Departure Point - LuLu

Hello everyone, my name is LuLu and I am currently a fourth year Visual Studies and Economics major. My main interests in art are photography and graphic design, although drawing is one of my hobbies. Non-school related I am really interested in Korean pop music, more specifically a 12 (now 11) member group called EXO. I will definitely speak about this in class at one point.

I studied at Temple Japan for a year and a half before coming to main campus. I studied digital photography with Shinya Watanabe and graphic design with Ian Lynam. My main motivation for making work is I that love trying out different aesthetics. I will never show a photo I do not think is beautiful in some way, either by subject or composition. Originally when I started photography, I wanted to be a fashion photographer because I loved fashion. I still do, but I also like taking photos of other subjects. 

One of my inspirations for photography are my dolls. I own two Asian ball-jointed dolls and they are what inspired me to start taking photos. Even now my subjects are mostly dolls, although I do enjoy shooting portraits and people photos. I've tried a variety of methods for taking photos, but they have all been digital. I've had some darkroom experience from high school, but I've been wanting to get more practice. 

I am still a beginner in terms of darkroom processes and am excited to learn about alternative methods for film development. When I studied with Shinya, we briefly learned how to make a negative from a digital photo, but we only spent a day on that and I do not remember much of what we did. I am very interested in using traditional methods to enhance or work with digital methods. I am originally a purely digital artist, but I am interested in traditional processes and how I can use that to make my digital work more engaging.

I also have an online portfolio/art blog website where I have some of my non-photo works as well. I have a lot more of my photography there too, my website is http://www.ultraviolet-reaction.com/

  

Departure Point - Courtney Fusselman

Sometimes I let myself forget that I am a writer. I venture off into more visual mediums that get me out of my brain and into the world more easily than words are able. Photography and writing are two powerful forces in my life.. completely different in their execution of the same things.

To provide something to look at; to experience aesthetics that comfort and entertain. 

Photos: creating thoughtful response in us, but also knee-jerk, physical attraction. I track down the part of me that responds to basic qualities of photography: the sheer pleasure that 'good photos' can be to my eye - the way that it is informally, simply fun - the sharing, and the human thing about it that I love the most: no matter the photograph, someone once stood from that window, in front of this person or on top of that hill, and they grabbed this moment with their box of light and they gave it to you. 

There is an obsessive component as well. Recording things, one chief use for both writing and photography, becomes a focus. Every lost moment is a misery. Often I feel that half my drive for creating work in these mediums comes from my desire to fossilize every memory (how we felt/looked; what we ate/wore; what the weather was like when we felt good; words that came out of us; someplace we spent a lot of time; days that were peaceful, or long),. I am not sure if I want to feed that compulsion – to embrace it and expand it, or if I could try to let the glimpse of a celebratory side take over… get out of documenting my own life and plunge myself into an independent world.

I believe in funny photos. An image that invokes joy, silliness, or affection for the subject is more important to me than any abstract, technically perfect photograph. 

I hope, this semester, to find new ways to present my work – to learn how I want my form and content to behave. It is all so personal to me. Not a lot of what I do has very much to do with a clear statement, nor do I have an active goal; I am not trying to break any specific ground. I see beauty in my loved ones, and all around my life. I feverishly grasp at all of it. I want to stretch my eye.

Emily Gilmore-Hybrid Photo-Departure Point

In his article, “The Daguerreotype“, Edgar Allen Poe wrote”

“…the closest scrutiny of the photogenic drawing discloses only a more absolute truth, a more perfect identity of aspect with the thing represented. The variations of shade, and the gradations of both linear and aerial perspective are those of truth itself in the supremeness of its perfection.”

–Edgar Allen Poe, “The Daguerreotype” published January 15, 1840 in Alexander’s Weekly Messenger

Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Daguerreotype,” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Daguerreotype,” 15 January 1840. Www.daguerreotypearchive.org, 2008. Web. <http://www.daguerreotypearchive.org/texts/P8400008_POE_ALEX-WEEKLY_1840-01-15.pdf>.

Since its invention, photography has evoked the most revolutionary art movements within traditional mediums. Impressionism, cubism, surrealism and other early 20th century avant-garde movements were reactions to photography’s superlative capture of detail and accuracy. The realist could no longer compete with the photographer, and so the realist became the surrealist and created innovative styles that photography could not achieve. Photography is perceived as truth while an image denotes artistic view. Poe impressively articulated the daguerreotype’s magnificent accuracy of detail and shading; however, his connection between photography and reality may be seen as misguided within the realm of photographic manipulation.

Is it a success to the photographer if the photograph causes the viewer to question its validity? That idea attracts me to the photographic art. After making a photograph, if my own attention is captured and intrigued, then I believe it to be a strong piece. The viewer will believe what I tell them through the photograph, but I if I can visualize my own fabrication of truth, I know that I was successful- a key motivator.

