More Photos

Sooo.. Starting a blog post at 1:35am at night.. isn't exactly smart, esp when you haven't prepared for school the next day.. Meh..

So here are a few shots from the weekend, when I went for an adventure at 6am in the morning at lake burley griffin, and ending up at lake bathurst by 10am.. for those playing at home, lake bathurst is between bungendoor and goulburn... near tarago.. yeah.. wtf!!



Theeeen, today, after doing my scanning assignment and the lense testing assignment, Dan, Nikky, Mel and I decided to shoot some schnappers in the studio to get a "feel" for things..







Sooo.. I'm pretty sure Mal is one of the most photogenic peoples I know.. and Nikky has the most natural and contagious photo smile of anyone ever..

Dan.. well.... Yeah..

Anyways.. Loves the fan!! haha... annnd check out Dans blog, he has more shots, all of which I think are aweeesome.. And he has some extra's of Nathan that I wasn't there for..

Peace..

Jez

PS 1:50am.. cooooool...

NPPP

Sooo.. we visited the National Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery.. Have to say I was pretty impressed.. The level of the entires was pretty high.. So the Image I would have seleted to be the winner?? Well that was harder than I thought. I liked quite a few of the images and selecting the single most impressive/technically correct/and all around "best" image was pretty hard!

Surrounded by Music 2008

by Heide Smith

Surrounded by Music is an image that struck me straight away as a powerful image. The spot lit subject in the middle of the frame draws attention to the main focus, while the darkness around the rest of the frame, reduces its importance. The books provide a great background, it is simple and repetitive and doesn't distract the viewer, but if you want to spend some more time looking at the image you could spend ages looking at the finer details. Technically it is correct, and the subject and the details around it match well.

After deciding which image I liked, I had an easier time deciding which I didn't.. I decided on

Paddy Mann 2008
by David Van Royen

I decided on this image for a few reasons. Firstly because to me it simply looks like a snapshot.. Why, it is dull, flat and poorly composed.. Also the "concept" behind the image is "It's a visual metaphor of struggle and making the bar!".. To me it seems like a shot that was taken with a camera-phone then the photographer made up a concept behind it..

Ah well.. Overall I enjoyed all of the images..

btw.. Hi Class!!

Jez

Primitivism

I opened this blog post.. wrote Primitivism as the title and then left the page open for 3 hours while talking to people online and on the phone... no.. there goes another hour after writing that line.. I love a short attention span combined with procrastination..

Wasn't as sure how to approach this one as the others.. To be honest I've never been much of an art historian..

The pic I decided that had an element of Primitivism was L'Enlevement d'Europe by Henri Matisse..

L'Enlevement d'Europe (The abduction of Europa) , Henri Matisse 1929

This painting has a few of the elements of primitivism first in the cow (or minator) the flattened plane, the childlike drawing, the full frontal nudity..

These are some of the characteristics of primitivism, some others are reference to "primitive people" and naievity..

Primitive in the terms it was used in the day of most of these paintings is now seen as racist because of the implications of an un-intellegent, un-educated and.. apelike person based on where they came from and their ethnicity..

Primitivism on the other hand refers to the artistic movement that tried to get away from the social norms.. very well summed up by google definitions actually.. "A belief that it is best to live simply and in a natural environment" ref

"Contemporary Primitivism" can be seen in any form of lashing out against society or going against the norm.. in graffiti, in rap music and hip hop dance.. even people going to live in the bush in an eco friendly, self sustainable lifestyle..

Ciao

Jez

Recent Shots

Hey Peeps

A few recent photos for y'all..

I went to the Australia vs Kuwait soccer game the other week with Matty T in 2nd year. We were in the 2nd to front row and snuck into some empty seats in the front row to shoot the game!

Two black and whites of the rocks and the sea using a long exposure, grad ND filters , a timer release and a solid tripod.. Also involved was a neck trap (redundancy.. I don't trust myself with a few thousand dollars half a meter from water) and hand cloth for the sea spray..

and last but not least a few shots most of you may have seen. My girlfriends dog chasing a tennis ball getting airborne and looking mighty cute.. I love that dog..

Hope you all had a good weekend and are getting on with the assignments we have.. Canberra folio is due first peeps.. then the Scanning assignment.. then the Lense + Camera comparison.. then the Report + Presentation for Comms... woo!! May is looking to be a busy month.. right after the Tazzy trip.. huzzah!.. FK.. special considderation anyone?

Peace

Jez

NPG and NAA

First of all the national portrait gallery..

