Framing

In photography, framing something is how you get a point across. By framing the same shot differently, you can actually change the meaning of the photo. For example, if you have a scene of two well dressed women ignoring a homeless man, the way you frame the shot can change the meaning of the situation. Say you include the homeless man, but not the two women. This makes a sympathy shot for the viewer, the viewer can relate to the homeless man, see his life as a downtrodden soul, things like that. If you just shoot the two women, you get a shot of two well dressed women, you look at their clothes, demeanor, etc. But if you shoot the scene as a whole, you get an idea of who the women are as people, who the man is as a person, and how society has put them together as a whole.

it's very interesting to meet the other people in my program. Since none of our french is good enough to express ourselves the way that we would normally back in the states, we each get a very small view, a "framed" view if you will, of how the other people are normally. All of us are relatively polite and friendly toward each other in french (which we're supposed to be speaking 100% of the time), but when we slip into english, it's really interesting to see how exactly things change. Peoples personalities actually change. It's very difficult to describe, and very weird. People are still nice and polite, but the way in which they express themselves changes very dramatically.

anyway.

the visit to gwen, elise's friend, could not have gone better in my opinion, except if i had had more time in durfort. I left friday afternoon, took an hour bus to marseille, about a 4 hour train to toulouse, an hour long bus to revel, and about a 10 min car ride back to "la cascade," the name of the retreat gwen has created. The house was BEAUTIFUL, and gwen's really awesome personality was the only thing that outshown it. She fed me a great dinner the night i arrived, and we talked for hours before going to bed. In the morning, i showed her my website, we went out to the farmers market (live chickens for sale, anyone?) and went to the nearby town of "i don't remember the name." It was a really great visit...I felt a lot more connected to durfort and its surroundings that i ever had in aix. i think it had something to with the ruralism of the place, but i can't be sure. At 1:00, i did the whole trip in reverse to get back home, but because of layovers i got in around 11:00PM. long two days, but totally worth it.

classes are going well, i especially like my art classes. they are super awesome, and i've forgotten how much i like drawing. Actually, last night i used some skills that i learned in my math class to draw a section of my homework. The assignment was to draw our bedroom, so i drew it in correct perspective. I was pretty fun to get back into that, and my host mother was officially VERY impressed.

that's all for now. I miss you guys terribly. (photo at the top from durfort - the stream down the center of the road was used at the begining of the town to help form the copper pots that the area is known for. photo at the middle is the view from the upstairs terrace of gwen'shouse, looking back toward the mountains.)

New Skill Sets 2

So...sorry about not writing for a while. my host mother doesn't have internet, and in order to write quickly and easily i like to use this computer, and i've forgotten my password. so i found a small bar that has free wifi, got a tea, and now i write.

Elaborating a little on skill sets...

it's important to always be learning new things about your medium in my opinion. that way, you never tire. if you think you know everything there is to know, try a completely different style, or go out of your way to find out something you never new before about it. A new technique, add on, developing process, new and intriguing artist in the medium...something like that. That's what i love about photography...constantly expanding in all directions really.

French for me is kinda like that. Also, french culture. always pretty much learning something new every day. Whether that thing be that they dub episodes of CSI and call it "Les Experts," or that I actually really like watching soccer with my host mother, marie-claire. She's absolutely fantastic by the way...I absolutely adore her.

Aix en Provence...nice, not too busy city in the south of france. very pretty. very quaint almost. people are friendly, and the kids in my program are sweet. I like it here, but i don't find it extraordinarily different from life in the states by any means. I wonder why I'm here sometimes.

My french has been improving like crazy. every day i feel more confident in my use of it, and i'm able to talk to strangers in relatively broken french now, but they understand my meaning, and that's what counts in the end I think.

so day to day activities....wake up early, small breakfast of baguette (pain grille - toast) with burre (butter) et (and) confiture (jam). actually, the jam is home made by marie claire. it's pretty excellent. between the two of us we've finished off the jar of fraise (strawberry) and have moved on to the orange (orange :-p )

i take the bus to AUCP (american university center of provence) for class every day, usually pretty early. I'm taking French Culture, Grammar, Oral and Written Expression, Painting, and Drawing. oh lalalalalala....c'est tres chere pour les dernier deux (omg, it's so expensive for the last two.)

