Standouts

So I was perusing the interwebs the other day (at work - my interwebs are down again) and I came across this photo by Benjamin Fitts:


and something about it was really striking to me. Just that something, Brides, usually so overdone and so *fabulous* and almost dizzyingly fancy was just being shown in simple red letters on a simple, small building. The technicalities of the photo as well are really striking - it seems a little over exposed, everything seems dull except for these exceptionally red bold letters. In that way, the small house does make a statement about what it is - the letter makes it special, distinguish it from its surroundings in such a definate way.

Since my last "concluding" entry, i've definately continued learning about myself and defining who I am. I've seen that I like to go out to latin dance clubs as opposed to clubs where people just dance, and by dance I mean rub around on eachother. I'm continuing to discover just how deep my sarcasm runs, but also learning that it's lost on some people. I'm learning and thinking about the places my life is going to take me in this upcoming year. I'm terrified, excited, bewildered, and overwhelmed. but on top of that, I think I'm also ready to take it on. I feel like a mix between a capable hunter and a wild animal - i'm ready to take anything on with ferocity, but also planning how I'm going to take it on.

I've figured out that I'm a calm person - I like a quiet night at home with friends more than I like going out to bars. However, and this is what's hard for me to understand, this does not make me a boring person. I used to think that I would love going out at night, that I would want to do it as often as possible. But really? I don't. I feel like that's almost the difference between the bridal store above and say, a couture wedding house in the city. They both stand out, they're both important, but they're just doing it in different ways.

sounds ridiculously simple I know, but when you're one of the only 21 yr olds you know that aren't SUPER PSYCHED about the liquor buying possibilities, it gets harder and harder to see...especially whenever you DO order a drink, people make a big deal out of it. the situation actually reminds me of camp...I never used to curse, but whenever i did curse, people stared wide-eyed. i think it's the attention about it that gets me. but I guess I could see it as if that bridal store in the photo started serving celebrity cliental it might raise a few eyebrows.

moral of this story: still learning and growing. Stay tuned in the upcomming year around december and next summer for updates from AUSTRALIA AND EUROPE!

Photogenic

A lot of people will tell you that they're not photogenic, that they don't look good "on film." Some people really aren't photogenic...others are. Most will tell you that they're not. (for example - i am NOT photogenic. at all. just look at that picture ^)

I feel like a lot of the time, people pass off how hard or easy it is to maintain relationships, or how in love two people are as a couple, the same way they pass off their photogenic-ness. "we're so in love! (said in true chick flick manner)" can, at times, seem almost parallel to "oh no, please, I'm not photogenic." It's like something that's black and white, there's no gray area. There seems to be no effort thrown behind either statement. A chick-flick style love, to me at least, looks like giggles and sunshine and puppy love. It's easy to say "i'm so in love! we're so in love!" when leprechans find their way to YOU looking for pots of gold at the end of the rainbows spouting out of your eyeballs. It's also easy to say "I'm not photogenic" when you've never throught about how a camera works, or always decide to make a face at the camera (also, if you always make a face, do not blame the photographer. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE :-p ). It's an easy thing to say, but I feel like (as with many things) it's more difficult to actually be/do/back up.

I'm really luck to be in a relationship with a guy that doesn't want to pretend it's easy to maintain our relationship. We don't take eachother for granted, and the time that we do get to spend together, well, I guess you could say it's very photogenic. I'm pretty sure we're disgustingly cute. There might be a photo of us on cuteoverload.com. just sayin. However, it would be really easy for someone else to say it's not photogenic at all...we live 2,500 miles away from eachother, to start, and see eachother on average about 5 times a year. but that same person would not be able to say that while the situation is un photogenic, the result is very photogenic.

We think about how our relationship works, and we don't make faces at eachother to mask problems. We know it's not all giggles and sunshine and puppies, but we like to keep giggles and sunshine a part of our relationship. not the puppies though. It was really nice to have him here. We don't pass off how hard we work. All the work, it's not easy. It's un-photogenic. Like a model works hard at maintaining themselves with procedures (i'm talking about diet, exercise, teeth whitening etc...) that might be less than attractive, in the end, what's there is wonderful to behold (most times).

in other news,
this week in the gallery we had an opening for Framework - which is so gorgeous in the space. Photographs by David Weinberg and Sculpture by Bob Emser. The match so weirdly and perfectly and it's gorgeous. Talked to lots of folks at the opening, met "the pirate critic" and he looked at my work! well respected critic told me that i wasn't an amateur. that was cool!

