more students...."at home" workshop 2007

Carmen Elsa Lopez...."Cubicle"

Tony Sparata...."Stuck In Time"
 

 

Comments

[Trent]

amazing work.

[Arie]

I do not feel anything when I see these works....too bad...I see what they tried to accomplis...but I do not see the results...

arie

[PG]

Previous students' work (Harlem Jazz and In the Night) were significantly better in my opinion. I can't find this work interesting...
Plus for "Cubicle" for an idea, but this story could be told much more intresting - it's a little bit "flat". Author have idea but pictures telling us the "story" aren't interesting itself.
In the "Stuck in Time" aside from picture post-processing I can't find anything what connects these pictures - a little pompous story title for random pictures . So-so for me.

Regards,

[Giancarlo Mori]

Not sure how I feel about these 2 sets either, especially "Cubicle"... They just don't jump out at me.

[Kelly Lynn James]

I applaud Carmen for tackling a hard subject. The soul draining cubical is a dull and lifeless daily reality for many, including a few part-time photographers. In fact, her project is down right scary if you think about it.

[Asher]

I think "Cubicle" is a good start, but just a start; the essay could use more exploration of different perspectives. Also, I may be way off base, but the facial expressions look posed, not spontaneous, and therefore the photos do not look like a truthful window into cubicle life.

I like the concept of "Stuck in Time" and I think Tony deserves credit for capturing a 1940s compositional feel in present day photographs. But only in the photo of the girl on the carousel do I feel that he had a connection with the subjects.

[Chris Richie]

I remember seeing the image(carmen_10) of the woman staring right in front of the camera at the last fiesta. It's as if she's acknowledging the viewer and at the same time not aware of our presence. In a state of sedation. Posed or not, it's very powerful and in my mind the strongest image of the series.

The other images of the girls don't come close to making the same statement for me. (Though they serve as repetition on the theme, something that worked well durring the slideshow I remember, as Carmen had the monotonous ticking of a clock as her soundtrack.)

Indeed this is where the issue of editting comes into play. I wonder if and how that affects each photographer in the workshop.

I know that the workshop students hang prints, but they are also aware of the big show at the end. It may have been asked before, not sure. What do people think? Do they shoot with the slideshow totally in mind as the end game, or something else?

[Kelly Lynn James]

Hi Chris - I'll only speak for myself, but during the workshop I shot with my essay in mind. I was aware of the pressure of the show at the end. It helped me focus. I pushed myself to try and make one, two... three good pictures a day.

We edited daily based on our theme. Up to 20 pictures shot the day before shown to the class each morning at 9 am. No excuses. Just a good hard edit. David held us to a high standard. There were many days that I didn't add to my set for the show. A few students had good, even great pictures that were cut because they didn't fit the essay. David is a great coach and encourages students to fight for images they believe in. Most of the time you, David and everyone in the room can feel when an image will make the cut and when it won't.

Everyone struggled with something. Everyone had good and bad days. No one really slept more than 4 or 5 hours a night. For some, picking a personal story was most difficult. The workshop was about delivering on an assignment that you chose because it had some personal meaning to you. That is difficult for some people (particularly for newspaper photographers is seems). For others, executing under pressure was the challenge. Great photographers don’t always work well under pressure.

To answer your question, I shot with the essay (the theme) in mind with my goal to push myself beyond what I had produced before. The slideshow just dialed up my personal pressure to deliver.

[Kelly Lynn James]

oh, and about the prints…
We did get to hang one or two prints the day before the slideshow which was great. It's a totally different experience to see your work hanging 2x3ft on a wall... but we (the students) didn't select the images that were printed. They were chosen from the larger set of selects by David's crew (who are wonderful and deserve medals).

A question:
Would you like workshop students who read the blog to comment on their own work after it has been up a while (if they want to that is)? I believe the pictures must stand on their own, but I would like to hear a bit from other students about their projects. I think it adds to my experience of the essays to have an explanation of the photographer's perspective.

[Chris Richie]

Hi Kelly - Very insightful, thank you. It's good to have your take on the experience. I think any dialouge concerning other student's perspectives of the workshop would be enlightening as well.

