War Photography

This is a PowerPoint I made for my Photographic Image class, on War photography and Photojournalism.

The images all come from LIFE Magazine, the most successful and influential photography centered magazine. Present in every household in it’s heyday, this magazine changed the way we saw the world. Focusing on the photo The Pacific, 1945, I discuss the necessity for such photojournalism, and debate the ethics of it. This was a great topic explore, and hopefully you’ll view the presentation and walk away with new light shed on an old debate.

Vector Stormtrooper

So I’m playing more and more with Illustrator. This is the fruit of yesterday’s labor. I’m hoping maybe to develop a project worthy of a directed study, and pursue something in Intermedia. Anyways, here’s everyone’s favorite Imperial lackey, TK421.

I embrace my inner nerd. I went to Toronto to meet Adam West for goodness sakes.

The End of the World

This is not an animation I made. But it is entertaining…

And Australia’s like, “WTF, mate?”

Digital Self Portrait

Please click on the image to full-view it. In this layout, the right side of the image is cropped.

Here are the different elements I combined to create my self portrait.

I took the photo at the Palais de Congres. The orchids and circuit boards were off the internet. The background layer is the digital photo, the second was the circuitry, and the third was the orchid layer. For the circuit board, I selected the areas of white board that I wanted to remove and then cropped those out, letting the image underneath show through. With a low opacity eraser I erased the edges smoothing them out and blending them in to the rest of the image. Then I took that edited circuit board, rotated it and placed it in the other corner, and lined everything up on the right side of the frame. I cropped out the black background in the orchids and split them in two, rotated and placed them, gently fading the end of the stems to blend them in to the circuitry. Then I added the text, and once flattened, I cropped the image.

The reason behind this photo and the elements I chose to incorporate are many, but the focus is my photography. The circuitry represents the digital world in which I have grown as a photographer. I shoot and edit digitally, I draw digitally using both Photoshop and Painter, and so on. It’s become a part of who am I am, which is why the circuitry is intertwined with my image. As for the orchids, I received orchids as a present from one of my best friends years ago after a challenging time in my life, and they’ve come to represent the ability to pick up, move on and heal. After three years of having the orchid (which my parents take care of since I have no green thumb whatsoever), it has suddenly burst in to bloom, showing that no matter life throws at you, there is room to grow.

And to me, art is a conversation. Not a literal verbal conversation, but I create in order to try and get a response from someone. That exchange, is the dialogue I search for in art.

Mois de la Photo

My experience with Mois de la Photo was very different than with EspaceSONO. Nevermind that it felt like a Montreal-wide scavenger hunt as opposed to a one-stop studio, but the focus here was what could be conveyed through images, wether still or moving. In fact, some of the moving picture exhibits (I’m not sure I’d classify them all as films as such), were really interesting. At the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, we actually were fortunate enough to have the artist, Adad Hannah, at the gallery to discuss “Recast and Reshoot”, his current exhibit which is part of Mois de la Photo. While I thought the film loop of the 360 shot of Rodin’s sculpture was interesting, the really interesting part was on the other side of the projection screen, where he had 7 Korean workers mimic the sculpture and remain motionless for who knows how long Hannah filmed them, with the same left-to-right circular pattern of the camera. There was no sound accompanying it. Seven living and breathing beings temporarily had their animation completely halted as they assumed the bronze sculpture’s role. It was a neat mixing of the antique and the living. The fact that movement still came through despite the shots being of something immobile is interesting. This is due to the fact that he didn’t just take a photo of it, but filmed it in a slow and smooth manner.

After this, Teena, Ed and myself found ourselves at the Darling Foundry, watching Canadian Stan Douglas’ “Klatsassin”. As it were, we missed the beginning of the film, but were more or less able to gather that this was an ongoing murder investigation. I personally found it rather difficult to follow, owing primarily to the lack of sync between the visuals and the dialogue. “It’s like a badly dubbed karate movie,” somebody murmured. It was visually very interesting, however. Authentic locations and costumes (except for the John Lennon sunglasses on one character), as well as creative directorial choices in the scenes where each character is interviewed by an unknown person. The director made a choice to replace this interviewer with the camera, so that each character could break the 4th wall rule, and speak directly to you, and look in to the audience’s eyes. A general no-no in the industry, but Douglas makes it work.

