Artist Lecture, Brian Ulrich

To say that my work is similar to Brian Ulrich's work would be a bit of an understatement. I had seen some his images before today but had never really taken the time to study them. Our work is similar in a conceptual and ascetic sense and I feel there is a lot I can learn from him. He was well spoken for the most part and said a few things and showed several images that I feel will stick with me for a while to come. Immediately I was drawn to the way he composed his his photos as well as the settings he chose. I always find it interesting when you come across an artist who who shoots so similarly to you that you wonder if you met him and looked at his work early on and has been subconsciously inspiring you somehow.

My favorite work that he presented would have to be a toss up between the retail store interiors and the abandoned mall interiors. I'm always completely enamored by the beauty and clarity of the 4x5 and 8x10 and can sometimes find that hard to get past. What he said about using a large format to make things appear epic is something that I often think about myself. Sometimes when I look at large format work I wonder if it is the art or the technical that I am drawn to. But for the most part I think he showed a very good balance between the eye candy and the backing concept.

The retail store shots are something that I have often thought about myself and have taken many cell phone photos in but never even thought about bringing an actual camera right in the front door and just going for it. The freedom that is in each of these images because of his willingness to take a chance is awesome to me. The interesting thing about the mall shots was that he was able to take something that we all have seen, and abandoned building interior, and make it fresh again. I admire the fact that he goes online and uses others photos as sources for where he wants to shoot next. If I see something online that I was thinking about doing myself then generally I will shy away from it with the old 'its been done before' phrase, but he presented it in a new way. Just because someone has done something and posted it to the internet does not mean....well anything, and I think I often over look this.

I was and am generally inspired by his presentation this afternoon because I feel that it really got me thinking about my work, which has been hard to do lately. Seeing someone else succeed in the same artistic field that you are in is a great reinforcement that what you are doing is not just shooting some buildings or store windows...sorry was that to directed towards myself?