Here's a link to more work if you want to look at it:
http://gwenwiess.tumblr.com
Hey, guys! My name is Gwen! I'm a Junior majoring in Visual Studies. I did some growing up in Roxborough and then my family moved out to the suburbs, so I did the majority of my growing up in Norristown which is about 30 minutes from the city. If I'm not working at the business school on campus or at Helium Comedy Club in Center City, I'm probably at home binge watching Netflix, reading, out with my friends, or at my actual home with my parents, hanging out with my family.
My Motivation for making work this semester is mostly to learn something new and gain as much knowledge about the medium as I can. I've never taken a photo class before and I really think I'm going to enjoy this one, especially, because we get a basic background of processes and then it seems as though we'll be encouraged to experiment a lot with the processes that we just learned - which is something I really enjoy and have missed in recent years. Prior to this class my motivation for taking pictures such as the ones above have been just to document what is happening. The last two photos were from a trip that I took with my Dad to Colorado last summer and it was amazing, I know I would have been disappointed had I not taken any pictures. The first three photos were from a trip my family took down the shore two summers ago and I just found it enjoyable to be able to create an image that captures what happened while we were down there.
The pictures above didn't really have any conceptual aspect to them, my main goal was just to create an image that was visually pleasing using the techniques that I'd been taught about composition and framing. Another goal that I have for this class is to be able to become better and working with a concept in mind. I've become interested in philosophy lately, have begun taking courses and am enjoying the contradictions that some of the philosophy that I'm learning poses to the arts. I think it would be interesting to incorporate that into work somehow. But who knows! I'd really like to just learn as much as I can.
As far as physical discipline - I've only ever taken digital photographs. A few times I've gotten disposable cameras and just tried to mess around and see if I can get anything interesting to come out, which happens sometimes! But mainly I've stuck to digital when it comes to photography. I've worked in other mediums (painting, fibers, drawing...) but have always had an interest in film because of the step by step processes that are involved but then also the ability to stray from the process and see what happens. I'm really excited to learn how to do something entirely new!
Your landscapes here are beautiful, conceptually I think landscapes are very hard to really "say" something, I mean it's a landscape there aren't any subjects hence no transfer of emotions really except I guess between the viewer and the actual place.
ReplyDeleteThat said your shots do a really good job of capturing the feeling of a place, the last picture I think is probably the strongest emotionally just because of the solitary subject in this vast landscape. It reminds me of a painting, and it makes me want to go out there...because I've been that person, solitary standing looking out in nature like that so it kinda hits home with me somewhere.
I would suggest definitely finding a way to incorporate some subject in your pictures like that one, doesn't have to be a person but something to tie me to the picture...something to identify with goes a long way to analyzing a picture in my opinion.