I also spoke french to a variety of french tourists!

looks like I'll be home soon. wherever that is. Sorry if this post is a little babbel-y and incohereant...i'm sad and a little lonely right now (andrew left this morning). ::eats icecream::

Time Lapse Photography

Showing the passage of time in a photograph can create really interesting effects. It creates a story as opposed to a moment in time. It's almost like a still movie...there's a plot, but it's happening all at once. There's a distinct blur that accompanies this type of photograph, so while there's a plot happening, the viewer has to use their imagination to interpret the blur. It's a lot of fun! This weekend, fourth of july weekend, felt like such a blur to me. Not in the whirlwind sense, but in the loose track of time sense. Time lapsed on me! hehehe...yea.

so before I went out to the lake, I was in a photoshoot with my boss. Me and my boss/coworker Kerri did a bunch of really weird and funky makeup looks and posed around millenium park. sooo much fun. awesome and weird results. no, i don't have any of the photos.

So Thursday after work I went to O'Hare and flew out to Wisconsin to spend the weekend with Sylvia, Tom, Bruce, Jason, Nora, Arlo, and Nora's Israeli counselor Nuphar. It was so much fun - almost like being back at Labelle...but the second day I had no idea what day it was. I read a book (The Red Tent - not my fav, but I see why people like it), took a million photos, didn't check my email (for a whole DAY!), hung out with the kids, had nice talks with everyone, tried to juggle, ate amazing amazing food, made kale chips, and it was so nice. just really wonderful. I'm finally understanding why everyone in my family loves lake houses!

So while there was definately an order of events that happened this weekend, I'll be damned if I know what they were. it was just...wonderful.

in upcomming news, ANDREW COMES THIS SATURDAY!!! Also, I'm doing another shoot with my boss on friday.

I miss you all so much, and I wish I could be back in New Jersey right now. Love to all.

(apologies: there are no time-lapsed photos in this blog post. I preferred the adorable children photos, but the analogy of time lapse. sorry. :-p )

A different angle

Frequently, I get stuck in one way of doing something that when I finally get out of the rut, I feel like it's the first breath of air in a long time. I don't realize sometimes that my imagination gets stuck. Most of the time it's called lack of inspiration. Sometimes you need to look at things like an alien to realize how cool they are.

but then random things happen, like your parents come to town. They don't walk past the giant architectural wonders, or over the rivers, the bizarre amount of people taking wedding photos in the same places. They see things in very different ways, they see things as the unusual. Which, if you're around people seeing the unusual enough, you can begin to get inspired by it. I need to go out shooting. this weekend made me want to go out shooting.

so mom and dad were in town and we had a really good time!! we went to the gallery, did an architectural tour, walked around millennium park, went to taste of chicago, saw a movie, went to chicago pride festival, ate at COOBAH (YUMYUMYUM), ate at NIU (YUMYUMYUM), and saw my appartment. all this in about 3 days. I was sooo tired afterward, but it was worth it. I especially enjoyed the architectural tour, our guide was funny and it wasn't too much information at one time.

this week at the gallery i don't have a lot of days i'm working...but i do have some really interesting things i'm doing!
David, the owner of the gallery, has me working on scanning in his old family photos, some dating back to late 1800's early 1900's. COOOOOL. (something else that's cool - this idea where you do fashion photography, but like a victorian photograph)also on thursday 2 of the other women i work with and i are going to do some funky test modeling for this infrared portrait photography idea. i'm so excited about it!!

lots of things comming up!
1. this weekend, i'll be with sylvia, bruce, tricia, the kids, and jason for 4th of july in wisconson! hopefully i'll take lots of pictures
2. after that, on july 11 (which is also the last day of the golden ratio show), andrew comes until the 22!!!!!!! I'm seriously excited to see him.
3. very shortly after that, on the 25, Jasmine is coming for a few days! hopefully she'll keep me from being too sad.
4. then i'm done! this summer went so quickly already!

what's up with you guys?

On capturing the unusual

Since photography is about the moment, often what one chooses to photograph is that which is unknown to them. While this brings about a lot of controversy in terms of isolating the "other," it can also be the most interesting form of photography to look at and take. For examples, see Diane Arbus' work, which i think i've mentioned previously...getting hard to remember...

so lots of things have happened recently...been cooking a lot, and adventurous enough to buy a small bottle of sesame oil! it is making me make yummy things. It's one of those ingrediants that i'm kind of intimidated by, but i decided to really give it a shot. so far, the results have been delicious...like a peanut chicken i made last night, and the sauteed spinich i made with it.

but one of the big things that happened....my friend that i met in france, Jacquline, came for a visit! (she lives about an hour away). While we were walking to get groceries downtown, we saw a huge crowd outside a big movie theater. apparently, it was the premier of Johnny Depp/Christian Bale's new movie!!!! we got to see both of them so close up. So close that if i had reached a little bit i could have kissed johnny depp as he passed. no kidding. check out the photo we got!