Concepts that trend within my work tend to vary from the dark and dismal to the vivacious and dreamlike. When I look at a photo, I want the content to mystify and enliven my spirit, thus taking me on the artist’s personal emotional and conceptual journey. I strive to instill those intentioned emotions within the viewer. In self-portraits, I tend to get close up with the camera to pull the viewer in as close as possible; however, I wish to intrigue the viewer to the same extent by taking a step back- literally. My weakness is lack of variation of artistic angle. I would like to explore more alternative styles and angles within self-portraits.

I tend to position the viewer above or at eye level with the subject. In the past I have found that keeping the viewer close was vital for their comprehension of the photograph’s message. I have used mostly warm black and white tones with harsh contrasting to secure the viewer’s attention. I felt that intensity was paramount to my personal artistic vision. The subject of water tends to flow through my work as I have always felt some kind of inner connection with water’s literal fluidity and the idea and feeling of submersion. Water’s variation of state from animated to still fascinates me, and so my style will mimic that alteration of form. For a still photograph, the tone will be cold or warm black and white with a soft detail, while in a live photograph, I will boost the saturation and sharpness. Although these approaches have supported my work and journey as an artist, I am ready to expand my use of styles, angles, and content and progress further as a photographer.

Lindsay Thomson - Departure Point

Hi all, to reintroduce myself, my name is Lindsay and I am a senior Visual Studies major at Tyler. I am also pursuing a minor in English, and hope to if not marry my interests for visual art and the written word, find a way post-graduation to work with both in one way or another.

This semester, I would like to continue to experiment with film photography, as it has been an ongoing hobby of mine for the better part of five years now. While that sounds like a long time, I admittedly haven't considered my photographic endeavors to be more than a hobby because I feel that I have not reached the level of skill or execution just yet in order to call myself a "photographer". (If I ever do intend to deem myself one, that is.)

Most of my photographs explore motifs of architecture and landscapes, as well as small details and textures that exist overlooked or undetected in the scheme of daily life. I appreciate old structures, worn layers of the world around me, and find many times that decadence carries a particular level of elegance. I would like to continue to seek out these images this semester.

I am also interested in the human figure, and would love to begin to take more portraits. Most of my photographs are devoid of people, which I don't necessarily aim for, but I suppose am just subconsciously drawn to carry out. I am attracted to fragments of the human form, possibly creating broken narratives. I have had one professor tell me that my work is "secretive". Whether that holds true or not, I would be interested in investigating that idea.

Departure Point - Ian Watson

For those who are curious, hi. I'm Ian Watson, and I don't know what to post here. I'm a photojournalism major out of Annenberg hall, and I don't really consider myself much of an artist, but hey, always nice to try new things.

I'm really not sure what all to write for this departure point. I guess it's a good idea to have a roadmap of where you're going when you start a journey, but honestly, I've always found that my best ideas come as I start to actually do things. Last semester, in the Visual Elements/Darkroom Portfolio class, I entered with no idea of what I wanted to produce and left with a few sets of themed images that told their own stories. While I don't want to be a one trick pony and do that yet again this semester, but honestly I feel that the same general lack of idea of what to do may prove to work out in my favor. Or, you know, it could not, since crit is rapidly approaching. Hoo boy.

I didn't do much photographing over this summer in any form, be it digital, film, or smartphone. This summer was pretty rough for a lot of reasons, but my DSLR also had a bit of an accident early on that has left the viewfinder busted, and while I've been moderately successful at shooting blind, it didn't help to motivate me to get out and actually do it often. What little work I did over the summer was portrait adventures with a few friends and documentation of an all weekend karate function I was at, none of which I've really dove into editing or touching at all.

Since getting back to school, I've been mainly shooting for my other photo class, the online smart phone photography course. The first theme is Black and White/Mystery, so I've been trying to think in grayscale and outside of the box. I've been thinking a lot more about light because of it (a good example is my opening shot), and some of the stuff I've turned in has been less of a mystery in terms of subject and more of a mystery in terms of, "Whoa, how does the light look like that?"

Really, my main overall hope and dream from this semester is to be all about the photo transfer. Hanging up photos on walls is cool and all, but if there's one thing I've learned from this horrible heat in an apartment that lacks A/C and feels like an oven is that photos and posters hung onto a wall last only so long before their tape or other binding material gives out (a whole hell of a lot faster if you're living in a place as hot as Satan's rear end, like I am). I am all about wanting to learn about photo transfers this semester. I would love to slap my photos on flasks, or on glass cups, or even turn them into some sort of translucent sticky thing that I can slam onto stop signs or walls or pipes and become an art creating miscreant. I have no idea what I'm going to produce for the upcoming darkroom crit, and I only have a faint idea of what I'll be able to produce with cyanotypes, but photo transfer? The options, and my potential, are limitless.