Simon Menner

Today's artist is photographer Simon Menner. I came across his work on the Museum of Contemporary Photography's web site under a new show about city life that is currently being exhibited. I enjoyed the photos that he had in the show but after visiting his website I found others that really stood out to me. One series in particular titled "The Ends Are Near" struck me in a very powerful way. Since he is a German born, mainly German speaking artist, most all of the sites that I looked for about him including his own were in German. But his work in my opinion is so accessible and focused that I felt like I didn't even need a description to understand what was going on. The simple title is enough to guide your thoughts and apply that title to each print in the series.





At first glance the photos may not have all too much in common on a content basis. But a closer look reviles that thoughts of a changing world, most likely not for the best, is being presented. A research lab, a giant food storage warehouse, a sectioned off nature preserve and an oil refinery create an almost disturbing look at the world that we currently live in. The exact same vanishing point perspective in each shot that ends at a visible point is suggestive of the title of the body of work. Menner's style of working is something that has always interested me and I tend to use it often. The idea of taking a concept, in this case spaces that imply our demise, and searching for similar examples to support that concept is used to great affect here. While each photo could stand on it's own i feel that viewing them all at once strengthens the idea and makes it a more accessible successful piece.

Idea

I realized that this week I needed to do some thinking. I, like most of the people in this class that I have talked to am a little lost with my work. As it has always been trough my entire life whenever I feel that I need to meditate, I gravitate (that sounded cool) to a secluded, calm interior or exterior space where I can gather my thoughts. I feel at home at these places but I never gave much thought as to why I choose these places to begin with. Ever since I was a kid I have always loved going off on my own and finding a space to just sit down it and enjoy. I would do it at the grocery store with my mom, at hotels and malls. Now I'm 21 I still do the exact same thing.

I'm starting to realized that these spaces that I have spent my entire life searching for are a direct relation to the way that my photography has progressed. When I go to these places I usually don't think about photographing them, which is strange because the photos that I take at other places end up with the same compositions and use of line and space that see when I am sitting at these places. The way that I position my body when I am sitting in any space is directly related to the way that I compose most of my daily photographs.

I feel like this is something that I was starting to touch on with my hospital project but I didn't really know what was driving me at that point. So I have started to go to some of these spaces and photograph them the way that I see them. Position myself how I would normally sit, with the objects that I would normally bring and photograph the space using my wide angle. Here are some early tests, including one I posted last time.





These are all places that I turn to when I need comfort, quiet or peace. And I've realized that I go to these places when there are the least amount, and in most cases no people. It's funny that I've never really seen a common link between these spaces until now. I'm still not 100% sure that I want to use the objects yet, but I think that they add another dimension. I want the viewer to know that I am taking the picture. If I were to photograph the space with out the objects then they would be to much about the space itself and not about my relationship to them. The photos show no life, but the objects imply that I the photographer am present and showing what it is that I see. The camera becomes my eyes; when I look at these photos, I don't see them as flat pictures. I can see right into them and feel like I am there because these spots are so familiar to me.

I have more ideas and locations for this project and it just feels right for me to go in this direction right now. More pictures and lovely thoughts on the way.

Art Blog: Andreas Gefeller

The other day fellow classmate Griffin recommended an artist for me to look at, saying that his work was similar to my own. After some simple research, I immediately saw the similarities between our style and concept. Gefeller is another German photographer (I'm starting to see a trend here) who follows the deadpan, cold German ascetic but adds a very unique twist to it. When you first look at his photos, they appear to be shots from a helicopter. However, they appera too undistorted, composed, and perfect to be helicopter shots.



Gefeller accomplishes these amazing photos in a surprisingly simple way. "Just like a scanner, which works across lines on a piece of paper, I walk across a certain area line by line, and with each step I take a photo. I carry my camera, which is pointed towards the ground, in such a way that my own feet don't end up in the images." I find his process to be very intriguing because it's unique and makes me reevaluate my own way of working.

His images show great amounts of control. While he is not altering the landscape itself, he is deciding how much of it we will actually see. They are disorienting because we are not used to being able to see this much detail from a seemingly distanced top-down view. Work that causes me to question the photographers process engages me in and makes it more likely for me to stick around and think about what it is actually trying to say. I know that might make me sound shallow but for the amount of images that I see daily, especially art images, I seem to need something that is truly unique in order to really keep my attention and make me want to study it further.

Gefeller's work has been a huge motivator for. Lately I've been in the 'it's all been done mode' but seeing his work is a real breath of fresh air. I have been looking for new processes to make my work more exciting and seeing what he does forces me to think outside the box. Gefeller is able to present the world from a different angle, an alternate view on an over photographed, over documented planet. The idea of originality is something that I struggle with constantly when trying out new work. I get upset when when I find that someone else is working in the same strain as myself. But I need to not see it as that, I have to learn to feed off of it and push myself to do better rather then shutting down a possibility. I work in the same field as Gefeller and a lot of my ideas are similar to his, and now I am able to let that inspire me instead of frustrate me. So thank you Griffin for the suggestion, and for getting the gears turnin once!

