critical mass

My idea behind this project was that I wanted to take pictures of things that we see all day every day. The things we walk by, but that are rarely taken notice of. I really wanted to play with different distressed textures involving both natural and human causes. I really liked finding worn out metal, plastic, concrete and glass. As I was taking these images I came across a ton of graffiti and tagging and I wanted to incorporate those as well to give my collection more of an urban feel than the ghost town feeling that was coming through without it.

Mapping

My idea behind the mapping project was to map the social connections through work. At my work place, as well as every job I have had has been full of unspoken connections that were followed rather than questioned. Like, how if you want to talk to your boss, you must go though the supervisor. To talk to the supervisor you have to go though your manager. To talk to your manager you must talk to an employee who is better friends with them... and so on. I was trying to map out these connections not based on every person's place in the actual spot we all work, but in the context of the whole town. I also wanted my map to resemble subway maps, and all the stops you must take to get to the person you want to. I had a lot of trouble with the lines connecting the people to the location, so instead I color coded them based on the certain people in each group.

Lexicon: Stop

influences

annie leibovitz is probably my biggest influence in the photography world. i love the way that she can tell a story though images. it amazes me how she can keep a continuity throughout all her work. i can be walking through a store, see a magazing cover (especially a vanity fair cover, duh) and instantly know that it was her work. she has the career i can only dream of. I would have loved to have been in her shoes while she was working for rolling stone, or travelling the world as a freelance photographer, and also as a photographer for vanity fair. her photographs have such a brutal honesty that can be construed as 'off-beat' but is something that i find refreshing.

even in the large group shots, intense attention is paid to every individual and every detail in the frame. for me it is hard enough to get one person to work well in front of the camera, let alone 10-12, and to perfectly convey every message, theme, and idea. i can only hope that one day i will get the opportunity to work on images such as these, with as much intent, creativity and talent.

the image of demi moore is from 1991, miley cyrus 2008, john mayer 2007, and the larger group shots from 2008

Questionnaire

1. samantha overall

    senior

    digital arts

2. my art is mainly digital photography.

3. I have been a digital photographer since my sophomore year of high school, so eight years (yes this means that I am a 5th year senior). I am very familiar with digital cameras and photo editing programs.

 

4. yes. yes. no.

5. I have been using adobe photoshop for the past eight years as well. i do not know how to rate myself because i am always learning new things from the internet about the capabilities of the program. 

6. My greatest strength as an artist is that I am not afraid to have my artwork ripped apart and criticized, because it is the only way I can learn and grow. 

7.  My greatest weakness is that I have a very tough time being creative. Coming up with an idea on my own takes time and research, where many of my peers seem to spit-out wildly imaginative ideas a thousand time a minute. 

8. My one goal in this class is to try to work on my idea-cultivation/my thought-process behind the projects, and not just simply go out and shoot and later on try to make a connection to the original project idea.

 

9. One lifetime goal of mine is to graduate (preferably this year)

10. "If I could make any group of images in the world, without any restrictions, they would..." ... would not only make me ecstatic, but would also make me disgustingly famous to the point that I would be offered so much money for future photo shoots that i could retire happily, if I so chose, although I think I may just continue making an insane amount of money traveling the world and doing something that i love.