Do You Know Your Visual Signature – Part 2?

So, I have been doing some work with the 50mm focal length after watching that “What is Visual Signature?” on YouTube.  See previous post for details.  I think I mentioned this before, but I use to shoot mostly at 50mm until I gradually moved away from it.  As I said in the previous post, I’ve been at 300mm for my Kinetic Ambiguity Project and 135mm for my Motion Project for a while now.  Well, I did not only experiment with 50mm, I also photographed with 1x1 aspect ratio as well.  I made some interesting self-discoveries in doing this that I will share with you on the next post.  I’ll say this though, 50mm is a proven focal point.  Still, we need to keep in mind our own visual signature.

(Designation, Objects 457 – not named at this time.)

California Poppies – Contemporary Art

That’s what I think; those poppies, flowers in general, are works of art created by nature.  To be clear, this is a secular blog so I’m not suggesting or hinting at anything.  I am pointing out the obvious, is all – nature has always been an amazing artist.  I spent a little time at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve yesterday.  There were a lot of people.  That was not a lot of fun, but the poppies were worth it.  And I need a lot of flower images for a project I’m working on so I will need to brave some other spots during the anticipated “super bloom”.

MOCA Los Angeles

I am the new director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles!  Ok, not yet but I should be.  Let me tell you why.  I have leadership experience (over 20 years in the Army – I was a platoon sergeant for crying out loud!); I can handle pressure and stress (did I mention the Army thing – tours to Iraq); I’m educated (a BA in studio art and a minor in business – and I graduated with honors); I love art (see the BA in studio art thing); museums like to have older folks running things – I’ll be 56 within weeks; diversity – I’m black; need to show some love to America – I’m a #vet and you know this (from above sentence); I support the #metoo movement (I’m married to my beautiful wife who is a college professor and we have 4 daughters between us and my mama lives with us – I’m no position not to support women in all of their struggles – and again, I can handle pressure and stress); management potential (see everything above); and I really want to work in the art world – really, really want to.

So, please contact MOCA Los Angeles and let them know I’m the perfect candidate.  Really.

A Review of Celia Sanchez’ Exhibition, “Saints”

Way back on Cinco de Mayo, we dropped in on SPACE Gallery & Records in Claremont.  I wanted to have a look at Celia Sanchez’ work, “SAINTS”.  And I wanted to say hi to Christina Franco, the gallerist, whom I had not seen since the Pomona days.  Well, we ended up chatting it up for a bit and I basically ran out of time and we had to go.  I did manage to have a look at the Ms. Sanchez’ work and it’s really good.  But I did not have the minutes to meet her.  That I regretted.  Ms. Sanchez is a professional photographer and artist who has had her work featured in a few places.  Check out her website and Instagram to learn more – that’s what I did.  And after going to her website I really regretted not meeting her.  The body of work she presents on her site is incredible.  I was drawn in initially trying to find out more about her project “Saints” but I discovered this very thought provoking project, “Devoted”.  It begins as portraits of #tattooed women.  I won’t spoil it for you as to how it changes along the way.  It is truly great understanding of how we misjudge people every day.  I really enjoyed all of her work though, especially “Abandoned”, as I too work with abandoned structures too.  Ms. Sanchez’ take on the subject is a powerful journey in story telling though – really remarkable work.  I believe “Saints” is still showing at the Space Gallery but don’t know for sure.  But I know Celia Sanchez’ website is fully operational.

Brick and Mortar

So, I know where I’m going but I can’t work on it at the moment.  I’m on another mission at this time.  But that’s ok – I can still share with you these images from my Victor Valley Project.

Kinetic Ambiguity

So, before I had said, “I want to see more than what we see at the moment because more is going on that what is seen.”  Hey, that was kind of goofy and made little sense but my Kinetic Ambiguity Project is in line with the point I am trying to make.  I’m not after the “Jackson Pollock” photograph but this project works towards where I’m going.  I know, you want to see where I’m going with this, not where it came from.  You want to see that #image I’m alluding to.  Soon, but I need to mull over what I have done to help me focus a little more.

Oh, and I did a lot of this Kinetic Ambiguity Project in Las Vegas – love that place.

H&A International

Downtown Victorville, on 7^th Street, is where H&A International used to be.  The building is still there but a new business has moved in.  That’s a good thing.  Change in the way of the community coming back.  It’s a long way to go but it’s the right direction.  But this is not about that.  I like this #image – its symmetry, its balance that is really asymmetrical, the colors, the over saturation of the colors, the use of the negative space – I like this image because I’m not finished with it.  I thought I was but realize that I’m not.  Truth be told, I want to see more than what we see at the moment because more is going on that what is seen.  And this is #California – so very much California but not the California known by most.  There is so much to see.

