7 Deadly Sins

7 Deadly Sins
“These pictures may engage us with emotive subjects, but out sense of what the photographers’ emotion might be is not the obvious guide to understanding the meaning of the images. The emphasis, then, is on photography as a way of seeing beyond the limitations of individual perspective, a way of mapping the extent of the forces. Invisible from a single human standpoint, that governs the man-made and natural world. Deadpan photography may be highly specific in its description of its subjects, but its seeming neutrality and totality of vision is of epic proportions.” (Cotton, 81)
My work for this project is largely inspired by the deadpan aesthetic and there are many choices I made in the creation of the idea as well as in the way I choose to shoot each individual that was inspired by deadpan work and the Deadpan chapter (chapter 3) in the book, “The Photograph as Contemporary Art” by Charlotte Cotton. As you look at the portraits I have taken, without even knowing what the project is about, you can see the detachment of me as the photographer from my subjects and the way they are presented to show their emotion in a very matter of fact and straight forward way. Another way that the deadpan aesthetic has influenced the appearance of my project is my selection of rather stark and plain surroundings that act as a neutral aspect of the picture. There is nothing in the backgrounds that can distract from the emotion of the subject. The viewer is then forced to focus on the subject and to take the time to read their emotion and to try to understand what is going on and what the models are thinking.
I am inspired by work such as ‘Muazez’ created in 1998 by Celine van Balen. Van Balen’s portraits of residents in temporary accommodation in Amsterdam include a series of head-and-shoulder portraits of Muslim girls. Her choice of the stark, deadpan aesthetic to represent the girls emphasizes the self-possession with which they confront her camera and their presence in contemporary society. Her stunning portraits do not show her relationship with the individual as a photographer, you are given a more objective and straight forward view of these girls and as a viewer you are able to focus on the emotional feel of the work and to think about these girls rather than wonder what the photographer is doing or trying to say.
For my project which I have given the title “The 7 Deadly Sins” I picked 7 different models and gave each of them one of the 7 deadly sins as well as specific directions for the shoot. One week before each of the models posed for me, I asked them to write a story about their experience with the sin I gave them. They were to think of the ways this sin has affected their life and also to think about how it makes them feel today to think back on that memory. After that, each model read their story to me and allowed me to capture their reaction to their own story and to try to capture the way they feel about the sin and their experience with it.
The 7 deadly sins are; Pride/Vanity, the excessive belief in one’s own abilities that interferes with the individual’s recognition of the grace of God, It has been called the sin from which all others arise. For this sin, Laura told a story about her refusal to follow the rules of her parents and doctors just so she could wear excess amounts of makeup because she believed she was so skilled at applying it, and looked so good with it on that she did not care what the consequences were. The second sin is Envy, the desire for others’ traits, status, abilities or situation. For this portrait, Ryan told a story of his envy of athletes and their natural abilities and the wealth that they can bring. The third sin is Gluttony; this is the inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires. For this portrait she told a story about her consumption of cigarettes and alcohol when she had nothing better to do. Lust is the fourth sin and it is where an individual has an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body. Lauren told a story about her desires to be with an unknown individual and her extreme draw towards him that she could not always resist. The fifth sin is Anger/Wrath and it is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts for fury. For this, Jaci told a story about her angry outburst towards her stepmother one day after her feelings has built up over time and she was pushed into a situation she was uncomfortable with. The sixth sin is Greed, that is where the desire of material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual, It can at times also be called Avarice or Covetousness. For this, Kerry told a story of her intense desire for attention when she was younger and how she would do anything to take the attention of her parents away from her siblings. She was envious when they got any attention and anything her parents gave her was never enough, she always wanted more. The seventh and final sin is Sloth; this is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work. The model, Scott, told a story about his laziness when applying for college and how he wishes he would have tried harder to get into a better school and to have done more research to find a school that was perfect for him rather than one that he knew would accept him without an essay or much work on his part.
This project was a very interesting one to do because I was able to hear stories and talk to people about things that would have never come up in normal conversation, I learned a great deal about each person who modeled for me and we bonded though this awkward and somewhat emotional experience. I am grateful for that experience alone because as they told their stories and told me of their regrets or worries, I was able to think about my own life and reevaluate my actions and sins. After telling me their story, the expression on each person’s face would change many times, there was often a time where they wanted to put up a strong front and act like this story was not a big deal and they were perfectly ok with this actions and then slowly, their real emotion would break through and they would show me, just for a second how they really felt and how it had pained them to think of their sins. It makes me think of how every person carries around such burdens and holds in all these emotions and regrets about their actions or desires in the past and how they shape whom that person becomes in the future.
Another artist whose work has inspired me is Thomas Ruff, especially his work in 1998 a series he shot of his friends and family called “Portrait”. In the book by Charlotte Cotton, she said, “Ruff asked his subjects to remain expressionless and look straight at the camera. At the same time as offering great detail in the sitters’ faces, right down to the hair follicles and pores in their skin, the works’ blank expressions and lack of visual triggers, such as gesture, confound or expectations of discovering a person’s character through their appearance.” (Cotton, 106) The way he positioned his models and the detail he worked to preserve is something that I wanted to show in my portraits as well, I knew if I were to shoot my seven models in this way it would be easier to read their expressions and to see if you can tell how they feel about their sin based off of this hint of an expression.
I feel that this project has opened my eyes to the regrets, fears and feelings of others and it has allowed me to sit down with people and talk about an emotional time in their life and capture that with my camera. My goal for this project was to see what sort of emotion I could get from each person and to see if they change through out the story and through out the shoot. I was able to see these people go from relaxed and carefree to full of guilt and at times shame. This was a powerful thing for me and it is my hope that the viewer will be able to see what I saw and to understand and learn something about this person that they have never met before. I also hope that the viewer will be intrigued and able to compare the expressions and to get an impression of the models emotion and reaction to their story.