the photo you see at the top of the blog is my new stuffed animal!!! I couldn't resist...mustache bunny was so cute and huggable and soft. also, just completely bizarre.

on saturday, work was pretty slow and for the first time in weeks it was warm and sunny out! (all you east-coasters look forward to a day or two of sun!) My friend matt stopped by the gallery ont the way to the beach, and ended up convincing my boss (it wasn't hard. she more convinced me) to let me leave early and head off to the beach! We watched all the human drama going around and walked in the water a bit. After that we walked around in a few stores, tourist watching/shopping for matt. that was the day i adopted my lil' freak of nature (mustache bunny), and also a sketch pad and some drawing markers.

Sunday I was alone most of the day, and decided to check out "time out chicago," a website/paper that lists events in the city. they even have a whole section dedicated to free events! As it turned out, last night was the first night of summer dance - a free dance lesson in grant park followed by about 2 hours of live music to dance to! this week it was swing dancing, so i took my sketch pad out to practice some gesture drawings. Apparently, as a photographer not many people will bother you when shooting, but when drawing people feel the freedom to just come up and talk to you, make comments on your sketches, start conversations. it's almost like having a dog! people come and pet you. I got asked to dance twice, got given a packet with quotes from the old testiment, cheered on by the grannies i was sitting with, flirted with by a very hairy tango instructor, and complimented (on gesture drawings?? they were super sketchy quick draws). it was kinda funny...people feel freer to observe you if you're observing them...but not really when that thing is a camera. it was really funny.

other things i'm looking forward to this week...apparently, wholefoods sponsors free yoga classes on their roof garden followed by a discussion about nutrition on wednesday nights. i think i'll go :-)

even though i don't know as many people in the city this summer, i'm really making an effort to go out and explore the moment i'm in. there are so many things, unusual, unexpected, or even the norm, that i'm getting to see!

Appreciating a photograph

Many people refuse to believe that a photograph is art. The fact that the comparative time it takes to make a photograph (anywhere from an hour+ to 1/1000 of a second) to a painting or a drawing (hours, days, months, years) makes people think that there's nothing to it. Also the accessibility of cameras "makes everyone an artist." This, to me, sounds like a really dangerous notion. while i believe it's important that anyone who feels a call to art explore that call, to believe that one is an artist just because they own an artistic utensil is a little ridiculous. I own several pencils, but i would never assume i can draw like Michelangelo, you know?

Like I've said many times before in the blog, it's the moment you choose to press the shutter - the decision of what's in the frame, the instant, or instants, captured. What you choose that you want to remember...photographing a happy moment as opposed to a sad one, taking a photograph of the souffle that made it as opposed to the 3 failures that preceded it.

France, like many told me it would and liked i expected, is starting to fade out the bad memories. I remember being upset, but i'm now thinking only about the people i met and liked, Marie-Claire, the (seeming) several million patisseries and boulangeries that i ate in, my trip to italy...it's nice. It seems that my brain is choosing the moments to take pictures of for me. it's nice. less things i have to think about.

one thing i would like to have a photograph: when i succeeded in unclogging my toilet with dish soap and almost boiling water. twice. Another thing i would have liked to photograph is the dinner i made tonight: tofu with peanut sauce, neatly cut cucumber and carrots, sprouts, cabbage leaves, and rice with rice vinager. my friend matt came over and shared it with me.

gallery world is still amazing. check out the website i'm helping to maintain! www.davidweinberggallery.com

(shot at the top of the post is from a shoot i did last friday!)

in other random news - i participated in my first gallery opening on friday. I think i poured over 15 bottles of wine in the course of like...3 hours. whoopie! it was really fun. I think for this show that we're doing, "Golden Ratio," my fav artist up is Carter Hodgkin. She simulates particle explosions and creates art out of them. Art and math in happy union!

if you guys do check out the sites and have any questions (even if it's: why would anyone make something like this?) please please please leave them in the comments section. Art is so much more enjoyable when you know about it!

