"...for many people, the word beauty is associated with the predictable...cliche images of sunsets, small furry animals...postcard views and so on. For me, most great photographs displaying beauty reveal a sensation of strangeness, not predictability..." David Hum, on Being A Photographer
This is a quote I love and wanted to include in my paper about my Bozeman project but I can't figure out how to fit it it. So I put it on my blog instead.
Krist, Bob. Spirit of Place: The Art of the Traveling Photographer. New York: AmPhoto Books, 2000.
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Monday, November 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Sense of Place: Bozeman
Finally figured out, pitched and got my senior thesis project approved. Here is an excerpt from my proposal paper:
“Each place, like a person, is unique, with a style and a personality of its own…the photographer has only one job, to reveal that character and communicate it to the viewer.” Jay Maisel
In travel photography, the most important skill is being able to capture the sense of a place. To become a great travel photographer, it is important not only to photograph exotic destinations such as Greece or Africa, but also to be able to photograph any location, especially those closest in proximity. So photographing where I live is a start in my journey to becoming a travel photographer.
My senior photography project is going to capture the unique “personality” of Bozeman by photographing the people, the events, the details and architecture. I hope that this project develops my ways of seeing while exploring any destination. I am going to walk around Bozeman and photograph familiar areas and unexplored ones. The most important goal of this project is that I capture a sense of place, as Jay Maisel’s quote states.
This project is influenced by my intense wanderlust. I have always been interested in travel: Different cultures, food, people and landscapes of various countries. My travel magazines always inspire me to explore and photograph places my friends and family have never seen. It inspires me to capture these places in my own style and illustrate my own adventures. When in Greece, I saw a Georges Meiss’s work that captured the iconic things he noticed while photographing in the Greek islands: Doors, bright colors, the older locals. I immediately was interested in how he documented his adventures and he has been an inspiration to me while traveling. Jay Maisel came and gave a talk at MSU and motivated me to look at a place with an open mind and to photograph everything. The very important piece of advice that he gave to his audience – make it your own. This is what I want to do when photographing Bozeman (or anywhere for that matter).
So that ended up being much longer than I thought it was - but now you have an idea of what I will be working on all semester long.
“Each place, like a person, is unique, with a style and a personality of its own…the photographer has only one job, to reveal that character and communicate it to the viewer.” Jay Maisel
In travel photography, the most important skill is being able to capture the sense of a place. To become a great travel photographer, it is important not only to photograph exotic destinations such as Greece or Africa, but also to be able to photograph any location, especially those closest in proximity. So photographing where I live is a start in my journey to becoming a travel photographer.
My senior photography project is going to capture the unique “personality” of Bozeman by photographing the people, the events, the details and architecture. I hope that this project develops my ways of seeing while exploring any destination. I am going to walk around Bozeman and photograph familiar areas and unexplored ones. The most important goal of this project is that I capture a sense of place, as Jay Maisel’s quote states.
This project is influenced by my intense wanderlust. I have always been interested in travel: Different cultures, food, people and landscapes of various countries. My travel magazines always inspire me to explore and photograph places my friends and family have never seen. It inspires me to capture these places in my own style and illustrate my own adventures. When in Greece, I saw a Georges Meiss’s work that captured the iconic things he noticed while photographing in the Greek islands: Doors, bright colors, the older locals. I immediately was interested in how he documented his adventures and he has been an inspiration to me while traveling. Jay Maisel came and gave a talk at MSU and motivated me to look at a place with an open mind and to photograph everything. The very important piece of advice that he gave to his audience – make it your own. This is what I want to do when photographing Bozeman (or anywhere for that matter).
So that ended up being much longer than I thought it was - but now you have an idea of what I will be working on all semester long.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Keshav Sishta Indian Wedding Photography
Images © Keshav Sishta
So my friend Rahul sent me a link to this Indian Wedding Photographer and I am quite amazed. It is one of my big dreams to photograph an Indian wedding, and these images are more than inspirational for me. Check out his Facebook page (link attached to blog entry title) for more amazing photographs. I already contacted him letting him know I would be emailing him with questions about what he does. Beautiful beautiful gorgeous work.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
TED talk on Success
Here is a TED talk that applies very much to photography, and people losing passion or sight of why they entered the field and the results. Very informative and interesting. Only like 3 minutes long.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Quote and Inspirations from books
I have this tendency to go up to the 4th floor of MSU's library and get almost obsessed with the photo books up there. I look through, intending on only grabbing 2 or 3 and end up coming out with 8-10 of them. I love books with great pictures/photos and I feel like if I don't check out that book right then, it might get forgotten or lost in the stacks so the next time I am up there I would just glance over it. And miss all those great images. So...when I check out books, I try to remember what I like about the good ones. In my Documentary Photography class we had to copy images and write about the books, which helped. But now, I read through these books and write down amazing quotes or inspiration or just the title if the whole thing is good. Here is a link to two good books that everyone should check out and two quotes from books that connected to me when I read them:
A Year of Mornings, 3191 Miles Apart
The Greek File: Images from a Mythic Land
And the quote from Photo-log book - a collaboration of photos from the website plus a few articles on photography blogs and such:
"People exist who feel the way I feel. Perhaps not here, but somewhere. Somewhere out there is someone who thinks the way I think, and sees the way I see - if not identically, at least enough to be interested in, and interesting to, me. People exist who might want to talk to me. People exist who wouldn't glaze over when they look at my photos, the ones I take just for me. They're just for me, but I would be happy to share them."
