Sally Mann

After reading the posts of everyone in the class along with watching video clips of Sally Mann and her work I finally got what the big fuss was about. Her art from what I could see was beautiful and engaging. Her usage of black and white photography is both eerie and able to makes you feel like your looking at your family's family album or that it some how relates to you and your history. In her style it really seems like her photos are frozen in time, I mean look at the camera she uses its a tool used from a forgotten time. The whole controversy with her and her kids is just ridiculous, I think its just the time and age we are living in that perverts the images of a mothers kids into being something that they aren't. Its funny to me that she takes pictures to take pictures, and just doesn't really seem to care about what others will think about them. Over all i like her style, like someone said in comment to Sally Mann's style, maybe i should try utilizing black and white more often to bring about a different aspect of the piece.

Richard Misrach

I think there is a lot to say about the landscape you inhabit, but when you talk about a place of desolation void of any life it speaks volumes. I like the fact that his photo's capture the landscape in this unreal nature. It gives the landscape this power forcing you to take notice to its dreamlike reality. I just feel like all his pieces have this underlying idea that the Earth and the environment is eternal, while man is nothing but a speck of insignificance. You can see it in his landscape pictures the horizon and scene just seems to go on for ever. While in the pieces with man made objects or human beings in them are presented as desolated and abandoned or forgettable and negligible. And I think that's where the power of the terrain draws you in because of the fact that we are so forgettable while the terrain remains memorable for its surreal qualities.

Collier Schorr

Loss and desire.

I love her style of depicting herself, her struggles, and her realities through capturing others in photos. In the Wrestling pieces I think it's interesting how she took photos of young boys sparing against each other to try and depict the gender roles of males and almost herself try to answer the question of what she would be like if she was born a boy. Along with that the photos seem to explain how they are supposed to almost act and behave; as both warriors and brethren to each other. I think a theme that flows through her pieces is the casting off the bred roles you have been taught and to do what comes naturally to you regardless of what society has to say. In the pieces with the boy posing as a  female you can see this guard that comes up when going against the roles you are supposed to depict.. In most of the photos he is guarded to pose in the feminine poses, but in the moments where he seems to forget it seems almost effortless and are "neutral". I think its hard though to act in the roles that come naturally when your bred to be, act, and perform in a certain way. To forget about our roles entirely is something very hard to do for anyone, but I think Collier helps to show that it is possible through the loss and desire to do so.

Roni Horn

Water.
Roni Horn is like water.
ever fluid, constantly adaptable, and ever changing while still maintaining her true self.
i think out of the pieces shown in the documentary, the piece that i could actually connect with was the locker room piece. like the rest of her work, the pieces of the collage flowed and intertwined with each other like water. not only was the flow amazing, but it was strategic and held this ambiguous story within it as well. I think what ultimately attracted me to the piece was the ambiguity, the voyeuristic style that was hiding in the piece. As Roni Horn said the people entering and leaving the lockers were just "traces". and i think thats all we can do is just leave the smallest trace of ourselves in the places we inhabit in our lives.

To Do List

Stefan Sagmeister

Don't write on paper or parchment but on yourself is the message he gives.

No, but in all seriousness its just to say that you don't have to give your audience text in its traditional styling, but it can be done in the medium outside that can be used to express those messages which much more then the text behind it. I think what Sagmeister is doing is showing a physical representation of the persons life story by making them a living canvas on which to use typography on. This gives the piece a more personal and even vulnerable look at the person depicted.

-Side note_

It just reminds me of writing on your forehead your social standing mine would be "average"

Whats yours?

DavidCarson

What to write what to write what to write.
Well.
I think that what he was trying to say is that you can convey the same message that you hear Over ad over again instead through a means that may be conceived as unconventional.
Just because something has the proper grammar proper spelling even the right type of jargon Doesn’t mean that it will convey the message trying to be spoken.
I mean I think its smart what is being done. If you put something on paper.
YOU WANT IT TO BE READ.
Or at least seen.
And when you have black lines on white paper with all the ducks in a row it doesn't really seem To catch anyone’s attention.
Typography is almost like a slap to the face.
Catches your attention can put you and shock and awe and just leave you there to think of what Has just happened.



Also on a more artistic outlook sometimes what society sees as normal just cant convey your Message.
How many times can you see happiness, sadness, or redemption till you've seen them all when Everyone is following all the same rules?
Sometimes you have just have to change it up and go by your own rules.

 

P.s.- I think what David Carson just reinstates is that you should think outside of the box. Don't Look at your mistakes or errors as things to be deleted, but things that should be stepped Backed and reflecting on what it could be.

And if people accept it then hey go for it.