Extra Credit Questions

1. This semester has been full of changes for me. I started off with my “cruddy” Lumix camera of five years with a little black dot on it that would never go away, and made a pretty hefty purchase and bought a beautiful Canon SLR. This has made me break out of my shell and go shooting more often and has also increased my likeness for photography. I got a bigger USB and can take more pictures now more than ever. My workflow has stayed the same and I keep all of my files organized on my computer (keep the bad in a separate folder, and the good in its own folder).

2. I definitely see photography differently than I have after taking this class. We addressed many issues such as family, sex, and war and questioned what the Internet has done to these concepts. I never really got down to thinking about how easy it is to access certain images, but this class has definitely expanded my knowledge of the dissemination of photography.

3. I enjoyed the family assignment as it was pretty emotional for me to make a memorial for my Uncle and I feel like my concept was good and interested my audience. I also enjoyed talking about sex on the internet just because its’ such a risky topic and it’s always interesting to talk about sex.

4. I think the only thing that needs to be improved is maybe clearer due dates and more days or hours contributed to the studio aspect of the class.

 

Week 15 – Family Presentation Reflection

Based on my fellow group members and professor’s feedback, I’d say my family project was pretty successful. I accomplished my goal in explaining my concept clearly without having to rely on a spoken explanation of the work itself. I liked that my audience knew enough information (like that my project was based on a family memorial), but didn’t get the whole picture until the end of the movie I made (the conclusion states “In memory of my Uncle Mark.”) By just showing the right amount of material I was able to keep my audience guessing, and the reveal at the end makes my concept more appealing, I feel. My audience was led to believe this was a memorial for a certain family member, which they guessed was my father-but then later discovers it was for my Uncle. They could also guess it was a memorial based on the sad music I added to the movie. My audience also liked the fact that I presented my Uncle’s life backwards-starting from his latest age all the way up to childhood (this is why I named my project “Born Again”). Based on the feedback I received, I feel like I could have cropped my Uncle in some of the pictures I used, so that he didn’t get lost in the bigger group family shots-this would make it easier to tell which person the memorial is meant for. I could also have cleaned up a few of the pictures because they were older images that were scanned onto my computer, but I also liked the feel of older pictures and generations. In conclusion, I feel like my concept and message was delivered thoroughly to my audience and I feel achieved my goal in this assignment.

 

Week 14

Family Assignment Critiques

Group 1

Collin Brown: Collin used the posed ideas of Facebook by taking pictures of himself with friends. This idea could come across fairly simple, but it gave me the idea for my final project, which is taking Facebook pictures of teens or young adults and appropriating them into a print book. I am going to keep the “comment” and “like” buttons in the picture to portray the online social networking bit with the printed book. I feel this is an interesting way to portray Facebook.

Group 2

Nicole Lovett: Nicole created a mosaic of family photos using Photoshop overlaid on a picture of her grandparents. I’ve done this same project before in my high school Photography class and it was very fun. I think she could have taken it a step further and made a print to pass around so we could see all the little individual pictures, but I really liked the idea of family all combined to be the final product of two people. Cool concept.

Group 3

Elite Henenson: Elite bought a Goodwill phone book and pasted photos accompanied by words above to describe the pictures. These were words she felt about family. Elite said her family extends beyond blood relatives into the Jewish community-this was a good project to present the ways in which religious communities can function as families as well.

Group 4

Charmaine Genge: Charmaine created a photo album of two sides-one with her dad’s childhood photos and one with her own childhood photos. They were both raised by her grandparents mainly and the ways in which the pictures were taken were different. Girls were usually photographed with the moms, and boys with the dads. It was interesting to see the ways in which different generations are raised and how gender plays a role in the family.

Group 5

Teneille Choi: Teneille took studio family portraits found online and created her own portraits to reflect the family using found objects. It was interesting to see how she matched colors and certain objects to human beings. Portraits are very stereotypical and I found the way she portrayed a family portrait to be very intriguing. I wish she made more replicates.

