Rough Draft of Final Book

My book will be a reflection on November, both literally and as a concept, as well as its contradictions and atmospheric moods: bleak, grey, warm, earthy, home, family, cold, and beautiful.  

All of the elements of the encroaching winter, the dried fields, the Thanksgiving holiday, and the early setting sun make November robust with textures, smells, memories, and the reminder of time marching on, waiting for no one.

Known narrative or image

I chose to do an updated statement using Magritte’s “Son of Man”.  This surrealist self portrait can easily be interpreted as the visible / invisible nature of ourselves, our personality, or what we chose to show or not show the public.  I find direct alignment in this narrative to our modern use of electronic devices to remain distant, or invisible, while remaining in contact, giving us a more calculated depiction of how we would like to be perceived, or our “self portrait” (and of course I used a "green apple"). 

I also wanted to tackle a more contemporary version of Degas' "The Interior", again using electronic devices, this time to demonstrate a tension or lack of communication in the relationship.  I enjoyed creating these images, however I felt "Son of Man" was a stronger piece. 

Philly Photo Day

This is the photo I submitted, taken outside Martin Luther King High School on Stenton Avenue at about 7:03 am.  I am a teacher here.  

This is another photo I liked from my shoot, of one of our exterior murals.  This poem is sadly ironic now, given the state of our school, and district.  

Great Photographer Assignment

 I chose Sharon Core, a contemporary artist who uses photography to meticulously replicate other artist's paintings.  Here she has reproduced "Cakes", a Wayne Thiebaud painting from 1963. 

I was inspired by the same color, pattern, repetition, and sumptuous materials that drew her to Thiebaud, and used Core's other imagery of sandwiches, salads, fruits, and soups to inform my work.  Because many of these images deal with sweets, I interpret Core's reproductions as addressing current issues of excess and waste, so I chose fruit as a colorful and healthy spin on the original works.

Favorite Photos

So, I had a very hard time narrowing these pictures down to just 5.  Looking through old pictures and having to choose favorites was like putting a 6 year old in a candy store with one dollar.  I quickly realized after starting this assignment that I was more drawn to the photos that had strong emotional ties or memories than just beautiful photos.  My "beautiful" photos tend to be landscapes, interesting compositions, or natural patterns, but my favorite photos remind me of wonderful memories.

Here they are:

This picture is of my husband on one of our walks at chanticleer.  This is before I was back at school for my masters, and I had time to take leisurely strolls in the fall.  This is about 5 years ago now, and when I look at this photo I see a more relaxed time period in my life.  Now that I teach full time and go to school, I appreciate what leisure looks like.  I earn my leisure now, and its very different.  

This little fuzzy treasure is my kitty, posed with her "catch" Mr. Mouse.  When I found her on the street in Philadelphia, she was very thin and had many ailments.  We worked through it together, and now she is the light of my life.  I promised I'd get a pic of her in here, and no list of my favorite pictures could be complete without her.

This is my husband on our honeymoon in Reykjavik, Iceland.  While I have many gorgeous landscape and cityscape photos of this beautiful country, this one takes me back to the experience of being there, the little day to day things we did, sight seeing, trying new places to get breakfast, etc.  This place was called the Grey Cat (or Grai Kotturinn in Icelandic), and was a bookshop / coffee shop / breakfast nook in a basement.  Glorious.   

Here is my husband (lower right) with 5 of his 6 siblings.  We are on vacation in Avalon, our first night in the house, and the heavy drinking is underway.  How they managed this pyramid I still can't understand.  Taking this photo, with its bad lighting and horrible composition, was the last coherent thing I did that evening.  :)  But I have wonderful memories of these vacations, I think everyone in this picture remembers this night fondly.

This picture is off our back deck, its the blizzard of 2009.  This was the first winter that my husband and I owned this home, and we lost power for three days.  No heat.  My parents had a photo in their album off their back deck of the blizzard of 83, and it's like a cycle that we move out, grow up, and build very similar memories of our own.  

Good Lighting

White balanced with blue-ish sheet

White balanced with a red sheet

Incandescent lighting

Motion Pictures :)

Actually, a few cars went through these intersections, and you can see the colored streaks of white and red.  This was only about a 30 sec shot.  

 This one is a 250 second exposure of the rocket that was launched to the moon Friday night, it was pretty spectacular to watch.  Was pitch black out in reality.  Got a great view of it in Valley Forge.

Self Portrait

Taken with Ipad on 15 sec delay, at Gryphon Cafe.  

Note: Coffee wasn't very good today. 

Biography

I am currently enrolled in the MEd Art Emphasis, scheduled to graduate in 2014.  I teach high school Art in the Philadelphia School District, and want this course to help expand my understanding of digital photography and using electronic resources as tools for education and assessment.

I have a PERFECT cat that I love!!  She is 5 lbs 14 oz, has one eye, little white feet, a little pink nose, and is the light of my life.  I promise to sneak some photos of her into my coursework so you can see how cute she is.