Idea 09/17

For the past few days I have taken a bit of a step back from exclusively looking at Google maps street view. Since I have been struggling with the Gmaps I felt the need to get out and shoot more in a way that would bring some steadiness back into my art. Not that I don't like the Gmaps, or being pushed, but it is definitely much more of a mental challenge for me so I needed some brain relaxation time. I decided to try some of the shooting into stores at night again, so I grabbed the tripod and the telephoto and set off.

As I started to visit different places in different strip malls I came to a realization. Not only did I like the photos that came out of this, but I really enjoyed the danger that came with trying to avoid being seen by people while shooting. It's true I was probably a little paranoid, and its not like I was being chased by the cops, but just the idea of having to shoot quickly and stay in the shadows was really exciting for me. I think this is because the is so out of the ordinary for me. Usually I'm shooting for or with someone out in the open in broad daylight. Having to creep around like a child playing ninja game makes me feel nostalgic. These are a few of the images I came up with.





After a couple of outings doing this had another thought one night while driving home. As I passed by a Wendy's I recalled how I started my hospital project in concepts a few semesters ago. It began in a McDonald's at the bottom of the hospital. I stopped there to use the bathroom one day while out trying to figure out what I was going to do for that project. I decided to get some fries and as I sat down at my seat I became very interested in the space that I was in and wished that I could photograph all that I saw in front of me. At the time my camera could not take photos that wide because of the cropped sensor, so that is why for the final shots of the hospital (inspired by McDonald's) were a composite of six pictures each.

But now I have a new camera with a full frame sensor that is able to make full use of the 17-40mm lens that I have. So after a quick stop to Wendy's right before it closed, and out of shot of the security camera I made this picture.


Then once I was home I wanted to see if I could remove the Wendy's logos from the frame to make it a little more ambiguous.


Getting out and shooting has been a great help for me as it has gotten me excited about my work and has squeezed out a couple more ideas to throw into the soup. Jeff told me, I need to stop thinking in terms of "this project, then this project" and I feel like this is a step away from that way of thought. I know that these photos have common threads to Gmaps, and I have some ideas, I just gotta nail them down. Thinking is going to be prevalent this week, as opposed to most others. PEACE!

Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Bechers

Tom suggested to me to study the photographers that got their start at the Becher School for my next artist blog. While I have heard of most of them and seen a lot of their work I wanted to take a closer look at how the my work is influenced by them, with out me even noticing it. The interesting thing is that my work resembled many of the Becher photographers before I even knew who they were. The influence that the school has had on the world of photography is increadibly widespread and far reaching.




Andreas Gursky studied at several schools in Germany before becoming a student of the Bechers. His work has progressed from his early work showing family outings to his more famous work of large prints of factories, buildings, and interiors. The sheer amount of information that his photographs present continues to amaze me every time I look at them. So many of his images are incredibly static despite the obvious motions that the subjects are carrying out. His concepts are relatively straight forward and rely heavily on the aesthetic beauty of his pieces. Not to say that they are oversimplified, but you do not have to spend a life time with them to be able to have a solid base of understanding about them. Gursky is the perfect extension of his teachers because he not only caries on their traditions and style but he has put a completely new spin in what was given to him.






Candida Höfer is another great example of a Becher taught artist. The main difference between her and Gursky is the dramatic absence of people. Her photographs are set ups that are meticulously arranged and usually would be full of human activity. The absence of life raises the question of what purposes do these spaces really fulfill? Höfer is a perfect example of an artist that I did not have prior knowledge of but am still indirectly influenced by. Höfer and the others that studied under the Bechers have established a style that is so widespread and has affected so many photographers that they influnce completely indirectly.

IDEA

So I started off this week with a little bit of research into Google maps. I wanted to spend some more time exploring the street view as well as finding how it is made. I found that they use a camera called the Dodeca 2360 that costs about $90,000 and is strapped on a tripod to the top of a VW Beetle. As soon as I found out the cost of the camera I immediately ruled out the possibility of being able to experiment with one, but that's ok.

I've found that the cameras in the US are much lower resolution than the ones that they use in Europe, and at first I found this upsetting, but the more I thought about it I realized that I could possibly use this to my advantage. I thought it would be interesting to contrast the high resolution of my camera to the significantly lower resolution of the street view screen grabs. I chose a few spots on street view that had people or other objects that would definitely change over timer and decided that I would go visit them in person and photograph them exactly like I framed them on the computer. When I arrived at the places I positioned my car to the approximate spot of the Google car and stood on my seats and shot standing through my sunroof. I brought my computer and used it as a guide to the street view shot and took multiple photos at different focal lengths.