Although themes and methods may differ and styles may change, noteworthy are the many constants which exist among so many of this wonderfully diverse forum...I feel as though your sentiments are shared by others as well.

[Aga Luczakowska]

good job! Carmen, at the beggining i think you had hard time, but finaly you did really good job!

[Jared Soares]

I'll chime in and try to add to fellow classmate Kelly's two excellent posts.

Personally, I was shooting with the essay in mind. My goal was to produce a solid essay and learn something during the process. The Friday night slideshow added some pressure but it was sort of a healthy motivator to work hard so I wouldn't fall flat on my face in front of a large audience.

I went through about 3 different ideas before I settled on the final concept that revolved around branding icons. David challenged me to get out of my comfort zone and I'm thankful that he did. Daily critiques were sometimes painful because I was trying to grasp conceptual thinking with my photography. It wasn't until late in the week that I started to make progress on my essay. But, I glad that I worked on a conceptual essay rather than something I would have been comfortable with like a straight forward documentary story.

[Harry]

I like the cubicle pictures. I think they might have looked better shot on a 8x10 but none the less.

[bobblack]

I'll add some quick words too :))))

I love Cubicle. It is, technically, actually quite brilliant even though it "looks" flat or not terribly thoughtful. In fact, to the country what strikes me immediately is the brilliant use of lighting. Those pics look as if they'd been shot in a dentist's office, or those workers look as harried as a surgeon after a 10-hour surgery. The lighting is so intense, my stomach aches just imaging life in a cubicle: i know, i spent time there as a writer, as a secretary, as a tech writer working for an architecture company, in my life's previous incarnation...i mean, noone could work in those lighting conditions...and yet, the drudgery has the same effect: we personalize until we are wearied and that over saturation of light makes it, ironically, more human, more powerful: the ennui and the exhaustion: an example of how lighting can be just as metaphoric as the imagery/content...cliche that we all understand already about life in a cubicle? well, yes, of course, but all of our photographs are obvious, cliche renderings of what has come before, right: be honest. What i like in a person's work, always above all, is their commitment to something that opens me: ironically, i find them quite Victorian and that is an interesting visual sensibility, given the place of shot....the people are also confronting us: as if to say (notice their eyes): "as if you are better than us"...challening the viewers own judgment about the drudgery: it is there in the eyes...and i love, especially that one of the people are not even given us the time of day to look back...

and stuck in time: while i do not like the use of turning a digital pic into b/w, it's a quite astute essay. The photograph of the sailors is magnificent, really a terrific and powerful photograph. just as the Hopper-esque Coke shot....that's a photo (both really) of NY that people seldom associate with NY. In fact, both, to me, are just as ripe about ny as chris b's magnificent work prior. They are both a testament (composition especially) to work of an earlier time (especially, again, the sailor shot, shots of legs and coke) but also an insight into the what is apparent. I also like that David has juxtaposed these essays for they play off one another in quite intelligent ways:

stuck in time in the same manner, one drudgingly one joyously. but time, is the snaky thread that sews each of us: it is the one thing that glues the bones of our lives together....

i too, always, photograph with an "essay" in mind, its just the way i work. Not that i have a pre-conceived idea, but place and people and thought tend to work down upon me and the work and it becomes encorcelled...i think, as someone whose been reading and writing on this post for a long time, what David is accomplishing with the students is a significant idea: one should (at least for me too) think on connectivity to story, how to see thinks, not in isolation, but in its baring and connective tissue to story, to place, to sequence....most photographers (or at least a lot) i know think primarily this: make it a good photo, make it a good photo: when in truth, photography is more intimate and more epic than that simple mantra....

my own story doesn't exist without the sequence of my life with my wife and son...like scattering electrons in orbit....

I happy to look at all of David's students stories :))) and my compliments...