-Digital Commentaries by Nick Currie from the Photo-log book
And the quote that very much sums up how I felt after my visit Greece:
"The light of Greece opened my eyes, penetrated my pores, expanded my whole being." Henry Miller from the Colossus of Naroussi
A Year of Mornings, 3191 Miles Apart
The Greek File: Images from a Mythic Land
And the quote from Photo-log book - a collaboration of photos from the website plus a few articles on photography blogs and such:
"People exist who feel the way I feel. Perhaps not here, but somewhere. Somewhere out there is someone who thinks the way I think, and sees the way I see - if not identically, at least enough to be interested in, and interesting to, me. People exist who might want to talk to me. People exist who wouldn't glaze over when they look at my photos, the ones I take just for me. They're just for me, but I would be happy to share them."
-Digital Commentaries by Nick Currie from the Photo-log book
And the quote that very much sums up how I felt after my visit Greece:
"The light of Greece opened my eyes, penetrated my pores, expanded my whole being." Henry Miller from the Colossus of Naroussi
Monday, July 20, 2009
National Folk Festival in Butte
Folk Festival in Butte! Really hot, 120,000 people, good food and really really good music. Mom, Patrick and I made the trek out on Saturday July 11 and spent the whole day there. Didn't have a whole lot of opportunity to photograph the performers which is a shame. We did get to visit our favorite bar, a piano jazz bar named Julian's, photograph to be posted later. Some day I will go in when the pianist is in his tux playing classic jazz tunes and get his portrait. That and the bartenders always have so much character and deserve a portrait as well. I wish I could afford to travel to Butte all the time and photograph, but alas, the life of an artist...
This weekend, I traveled to Kalispell to get Patrick's and my engagement photos taken for our save the dates and the newspaper. I also took a friend's engagement photos which I will post once I start editing. I started my second family book portraits by photographing my sister in Woodland Park....we'll see how those turn out. I also took my camera with us to Yellow Bay on Flathead Lake and it was the start of cherry season. The trees were bursting with fruit and so Katie and I climbed up into the trees at Penny's house on the lake and picked a flat of cherries. And I got some good photos...of course. I am considering making an in depth book on the cherry orchards on Flathead Lake (recipes, orchard history, etc)...we'll see. Off to bed, may inspiration come to me in my dreams. Ciao.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Photo Walk #1
I need inspiration. In order to do so I actually have to get my camera out and start shooting (it doesn't matter what, I just have to start). Driving through the Gallatin Gateway and having this beautiful weather has gotten my creative eye out of hiding. I am putting together a photography walk. If anyone is interested it will be July 7, 2009 at 3:10 PM (when I get out of work) by the Story Mill. I haven't figured out where exactly we are going to start but we will wander randomly from there. Part of this came from "oh my god I haven't picked a subject for my senior photography project yet", and part of it came from me needing to be inspired in photography in general. I get so burnt out during the school year with my projects that as soon as vacation hits I ignore my camera. Poor thing, must feel neglect and abuse.
I have also been looking into travel photography a little more seriously (food, people, language, and traveling...honestly that's kinda what I love to do) and in order to become a good travel photographer I need to learn to capture the essence and details of anywhere I go. Including Bozeman, MT. If you can't photograph where you live well, how do you think you are going to photograph anywhere else? Enough of my ramblings. Let's get out there and take some pictures.
I have also been looking into travel photography a little more seriously (food, people, language, and traveling...honestly that's kinda what I love to do) and in order to become a good travel photographer I need to learn to capture the essence and details of anywhere I go. Including Bozeman, MT. If you can't photograph where you live well, how do you think you are going to photograph anywhere else? Enough of my ramblings. Let's get out there and take some pictures.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
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