is pretty wrong?

at school we learn the importance of making images that are meaningful. concept concept concept. i find that often-times the images i see on a regular basis are so highly conceptual that they aren't really very nice to look at. sometimes it's really refreshing to take or look at a picture that is purely aesthetic....a pretty picture. my mom always wondered why all my photos are "weird". i always got all artisty on her and tried to convince her that it's so much more important to have an intellectually charged concept behind an image than a strictly visually attractive one. the longer i'm in school the more jaded i become and the more i start to appreciate pretty images. thank you kenny weng for these pretty images. http://www.moodaholic.com/

today it's sad

Ahndraya Parlato. This one is one of my all time favorites. It's one of those photos that makes me sad when i want it to and happy when i want it to. additionally....it's sort of gay pride! (for me anyway!)

kids and grad school

found these in one of my folders. Christmas. Sabrina. August. Devon. kids are cute. applying to grad school. what a lot of work! thinkin about maine or savannah. really northern and cold vs. really southern and warm. a lot of freedom vs. more structure. so so stressed.

statement or no statement

i am in love. i just stumbled across a photographer, nadav kander, ( www.nadavkander.com ) who seems to photograph an extremely wide range of subjects without losing quality from subject to subject. he's apparently pretty famous (has done a lot of work for big names). i love his series dream girls. i am guessing it's images of prostitutes, but, because i can't find a statement anywhere on his site, i have no idea. the images are visually similar to the storyville portraits of bellocq, which is, quite possibly, why i'm making the prostitute connection. Additionally, there's a series called rest/stay that features really well composed images of hotel rooms...usually including a bed and either porn on the t.v. or an indication that the hotel itself is a destination one would take a prostitute or a sexual affair of sorts. the images, though alluding to sex, aren't overt and are really beautifully done. i love him, but i want a damn artist's statement!

if only i had the funds....

In order to find ourselves we must destroy ourselves. The human race craves the experience. - Floria Sigismondi

so many photographers try to make images that are about nightmares/dreamlike scenes. most of the time i think they half-reach the goal.....or maybe that's only because they are images of dreams that i don't have. floria sigimondi takes photographs of exactly what i recognize as dreams and nightmares. her sets are elaborate and visually stimulating. there are an awesome amount of textures and colors, the focus and depth of field is widely varying and always dead on. her images are extremely ambitious and involved and she manages to get every detail dead on. if only i had the money to construct and light these elaborate scenes.......go floria sigismondi

better late than never

Blogging is new to me. I know there are a million photo blogs out there because I spend hours looking at them, but I haven't wanted to start one until now. I've spent most of the summer traveling around and camping. Living a much simpler life brought me closer to myself and to my passion for photography......that and this intersection in Alabama!