A Store

A famous photographer, Andreas Gurski, created an image, "99 Cent II Diptychon", that gained fame outside of the art world because of what it sold for at auction – over 3 million dollars.  Mr. Gurski is still alive.  I have often dreamed of selling an #image for 1 million dollars.  And I have dreamed of winning the lottery too.  I have dreamed about #Halle Berry being my girlfriend.  I have dreamed about a lot of stuff – but that’s cool, dreams.  But I pretty much keep myself planted in reality – go to work, be a father, keep working on my photography.  I work on my photography in an effort to make it better.  But sometimes I just photograph things just to see what it looks like.  This is not Andreas Gursky’s "99 Cent II Diptychon".  It’s just me in the store with my phone looking at colors.  I did no post production on these, no Melisandre, the red woman, magic to make them look like this or that – just taking a picture for the sake of seeing what it looks like.  It’s a snapshot, nothing more.  But, truth be told, I wouldn’t mind it if this “piece” commanded a million dollars at one of those auspicious art events and Halle Berry was there on my arm full of admiration at what I have created.  Now that’s a dream.

Train Depots

Back in 2011 when I was an early photography student at California State University, San Bernardino, (I love saying the whole name like that – go Coyotes!) one of the projects we had for our documentary #photography class was photographing some Inland Empire train stations.  We could capture others but some were on our “have to photograph” list.  I thought it was a good challenging #project that made you think how you would do it different since you knew others would be photographing the same structure.  I have since gone back to some of these train depots to use them as back drops or as the subject of the shoot themselves.  But these images are some of those from Prof. McGovern’s class (he is an incredible teacher and photographer in his own right).  I should make some full size prints of these images.

 Colton

 Pomona

 Redlands

 San Bernardino

 Union Station, Los Angeles

Union Station, Los Angeles

The Parking Lot

So, I really need to catch up in my post production for my images. There is so much I want to do but can't until my images are ready to go.  I guess every photographer has that situation.  Oh well, this is a shot from my phone in the Target parking lot in Apple Valley, CA - where I live.  No post production, just the shot from the phone because I thought the clouds were really dramatic looking.  Truth be told, I think it is fine as is.

Art Work

So I changed my website a little bit.  I want to give a go at moving my art work into something that can sustain itself.  It’s kind of like letting the art do the work.  That was silly but you know what I mean.  I will be updating it with more current work and getting back to competing too – I’m referring to art contest.  We’ll see how this turns out but in the meantime the link is to the revamped website.

Sentinels

They look like sentinels guarding something.  Or maybe they look like large cranes in the shipyards.  Then again, it could be robots waiting for the menacing dark robot that is advancing on their position.  They are just #mustard and mayo dispensers unless you let your imagination go.

Eastern Sky

I am really drawn to images of the eastern sky at dawn in particular.  This image is from where I use to live in Victorville looking east towards Apple Valley – where I live now.  I wonder, did I know something but was not aware of it?

44th Annual Student Art Exhibition

Well, the 44^th Annual Student Art Exhibition at the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art (RAFFMA), located on the campus of the California State University, San Bernardino, is gone forever.  There will be a 45^th but that will be for current students and I am now an alumni.  But I did manage to capture a portion of the exhibition – my stuff.  This was a tough juror too, she (AprilGreiman) rejected a lot of work.  I had tried to enter one standalone photographic print and a polyptych of ten prints from my photography.  Then I also entered two different printmaking prints.  One was a woodcut print and the other was an etching print.  None of them pleased the juror except three of the largest images of my ten piece polyptych.  So it became a triptych.  Well, at least I got something in the show, that was a plus in my book.  Enjoy.

Thoughts on my Kinetic Ambiguity Project

Regarding the work, the easy answer is that I like it.  Others have told me the same.  But “like” does not make it art.  I am not trying to follow in the footsteps of Jackson Pollock with some sort of abstract expressionist photography.  It is just that I am very intrigued by visible light – especially freezing that moving light in order to observe it for one moment in a sort of stasis.  What you see in a photograph is visible moving light halted forever in that capture.  This Kinetic Ambiguity Project really emphasizes that.  And it has its own certain beauty in doing so with its texture, color and repetition.  The work here is new.  Older examples are on my web site.  I think I will continue to work on this project.  Enjoy.

Break for the Torch

Ok, I will finish with my exploration of Chriskwanzakkah 2010 but I had to take a short break and show you this.  Have you ever noticed how yellow or green are just not popular car colors today?  It’s just food for thought.  Very little thought.

I shot this with my BlackBerry Torch.  It’s one of the parking lots at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) campus.  Its where I go to school.

Ok, Chriskwanzakkah 2010 will continue with the next post.