisitely mysterious ripple like waves fill the frame. Limited shades of grey have never been so alluring. It captivates and mesmerises, it engages and provokes. It is simply complex and complexly simply. Like a fly in a web I am caught in the form. Time has lost all meaning, I am hypnotised by the swirl ... lost and powerless. That is the power of the line, the repetition, the luminescence. the power of the waves.

- Tempest -

Looking for direction

I have found that my mind constantly drifts to a question, “what to do for my portfolio?” I know I could take my usual photos of flora and be happy with the pieces that result, such as photos like ‘Alien life form” ... and yet this is my comfort place. If I stay there how do I extend myself? Am I not closing myself off to world of opportunities ... a photo that I am truly proud of?

With intent I take the large step out of the shelter of comfort and into the weather. Now I have to find a new self; this scares and delights me. Unsure where to go now I turn to my writing, hoping that just the right words will come to me like winged saviours. So I have been writing poetry recently as a direction for my folio with the intention of then taking photos to use as a photo collage that reflects the heart of the words. All I have to hope is that I find the rights words.

Montage Assignment

   

My montage photos for the Week Four assignment.  El from the Friday pm is the subject matter.  The lesson was great, especially as in the past I cut, pasted and then used healing brushes to hide the paste; now I can very quickly use layers to great effect.

I have learnt that shadows can make things harder and to be very careful not to bump the camera as this will also add to the challenge.

Extended on this lesson I used layers to mix colour and black & white in one photo; playing with the possibilities of this newly learnt tool.

Self Portrait without self

Stuart set our class a mini assignment of taking a photography that was a self portrait that did not contain our body.  I loved this idea, as I may much happier to take a photo of inner self than physical self.  It made my mind race, what image would represent me.  As time passed I wondered if not all my work reflected my inner self.

And so ..

CHAOTIC STATE by Tempest

Too much to focus on all at once, I am pulled from every direction and yet there is so much more I want to be able to do. Some things are clear and others just out of focus for me. Entwined, lost and yet the path is great. There is not just darkness, doubt and worry but hope. I try to look through the chaos and keep that in mind, in my eye’s focus. There is beauty in the madness, hope and joy ... and perhaps even more. The trick is to take care of the scales and make sure that light outweighs the dark.

INSPIRATION

Nude was the inspiration behind this photo of mine

The song that has inspired me this week is Nude by Radiohead from their album In Rainbows. You must listen to this song, as the song has a very different feel to its word (although they too speak to me too). In Rainbows is flawless, a must on my deserted island list. Let it take you away on the most amazing journey.

My response: I am floating on the surface of cool water, its cool touch caresses my tired shell and covers all that was. Relieved for its power to alter my focus. I succumb to its enchanting melody. It cradles me and speaks to me in silent whispers. It comforts my pain, my hurt, my doubt, fear and loss. I breath in its essence and let it all melt away. The cool touch of the dark watery notes sing to me

"NUDE

Don't get any big ideas

They're not gonna happen

You paint yourself white

And fill up with noise

But there'll be something missing

Now that you found it, it's gone

Now that you feel it, you don't

You've gone off the rails

So don't get any big ideas

They're not gonna happen

You'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking."

Re-view photography exhibition at the NGV

Looking at photographs that cover such a large amount of the history of photography was a pure privilege.  The photos ranged from small photographs that appeared to be printed on thin paper, from large bold glossy prints.

From the exhibition there were two photographs that stayed with me:

1.  A photograph by Robert Frank titled 'Caerau, Wales 1953'.
The photo was a black and white portrait of miners from Caerau in Wales.  There was a dark dirty quality mixed with the most profoundly overpowering sense of melancholy.  I was caught off guard by the emotion that flowed from the work into my very being.  Within moments I was flooded with sadness and unable to break the link; their eyes imprinted into my mind, silently pleading.

'Caerau, Wales',  1953 by Robert Frank, gelatin silver print 23 x 34.8cm

 Image from   http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/LargeImage.aspx?image=/lotfinderimages/d49723/d4972309x.jpg


Along with this photo was a Robert Frank reflection on photography from 1958 that had a huge impact on me:

 " Above all, I know that life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference ... it is important to see what is invisible to others.  Perhaps a look of hope or a look of sadness."

2. A photograph by Yee I-Lann titled Huminodun
This was the photograph that had been used to promote the exhibition.  It is amazing just how much more you get from seeing an actual print.  On the screen I wasn't able to see the details.  The faint white swirls in the sky that are repeated in soft black curls of hair that dance through the landscape. The theme of fertility and femininity are clear; the pregnant woman entwined with a blade of wheat taken in her motherland.  The photo had this very real and still surreal quality.   Beautiful and haunting.  It was my favourite piece, in regards to one that I would hang in my home.

Huminodun 2007 by YEE I-Lann,  106.0 x 205.0 cm, at National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
image from http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/media/mediaReleases/154/display

My Response to 'ThingPit' by Taras Hrabowsky

 A higher being has made the focus of their kaleidoscope our earth. Our world is thrown into a dance of collision. Images spin and crash together, merging into a twisted and beautiful geometry. It is violent and yet peaceful; a reflection of life itself. With a dizzying realisation one discovers that the world is imploding, collapsing in and onto itself ... like a tormented soul inner drowning, spinning in the madness. All succumbs and joins the dance of destruction, the making of a new state of being. And so it ends with a bang and a whimper ... and yet there is beauty in the end, the swirl of colour and light that everything was has now become. As quickly as it ended it begins again, with a crash life is reborn. Life forms on the wall, and the wall is life and earth itself. - Tempest- [find the art I'm critiquing at http://tarashrabowsky.com/?page_id=60]