Thursday 4 ( fixed )

Spirited

"Some people in the arts, they really still believe that art is really only important if you talk about something that's disgusting or horrible or depressing." he says. " I think happiness is not a shallow feeling. It's a very deep feeling." Romero Britto

Romero Britto was born in Brazil and is in his mid 40's. As an artist based in Miami Florida, his work has brought inspiration to his community. He creates very simple drawings of things such as butterflies, flowers, and children. is work tends to be very large in size and is usually found in malls and even on the sides of buildings. His use of bold lines and bright colors tend to catch the attention of young children. It just makes them happy, says Britto. Some say that his work is too simple but he just relpies, " Beautiful things in life are really simple, he says. If you're going to get an orchid, or a flower or an animal, it's simple, it's not complicated."

Britto's work inspires others and brings happiness to his viewers. I hope that my work helps to evoke positive emotions from my viewers as well. His style is completely different fom mine but we share the same purpose in our art making.

Allen, Greg. "Happiness, Hope in Miami Pop Artist." Nationaly Public Radio. May 9 2008.

Sunday 5

Anna Williams




Anna Williams was recognized as one of PDN's 30 under 30 for her amazing lifestyle and food photography. She began her life as a photographer when she was in high school. She fell in love with the darkroom and her medium format camera. As Anna began her undergraduate career, she realized that commercial photography was the direction she wanted to pursue. Shortly after college, she moved to new york and began making a name for herself. Over the past ten years she has spent pursuing her career, her clients now include Martha Stewart, Williams Sonoma , Fisher Price, Kmart and many more.



http://www.orchardrepresents.com/Anna-Williams/Biography/Default.aspx

http://annawilliamsphotography.com/01food.html

Thursday 5

Powerful



"Our goal is to bring attention to the abundance of talented women working in the photographic medium in a way that makes it accessible to everyone."

Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips launched an online gallery on June 3, 2008. The site is titled Women In Photography and every two weeks, a different female photographer is highlighted. It is a bi-monthly venue for showcasing work from females all over the world. They want to focus on "both emerging and established photographers." Amy and Cara hope that their site will help push female artists careers along. Amy was asked if she thought every female photographer deals with injustices or unfair standards or feels they need the label themselves as a "female photographer" rather than just a photographer. She responded with " I'm not sure they all do. There are plenty of strong female photographers who seem unhindered by most any challenge. They have unique methods, face challenging subject matter, and have strong visual voices. There are more female art photographers working now than ever.As a positive reaction to an art world that is competitive, challenging, cut throat and at times impossible to step into, we have created a unique curated venue to share bodies of work for those who you may not have heard of otherwise as well as to celebrate the work of successful, established photographers." In the future, the website will hopefully include guest interviews and curators from top galleries, owners, and also editors. The girls want their site to steer clear of the typical blog format.

Miki Johnson."A Page of Their Own." Pop Photo. 3 June 2008. 25 Sept 2008. .

Sunday 4

A graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Kurt has been working as a full time professional since 1991. His greatest enjoyment is photographing food and still life. He love the challenge of making food and objects look beautiful. Some of my favorite tools for doing this are light, color and texture. "I think about making a photograph much the same way a painter approaches the canvas. I have never been interested in mimicking reality, always in interpreting it, making it more interesting." he uses both film and digital to capture images.

http://www.kurtwilsonphotography.com

Sunday 3

James Ransom

James Ransom graduate with a BFA in photography from Bringham Young University and is based in New York City. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children. He does more editorial work and his clients have included Kate's Paperie, Dean & Deluca and UncommonGoods. 

www.jamesransom.com

www.blog.jamesransom.com/?m=200805

Thursday 2

Retouch

"Working for $150.00 an hour, Ms.Frances changed expressions of family members and swapped the dog's head between images. She slenderized bodies, adjusted skin tones, and changed the color of a couple outfits to make for a more unified palette. She even straightened the collar on one son's shirt."- Ella Robinson 

This story began with Theresa Newman Rolley hiring a photographer to create a portrait of she and her deceased father. She had no actual picture of them together but with the technology available to us today, this was no difficult task.  This "moment that never happened" sits in her living room and it still has the power to bring tears to her eyes. Per Gylfe, the manager of the digital media lab at the International Center of Photography in New York believes that photography has always represented a slight distortion of reality. He proceeds to say that a photographer has the power to create different impressions of the same scene by adding some elements in the frame and omitting others or by changing lenses. Today, the internet is becoming a more popular way to keep up with friends and loved ones . Everybody has albums upon albums that consist of photographs, some altered and some unaltered. Magazines are covered with beautiful women whose faces have been entirely enhanced in Photoshop. Alan D. Entin, a clinical psychologist in Richmond, Va uses family photographs as a major part in his therapy. He tries to use these raw materials to help inspire discussion about their relationships in their family. "They're a record. They have existed over time and space. They are important documents. To alter them is to invite self-deception." Opinions will vary, but i believe photoshop is a wonderful tool. I digitally manipulate my images to bring life to what already existed. It doesn't hurt to enhance your pictures and I think it makes perfect since that people can find comfort in photographs that aren't real. 

Alex Williams. "I Was There. Just Ask Photoshop." The New York Times. 15 Aug 2008. 11 Sept 2008..

Complete

Paul Thulin has read your blog up to this point/entry. Your blog is currently up to date and complete.

Sunday 2

     

Mark Halper currently resides in California where he was born in 1965 . His work is commercial based but has a fine art edge to it. In high school Halper focused on film and in his later years in college he studied photography. He graduated from USC in 1987 with a degree in international relations. It was only one year later that he decided to pursue more studies in commercial photography at UCLA. He works with architecture and still life mostly. He has worked for large companies including Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, Black Enterprise and Golf. 

Interview

http://www.doubleexposure.com/PTI_Halper.shtml

Gallery

http://www.palmspringsphotofestival.com/hyyp

*Website*

http://studiomark.com/main.html

Thursday 1

Inevitable

"We can make people care about the world if we learn to stop and take the time to tell a good story." - Bryan Storm Panzer, Mary."Photojournalism For the Web Generation." The Wall Street Journal 08 Jul. 2008. . In 2005, Bryan Storm created a multimedia production company known as MediaStorm. This remarkable company holds the future for photojournalism. It's main purpose "is to usher in the next generation of multimedia storytelling by publishing social documentary projects incorporating photojournalism, interactivity, animation , audio and video for distribution across multiple media." With the internet coming alive in the 1990's, photojournalism began to change drastically. It used to be that a story evoloved first and the photograph followed. Now we start with an image and then bulild a story around it. This website has expanded over the years and now currently offers over 20 stories. Storm made his site capable of many convenient tasks such as fowarding articles to friends, making comments on stories, or even buying DVDs and music. Bryan firmly believes that quality is most important and MediaStorm proves that.

This article sparked my interest when I came across it becuase I work in a similar field. I have worked a few jobs for the Richmond Times Dispatch and I have learned alot about photojournalism through the process. I think its unfortunate that journalism is becoming more popular on the internet than in print. However, a lot more creativity and freedom is available with the web and I think Bryan was fortunate enough to figure that out.

How to Name Your Blog

Please make sure your blog title is in the following format:

Last Name: VCU Senior Portfolio