Links and Things IV

Kevin Van Aelst is a photographer dealing who makes very intersting setups with touches of digital trickery.

Wayne Belger makes deliciously elaborate, themed (and a touch morbid) pinhole cameras which he uses, implementing photography and sculptural processes, to create his complete installations.

Jim Verhulst writes a sobering article about acid attacks on arab women, along with some amazing, but heartbreaking, photographs.

On a more chipper note, recently several animals have been caught getting a little friendly with people's photography gear, including this polar bear and a thieving octopus.

A more technical side of photgraphy is revealed with Aspex Co. asking people to send in samples to be imaged by their scanning electron microscope - at no cost.

Marcus Coates created a fascinating work called "Dawn Chorus" in which he recorded bird whistles, documented the notes, then taught them to people at a pitch and speed that could be reproduced. He then sped the results back up again to create his film. There are some other good works as well if you sift through the site.

The UK government is pushing forward some rather unpleasant laws concerning photographers and usage rights.

Some simply phenomenal animal photography.

Photographic "cheat sheets."

Themes for those using wordpress.

I need to update this blog, but I've been severly bogged down with finals.

I do want to post what I have completed for my final, however. Feedback is much appreciated. So far people have told me that the triptych format is pretty much neccesary to really "get" what is going on, but they disagree on the layout. Any advice?

And This My Friend

War Final Images

Wrapped up shooting for my project images this weekend and got them edited and prettied up. I went ahead and posted them to a set on flickr. Feedback is appreciated.

The final shots.

War Progress Shots

Here are some progress shots from our current project. The one above is the only one I am sure of, the ones below need to be chosen from their respective pairs, but I am particularly indecisive at the moment and will settle on this later. Input is welcome!

War

I've been working hard and literally shooting every day to get photos together for my "war" assignment. At first I had been considering ways to address the theme in a less direct way, but in the end I realized I really just wanted to meet it head on and have been constructing scenes as if war had broken out in contemporary America - suburban Florida even in my case. Throughout history war has been something, for Americans anyway, that is fought elsewhere, in foreign countries. There has not been real fighting for hundreds of years on American soil, and I wanted to address the hypothetical reality of that. I am not focusing so much on the guts and glory aspects of war, the dramatization you see on TV and in movies, but the very real and very human aspects of those left behind, those in the margins and on the sidelines, their lives turned upside down as their cities, their homes, are invaded by enemy forces. In my photos, this unknown enemy is never seen or brought to life except in its obvious presence and effect on those being documented. Their emotions, their frailty or panic or resilience - these are the things I am thinking about, the things I think will provoke a response and make the images wholly relatable.