Monday, April 11, 2011

Melissa Tran on... Kunie Sugiura & Adam Fuss

“Library Assignment: Take it Apart, Now Put it Back Together”

2 analog sources:

Kunie Sugiura

“Dark Matters/Light Affairs”

University of Washington Press, 2000


Neususs, Barrow, Hagen

“Experimental Vision: The Evolution of the Photogram since 1919”

Roberts Rinehart/Denver Art Museum, 1994


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· Objective Observations:

A black and white photogram. Portrait-style orientation. Cannot distinguish if it is a positive or a negative. Rain [or water] droplets that are reverberating across the surface. Many of these reverberations start to overlap and cross each other, creating a pattern across the surface of the image. A wide variety of tones.

· Subjective Thoughts:

It is because of the subject matter [the raindrops] that it is impossible to tell whether or not the image is a positive or a negative. The raindrop’s splatter is such an obscure, undefined thing to be able to distinguish of the rippling is a positive or a negative. This obscurity also blurs the lines of our vantage point as the viewer – are we looking up at the rippling, or down at it? The pattern of the droplets appear intentionally, not as if it were raining. There is a very relaxing aura to this photogram that may have to do with our association with the relaxing sound of rain falling.

· Biographical/Technical:

“Language of Echoes”, 1987

42.50x36.75inches

Adam Fuss


This image is to suggest a “scientific illustration of an atom or the solar system” or like “throwing pebbles into a pond with concentric circles rippling across the surface and colliding with one another”, as stated before I agree with the second suggestion [as is more obvious], but find it hard to believe the first suggestion, it is a bit of a stretch to make the connection to an atom or a solar system when the more obvious connection is to rippling water. I wonder if that suggestion was made by the author of the book or from the artist himself.


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· Objective Observations:

A black and white image. A photogram. Portrait-style orientation. Confusing to tell if it is a negative, positive, or combination. Several squids of varying sizes were captured in this image. Soft, ethereal background – painterly.

· Subjective Thoughts:

The manner in which the photogram was arranged, allows the viewer to believe that we are either looking up from underneath the circling squids, or down from above the creatures – either way, we feel very much a part of the scene. The way that there are some shadowy smaller squid figures gives the photo a greater sense of depth of field. The shadowy squid figures also allude to the ink that squids emit when they are spooked. The circular shadows in the background, remind me of the sun reflecting on the water’s surface.

· Biographical/Technical:

“Squids 1”, 1990

Gelatin-silver print mounted on aluminum

40x30inches

Kunie Sugiura


There was no further information on the photogram or any similar photograms in the book.


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· Objective Observations:

Black and white photogram. A positive print. Same plant type as in the previous image. Plants are facing opposite direction as previous image – the blooms are on the “top” and “bottom” of the image, with the stalks and leaves in the center. This image also has strong verticals. Portrait-style orientation.

· Subjective Thoughts:

There appears to be another attempt at melding the top and bottom stalks into single stalks that spans across the vertical axis of the image – creating a sort of hybrid plant that has no beginning and that grows outward from the center. The way the stalks and leaves converge together in the center of the image starts to make a sort of heavy mass of plants that is such a stark contrast to the very delicate flowers that bell outward on the top and bottom edges of the image. This tangled mass gives me some anxiety as it appears in such a confusion compared to the simplicity of the belled flowers.

· Biographical/Technical:

“Stacks Lillies A2 Positive 3”, 1996

Unique gelatin-silver print

40x30inches

Kunie Sugiura


This is a photogram of a photogram, touch is essential here: just as the flowers were touching the original paper to create the original image, the original image had to touch this paper to create this positive, the attempt at a geometrical arrangement of the flowers alludes to the predictable geometric petal patterns


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Objective Observations:

A black and white photogram. Imagery of plant stalks with leaves and flowers blooming from them. The flowers converge in the center of the image from the “top” and “bottom” of the image. A positive of the photogram. Strong vertical emphasis. Portrait-style orientation.

· Subjective Thoughts:

The very delicate flower petals are a nice contrast against the bold leaves. The flowers meet in the center of the vertical and attempt to connect the top stalk from the bottom stalk – forming a continuous vertical that is drawn across the canvas. Though the leaves are quite bold, they still begin to be drowned out of the light of the background. As the stalks touch, I feel as if they are embracing each other, unwilling to let go. This is interesting to me, as I assume that these stalks are cut and they soon on their way to deterioration. The plants are somehow aware of this, and spend their final moments embracing. They will be represented and remembered this way, before fading into the light.