Group 6

Garrett Trask: Garrett made a Blurb book of screen shots from Google street view to show the idea of family functions. Images included were that of laundry, friends, people on porches, etc. This was really interesting and made you think of family in a different light. Family doesn’t just live in the home but outside on the streets as well.

Group 8

Ryan Kitchell: Ryan made a montage and also physical pictures of his family members multiplied. He explained that he had an identical twin that died at birth and decided to Photoshop his twin in a picture with himself. That is how his idea was created to make multiple “twins” of his family members doing their favorite hobbies or activities. I thought this was a cool concept and definitely stood for something important. Visually appealing.

Group 9

Meredith Minne: Meredith handmade clay sculptures and provided three images of her family, which she said is very important to her because she doesn’t see them much. She took the color out of them to show the separation between them. I couldn’t really see the pictures, but I like how she made them into something physical with meaning behind it.

Group 10

Jalisa Smart: Jalisa created a Blurb book of her sister’s family to show the disconnect between family she hasn’t met. I think she could have taken it a step further because it is kind of a sad story.

Group 11

Jared Gonzalez: Jared made a movie of old, scanned family photos. I loved his project because he didn’t need to speak but you could still imagine a story behind the pictures. He explained that his family didn’t have citizenship until his grandfather served in the war. There was a good story to support the photos, but we didn’t need an explanation because we could imagine the story itself. The music was a little distracting-but overall, great pictures.

 

In-depth critique:

Garrett Trask’s Blurb book provided good quality images especially considering they were found online from Google street view. You wouldn’t  automatically think that this is a book meant to represent family, but as long as you have a title you can figure out the function of the images. The overall concept is intriguing-it shows the family functions of society in different urban areas. It functions as a means to show family as a community in society. The images come from different countries and you get to see the similarities and differences of houses, families, friends, and functions in different places. You wouldn’t think street view pictures would be aesthetically appealing, but all of the images he appropriated are clear and artistically well put together.

This could be a cool public art piece in a museum to represent community. I almost feel like it is an invasion of privacy, but not really because it is out in the public. This reminds me of security cameras at the mall and how we are constantly being watched. But it is different in that it is pretty anonymous, you can’t really distinguish one specific person-so anonymity stays intact. This is a very imaginative piece and I would never think of family like this until I saw this project. I like where he is going with this and think it could expand and become even more personal.

3D Street Art

As I was researching public art I came across this website: http://www.streetartutopia.com/?p=881. This work is phenomenal and I am really curious as to how people go about creating this and where they are allowed to do it.

Week 13

1. Kirsten Van Cleef works for SMOCA and City Staff which creates public art for roadways, libraries, performances, and more. She also creates prototypes to international keystone artworks. Festivals she’s worked for include Santa Monica’s light based digital work show Glow. She also mentioned the Sydney Festival where you can enter your name online and see it in lights. Public art can also include recycled art and pictures of trash like Phoenix North Transfer Station. Influx is a public art project Kirsten works on that feature storefront art in empty stores representing the bad economy. Public artists work off of commissions and have to meet certain qualifications, which include an initial proposal with a theme. This helps emerging artists. Socially interactive work can also be considered public art as well. It is important that public art represents an aesthetically pleasing experience and fulfills a well connected community. People who don’t have money still deserve to experience beautifully aesthetic public monuments-this can show the livelihood of a place. This definitely helped our group work out our public art assignment and also provided some insight to me as well as far as what public art actually entails. (Example: I didn’t actually know the geckos on the freeway were considered “public art.”)

2. As Kirsten said, public art is meant to be aesthetically pleasing and inviting to people visiting a community or place-even if they aren’t paying to see it. The geckos painted on the side of the freeway kind of show what Arizona is all about and is aesthetically pleasing to drive by. Art doesn’t have to be confined to museums or books-it can be shown in everyday life. For example, memorials that remind us of past events.

