colors colors colors

Seriously it had me at Olafur Arnalds, directed by Esteban Diacono

Ólafur Arnalds - Ljósið (Official Music Video) from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.

Who needs sleep

So I've been thinking a lot about portraits, interiors, color...and nostalgia. Actually really liked some of Aaron Ruell's work for one of the above reasons. Go Kip Dynamite!

Kent Twitchell and 6 L.A. artist live forever...

Look familiar?
Okay okay how about another Torrance name drop. Kent Twitchell.













Ed Ruscha Monument, 1978-87




L.A. Marathon, 1990




Harbor Freeway Overture, 1991-93




* 6 L.A. Artist, 1979 (this one's in Torrance)


(Heard a rumor..."paint by numbers")

pacific Electric railroad bridge now

Grabbed this image for comparison sake. Thanks random photo-enthusiast

Torrance fact of the week...

Architect Irving Gill does time in the big T!

While on a walk about with the Torrance historical society, I tried to keep a level head as I heard big names being dropped. "Irving Gill, Diego Rivera...yada yada" Turns out the Irving Gill part is true. We've got 9 Irving Gill's, one of which happens to be a personal favorite that I drive though almost on a daily basis. (Gill Considered an architectural "cubist" of his day he was famous for his minimalistic approach with hygiene and economy in mind. For him, "the source of all architectural strength" emerged from the straight line, the arch, the cube, and the circle in combination." The New Architecture of the West, 1916 )

Darren Rigo

Inka Lindergard and Niclas Holmstrom, Watching humans watching

Daily Breeze

Old Torrance faces new challenges

Proposal

Project name: Downtown/ Online portfolio

Project description:

To photograph the existing store owners/personalities that are left in the once popular downtown Torrance area. I’m interested in making both environmental portraits as well as constructed realities of their current state. With this particular part of Torrance in danger of shutting down, I’m mostly interested in representing the nostalgic feeling one gets while there.

Simultaneously I will be working diligently to construct a website where my portfolio can be easier accessed.

Conceptual Concerns:

Working with people. My biggest concern would be fitting their schedules and not scaring them away with my arsenal of cameras. I really want to let the moment take me and not get too caught up with an ideal shot, so basically let things happen and embrace new ideas along the same lines.

With the website I’m interesting in making it easy to navigate though as well as an overall clean presentation.

Technical Skills Covered:

I will be shooting both digitally and with film. So I will be shooting in RAW as well as scanning and uploading. Trying out several new lighting techniques. Edit and mastering my color corrections skills are another must. I would also like to explore digital c-prints and light jet prints as an alternative to traditional c-prints.

As far as a website I will be researching, finding a server space and jumping into technical web stuff I would normally shy away from.

Formal Guidelines:

6-8 prints 16x20 in size

Website

Artistic Reference:

Alec Soth, David Eustace, Mary Ellen Mark, Eric Ogden

Readings:

Bonnie Mae Barnard Old Torrance Olmsted districts

Grade:

3-4 prints by mid term

Website up and semi-functional by 19^th of October.

To be graded on content, visual impact, conceptual execution.

Goals:

-Learn more about downtown Torrance financial state

-Attend Torrance committee meeting

-Meet and greet shop residence

-Interview residence

-Pre-shoot to figure out lighting

-Test out papers for printing

-Research website construction

-Buy a space and domain name

-Scan and copy stand work

-Build a stronger reading list

-Figure out my relationship to Torrance and its nostalgic effect on me.

Murderer of minutes

Who has never killed an hour? Not casually or without thought, but carefully: a premeditated murder of minutes. The violence comes from a combination of giving up, not caring, and a resignation that getting past it is all you can hope to accomplish. So you kill the hour. You do not work, you do not read, you do not daydream. If you sleep it is not because you need to sleep. And when at last it is over, there is no evidence: no weapon, no blood, and no body. The only clue might be the shadows beneath your eyes or a terribly thin line near the corner of your mouth indicating something has been suffered, that in the privacy of your life you have lost something and loss is too empty to share...

Mark Z. Danielewski

Swoooning over Cazabon's Images

Anastasia Cazabon

Images from two different series:

Stories 2

From the secret world

Check it...

My fav.'s @ SAM LEE GALLERY

Pipo Nguygen-Duy...

Shoots 4x5...I'm just sayin!

Vanessa Beecroft...

Vanessa Beecroft is an Italian artsits who stages large scale performance art with female nude models. The performances become and existential encounter between model and audience. During the performance the models say silent, for the most part immobile and passive. She poses questions of identity, femininity, and voyeurism. Her work has been called everything from fashion- to brilliant- to fascist- to empowering but it seems her main influence is that of the classical world and renaissance paintings. These women become both material for her work and a projection of herself. Check out some videos....

http://www.vanessabeecroft.com/frameset.html

I could listen to the tutorial guy all day!

So this lynda.com tutorial site was pretty nifty. I mean the guy is hilarious to listen to but bloody helpful for someone not as photoshoppie as me. I watched as many tuturials as I could before another eager digi mate logged on and booted me out...which was basicly two videos. Correcting and adjusting was my big winner. To be honest i much prefer level's to curves but with these tutorials I just might rethink that. So what i did was locate my highlights which is at its brightest white in her top collar button. Next check for clipped highlights or shadows... Then the rest was cake. Adjusted curve channels to balance out that weird magenta cast. But wait...there's more once that was done I got this hideous tint of green. So in my desperate attempt to quickly make this image neutral I reverted back to my trusted level's adjustment. Bada boom i'm neutral!

Leibovitz's seriously crappy situation...

Talk about a severe state of finance. How does Annie Leibovitz's go broke? I remember seeing her speak a couple years ago at AC and she was brilliant. She had just finished A photographer's Life 1990-2005, she spoke about all that had led her to that particular point, Susan her partner, and about how this book was so personal.

But 24 mil in debt? Selling the rights to all her past and future work can't be the only option. When your portfolio is worth 40 mil you can't just lose the rights to your life's work!

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-leibovitz5-2009sep05,0,6842384.story

Wow look at me go...

Test test! Oh lord this might be dangerous....but in a good way