· Biographical/Technical:

“Stacks Lillies A2 Positive 3”, 1996

Unique gelatin-silver print

40x30inches,

Kunie Sugiura


This is a photogram of a photogram, touch is essential here: just as the flowers were touching the original paper to create the original image, the original image had to touch this paper to create this positive, the attempt at a geometrical arrangement of the flowers alludes to the predictable geometric petal patterns


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· Objective Observations:

This image is black and white. This is imagery of flowers, stems, and leaves. This is a photogram. Some plants are overlapping. The plants are in a spherical/spiraling shape. The tones of the background are varying/inconsistent. The stems of the plants are very long and then. This is a negative. Portrait-style orientation.

· Subjective Thoughts:

This image appears to be shot from below, looking upward, though that is unlikely because it is a photogram. The background reinforces that idea, as it looks like clouds in a sky. The faux vantage point causes the viewed to feel as if they are lying on the ground, looking up at the sky. The muted blacks, whites, and grays convey a strange mood to a normal colorful view. By leaving the image as a negative, the flowers glow against the background and have an ethereal feel to them.

· Biographical/Technical:

“Rose Veins 2”, 1990

Unique gelatin-silver print mounted on aluminum

40x30inches

Kunie Sugiura


The cut flowers are transformed into garbage, and they are a symbol of time, we are forced to think about the struggle between what is being represented as “now” and “forever”, and what is no longer

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Library Assignment Journal (Thais)


Image 1: Everyday dada (book) , Photographer: Sian Bonnell

Objective observations:

- daylight

- view: from up to down

- color: cool colors palette

- diagonals

- large aperture

- toast on the ground in the place of floor tiles

- white toast and wheat toast create a checkerboard pattern similar to the old black and white tile pattern

How does the observations lead to how I interpret the photograph:

- The fact that toast is on the ground makes me think something’s not right here. Surreal comes to mind, and the diagonal angles create a creepy even more surreal mood. Also, my mind goes to the retro black and white tile pattern for kitchen floors. So this photograph is referencing reality but giving it a twist of crazyness. It could feel like you are in an odd dream where you are starving so your whole house turns into food! Or something like that…

Research: - Dada was an art movement in response to WWI. The Dada artists believed that the reason and logic of burgeois capitalist society had led to the war, so their art rejected logic and embraced chaos and irrationality.

So why is Sian Bonnell rejecting logic in the 21st century? Was she speaking against the War in the Middle East?

http://www.dewilewispublishing.com/PHOTOGRAPHY/DADA.html

So according to this site the artist is “reconstructing the home environment”. She feels life is full of absurdity so she uses dada to illustrate this.

Honestly I was kind of disappointed because I was expecting something really deep, and when I read the explanation it just felt kind of obvious. The photographs are extremely gorgeous though – which is why I looked at the whole book, but still I wish the concept was a tad deeper. I’ll get struck by lighting now because she is an established UK photographer, as I found out, and she’s in many galleries - even at the MFAH. Maybe there is more to this series… I just haven’t found it yet. -------------------------------------------

Image 2: Laura Letinsky - Untitled, #10

Series: Alone, Somewhere , Book: Now Again

objective observations:

- subdued color palette

- a lot of texture

- empty containers

- eaten fruit

o or – leftovers of fruit

- neutral background

- crumbs of bread

- diagonals

- things almost falling off the table

how that influences my read:

- feeling that something has happened here

o because of the empty containers with traces of a liquid of some sort

o because of the eaten fruit

o because of the wrinkled table cloth

§ signs of use

o bread crumbs

It actually feels like people totally went at the orange and the juice with no mercy like they were starving or completely into the oranges.

This has a feeling of eating in abundance without worries.

Can I say – even animalistic?

Whatever it is, “abundance” is shown and “aftermath”

Research:

Laura references Flemish still-life paintings. She mimicked the way that Flemish paintings show fruit at various stages of being ripe.

According to her statement, the morning light shows that the eating happened the night or day before. “There is only the residual evidence of social clatter.”
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Image 3: Laura Letinsky - Untitled #38

Objective:

- pink

- red

- yellows, other warm colors

- all warm colors pretty much

- different textures

o wood

o metal

o cloth

o ceramic

o gritty bread and orange textures

o A LOT of detail

Beyond: This one is more chaotic than Untitled #10, and it makes me think of the immense detail that Flemish had, like those I Spy books people had as kids. I wonder if she’s using red and pinks to imply something since red is such a powerful color. I wonder if the paintings used red for a specific reason.