Vietnam War Memorial

Phoenix Public Art

3D Street Art

3. “The clock’s methodical ticking helped bring into being the scientific mind and the scientific man…In deciding when to eat, to work, to sleep, to rise, we stopped listening to our senses and started obeying the clock.” I love this quote from the “Is Google Making Us Stupid” article by Nicholas Carr, because I am obsessed with time. I am constantly looking at the clock and predicting my future just as the quotes says-deciding when I need to wake up down to the minuscule things like how long my car ride will take so I’m not late for work (depending on the time of day I may have to leave 28 minutes early somedays and 20 minutes early other days). My connection with time to this article is that I do agree with the author on his point that people adapt to certain technologies as if they were apart of their mental way of thinking (like clockwork and the brain). As with clockwork, this is true with computers and access to information as well. In my opinion, I believe information is too accessible and easy to attain. Is this a positive or negative? It is definitely a positive when you need quick go-to information as far as where the closest mall is or easy to reach information for a research paper. But is it too easy? We are being coddled by the Internet and things are too easy to reach. This benefits us in many ways making it quicker to spread ideas and research, but it also hurts us in that we don’t have to put effort into anything. In a sense, I believe this might ultimately make us “lazy” and we need to keep that motivation within us to spread more ideas. Maybe the idea of clockwork and computers can be combined. As we are constantly busy with thoughts of future plans, work, and school-we tend to overlook the present and try to find the quickest route possible. The Internet is a great source of quick information. As we are a tech-savvy up and coming generation, we are constantly searching for the quickest information via computer (this includes our “tiny” hand held devices that make it so easy to access the Internet everywhere we go.) I love technology, but I also love to read print books. I wouldn’t trade print books for reading on the Internet, because a handheld book makes reading more personal. I love stories and the ability to read, but as I pass by so many unread books at the library I notice how far away books have become now that the Internet has made reading so much more accessible. The problem is our society isn’t paying attention and “skimming” over every little detail just to identify the whole picture. I even found myself skimming over the long article just to get to the end, but I went back and had to re-read because I wasn’t getting all the information. It would be interesting to find out more about the psychology behind this phenomenon of “skimming.” Why are people always so eager to get the information over and done with? I’ll never understand myself.

4. What is compositing and which of these following photographers worked with it?

A. Ansel Adams

B. George Eastman

C. Louis DaGuerre

E. Joseph Niepce

Answer: Compositing is the combining of visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all of those elements are part of the same scene. Most compositing done today is achieved through digital manipulation, although pre-digital compositing techniques go back to the late 19th century.

Week 12

1. I really enjoyed Charmaine Genge’s appropriation book for the word “high school.” First of all, she hand made it into a small flip book with an interesting cover of a baseball player. As I flipped through the book, I had no idea that the word was high school until I asked her what her word was. I really like that part of it. I also like how she didn’t use typical pictures in her book; rather pictures of things teenagers may like such as cars, concerts, etc. She also had pictures of buildings and students in class (all nice quality). This was my favorite for the appropriated images assignment.

I also enjoyed the book titled Intersection (I can’t remember the author). They used different everyday objects which I’m guessing were things such as bicycles, paper clips, fences, etc. (all seemed to be metal materials and everything was intertwining). There was a lot of interesting macro shots and I liked how they sequenced every photo by textures.

Another book I liked was titled What about Hats (I believe) by Wesley Wiggins. I found the concept to be interesting and unique-basically hats taking on human characteristics without humans actually wearing them such as sleeping, riding bikes, etc. He used all different colored hats and I really enjoyed the book and found it to be entertaining.

I liked the book Morphologic (can’t remember author’s name) because they included an intro paragraph that described the definition of morphologic, which is basically different concepts all being similar in different ways. They sequenced their book very nicely by textures, reflections, and colors. All the photos were nice quality and the book was handmade, which ended up very nicely as well instead of printed.