Technology

Photography is all about technology. From its inception in the industrial revolution, the development of photography has been about refining the camera and the film's technology. All this refining has led to sharper, more exact images, faster film (ability to shrink shutter speed from minutes to 100's of a second), digital cameras, photoshop and other types of digital post-processing...the list goes on and on.

in case you didn't know yet, my internet is finally set up. yay technology!

not having the internet has made me feel so out of touch with the city - now i can go online and search for cultural events happening, stay up-to-date with my friends, make plans...all this was possible without internet of course, through phone calls and newspapers, but newspapers can get out of date, people don't always pick up the phone, time differences, etc. The internet is a really important tool (and time waster extrodinare!) for me, and I'm glad to happen. Like taking photos in film and digital...it's like comparing apples to oranges. they're both fruit, but very different types.

hopefully this means that I won't be hit on by the argo tea guy anymore ;-)

more updates when I have some :-p

workflow

so. back at the argo tea. it appears that the internet didn't turn on, and doesn't intend to. i've been told to buy a month to month plan by my sublessor, and that she'll refund the rent and lower the month-to-month cost. she fricken better put that in writing.

you know, this is the second time this year that i've been somewhat promised internet service (or at least asked if it was an important aspect in a homestay) and it hasn't been there. I don't like this pattern at all.

the guy who made me my deeeeeeeelicious mojitea (mint tea with bubbles and delicousness!) is trying to flirt with me by trying to involve me in a conversation about video games and anime. My not really likeing anime, and deprivation of video games isn't helping is case.

(funnily, i just wrote that and he came, sat down, and started to chat me up for like....20 min. then he blamed his forwardness on espresso.)

anyway..................workflow!
I really like the gallery where i've been working. it's a pretty small community - maybe 10 people total including myself, and not everyone is there everyday. The athmosphere is really relaxed and everyone acts like they're part of a family. I'm learning the culture fast, and I really like it. Everyone is pretty young too, so that helps on a relation level (and they all deeply sympathize with my internet issues). Things generall jump from one thing to another, getting small bits of everything done. Next week we're taking down the show that's up right now (richard hunt - sculpture/old man in his 70's extrodinare) and exchanging it for one that looks AWESOME called "Golden Ratio." I'm super psyched. So far i've gone through submissions from random artists, sent out rejection letters, updated databases, wrapped some peices for shipment, participated in meetings, and a whooooole bunch of other stuff. but i have a lot to learn about the artists so that i can really answer questions when people come and look around the gallery.

So far I havn't seen many people around that i know...Sherrick, the scholar from beloit (my year) is here which is nice and we're hanging out. DJ (another scholar) just arrived today, but won't be around until the weekend. Emily (my roommate) gets in on sunday, and then Timila (another scholar) won't get in for some time yet i think. My friend Saika is visiting this weekend, and things are starting to get rolling. we even had some sunshine today!

regardless of the internet situation, things are finallllly starting to move along. now hopefully this awkward barista won't ask for my number.

love to all, shabbat shalom!

Memory

Photos are big. really really big. usually. the ones i take are generally on the larger side. the larger they are, the more detail they tend to include. unfortunately, each one therefore takes up a lot of memory (if they happen to be digital).

so I'm back in chicago. I arrived to find the appartment kind of messy, the futon broken (though i think it may still be usable as a bed?) and the internet not functioning (though recent communications say that it WILL START TOMORROW!). while all this made me panic-y and upset yesterday, today i'm feeling better about it. the building is GREAT, very nice with a super gym on the 3rd floor. i can see the HUMOUNGOUS AND AWESOME supermarket from my window, and we live downwind from a chocolate plant (which, i recently discovered, DOES SELL CHOCOLATE).

the flight over was very easy, regardless of travelocity's attempt to make everything go wrong, and i got the the appartment quickly and easily. I sat between step-siblings in the exit row. great for my legs, but one of the siblings was wearing a caluculator watch, was in his 40's, and hadn't flown in something like 30 some-odd years (except for the flight he took to the east coast a few days previous) and kept fidgiting trying to look out the window. at the beginning of the flight i offered both of them gum, which i then placed in the pocket in the seat in front of me, only to have him halfway through the flight lunge forward and grope around for it before turning to ask "oh, was that gum yours?"

now that i'm back in chicago, all i can think about it last years experience. the bus stop i stood at, the museum, my old building (which i have to admit, at least at this point, i liked living in more. while this place i'm staying in now is more decorated and furnished, i definately like the location of the old building more.)

this also makes me think about the home in NJ. I probably slept in it, ate in it, and showered in it for the last time. this is weird. I wonder how i'll feel at the end of the summer, when i'll still probably be in the area a fair bit, but not living there. will i even find a reason to ever go by my house? what will i do with my keys? It was a big part of my life. the memories there take up a huge part of my life. the memories in chicago are also pretty large. france too. where am i gonna store this all? can i buy a harddrive for my brain? should i invent the Harry Potter "pensive" bowl to "collect my thoughts"?

enough's enough. catch ya on the flip side

While I don't regret...

...learning french, going to italy, meeting Marie-Claire, seeing family...

a lot of the time I really wish I had gone somewhere different. Like Australia or New Zealand. When else am I going to get the time to go? And why didn't I think of it earlier? People who go there are looking for different things than people who study in Europe...why didn't i think of it?