Afterwords I came back home, uploaded the photos and began to superimpose the objects that had disappeared with time from the street view into the photo that I had taken. Not all of them came out like I wanted them too, but a few did, and there are more to come.





From a distance or at a smaller size you can almost not notice that anything is different about the photo, but if you zoom in, or if they are large prints and you move closer then you start to realize that something is not right. I have a vision of printing pictures like this very large to emphasize the relation between the high vs. low resolution within the photo. Also the larger I print them the more abstract the inserted figures become. This idea is very interesting to me and it is something that I have dealt with in past projects. While this may not be what my final project ends up like, I think it is a solid place to start and will be continuing to push, explore, and do research on similar grounds!

Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand is one of the artists that Jeff suggested for me during our meeting. I remembered him because I saw his work at the National Gallery a couple of months ago, and at the MOMA over the summer. His work at the National Gallery completely blew me away. As I approached the work from far they appeared to be ordinary photos of the oval office. They were large, 10 foot high prints that dominated the gallery space. As I grew closer I realized who the artist was, and in turn saw that they were completely constructed environments made out of paper.



The piece I saw at the MOMA was equally intriguing because again I did not know it was him until close inspection.


German photographer Thomas Demand uses two forms of created reality. He completely creates the environment that we see in front of us. The image that we look at is not of an actual place, but of a space that the artist has fabricated and made specifically for us to view. Then he photographs it and destroys it so that the fabricated space does not actually exist anymore. So we the viewer go from seeing a picture and immediately assuming that it is reality, to realizing that it is made out of paper, to realizing that this space does not and will never actually exist again. It is this idea of playing with the viewers conception of reality that I am most interested in. We are so quick to assume, so quick to accept that we give very little time to actually thinking about what it is that we see in images daily.

First Response

I also now realize that this has not been posted....buy now I definitely have this whole thing figured out (I think). Here is my first research blog.


Through some of the research I have done in the past week I have found (not to my surprise) that I am not the only one who looks through Google Maps and 'takes pictures' of what they find. I found several people who find strange and unusual settings, people, and situations and post them to the Internet in blogs. While I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do more than just present the images I myself have found, seeing what other people have done definitely reaffirmed this. The pictures alone are great, but for sure I need to progress from here.

I've decided that to get a good start I need to do something in addition to screen grabbing and doing research. So I'm going to find places on Gmaps in Richmond (for convince purposes) and then visit those place and photograph them my self. I'm going to try to choose a variety between randomly selected areas and places that seem interesting that hand pick from Gmaps. If I'm able to see the places in person, I will be able to really evaluate the differences and see how time and environment affects these areas.

Also I feel that photographing these places under different times circumstances will be useful to the research. When you want to see what a place looks like before you visit it, or if you are just curious, you go to Google and street view it. Street view is rapidly becoming a truth rather than just a reference. I'm sure that these places look dramatically different at night, during different weather, or even simply from another angle. Exploring these places will be a great way for me to challenge the cut and dry reality that Google presents us with everyday.


Here's a quick test done outside my house, more soon.

Missing Blog

Patrick, I think your missing your first blog entry. Your blog tells me that you have made three entries but I can only see two...? I am not the blog master by any means, but help a Teacher Tom out! Where is your first research blog?

A place to start

Now that I got this whole blog thing (and when there due) figured out I can finally spit out some of my ideas. I think that I have been taking the idea of 'one project to rule them all' too literally so far. I've been trying to nail down a path and parameters within individual ideas but I realized that there is no point in that. Sure I need to have goals and plans, but I need to not think of it in terms of I can do this project or that project. I know that all the projects I have done in the past have a similar theme that runs between them, weather it be conceptual or a formal quality. Its time to start thinking about my work as a whole and not a string of projects, because then it is too easy to get caught on little things. I just feel like I get too focused on a final product and completely forget about the process, obviously a very serious thing to forget about. The process is by far the most important part and since I am a goal oriented person, it can become easy to forget this

I also have had a little trouble pushing myself to shoot a lot. I'm a really technically oriented person and good equipment is very important to me. Lately I've felt held back by my camera and really I'm just kinda bored with it. I've had if for over three years now and I feel like it has served it's purpose with me. I'm ready to move on, so that's why I decided to buy a new camera. I'm not trying to say that my work is dependent on technology or even the camera itself, but I get incredibly frustrated when my camera cannot produce technically the results I have envisioned. I really think this is a large part of my slight motivational issues. I know that having a new camera will give me an added boost and cause me to really want to go out and shoot, and that will in turn make my work stronger. New images to come!