2. I used Blurb book for my book making process. All in all, it is pretty straightforward editing software and easy to create. I didn’t like having to pay for it but that’s the price you have to pay for well made printed books. I really liked being able to hold my own work in my hands though.

3. If I plan to use Blurb in the future, it’ll probably be for a bigger, fancier book that I plan to create maybe of all my favorite photography projects or something to show to a future employer.

4. I feel like Flak Photo is a great way to communicate ideas on photography and present photography as well. I also found it cool that Andy mentions the use of photographer’s fans in their projects (I know how much I’d love to be apart of some of my favorite photographers works). The internet offers a cheap way to communicate photography versus expensive prints and books. That’s what I love about the internet! What I’d like to ask Andy is what he thinks of pictures getting into the hands of people who wish to copy and use someone else’s work? Has this ever happened to him before? Is a person’s blog or printed work more valuable?

5. I learned many things after Andy Adams spoke in class about his Flak Photo website. Andy describes his site as “internet combined with contemporary artwork. Photo publications and online publishing social media are presented on Flak Photo.” Images on screen are different from print version in many ways. They are more accessible and less expensive to create. There is potential in social media and dissemination of photos on the internet. The central premise of Flak Photo is SHARING IDEAS. Web 2.0 is one of Andy’s projects and is generated by user content. It is social web information sharing and involves interaction and collaboration. One student asked Andy “do you think people might overlook websites more than printed material?” Andy answered back with the explanation of Flak Photo as a global photo community. The spread of photography through this website dissolves geographical boundaries and limitations. It connects artists and enables discovery of new work, creating collaborative global photo communities. It is also AFFORDABLE, unlike some printed work. New partnerships may form, which enables a whole range of possibilities for relationships and allow amateur photographers to let their work be known-maybe even birth a career. Flak Photo is comprised of digital imaging, video and multimedia, photoblogs and books, do it yourself’s and zine culture, art exhibitions, and broadcast media. The video and multimedia side of this appeals to my career as I do want to get involved in animation and could post my work through this website. Blogs are the best way to distribute to a mass audience. Andy mentioned the word “crowdsourcing,” which means collective power of mass contribution and cognitive creativity. Flak Photo is a big contributor to crowdsourcing. Andy also talked about public art and his project 100 Portraits, which was featured on an 80 foot wide building. In conclusion, I feel that Flak Photo is a great way to get your artwork out in the world and maybe even form a career and relationships from it. It is all about who you know nowadays, and by making yourself known through popular sites like this you present yourself with endless possibilities and extended forms of social networking. I also found it interesting that Andy goes through so many pictures a day and chooses which ones, I wonder how he decides. I know he was asked this question but I still feel like he didn’t give a clear enough answer on how his decision process works.

6. As for my final assignment, I am pretty conflicted on what idea to choose. I feel like the ideas I have are far fetched and kind of hard to achieve. I did want to center it around family and create a fictional family that looks “happy” on the outside but has real problems on the inside. I feel like this is possible, but I don’t really know where to start.

Fuji, Illarsaz , Valais, Switzerland, 2010 — from the series Omoide Poroporo

Hungarian State Opera House, Budapest, Hungary, 2008 — from the series Opera

Week 11

1. I feel as though pictures of children on the internet used to be harmless, but as technology advances, monsters can hide behind their computer screen and Photoshop, manipulate, or use an image of a child to their discretion in a disturbing manner. I feel like no child has their right to privacy on the internet and an innocent photo of a child’s face could be used in negative ways. I feel like pictures of children on the internet should remain innocent, but filters can only do so much to block the negativity reaching people online. Most child photography is probably safe out there on the internet, but there is a portion that is being used in a negative manner.

