persons never existed

really creepy but totally fascinating: maleonn's series "persons never existed" are created from cut-out images of people fixed to his lens and juxtaposed against mounds of earth. though digitally created and completely macabre, these images are utterly beautiful. check out his site; i also love the second hand tang / nostalgia / book of taboo series.

another year goes by

I turned 28 yesterday. I've officially been photographing for half my life.

My father's gift to me when I turned 14 was the Canon Rebel. It was among the first of this model and hawked by Andre Agassi (what is it with tennis players and cameras?). I used it on and off until about July of 1994. We were moving from Australia to Thailand the next month, and I wanted to photograph everything about my life before I left. We got to Bangkok in August, and that camera was my saving grace. Even though I was half Thai, I was completely unprepared for the cultural shock of living there. I enrolled in the basic photography course at my school, and was addicted. Didn't stop shooting, ever. Except for one time when I tried to photograph the school musical production Hair (PG version)- I was a freshman, and a senior who happened to be working on her IB Art thesis in photography, was there shooting and gave me and my camera the evil eye. In hindsight, I should have defied the high school power chain and stayed to photograph, but whatever. I digress. The next year, 10th grade, I enrolled in Advanced Photo. I still love the work I created back then - in fact, one of my images from India (1995) is hanging at Artomatic this year. By then I had exhausted all the photo course offerings, and I wasn't enrolled in the IB program.

I put down my camera and stopped shooting until 1999, my second year at AU. I shot non-stop for two years, completely immersing myself. But, again, after finishing undergrad I put my camera down and stopped regularly shooting until late 2007.

At this point you must be wondering, where is this going? Well, I see a trend. I get bored. Very bored. And right now, I'm feeling bored with photography. I see the same images, same style of images, and little deviation. But even the deviants get stuck in a style. Quite honestly, I don't fit into either mainstream or deviance. I never have. I am told my work is great and that I'm great to work with. Why isn't this enough for me?

It's distressing because photography is how I define myself. Now, how do I define myself by something that doesn't challenge me anymore? It's either complete immersion or nothing. I find myself thinking, for so long I stood as an observer. For me the camera served(s) as a fence. I saw over it, but I didn't stepp over it. But I've changed and grown; I want to participate, I want to be involved. I've moved past that fence.

So what to do now? I don't know. I continue to be fascinated by images, and even more so by artist biographies. I love to create, I love to make things. Maybe I'll explore other media and find my way back. Maybe it's something I'll keep as a personal tool, rather than a career. I don't know, but I have faith. This isn't the end of this blog, but the end of a phase of observation. From my now on, this blog is going to be about other photogs' projects that I consider as different, and my new projects and how I find they challenge me. It's time to figure out how to participate and capture.

quote of the day

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes - Marcel Proust

(Fits in with my previous posting, as well Geoff Dyer's observations on photography)

Thoughts on previous post, "What a cool life"

After I posted this earlier today, I kept thinking about what I had written; that I wanted to be better than Paul C. Pet. I wondered if it really was catty of me to say that, or if its just the reality of the industry right now. I feel that photography is at a point where there are few new revelations - people have taken photographs of the same image for centuries. I've had so many conversations with my boyfriend about this, how the world of photography is shifting to where success is dependent on the photog's perspective of the subject, and how the audience responds to it.

Geoff Dyer makes a great point in The Ongoing Moment (which won the ICP Infinity Award in 2006), stating:
"The only way to do this ("...to look at photographs to see what new knowledge I could derive from them") was to see how different people photographed the same thing."

I don't fully understand how I feel about this; it's not new to the field, and it's something that will most certainly continue into its future. All I can do in response is to continue learning and keep pushing myself to see in different ways.

what a cool life...

I found Paul C. Pet's images through Corbis but wasn't able to find an individual or personal site with his work. In any case, this is who I aspire to be. Actually, his work inspires me to produce better images than him (sounds catty, but this is how I motivate) and to continue traveling. Throughout the 14 years I've been shooting, I've toggled between fine arts and fashion and portraits and photojournalism and documentary... you get the idea, I'm kind of all over the place, but travel photography - the more I see images and travel and read and just live - I really believe that this is my niche. It makes sense, it encompasses who I am and what I love doing and I what I want to communicate.

m.i.a.

i've been m.i.a. the past few weeks. undergoing a lot of changes and events - started a new job in the internet marketing industry (woohoo! so far, i love it), helped get things going for artomatic... ran around finishing bits and pieces for my exhibit at artomatic, and just enjoying some peace after the first day of artomatic. i never realised how much of a production this event is; it's been an amazing experience just learning about all the pieces of arts administration, from logistics to set up to marketing, and i'm excited to continue volunteering/working in this area.

hanging art, salon style

Almost finished hanging my photographs at artomatic. it's been a busy few days, and just a couple until friday's opening party.

Come check out my work on the 9th Floor, 9NW B3.

From what I've seen so far, the work is pretty good, and funny enough I seemed to pick the "photographers" quadrant since there are many photogs exhibiting in that specific area. It's a weird but nice feeling to see my images blown up - I've only ever printed to 16x20 before now, and up on a wall. The last exhibition I had was back in 2002.

Marisa and I were very inventive in hanging our respective prints, using archival tape, and then placing velcro on the taped part to adhere to the wall. It actually works really well. I still have a couple of prints to hang since the velcro ran out, and I still need to make a sign and update my statement and pricing guide.

I think that's actually the hardest part, the pricing, since many people don't understand what goes into it (much like bidding on work) and balk at a price they don't expect.