*Oranges are a sign of wealth! Is Laura talking about wealth or just referencing a custom in Flemish paintings?

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Image 4: Laura Letinsky - Untitled, #114

Observation:

- cool colors – grays, blues, blacks

o muted colors

- awkward angles

- diagonals

- people-less

- furniture-less

- marks of furniture on the carpet

- now drapes or blinds on windows

beyond the objective:

- feeling of empty

- feeling of – someone was living here before

- the marks left from the furniture make you thing someone or a group of people lived here and then left

- the open windows with no blinds add to the feeling that people left after inhabiting this space for a while

o I say a while because their furniture was there long enough to leave imprints on the carpet

- the colors and lighting together add to the feeling of emptiness on a psychological level

- and the awkward angles and diagonals make this image a little creepy or unsettling

I suppose that like her series with food, she is also exploring the phenomenon of the aftermath in this series of spaces.

Research:

These rooms are of recently vacated houses. MEGAN THIS IS SO YOU!!!!!!!!

The description of these images talked about homes as “shells”.

Through these images Laura wants us to bring in our own memories of spaces we occupated in our life. I suppose she is giving us a blank canvas to imagine in.

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the scan doesnt do it justice

Image 5:

Laura Letinsky

Untitled #106

Objective observations:

- cool colors

o blues

o turkoises

o greens

o violets

o and maybe red violet

- soft light

- very vertical

- perpendicular lines

- no wall paper

- no decorations in this environment

- everything in this home/space is neutral

- cloth in the room on the floor ? or tissue paper?

What the objective make me think of/feel:

- this space is very ethereal…heavenly…at the same time that it is devoid of visible human life…although there IS a chair and a basket in the far background. So there is a hint that there is someone here…The tissue paper or cloth in the room kind of freaks me out. What is that doing there? It creates a side story for me that I as the viewer have to figure out. I wonder if it’s something obvious like bed sheets that are just draping off the bed we can’t see. Or – it could be packing paper, since these photographs are about vacated homes. Still I’m not sure….but the ambiguity is wonderful. It keeps me at the photo. It’s just such a calming photo, with the soft light coming through the window gently illuminating the room on the right that I want to say is a kitchen. I want to be in that house except for that room with the cloth-tissue-bed sheet-whatever it is. Not just because of that but maybe because it is darker than the other rooms in the image. Still, it’s a turquoise, cozy type of dark…

She puts props in her photographs for us to take and use with our imagination, implanting our own past or made up story into the photographs.

“Where imagination collides with memory is always unclear territory but the two phenomena are certainly interdependent. As our minds walk down Letinsky’s empty corridors and produce narrative content, we perhaps find ourselves in the intimate space where memory, fantasy, and imagination meet.” – Karen Irvine

Library Journal Assignment

Image One- Sportsgirl Center, Don Dubroff:

-Great lighting, nice range of midtones as well as shadows and highlights

-Nice composition- spiral staircase draws the eye around the picture plane and leads it to the middle

-Color correct, plays with warm and subtle cool tones, basically monochromatic with a few ‘pops’ of color

-Heavy geometric aspects, the checkered pattern breaks the space and the arc of the railing provides a half-frame, circle in center creates a bull’s-eye effect

-Plays with pattern, although primarily checkered they are of differing sizes and arrangements

This image was taken from a lighting book, so naturally the lighting of the image was the primary focus. However, you can see the artist’s touch in the way he chose to compose the image. The angle he chose to take this from creates an Alice in Wonderland feel- the “tumbling down the rabbit hole” effect. The checkered ground is extremely disorienting due to the play of perspective and how it appears to create a funnel. This was the tiling choice for the space, but if shot dead on I doubt the effect would be as great. This is really emphasized by the bull’s-eye in the center, which the spiral staircase leads the eye into. The angle, again, emphasizes and exaggerates the funnel feeling with the positioning of the staircase and the tilt angle of the camera. I also like the framing the arches from the upper two floors create. It is a nice separation from a believable perspective into the less plausible lower level. Lastly, the few bursts of color in the image help add interest without taking away from or overpowering the image.