2. I feel very conflicted about sexuality on the internet. On one hand, sexuality may be embraced and considered an art form (nude modeling for example). On the other hand, it can be very deprecating and disturbing (certain types of pornography). For the most part, as long as naked images aren’t popping up on every advertisement I feel it’s okay, but I am then conflicted by the what-if’s. There are so many people out there with sex addictions who can’t leave their computer or the people who feel like they can’t measure up to the perfect “sex life” as shown through pornography. So once again, I am conflicted with the positives and negatives.

3. According to the article New York Magazine Publishes Faux-Kiddie Porn by Jessica Ogilvie, New York magazine published a scandalous picture of what “looks” like a middle age girl taking her top off. The magazine published an article that contradicts this picture in describing the ways in which adolescents are affected by the spread of internet pornography. I agree with Jessica in that publishing a picture of what appears to be a sexualized teenager doesn’t exactly make a point about the concerns of easy access pornography to children. The cover almost looks like a cover for an erotic magazine or movie, rather than a cover meant to go against pornography. I think New York Magazine used this as a technique to get people to pick up more magazines and read them. It is a shocking image but I feel like the context is all wrong and they shouldn’t have used a picture to prove their point.

4. People have a right to fear the dissemination of their images through the internet. Dangers could include a party picture getting into the wrong hands such as potential employers or could cause expulsion from certain schools. The good aspect is the simplicity with which we can spread images or photography to other users. The problem is that once we post a picture, there is no telling whose hands it may end up in or what that user will do with it. I used to have a Myspace as a teenager and I would post pictures but I have never posted uncompromising pictures of myself on the internet. I still use Facebook today as a means to communicate with family and friends. I believe the internet is an easy way to bully someone. You can make up lies or save emails and spread them to mass populations. I feel like this is illegal because it’s technically slanderous but it still happens. I feel if someone feels threatened they shouldn’t use email, or they should change their email. When I was in high school, another girl stole someone’s cell phone and took a picture of an obese girl in the locker room and sent it to everyone at the school. This is an example of cyber bullying in my opinion. It is easy access to negatively viewing others and I believe sometimes we can help it, but sometimes it is out of our own control.

5. People can be bullied in many ways through technology including cell phones, computers, images, texts, and emails. All it takes is one person to say one thing and it is a constant game of telephone. People can manipulate stories and the initial story can become just one big lie. Pictures can be manipulated, messages can be changed, and people have easy access to these things now more than ever. I think advanced technology advances bullying particularly for teenagers. Although a lot of people wouldn’t say the things they personally say through the internet, a lot of teens have access to public forums such as Facebook. Of course, a person can be flagged but what good can this do when someone is threatening another through text messages or is spreading rumors?

6. I use picture messaging for Facebook mainly just to post pictures of events, myself, my family, and my cats. I don’t really send photos unless I take a funny photo, a pretty picture of nature, or a picture of my cat. I’d say this happens every week maybe once or twice.

Week 10

1. Stephen Marc covered many things in his lecture including the techniques he uses in his photography. This includes lighting techniques, advice on photography disclosure, and to always leave a photographic situation easy if not easier for others to follow in your footsteps. Some advice Marc gave us includes don’t promise to give away photographs and don’t give your camera to a stranger because you won’t get it back. Also, try and carry a booklet of your work to show people when they get angry or anxious about you photographing them or something you may not be allowed to photograph. Marc has traveled to many interesting places including Ghana, Africa, Jamaica, England, and many more places. He has also created a project he named after the Underground Railroad. Marc uses his photography mixed with archives and found images to create collages with meaning and depth-he also referred to himself as a digital montage photographer. He’s done work for the Avalon Library and train station-his public art leads to bigger projects. Some of the places/monuments he’s wanted to photograph have taken him two years to get permission and six to eight months to actually visit. Marc also teaches a class dedicated to Digital Compositing and Printing. I found Stephen Marc’s digital montages to be quite fascinating as he creates his own artwork with different pieces. He even uses historical drawings and places them in the actual location they happened at through photography. I really like these collages and I have done some similar work back in high school as far as digital montages through Photoshop. I think it’s neat that Marc travels so much to photograph different places where historical events took place-it’s almost as if he is re-enacting it through his own artwork.

