Tyler School of Art: Photography Area: April 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Well, well, well

Juniors have received their portfolios today. Perhaps not the moment of truth we all thought it would be.
Someone wise said to me, "You have to know the rules before you can break them."
This, I think, is the artist's mantra. More importantly, people need to know that we know the rules before they accept the breaking of them. Maybe we have to fix some things up, re-do something else or maybe we are just fine. But let's keep it all in perspective.

It is hard for me to see rules, regulations, or (god forbid) assignments as having much merit or value. However, they are put it place for a reason (depending on what you make of them) and are tools to push us forward, or challenge us.
Truthfully, I have gotten some of my most exciting ideas from weeding through the "guidelines". Test the boundaries, you have to do this to move forward. Let go, lay it out there, and when it fails, or doesn't work how you want it to, try another angle.
This is how we learn.
Try for the sake of trying.

xoxo,
Charlie

Friday, April 22, 2011

To The Weary Ones

Approximately 2 weeks remain. We have been challenged, distraught, uplifted and shot down. More then that-- life throws us curve balls and we are still expected to crawl out of bed and spew emotion onto sheets of paper. We have made entire projects in 2 hours and we have spent 200 hours on projects that have never been seen.

It takes courage to lay out our thoughts for people to see, often we know they will be picked apart till the last bone is sucked dry, and yet we do it anyway.
We do it until we have exhausted all efforts and then we will do it again.
The more work I look at, the more I am struck by the almost-there quality of it.
We are all just on the cusp, at the waters edge, still clinging tightly to the fear that keeps us safe. The part we hold back is what holds us back.

"How fortunate we are to make our life's work centered on experiencing life with depth and creating a soulful response to it" -Linda Saccoccio

Play, she said...Play, in playing our subconscious releases that which we previously held with clenched fingers and knotted necks.

And so, I wait, with a willingness to learn from you, the visual artist, for I am certain you will show me something that only you can show.

xoxo,
Charlie

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Junior Portfolio Review

Tomorrow is the big day.
Doomsday.
Judgment Day.
The Day of Reckoning.

adj-
given to or marked by forebodings or predictions of impending calamity; especially concerned with or predicting future universal destruction

20 prints, 10.5 hours.

With this in mind please know the signs of panic/anxiety related attacks.
these include:

Racing heart
Feeling weak,faint, or dizzy
Tingling or numbness in the hands and fingers
Sense of terror, of impending doom or death
Feeling sweaty or having chills
Chest pains
Breathing difficulties
Feeling a loss of control

Best of Luck
xoxo,
Charlie

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Natalie Piserchio BFA Thesis

Natalie's opening for her show Emergence will be tomorrow from 6-9 p.m.

In viewing this exhibition I was instantly struck by the sheer loveliness of each individual piece. They quietly reflect change and growth, as if slowly distancing the viewer from a former world. A world that was perhaps clouded with the foggy self doubt we all encounter at one point or another. It pushes me to search inside of myself to find the parts I wish to leave behind and the parts I will cling to, for I have found their strength and value. I am drawn in to make connections to the subject within my own thoughts. Natalie has removed the distractions that often sidetrack us from being able to take a look at the quietness we carry. The glimpses of the figure become a glimpse of myself.

I'll see you at the opening,
xoxo
-Charlie

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Gabriela Bulisova: Within The Constant Struggles of Humanity

Here at the Photography Department of Tyler School of Art we had the pleasure of having Gabriela Bulisova give us a unique presentation enabling her to speak of the work she does and the stories behind each of her photographic series. Starting off the power point, she introduced us to a timeline that spanned across her whole career as a Documentary Photographer. Within a fraction of a second, seen through the years she spent abroad in ever-fluctuating states of Iran, Syria, and Lebanon, I quickly fine-tuned my ears and cemented my eyes to the screen.

Riveting, potent, and dynamic are just a few words that can begin to describe her imagery. These are just words however, and as Bulisova explains about her subjects in her series "Chernobyl Revisited", which deals with "the worst environmental catastrophe" in the history of humanity located in Ukraine, she specifically states,

"But what does the 'worst environmental catastrophe' actually mean in the every day lives of the people of Ukraine and Belarus, cannot be any dictionary".

This is how the photographic medium, in the hands of a sensible human like Bulisova, can help propel such words into visions, and visions into emotions. A tragic overflow that embodies the struggles of humankind constantly spreads across the ground. In Bulisova's photographs, she not only captures what's seen on the surface, but rather, makes an attempt to dig deeper and deeper relinquishing all stereotypes and absolutes. There's authenticity in what the Documentary Photographer initiates between herself and her work. Whether it's through the individual exchanges Bulisova had with an Iraqi Refugee, or witnessing the unshakable silent ideals of many foregoing a revolution in Iran, there is always something progressing showing knowledgeable adversity against what sometimes can be perceived as insurmountable odds.

As much credit as I can give to Bulisova for giving identity to the man holding a hand over his face and the woman behind the wooden deck railings (figures above), this comprehensive juxtaposition would not be possible without her exceptional keenness to each image. Her compostions and conceptions are particular, neutral, and most importantly true. Going through each series in her slideshow, I couldn't help but acknowledge that right here in front of me was an Artist, selfless, cloaked with comfort and ease, in pursuit of unbiased human reality. Of course the Documentary Photographer, the Artist, and the Human will never have complete contentment with themselves as the stories of struggles persist and a call for identities continue. This and will always be the story of Gabriela Bulisova.