"we only see that which we have already seen"-fernando pessoa....

cheers
bob

[bobblack]

one addition to the stuck in time essay: i am now looking at the pics on a different computer (instead of my mac at 5 am) and i see that Tony did not make the 1st 2 b/w, but simply downgraded the color: i like this opaque sense even more now, seeing it with more-awake eyes and different monitor: this muted color just intensifies my pleasure: especially for the sailor and hopper/coke pics :)))...

cheers,
bob

[Herve]

I think the first essay has some real potential, and showing already. The ladies moods are really perfect for the subject. I choose to smile, not by mockery, but by finding humour in their cubicled stance, ie. They need rescuing! ;-)
There is no feeling sorry for them, but at the same time, feeling much empathy for them, for us all, making these little screened boxes so much of our waking time. The posing does not bother me, it fits the subject, and they come across well, we do take a human interest in them. Bob is right, it's got this dentist clinic feel how it's all set up.

The second essay is more all over the place, I feel the sepia tone is too homogeneously edited into the shots, uniformizing the images, more than the essay itself. The images seem to lack an extra edge/hook or incidentalness in the correspondances within each. Funny, what worked in the cubicle essay, blandness and equal tone don't come off so easily. But the idea is a good one, and can be an ongoing work. I hope I am not too harsh, it's only IMO (and it changes quite a lot)...

[david alan harvey]

ALL..

interesting comments...and conflictive...which is good, i think...i knew some would hate the "cubicle" story...it is quite a bit like the korean student who shot the "bland" story of the teenager at home in seoul...remember?? that and the french woman who photographed her "muse" were the most comments i have gotten on any students work...

you might want to worry if everyone likes your pictures....

my feeling is that the "cubicle" story HAS to look flat , bland, boring, over-exposed ring lighting and with no expressions....is that not the point of working in a cubicle, as carmen in fact does???

honestly, if that story somehow looked "interesting" or "perfeclty lit" or "full of life", then i would be totally bored!!!! i see a book here...shaped like a cube...

arie, ...do you not work in a similar or at least "office only " environment??? i thought that is what you are shooting for a personal project... maybe that is why it "hurts" or you see nothing....anyway, i do look forward to seeing your interpretation of your office....i would expect it to be different from carmen's view perhaps...anyway, show us ,show us!!! lay it on the table my friend....

cheers, david

[david alan harvey]

ALL....

p.s.

of course, i love the more "classic" essays too, like the jazz story...but , do we really all want to photograph alike??? "rules" etc etc are meant to be broken...i totally encourage my students to have there own point of view...say what they want to say in the way they want to say it...i have many more problems with students who have nothing to say, than with students who have something to "say" even if their vision might not be "orthodox" or "professional"...anyway, more stories coming soonest....i like the controversy...keep it coming!!!!

cheers, david

[Giancarlo Mori]

David,

"you might want to worry if everyone likes your pictures...."

- Amen and thanks for remind us of that!

"do we really all want to photograph alike???"

- Amen again!

But then, speaking of the "cubicle" series (or others we might differ on) there's esthetic and intellectual take, and there's gut liking. I get the first part, but the second just doesn't happen. I guess my mind and heart are disjointed on this one.

Kudos to Carmen for having the guts to tackle her project this way though!

Giancarlo

[david alan harvey]

GIANCARLO....

fair enough...you must always go with your gut reaction....and i totally appreciate a wide variety of opinion and critique just as much as i support a mix of photo styles etc...i just wanted to get carmen thinking about the world in which she lives...carmen is an entry level photographer and perhaps i would not expect her to photograph everything in the future the way she photographed her cubicle friends this time around....

[david alan harvey]

CHRIS...

for sure photographs have a different impact in terms of their presentation...slide shows one thing, prints hanging on the wall another, etc etc...the students are totally aware all week long what will happen visa vie the final night show...

HOWEVER, the final slide show, the prints on the wall, are still just "window dressing" to the overall idea i want to get through to them ...to pursue personal projects in the future which will send them to their next level of serious work..and, of course, the "authorship" which is so so basic in today's photo world...i view the one week workshop as just a beginning for my students...it only matters if they feel the same....

JARED...

thanks for "chiming in"...you were such a good student...i saw you struggling and felt your pain!!! but, the result was really interesting....i will post soonest your work...i hope all is going well for you and please stay in touch..

cheers, david

[Jared Soares]

David,

Thanks for the kind words. I'm excited to hear everyone's thoughts and comments. And I will most definitely being staying touch.

best,
Jared