2. My family tradition of photography has always been pretty much the same as other families-we photograph mostly important events like birthdays, graduations, parties, and holidays. Back before Facebook and faster internet connection we would use disposable cameras and print the pictures for photo albums. That’s the thing I find kind of disappointing about the internet is that more and more people are posting family pictures online rather than printing them for photo albums. I feel like photo albums are great keepsakes, and aren’t as much relevant with the advancing “internet albums.”

3. I feel like as my sister and I grew up both my parents were really into photographing us as we aged and grew older. Now that I am older I feel like I know more about cameras and technology so I take the pictures at the special events instead of my mom or dad. Photography is valued in my family to capture moments but I feel like I enjoy photography more than my family does.

4. I like looking through old family photographs because it’s fun to look back on memories that I don’t really remember. It’s also fun to see how all of my family looked at different points in our life. Photographs are a fun way of talking about stories that happened long ago and I enjoy looking through them.

5. My family still takes photographs, but rather than printing them and putting them in a photo album, they are now uploading them to Facebook. I guess this makes photos more accessible rather than trying to find old family photo albums-but I feel there’s something more valuable in actually holding the photograph rather than looking it up on the internet.

6. The function of my family photos is to capture memories to look back on as we grow older and forget. Photos remain after we have gone.

Week 9

1. Mike McLeod introduced three different projects he had going on still in progress including Cam 2 Cam, Casual Encounters, and Arcadia. Cam 2 Cam featured screen shots of various web camera scenes including shirtless men, empty chairs, windows/windblown curtains, different colored walls, and off cameras filled with different pixelated noisy screens. I think the point of this project was to capture the essence of connecting over the internet and maybe loneliness comforted by people to talk to over the internet. Casual Encounters was about Mike’s photographic encounters with men he met over the internet. Interestingly, most of the men were older, mid forties, and refused to admit to their homosexuality. One man refused to let Mike take a picture of his face. I found it interesting that Mike chose to shoot only homosexual men and no women. His work is pretty open and sexual-one man posed with his sex swing and butt plug, another man wore only different variations of a spandex suit. I feel like the point of this project was to present the connections and the relationships first formed through the internet and then displayed in real life. Arcadia, the third project, was about taking pictures in adult video stores in the back where you can pay to watch your own personal pornography. This project was also very sexualized and interesting because it was mostly portraying different chairs and rooms more than humans or technology. Although, I believe the idea behind this project is maybe to connect the two previous projects by incorporating real life people sitting in a room while watching people interact on a screen. All three concepts represent our culture’s “depraved sexuality” as Mike puts it. We tend to feel uncomfortable when it comes to homosexuality, sex, and the naked human body-when really all of these things are apart of who we are and serve as a means to reproduce and survive. His work was very thought provoking, but also conflicting. Mike mentioned he wants to shy away from the internet and do more printed work, although the internet serves most of his projects (screenshots of web cam, meeting people through the internet, and pornography viewed through television).

2. For my family photography image search I decided to go to awkwardfamilyphotos.com because I remember browsing this website in high school, thinking it was funny and strange. Here are five images I came up with that are definitely awkward:

3. I enjoy looking at silly baby photos of friends and relatives. I also like looking back on photos of my family when I was a baby or toddler because it is interesting to imagine I used to be so young. I find it unappealing to look through photos of people who I don’t know very well and pictures that aren’t very interesting. I like looking at family photos on Facebook. I once made a slideshow for my Uncle Mark who passed away and all of his photos told the story of his life from his birth to his family and friends to how happy he was as a person. Pictures serve a purpose to hold onto someone’s memory after they’ve gone and somehow keep them alive. My mom posts a lot of family pictures to Facebook and I think she does this to remind herself of the important things like family support. It’s fun to remember past events like parties and events and to take silly snapshots to look back on.