We wandered in to the gallery of his photos, and I was awed by the grandeur of the landscapes shots, as well as the incredibly packed library. Both conveyed such a massive space so well. This was aided by the huge print size; it just enhanced the spaces so much more.

I did manage to see a few of the solo photos displayed through Montreal (the one near Théatre du Nouveau Monde, and the one on Duke), but being able to get close to the exhibits, spend time looking for detail and letting the images resonate allowed for a better appreciation of the exhibit. Unfortunately, craning my neck to see Marisa Portolese’s photo hanging on the side of a building 4 or 5 storeys up did nothing to help me really see the photo. It looks like it offers so much color and detail, and such a melancholy expression, but from 5 storeys down, what can I really see?

But I suppose one must ask themselves this question whenever we approach any work of art. What do I see?

“The Contact Image / Le Devoir People’s choice award – Mois de la Photo à Montréal.” 18 Sep. 2007 <http://www.moisdelaphoto.com/en/prix.html>

Feeling sound – EspaceSONO

Last week I went to the EspaceSONO exhibit. Had you asked me if I was interested in going to a sound installation a few years back, I probably would have said no. My sister however, is now in Sound III, and is an incredible sound designer and engineer. She’s shown me that sound just doesn’t accompany a visual; it creates one.

Attitude changed, I came to this exhibit expecting grandiose soundscapes, passion and hate coming in to my left and right channels. And they did. I won’t lie, I didn’t think that everything was successful. In fact, the piece that seemed the most irrtating ended up being the one of the few that I listened to in entirety. I couldn’t even lie down on the bed the gallery provided to enjoy it. It wasn’t that kind of piece. “Protocol/Movement”, by Martjin Tellinga, seemed like it was ten and a half minutes of the angry white noise you get with a digital drop out. I thought, “what the hell is this,” but left the track to play. Whereas Helena Thorington’s “Calling to Mind” allowed for a few minutes of gentle contemplation and a journey through her memory in sound, “Protocol/Movement” kept hitting my gut with waves of broken chords, constant changes in pitch, organ-like sound, creating a sinister tone that locked me in my place. Eventually this chaos became my norm. Sudden moments of silence were jarring, and threw me for a loop entirely, but anticipating the next fight. And like a song that ends without a resolved chord, this piece ended so aburptly that the emotional climb was left completely unsatisfied. No resolution for whatever or whoever was fighting in this piece. But this was alright, because this was chaos. It is struggle and pain, and when you think you’ve got and handle on it, it starts all over again.

What made this experience all the more interesting, especially in conjuction with this piece, was taking in the modern and clean set up they had at the space. Watching everyone calmly listening to whatever it was, while I was bombarded with digital rage, created a very odd image. As though one could see the madness that everyone shares in their lives.

Helena Thorington’s “Calling to Mind”, as I mentioned earlier, was a completely different piece. Especially compared to “Protocol/Movement”. Designed in three sections (well I think so, anyway), it’s almost a sort of journey through her memory. The first piece is fanciful, light, and quite musical. This gives way to a period of uncertainty and disruption, in the second piece. The third movement offered a resolution, a return to the way things used to be, creating a full circle of memory and emotion. Unlike “Protocol/Movement”, I did lay down, and was able to let my self follow this person on their journey.

Overall, this was an incredibly interesting exhibit, one to which I would gladly go again. Unfortunately I did not get to experience the video presentations as much as I would have liked to, but I was able to catch a few minutes of the screenings. Modern dance is not something that leaps out at me too terribly, but it was well executed. I suppose my only comment is that it seemed to have little to do with the sound that accompanied it. If I’m able to go back and watch it from the beginning, perhaps I’ll be able to comment more critically.

“La Société des arts technologiques [SAT] Society for Arts and Technology.” 18 Sep. 2007 <http://www.sat.qc.ca/event.php?id_event=954〈=en>

Welcome…

To Katie’s Weblog.

Well at 9:38 am, I’m at my desk, looking at this blank palette wondering what I have to say that might be interesting to those who stop by. My name is Katie, I take photos, I like chocolate and I hate tomatoes. Whatever I hear and see, taste and smell, is a little muse that makes me draw, write, shoot. I am a master of nothing. But I do like carrots.

Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

Katie