7 Deadly Sins

This is my current project for my Conceptual Strategies class, it's titled "The 7 Deadly Sins" and for this, I asked each model to tell a story about their experience with one of the seven sins. I took pictures of their reactions to their own story. It's my hope that you can see the vulnerability in their expression and to see how they feel about the sin and their actions in the past.
Anger (Jaci Smith)


Pride/Vanity (Laura Welsh)

Sloth (Scott Sell)

Lust (Lauren Bruce)

Greed (Kerry Schenck)

Envy (Ryan Swift)

Gluttony

Hope you enjoy
-S

Neighborhood Watch

Project #2
Preshooting:
Ever since growing up in a small suburban neighborhood in eastern Oregon, I have been intrigued by the suburbs and these houses that all look the same. They are lined up in perfect rows with their perfectly manicured lawns and their pathways that wind oh so perfectly to their entryway complete with a door mat that the owner has picked specifically to be welcoming to me. These types of neighborhoods at one point felt so welcoming and comforting to me at one point in my life, but now, they feel foreign and alien. I wander the streets wondering what happens in these houses and what they are hiding just behind their closed doors and drawn window shades. I am so curious about what makes the inside of the house unique to that family and how they have made it into their home. I can’t help but to notice how innocent these houses seem with their perfect flower gardens and their flawless yards without a branch or rock out of place.
Through this project I took inspiration from Sophie Calle in her use of the camera as a spy to get a better understanding of Paris and the people in it. For Calle, returning to Paris after many years of absence was lonely and frightening; she was determined to rediscover the city by following locals around and documenting their actions and travels. She was able to get a feel of how the people of the city lived as well as become familiar with a city she once knew very well. I too plan to use my own camera as a spy, I will be traveling through these neighborhoods and using my camera try to get a glimpse inside the suburban lifestyle and try to see what makes one house so different from another even though they look all the same.
Post shooting:
After several trips to a large suburban area that borders both Eugene and Springfield, I was able to compile a large collection of images of the houses, yards and garages from all around the neighborhood. As I look though these images I am seeing house after house that are all similar shades, shapes and designs, its funny to imagine that there is just this template for a house the builders use and it is all exactly the same. One thing that intrigued me about these houses was their willingness to open up and to show me a glimpse inside whether it is through an open garage or wide-open windows. I was able to walk right up to a house, someone’s home and take a picture of their possessions, their precious belongings and claim them for my own so to speak. House after house was just like this, while there were very few people out in their yards or visible at all, their garages were open, their cars where pulled out onto the street/driveway and their doors and windows were wide open. That familiar feeling of openness and comfort I once felt from these types of neighborhoods was coming back to me quickly, as if I could walk right though that open door and sit on a couch and be greeted warmly. The feeling of security and comfort was apparent in the willingness of the families to open up their space to anyone who might wander past. Is this a good thing? Or are they just opening themselves up to this big bad world we all know is out there? I can’t help but wonder why they all feel so safe, they live in the same world we do, and yet they are not afraid of burglars, kidnappers and criminals?

First two edits

Beginning the editing process for my projects due on wednesday. So busy! So very very busy.

