Dad

I have a few different versions of this image. I worked a little more on this one, so I could give it to my dad. He wanted one of him smiling. I think this is the best image I have of him to date. I was shooting with Kodak Portra instead of my usual Fujifilm, so I decided to try different lighting to help with that. I like how it worked out. I'll be posting more soon, and hopefully an update on the website by the end of the month.

Eugene Richards

Went to the Gage Gallery Thursday night to see the opening exhibition for Eugene Richards photographs:
A Procession of Them: The Plight of the Mentally Disabled

The images are powerful. Taken in Mexico and Paraguay at institutions for the mentally disabled, Richards shows the shocking conditions people of the aforementioned nature are thrown in. There are puddles of urine and patients lying in their own filth. At some of these institutions there may be one attendant for a least a hundred patients.
There is text on the wall which reads as powerfully as the images:

"It's a prison that chases us day by day and kills us by injecting us with medicine."
"There's an old woman who's been here for forty years, left over from the past."
"I don't have a comb, a toothbrush, clothes. I don't have socks. No one has."

I admire Richards work. I even included his work in my thesis paper for graduate school. What I admire most about him, is the change which happens from his work. Some of the institutions he photographed were shut down because his photographs were able to irrefutably describe the inhumane nature of treatment towards these people. His narratives are so powerful, and the inclusion of text makes them so. My thesis paper argued that text is needed alongside the photograph in order for the viewer to correctly interpret the image. Richards solidified my argument by saying in his lecture that he doesn't trust images, which is why he includes large amounts of text.

I awkwardly went up to him after the lecture to thank him for his images, to tell him about me including his work in my thesis paper, and to ask him to sign my books. He signed one of the books (50 Hours), which included text by his late wife Dorthea Lynch, "For Sarah, From Dorthea and Gene". I thought that was sweet. 50 Hours incorporates images of a birth and images from a protest, as well as text by Dorthea dealing with having cancer and not being able to have children of her own. The images and text all tie together about the concern for the future of children. It's a very powerful book.

I had a hard time finding images of his that were large enough to include in this post. So, instead of posting one body of work, I've posted a retrospect of Richards' work.

More of his work can be seen at www.eugenerichards.com

Teaching/Newish Photo

Had a crit with Bill a week and a half ago. Here is one of the images that Bill liked, and I agree with. I think this image is the beginning of a good direction with my project. I've given up relying on the sun to come out in order to make the pictures I want. I think I'm going to try my hand at lighting. We'll see how that works. I think light plays an important role in this project. It establishes reality from nostalgia.




I'm teaching a Digital/Color class at Judson this semester. Really excited to be teaching a medium I somewhat work with.

I have challenged all my students to post at least one image weekly on a class blog. They are supposed to write about why they chose that image, and what it means beyond themselves and their subject matter. A little weighty, but I think they're up to the challenge.
Here's the link:
http://judsonphoto2.blogspot.com

Check it out, and leave feedback. Anything constructive would be great.

Portraits and Self Portraits

A few images I made late in the summer.
Still a lot more touching up to do on them.

I was thinking about artists today. What is the motivation for making art? I'm sure it's different for everyone. I know some of it must have to do with the aesthetics of art. But is it more than that? I think about the images of Kiara above and wonder, what is the point of me making them (besides the obvious quality of the light)? Will those images ever become something more than ink on paper? Will these images (or future ones) create change? Do they need to?

I remember having a critique from Dawoud in graduate school. He said that I needed to make 'good' pictures. That the point of me being in Cabrini would be a waste if I didn't come out with 'good' pictures. I know he was right. Even though I learned a lot about people and developed relationships that I will cherish until the day I die if I didn't make 'good' pictures, I would have nothing to show for it.

I stopped photographing in Cabrini because of one person. I'm okay with it because that person is important to me. But now I feel as though the work I'm making is no longer important. I'm not out to prove anything with these images. I don't even know quite what they mean.

High School

Took my AfterSchoolMatters class to the Lincoln Park Zoo yesterday, and here are a few shots I took with one of the point and shoot cameras.
The weather was amazing. I've missed the sun.

Community

I've been thinking a lot about community recently. Partly because I have been writing about my Cabrini work for a review binder I'm putting together, and also because I have been working on making images of community with my ASM teens.
I am so attracted to community and people. Unfortunately my busy schedule has kept me isolated from the people I want to be around most. Hopefully that will soon change.

I have recently been reading books by Chaim Potok about the Jewish community. One in particular: The Promise. This is a book about relationships, and the psychology of people. I can't do it justice by writing a summation here. All I can say is that I was changed by this book.

Currently I'm reading: No Compromise, A Keith Green Story. This book is about the life of Keith Green. It takes the reader through his trials and journeys finding faith. I find it interesting his pull towards Jesus, and all the circumstances that led him there. His music has always touched me. He died in a plane crash at 28, and was married with 3 kids and one on the way. What I find interesting is that he was only a year older then what I am now, and seemed to have a much more fulfilling life then what I've had.

I am unhappy working so much. Perhaps I'll be happier with less jobs, less money, but more time to involve myself in a community. Why else are we here, if not to make relationships with one another?

Questions

I have 3 slight variations of one shot. The one on the left is the first one, and the two on the right have yet to be color balanced. Which one has a more interesting composition? I can't get rid of the shadow on the far left of the original, because it's from a wall.







Bill posed:

Why would anyone else care about pictures of your family? (paraphrased)

Why would they? I am interested in that change that takes place in the family dynamic after you left home and then start returning as a guest in that very home you grew up in. I am also interested in the physical change that takes place. I think that is easier to see.
Are these two separate ideas?