Movies For Photographers: Andrei Tarkovsky's "The Mirror"

Made in 1975, Andrei Tarkovsky formulates a loosely auto-biographical picture blending childhood memories, newsreel footage, surreal dreams, and beautiful poems by his father Arseny Tarkovsky. Using his traditional slow pans and long takes, Tarkovsky suspends the viewer within the time between spaces and subjects. The film wages a non-linear narrative with characters who appear and reappear keeping our memory at bay for most of the picture. All of the motifs, the themes, the poetry (which is breathtaking btw) plays into the hands of each and every artist who has ever dealt with memory and the consequences that come with forgetfulness through visual interpretation. I can probably watch this film over and over again for the sheer density instilled in each frame, the compassion it creates, and the atmosphere that vibes so brilliantly within the subjective space Tarkovsky provides.

See it.

xoxo George

Dont FORGET!!!!

Dont forget guys, Philly Photo Day is coming up.

Poing+Click+Send=Success.

For more information hit up the PPAC's website.

Deadline is the 28th to send, and the reception is on November 10th.

Hope to see you there!

xoxo George

If you're out there...

I want to talk about you nuts that are close to home, it's all well and good to write about artist's that are being written about already...but I want an early wack at it, what can I say? I love to start off the gossip chain. So, send me some jpegs and I will post them and talk about it. This is an open call, I don't care who you are, or when you read this, just send me something I can sink my teeth into.
Please e-mail them to charliedieignos@gmail.com
And again, whenever you happen to see this post just send me a few pics, it is a standing invitation.
xoxo,
Charlie

Michael Meyer- Direct Forms

Come check out Michael Meyer's Exhibiton in the Photo Gallery!
Also look at his website which I linked in his name above, a pretty exciting variety of work overall. The pieces shown are rich with detail and mood and a bunch of other things you will have to see for yourself.
xoxo,
Charlie

Facades and Fabrications

Should art challenge its viewer?

Of course!

Should accessibility be the forefront of such challenges?

Not always.

As artist, our initial goal is to communicate. This is easy. Anything objective is able to communicate with its own presence. Even absence can speak (it almost all the time yells). The hard work however is not the work’s will to beget a dialogue, but rather to sustain a dialogue that presents itself intentionally under the artist’s demands. Whether under a Morse key or through the Cinema, a message must always be clarified. Deconstruction is inevitable no matter how many facades a piece of work proposes. In these seams we can detect the honest and call out the bullshit. These facades (which can sometimes be fabrications) are Japanese sliding doors ready to be opened as we seek the space laid out in front of us. Many artists seek to substitute the sliding doors with a bank vault door, bolted and screwed into the surface. There is such a range for this complexity! This brings to question the usage and misuse of accessibility in art. It’s almost like accepting text as visual art. By adding new laterals such as references, parodies, or text the artist not only places more obstacles for the viewer to bear but also a whole new array of different perspectives to peer through (i.e. a photograph of a poem. Not only do we have to dissect the piece as a photograph but now, knowing that the emphasis is on the text, we must anatomize the poem word for word in conjunction with its presented medium.) No longer are we just visual theorist, in combination, we have been given the right, by the artist, to be historians, pop-cultural pathfinders, and literary critics. Again, these are just examples of the perspectives artistic facades can administer to us: the viewer.

As I stated earlier these facades can easily morph into fabrications. This is where it gets tricky, because a fabrication is essentially a trick. This is the area where art has the capability to leap, but with this notion comes the dangerous potential for fabrications to bleed right off the page onto the artists hands. Clear delineation between the art and the artist is imperative while handling such lies. The artist can tell lies but he must never become a liar. Almost crazy right? These lies, these fabrications, must work for a common truth. If the fabrications are too stagnant and too off-handed then we may just have to call “bullshit!” before another inconsequential conversation sprouts.

Ahh… I’m not done with this yet. Join me next week where I “try” to come to a conclusion here.

xoxo George

Look at these crazy kids...

So I don't know if you were all informed about the epic battle, the rolly chair race-off between departments a few months ago, but I just found this great shot of the Foto Team. We may not have won, but that race was rigged! Can't count on Art Students for a fair fight.
To see more photos from the event go to Tyler Exhibitions Facebook Page.

xoxo,
Charlie

Lighting 10/14

Hopefully a relatable ramble.

to relate: to bring into or establish connection

In the art world the "relatability" of work tends to deal with how the miscellaneous art connects to the viewer, how much it is made tangible to them due to their own life experience. Based on this idea, when I look at work I can immediately decide if it deserves my connection. If I can't "relate", it is outside my interest base and I am given an allowance to dismiss its validity.For some reason this way of thinking doesn't sound so great anymore.

I've been banging my head into this brick wall lately, asking myself over and over if my work is relatable or as some verbal magicians might call it "accessible". Thinking myself sick, speculating on what to change, how to change it and what to do with this information. I go over and over my own life and think it is not so different then the majority, at least not at it's basics... is it possible that this truth has yet to translate into what I'm making, or is not wanting to connect just an underdeveloped reaction.

I have a serious confession...I do this all the damn time. I write something off if I can't find myself in it. Which is why I fight it, because along with this compulsion to instantly connect and be engaged comes another desire; to find a connection that I believe is always there...hiding, often in plain sight. If I ever loose my thirst for wanting to understand another persons perspective I shouldn't be allowed to talk about Art. If I become unable to boil down specifics into the meat of the experience I don't deserve to see what you are making.

This isn't to say to hell with all the other things that go hand in hand with art, this is only one facet of interacting with whatever you may be looking at. But there is no doubting that it is a big one. This is especially hard for me to take a side on, I want to relate... but if I don't I should take new information away from it. I don't think one or the other is better... I think they need each other, they fulfill this side of us that is curious to a flaw, and they remind us of our humanity.

Sometimes by being "unrelatable" we can draw attention to the shared experience, the ones without faces or names, the ones that float into black spaces, the ones we can't put our fingers on. We are forced to find commonality...or we aren't and we miss out on wrapping our heads around something new.

xoxo,
Charlie

We have finally arrived.

For those of you who know Michael Becotte, and those of you who don't-- we have a couch. I mean...the basement always felt like home in a weird kind of way, but now we aren't limited to rolly chairs (the mark of the photo bizarros). Thank You Michael, this is a gift that keeps on giving. Not only would my artistic growth be drastically different without having this man as a professor...but now I can say to the grads with confidence... "I too can sit on a couch"

xoxo,
Charlie
p.s. When finals roll around...I've got dibs.

Photographic Lighting 10/07

PotLuck

You are all down for eating, I know this, I've seen it in action. Bring some foods...

Oct. 10,2011
12 p.m.
Photo Seminar Room


Oh and you get to hear a lecture by Martin McNamara (director and owner of the 339 Gallery)
You have no viable excuse for not going to this, I guarantee this will bring up some hugely relevant stuff about what you are doing with yourself, and what you want to do.


Presentation topic: "How to approach a Commercial Gallery and Art Market perspectives"

See? told you.

xoxo,
Charlie

Photographic Lighting 9/30

"The term for this kind of look in the photo industry would be 'fucking rad'". -ML