Above Eugene- Conceptual Photo Project

“In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” ‘Paragraphs on Conceptual Art’ Sol Lewitt 1967
In my series of work as well as in the readings, the fundamentals of conceptual art have been studied and practiced in order to gain a better understanding of the art form and it’s history in photography. With conceptual art, the idea behind the project is the most important aspect it’s sole reason is to accurately display the idea. The artist will decide what their concept is and from there they will decide what the best way to document and display that concept. For many projects including my own, photography is a perfect way to capture and convey the idea and performance. Many conceptual art collections are performance based and the most accurate way to display it is through photography or video.
Conceptual art as a practiced art form is approachable and attainable, a viewer can look at the piece of art and recognize the process that was taken by the artist and they recognize that they can easily do it themselves. The images are used as a form of documentation, proof or evidence of the performance and taken in a straightforward way that does nothing more than capture the event. Another role of photography in conceptual art was to act as a question, it asks you to think about it. It takes the role of the viewer to a whole new level where they are asked to take in the information they see and interpret it in their own way and to read a narrative into the series based off of their own experiences and personal information. This is unique to conceptual art because with most other art forms you are given an image, a title and an emotion that you are to feel.
“Greatest effect of conceptual art on the use of photography has been to make the photograph function like a question and not like a self-evident statement.”
The most important aspect of the medium is to make the viewer participate in the work and to make connections based off of the artist’s choices in the way that they shot, displayed and talked about their work. This forces the viewer to think about the things that they perceive to be important and to think about experiences in their life and relate them to the artwork itself. Since I feel that the interaction the viewer has with the work is the strongest aspect of conceptual art, it is very important to me that I take that into consideration when creating my own artwork. I would like the viewer to think back in their life and relate those experiences to the look and feel of my series. The idea I decided to pursue is a very objective study of the happenings of Eugene from a distance. I chose to position myself atop a parking garage in a location where I could easily see an intersection and many directions of sidewalk, this way I could see traffic and people traveling in either direction. From this distance I could not recognize faces or pick out many actions the people on the street were doing, this physical distance makes the viewer make assumptions and try to figure out what is really going on and makes them wonder what its really happening on this street corner. What makes this particular street corner so special? It also makes the viewer think about traffic and travel, looking at it from a distance the complexity and organization of roads and sidewalks almost seem ridiculous.
The distance between my targets and myself as the photographer was a way to create an objective view of what was actually happening, the viewer is able to take in a great deal of information just from a rather small image of a very large area. The reason I did this was to make the viewer feel that I was not trying to skew the scene or only portray a certain part of it. I shot everything so they can focus in on an area and take notice of various different things. The size and quantity of the images is another way that I was able to show a more objective ‘study’ of Eugene. I took many images through out the shoot; in an hour period I took a picture every five minutes and selected these eight from the very middle of the collection. These images were picked at random and are to be displayed in a grid where the viewer can easily look at all the images at once and compare the scenes. I also chose to print the images somewhat smaller so it is even easier to compare and study the scenes and it also makes the people and cars seem so much smaller and less human. That is the reason I chose the title, “Ants under a magnifying glass”
From the project I would like the viewer to find their own meanings and to think about what this certain street corner or just the regular hustle and bustle of a town means to them. What have they seen in their life that they can make connections to? I feel that with this series that glorifies the everyday and captures the ordinary, it will be easy for the viewer to relate and to let their mind wander until they find a memory or feeling that they can closely associate with my project.

The rest of the series of images is up on my flickr site.
-S

Photograph as Record of Performance

Thinking of ideas for my first project for Conceptual Strategies
titled "Photograph as Record of Performance"

It is to be based off of some of the readings we did in the book 'Conceptual Art' by Tony Godfrey where he talks about photography being a major form within the conceptual art movement because of its abilities to somewhat objectively record/document and event. We are to consider the actual truth behind and photograph and interpret that how we wish, I feel that the truth of the image is up to the photographer and I intend to play with that a bit in my project. I think letting the viewer feel that they almost know and understand what is going on in the image is important but to also tease them a little and make them question what they are looking at.

The project itself is very open to interpretation and we can use whatever methods and mediums we feel would fit with the project. We are to use photography as a device through which we can document an activity, performance, action, or phenomenon that would not exist outside this photographic record.

My first idea for this project was just me making and eating a sandwich and putting everything away afterwards... without seeing that picture you have no way of knowing or proving that I had a sandwich.
This idea is most likely not gonna be my project, but that's my start.
Any ideas or suggestions? Does this make you think of any work i could look at for inspiration?

Thanks
-S