H&H Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (2005)
by Jiawei Shen

This portrait by Jiawei Shen is a stunning picture of a stunning lady.. (Yes I am a self confessed Princess Mary lover).. In terms of giving the viewer a sense of the subjects identity there are two key elements.

There is the Sydney Opera house outside the window, iconically Australian and the Insignia of the Knight of the Order of the Elephant, Denmarks highest award/recognition. Now it does not give a full insight into Princess Mary as a person, afterall she is not simply a Dutch/Australian, she is the Princess of Denmark, but to an Australian it is this assosciation that we make when we think of Princess Mary. This is how we know her and what we know her to be..

Michael Klim (1999)
by Jonathan Anderson and Edwin Low

By the way the other students surrounded this image, I get the feeling it might be popping up in others blogs in much the same way.. Surely you can see why though.. This Portrait of Michael Klim is technically perfect, while it is visually and artistically amazing..

Michael Klim is renound for being a swimmer, he has one kazillions of medals, broke records etc etc etc (if you want to know more about that stuff read his plaque thingmajig)..

What better way to depict a swimmer.. than from underwater.. his formidable pose leaves nothing to the imagination (common theme in my blog) in how formidable an athelete he was..



Now on to the National Archives of Australia

Image Number 125
by Unknown

Both my National Archives images were from the Faces of Australia wall.. I searched online trying to find names of the photographers etc, but their guide to the wall was offline, might try and find it again another time..

The first image is of a strapping lad playing AFL.. Of all the images surely this one can only be Australian.. AFL.. Australian Football League.. Not played anywhere else.. and what better "aussie" passtime is there than watching footy.. (atleast in the southern states..)

Image 77
by Unkown

This image is of dry, cracked earth with a famer and his wife (presumably) and this is very typical of Australia.. Though droughts happen all over the world and maybe more oftern who knows, but Australia has routinely been in and out of drought for all of recorded history..

As such, this image, to me is very typical of Australia.

NGA

Jeremy Likes:

Austracism by Vernon Ah Kee (2003)

This image was my personal favourite at the NGA or at least, my favourite image that I am able to explain why. For me, this artwork does 3 things.. One, It conveys very obvious message, Two it really hits the nail on the head, and Three it is a very powerful atwork. Located in the Indigenous arts section of the Gallery, it stands out like a (I was going to say needle in a haystack, but that's the wrong metaphor) sore thumb.. All the other art works are dot paintings, and if not, have the typical aboriginal earthy colours.

I've always been a fan of artworks that, if they contain a message, make it nice and simple to see. Having never studied artists or art history, I've never known which artist painted when and how and why and what context they were painting in etc. Therefore I've never been able to look at an artwork and say "mm yes I see why he painted this way" or "oh yes he was really a master of his times" the best I can do is say "wow.. he paints very... lifelike" So when this artwork tells it's story very simply and effectively, it ranks quite high in my books.

Other Jeremy likes: Waterlillies by Claude Monet (I can see why everyone loved the guy, it is an impressive painting), The Lovers by Rene' Magnitter (The couple without a face to me seems like a scamming way of getting out of painting their faces.. but more seriously it is just stunning), Women in front of Mirror by Pierre Boward (well.. I gotta be honest, I'm a fan of painting of half naked chicks, esp when they painting looks this cool)

Jeremy Dislikes:

Well.. I know it may be cheating, or maybe it is to broad.. but to be entirely honest I really have to say pretty much anything in the Abstraction gallery is not cool with me.

When anyone asks me what I'm doing this year, I tell them I am studying 3 days a week and working 2. They skip the boring (work) and ask me what I'm studying, to which I reply "Commercial Photography at CIT".. the conversation usually at some point gets to "so what do you hope to do after CIT" or "why CIT and not ANU" etc etc.. and (the reason I am telling you this is coming trust me) I respond saying.. "I want to be a Commercial photographer.. At ANU they are all arty and abstract and *puff puff* and I want to make money from my photos"..

This then, at least to me, might explain my personal taste for abstract art.. if not, I'll spell it out a bit for you... I don’t like it.. I just don't like not "getting" it.. I am a nerd and I'm proud of it.. so something I don't understand really gets on my nerves. Images with skewed dimensions really mess with me and when I see stairs leading somewhere then the floor is upsidedownlefty.. I get a bit confused, don't understand it and thus really don’t like it!

Other Jeremy dislikes: anything where it requires context to understand the artwork.. like the chair/glass dryer etc until it was explained to me