Image 2- Metaphase No. 5, Barbara Kasten:

-Bold colors, plays with warm and cool primary colors

-Strong geometric shapes with bold outlines

-Very graphic-design looking

-Bold lines and triangles lead viewer’s eye across picture plane

-Nice tonal range

-Different textures

This image is extremely bold and more graphic-design than photographic. It was created using polacolor film. Barbara’s composition is extremely effective in maintaining the viewer’s attention as well as leading the viewer’s eye across the entire image. The triangles, which in this case act more like arrows, point in several different directions, which really helps guide the eyes. Her use of color is amazing. The choice to use such deep and bold primary colors really paid off. The few pops of yellow framing two of the edges is especially lovely. I also love the play with texture and dimension. The shapes range from completely flat and smooth to bold three-dimensional objects with a stucco-like texture. Had it not been for the few objects with texture I would have been convinced this image was computer made. The ripple reflections also add interest to the image, they appear to be made from oscillating water even though there is no water to be seen in the image. The end result is very nice. I love that it is hard to decipher at first whether or not this is an actual photograph…. Personally I am still not entirely convinced.

Image 3- Untitled, Winfred Evers:

-Strong geometric elements

-Bold colors

-Nice tonal range

-Plays with pattern and texture

This image reminds me of image 2. Again, it is an extremely bold piece which blurs the line between photography and graphic design. However, I am convinced this is a photograph since I can see where the vellum is folded, which I like. I feel there is an equal amount of positive and negative space, which intermingle and help create the repeating patterns. The ellipses and the scalloped edges play nicely with the bold wavering lines at the top of the image. I also really like the photographer’s choice to keep the warm yellow tone at the top of the image and the cooler blue tone towards the middle/bottom of the image. I also really like how they fade together and mingle in the blurred out wavering lines, which helps emphasize this small section of blur. The harsh lighting is really lovely, but not so harsh as to wipe out all midtones. There is still a nice range but the majority seems to be highlights and shadows. This lighting adds the graphic design feel of the image. The original is a cibachrome print, a color processing technique where the dyes are in the paper itself and are bleached out during the developing process. It would be interesting to see the two side-by-side and how the methods of printing affect the image.

Image 4- THEhotel at Mandalay Bay, Dennis Anderson:

-Great lighting, nice tonal range

-Basically monochromatic with a few ‘pops’ of blue

-Strong geometric elements, repeated patterns and shapes

-Plays with reflections

-Creates multiple frames within picture plane

This image is also from a lighting book, which again is very apparent based on the technical skill and focus put on the different light sources. Once again you see the artist’s hand in the way he decided to frame the shot. The play with multiple framing adds another interesting element to the image. The sculpture is subtly framed by the lighted entryway to the coffee bar, which is framed by the black tiles, which are framed by the lights and chandelier. It is a great play of light and dark, positive and negative space. He also accents the repetition of shapes in the way that he framed the image. By offsetting the center he emphasizes the rectangular elements constantly reoccurring throughout the space. (The framing he created also emphasizes this.) I also like the way he chose to play with reflections. It is slight enough to add interest without overpowering or making the space appear cluttered or too busy. Another nice touch was the play of warm and cool tones. The image is primarily a warm monochromatic image with a few pops of cool blues here and there. It really adds the welcoming feeling of this space, which I am sure they were going for.

Image 5- Computer Science Corporation, Paul Bardagiy:

-Strong geometric elements

-Bold use of color

-Long exposure

-Harsh lighting, primarily highlights and shadows, with few midtones

-Plays with negative space

Image 5 is a nice example of harsh lighting done correctly. The decision to keep midtones to a minimum I feel adds to the image. Again this was from a lighting book, but the choice to shoot the lighting in this way I feel was partially the artist’s decision. By doing so, it really gets the point across that this lighting is great at illuminating spaces at night, and that they are extremely effective in doing so. Had there been more midtones I feel the overall impression of this lighting would be that they were more muted and not as dramatic or powerful. I also like the way he composed the image, having the building go off in the distance, and creating an interesting shape in the upper right corner in the negative space. Also, the long exposure helped add pops of color to the image, from the deep rich blue in the sky to the red streaks caused by cars driving by. Both these red and blue tones help counter the green fluorescent looking lights coming from within the building, which would have been too much without them. There is quite a bit of negative space, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Again, I think it helps emphasize the lighting, which I am sure they were going for.