I live in an apartment complex (lots of buildings...it has its own mini mall and bus stop) with 3 other girls (all with different host families). one of them is my best friend here, Marisa. She goes to franklin and marshall, and she's a quaker. cool kid.

My room is bigger than my one at home and school combined, with a big bed, desk, closet (WOW), and extra chair. it's pretty awesome.


this weekend i'm off to visit Elise's friend Gwen in a little town called "Durfort." She has an artists retreat there, and i'm very excited to meet her.

(the picture at the top: was walking around aix, came upon a group of kids that were dressed up in fairy costumes. AMAZING.)

New Skill Sets

so....HALLO FROM FRANCE!!!

photography is constantly expanding. from film, to different types of film, to different types of developing, to digital, to 28934982375 digital darkrooms and all million functions of those, things can get pretty exciting. there's always something to learn about.

for example, when i was at the museum i learned about a camera that changes its aperture by changing its length. weird!!

well, french for me is kinda new skill i guess. it's something that i want, and need (at this point, i am in france under contract to speak french) to learn, and to learn well. sure, i'm just begining and mistakes are expected (like over exposing an image), but at the same time i really want to be perfect. I want people to think I am making a strong effort. so the perfection issue leads me to mumble, so maybe they won't notice my mistake. which, if it isn't obvious already, only aggravates the problem.

so. france so far.
plane ride was GREAT. got three whole seats to myself, and met a girl from norwood who's staying somewhere in paris. that was cool. we kept eachother company when we weren't sleeping. i used her camera to take 'out the window' pictures.

i found annette very easily, and we took the metro back to her place, where i washed, she gave me some maps, and i went out to explore her neighborhood. lots and lots of diveristy in this part. it made me feel a little uncomfortable which was weird, but maybe just because i was jetlagged and not really sure about anything. at an internet cafe, i made a really terrible numbers mistake, and got so flustered trying to correct myself (note to self: .15euros, is not 5euros.) i tried to give him way more than was needed, and he ended up just telling me it was okay and not to worry about paying. wayyy embarressing.

today i went out and bought a watch. i realized that i had been using my cell phone to tell time, and that this would not work here. it's pretty. silver with a blue face. and it works. after that purchase, i went to notre dame to walk around. it was more familiar to me than anything else, so it was very comforting. then dinner with pierre's family (omg - vanessa and alexandra...GORGEOUS)

after that i came back here, found soem shady internets, and posted this. I found out who my host mother is (one woman only...marie claire) and called her and she seems very nice.

...I also saw a starbucks.

(no pics this entry...internets too sketchy to upload anything)

Film vs. Digital

In the photographic community, the argument over film camera work vs. digital camera work is a big and very defensive one. Filmers, those who seriously and almost exclusively support film (i made up that term), will turn their noses up at anything digital, claiming that the artwork is lost in it. Digital folks, those who enjoy shooting digitally, express the convenience of digital, the cheaper processing, the ever-expanding options...then there are those, like me, which think that digital and film photography are two completely different mediums entirely.

in Provence, I'm expected to have limited to no contact with the internet except for exclusive school work. I'm supposed to abandon the phone in favor of old-fashioned letters, and have very little contact with family and friends back home. this is what the program says.

because the program is supposed to be language immersion, i understand this way of thinking. however, i also don't understand this way of thinking. right now, i feel like even though an abroad program is supposed to give you a different perspective, allow you to completely immerse yourself in a different culture...but how is one supposed to do that unless they also remain in touch with where there from so one can compare and reflect. Like film and digital photography...one can appreciate the ever growing options in digital, but only because film existed first. and because now they're both so different, it's possible to truly appreciate both.

moral of this story: i'm going to keep as close in contact as i can. so as to better appreciate the differences in my experiences.