5. I think the function of family photography serves to hold onto still images of past important events like birth, birthdays, ceremonies, weddings, graduations, etc. Family photography serves as a means to capture the most important stages of life, photography can last further than a human life. It can capture a person’s image and keep it for as long as that picture is not destroyed.

6. I feel like the digital dissemination of family photographs could pose certain problems because you never know whose hands your pictures may fall into. This could hold true for pictures of babies and toddlers in the disturbing instances of child pornography. While there are negatives to the dissemination of family photography, there are also positives such as communicating and sending images to family across the country to let them know how you are doing or to show them an important event they may have missed. People like the ability to view each other- how we looked at a particular time, the faces we make, the impressions… it all appeals to the human’s crave for human interaction and communication.

Assignment 8 – Photobooks

1. After about 20-30 minutes of looking at online photo book order websites (tons of wedding photography…), I decided to look through the Blurb website and was pleasantly surprised. I found a book called Trust in Passing Hours by Amanda Penecale, and was very excited by her photography. Her editing and photography is very urban with dark and light contrasts and different perspectives. I like how Amanda sequences her photos- she orders them by similar colors, textures, lighting, etc. I like the picture of what appears to be a bird’s wing, and how the next photo is a picture of a girl’s tattoo, which is of birds. She makes obvious connections and then not so obvious connections. For example, the image of a woman sitting alone compared to children riding a swing in a group. I believe she does this to add a contrast- the loneliness compared to a group of people. There is also a black and white photo of a woman playing the violin next to a black and white photo of a couple walking. The obvious comparison is the coloring, but there is also an atmospheric mood set with the woman playing the violin-you can almost imagine a song playing as the couple walk along the sidewalk. I very much appreciate this woman’s artwork and am considering buying this book. Here are some pictures I found in the preview:

1 (continued. extra credit). I also decided to look up my favorite photographer Rosie Hardy (sorry, I keep bringing her up on this blog!) Just because I was curious and didn’t know if she had any photo books, and was surprised again to find that she does! She has one called Unhappily Ever After, which features a story of photos relating disturbing fairy tales to the harsh statistics of drug use, spousal abuse, depression, terrorism, car accidents, etc. Nobody likes to hear about these startling statistics, but Rosie’s photography portrays and educates people in an artistic way. She also has a book called Photography and Photomanipulation, which describes her personal tips and tricks in editing photography. I definitely will add this to my Christmas list! Here are some of the photos from her book Unhappily Ever After.

2. The picture I found through Flickr is titled Self by Manuela Di Pisa. I found this photo to be quite interesting because I don’t usually look for self portraits or close up face portraits. The image is black and white and there is also a texture overlaying the face- it almost looks like a facial netting you would wear at a funeral, in fact the picture almost looks like a widow mourning her lost husband. This is what I like about certain photography is that you can imagine your own story and find new interesting things in a picture if you just take the time to look at it. Once again, I couldn’t really find anything of interest through Google, so I resorted back to Flickr. Here is the photo:

3. For a still image photographer, I just typed in still photo into the Flickr search engine. I found a lot of still photos of food, but I found one photographer’s images to be interesting (an hjhipster, they did not display their name). I’m not sure if it fits the still imagery depiction, but I was excited by how sharp their work was. They had a lot of macro shots, emphasizing the object and blurring the background. Here is a link to their flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/albertovo5/.

4. My search was fairly easy, although it was hard not to get distracted by side websites (I came across a website with an article on 10 ways to be a bad photographer ha ha). But I just decided to take the easy way and use Blurb book and Flickr. I feel I can always find good quality photography on these sites. I found a lot of photo book websites to be centered around wedding photography, which kind of irritated me. It is hard to find good quality artistic, unique photo books. All of the work I found helped me to gain insight on what kind of final project I want to create. I liked Amanda Penecale’s photo book especially because of her sequencing and ordering of photos; how she tells a story through the related images, color, textures, and concepts.