Reviewing Past Work

When a photographer reviews some of his or her past work, he or she might feel a variety of emotions. nostalgia, embarrassment, or slight amusement for what he or she once considered quality work. Because one is always learning new things, this opportunity to go back and review comes up quite often.

(^old photo)
In my own work, I review shoots I did from fall semester 2007. I can hardly even begin to appreciate my work as art (now) until about halfway through spring semester 2008. And now, I only see myself getting better and learning and growing with my tools. It's pretty cool. for me, at least.

(^new photo)
at the same time, as i reflect (once again) on my chicago experience, i notice that I've grown quite substantially from the end of spring semester. This, is also cool. At least I think so. I've grown more comfortable with myself. I prefer walking to places close by as opposed to driving. things have gotten easier to deal with in terms of money management. my parents seem more content to allow me to plan my life and work with me instead of trying to monitor me.

also, i seem to have developed some kind of the somewhat feirce loyalty to chicago that chicagoans have. not quite as strong, but i do notice myself saying "our" or "we" when referring to Chicago. while maybe this isn't cool, i find it pretty funny.

anyway, so if you havn't gathered by now I'm home. the drive back was great fun (only a few bursts of rain and traffic) and i've been seeing folks and getting my life back in order, only to soon be uprooted. scary.

Photos on the Web

As a photographer, it's really important to monitor your work if it's online. In this day and age, in the short years that i've been doing photography, i've heard of numerous outrageous cases of larger corporations and smaller ones alike (as well as bands and other groups and individuals) stealing art to use for their own purposes.

this is really worrying to me. it's so easy to steal art and use it and deny ever having stolen it. there's so much work out there, so much beautiful work, and yet it's regarded as "worthless." meaning no one is willing to pay for it.

to an artist that's a big insult. basically it's saying that "while i enjoy your work, i'm not willing to pay for it, because i don't think that i should have to when i can take it for no money at all."

where are the ethics here?

anyway, i'm thinking about all of this cause i'm in the process of uploading my website to the internet (all annoying problems with it aside) and i'm worried about people stealing my art. while it's certainly not as up to par as i consider some of my contemporaries work is, it is a worry to me. without the internet it's hard to book jobs to make money, but it also costs in more ways than one. it's a concern.

anyway, life in chi-town (chicago!) is closing out pretty well. my boss talked to me the other day and complimented me (a lot) in giving me a small verbal evaluation (writen evaluations to be seen in a few weeks) and i only have one day left. projects are finished out, been having a great time this past week just doing some shoots and having fun!

I'll be coming in on sunday night (hopefully) and i'm looking forward to the ren faire on the 17th. looking WAY forward to it actually.

other news - the belly dancing lessons this summer have gone super well - i love being challenged by the style, and using hip hop skills in new ways. the people are fantastic, and i wish i could continue with them, but unfortunately, chicago is a little far to travel from pennsylvania every week for class.

also - the kemper scholars made award certificates for each other. Mine reads:

"The citizens of kemperville enthusiastically award Liora K with the honor of MOST LIKELY TO PHOTOGRAPH THE PRESIDENT - UPON REQUEST" (the president, of course, being a fellow female scholar...it's her back up plan. her first plan is to be Supreme Court Justice.)

I also think my photography has improved a WHOLE lot over the past semester and summer...i'm happy with so much more of my work. THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR THE CAMERA. by the way.

i'm curious...what do you guys think of this online epidemic of stealing art? where do you think the line is drawn between appreciation and theft?

NEWS NEWS NEWS

...this does NOT have a photography theme

UPDATES ON MY SUMMER GOALS: VISA AND WEBSITE

VISA: OBTAINED! FRANCE IS WILLING TO LET ME IN!!!

WEBSITE: FINISHED! IN THE PROCESS OF UPLOADING IT TO THE INTERNETS!!!!